Fantastic Four 222
“The Possession of Franklin Richards!”
Published June 1980
Writer: Doug Moench
Pencils: Bill Sienkiewicz
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: George Roussos
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Cover: Sienkiewicz and Sinnott


Synopsis

As the Fantastic Four relax in the city, Nicholas Scratch — previously exiled to another dimension by his mother, Agatha Harkness — discovers a portal to the Baxter Building. Scratch uses it possess Franklin and attack the Fantastic Four, who answer’s Sue’s flare-gun summons. After failing to find Dr. Strange, the team brings Franklin to Harkness’s home on Whisper Hill, where their seance is interrupted by a mystic called Gabriel, who summons Scratch. Scratch then tells the FF if they want to save Franklin, they must return to New Salem.

What’s going on here?

After two issues written and penciled by John Byrne, we’re now back to the previously scheduled Doug Moench / Bill Sienkiewicz run (Joe Sinnott continues to provide inks, of course). That’s a mixed blessing, as we shall see.

The comic, once again, concerns the possession of Franklin Richards by Nicholas Scratch, picking up a story that began in FF 184 and continued through FF Annual 14. In a vacuum, there’s nothing wrong with these stories, and as we shall see next issue, they all include Salem’s Seven, a fun and underused group of super villains. But these stories are part of a long line of comics where Franklin is in Danger, which basically started with his birth in FF Annual 6 (arguably the single greatest Stan and Jack issue) and really becomes a theme in FF 141, where the extent of Franklin’s powers are revealed. Byrne devotes a number of issues to Franklin’s powers and their risk to himself and others, and he’s put in harm’s way in various ways in comics ranging from Power Pack to the Fantastic Four Vs. X-Men limited series. Together, all these stories featuring a young child in danger inevitably send the message that Reed and Sue are bad parents. I don’t want to think that; I like these characters and what they represent, but it’s very hard not to draw that conclusion given how often Franklin is put in harms way by their careers and lifestyle. The solution is not that Reed and Sue should not have had children, nor is that Franklin should be sent away to be raised by Agatha or put in a foster home. It’s that writers should just leave him alone. Unfortunately, as we will discover over the next several hundred issues, they can’t resist the temptation.

This story also features the Fantastic Four (and maybe Marvel universe) debut of Gabriel, aka Devil Hunter, who Moench created in a monster magazine, Haunt of Horror. He fits in a long tradition of FF writers importing various random characters from their other books, from Roy Thomas’s Arkon to Marv Wolfman’s Dr. Sun et al., but doesn’t stick around for long. He will go on to appear in a 1990s Hellstorm comic. There, he is called Gabriel Rosetti, a clear reference to Dante Gabriel Rosetti, a name that will be familiar to fans of mid-19th century British painting.


What I liked

We are starting to see more of Sienkiewicz’s individual style emerge from beneath Sinnott’s inks, particularly in his character poses. Here are some fun examples:

Sienkiewicz also does this fun thing where he breaks the panel boundaries to emphasize the action, as with Johnny’s foot above, and with the taxi door, below:

There was some panels devoted to character development, some better done that others. But I liked this bit, and particularly the lure of a jacuzzi.

And this sequence was genuinely menacing:

What I didn’t like

I don’t think Moench has a handle on how to write Franklin. Maybe he never spent much time with a 3 or 4 year old, but they don’t talk like this:

There’s also this weird panel of Franklin cheering on his parents making out. It’s there to set up another panel after he’s possessed, but it’s pretty creepy:

For all of Sienkiewicz’a abilities, he struggles at times with layout designs, resulting in panels that are way too small for what they are trying to depict:

Lastly, are Ben and Reed the last two men in New York to wear hats? And Ben is wearing a tie to the movies? And what is with Reed’s pipe? Is he the one scientist that doesn’t know about lung cancer?

Anything else?

Some house ads, including one for the $2500 contest that mars the cover. It looks like Marvel was using the contest to do some market research.

Overall

A mixed bag