Fantastic Four 195
“Beware the Ravaging Retrievers!”
Published March 1978
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Layouts: Keith Pollard
Finishes: Pablo Marcos
Letters: Denise Wohl
Colors: Phil Rachelson
Editor: Wolfman
Cover: George Perez and Joe Sinnott

Synopsis

The Invisible Girl, in Hollywood filming a movie after the breakup of the Fantastic Four, discovers the figure behind the movie studio is the Sub-Mariner, who confesses he has fled Atlantis in frustration over being worshipped as a god. The filming is interrupted by Atlantean androids summoned to retrieve Namor back to Atlantis. Sue and Namor defeat the robots but the Sub-Mariner realizes he must nonetheless return home.

What’s going on here?

The premise of this comic is truly ridiculous —Namor objects to being worshipped as a god? Atlantis sends robots to capture him? He still owns the movie studio he had way back in FF 9? — but I still found it a fun read. Partially because the stakes of the conflict are so low that the silliness doesn’t really matter. Partially because it’s fun to see Sue and Namor resuming their will-they-or-won’t-they relationship. But mostly it was because I really enjoyed the art.

Keith Pollard is credited with the layouts, but it’s pretty clear that this is Pablo Marcos’s comic. Marcos, a Peruvian probably best known for his work on Conan, has a fluid, expressive style that reminds me of a cross between Gene Colan and Michael Golden. Significantly, his work looks nothing like Joe Sinnott’s, and as a result it’s a refreshing change from the FF house style that established by Kirby and enforced by Sinnott for the last decade. Not that we don’t love Joe Sinnott here, but variety is good.

Sinnott did ink George Perez on the cover, and from the looks of it, I would say it’s 90 percent Sinnott and 10 percent Perez (compare it to the cover of FF 194, which is entirely by Perez).


What I liked

Here’s a nice flashback sequence by Marcos:

Sue gets to stretch herself in battle (although she’s still dependent on Reed, even in her own head):

Sue and Namor are getting pretty cozy here:

Here, Sue finally expresses how we all feel about the Impossible Man:

Lastly, there were some curious sound effects in this comic. Baskong!

What I didn’t like

Following the (obviously temporary) break up of the FF, the powers-that-be decided to give them each solo stories. A fun idea, and yet despite that, Sue is stuck sharing her story with Namor. Worse, she’s either thinking about Reed or Namor during the entire issue. If comics had a Bechdel test, this one would fail utterly.

Here, in the middle of battle, she’s again wishing Reed was present:

And here, she’s so distracted thinking about her marriage she’s almost killed:

And the resolution, in which Namor does the robots’ bidding after all, is all about Namor, not Sue. For shame, Marv Wolfman, for shame.

Anything else?

There’s a somber note in the Bullpen Bulletins about the sudden passing of John Verpoorten, who was an occasional FF inker, among his many other roles at Marvel.

Overall

Goofy fun