Tag Archives: Bill Sienkiewicz

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 231

13 Sunday Sep 2026

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Fantastic Four 231
“In All The Gathered Gloom!”
Published March 1981
Writers: Doug Moench and Roger Stern (credited as “Gurland”)
Pencils: Bill Sienkiewicz and Al Milgrom (credited as “Moore”)
Inks: Joe Sinnott, Sienkiewicz and Frank Giacoia (uncredited)
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: George Roussos
Editor: Stern (credited to Jim Salicrup)
Cover: Sienkiewicz and Sinnott


Synopsis

The Baxter Building is trapped in the Negative Zone with a small slice of Manhattan, whose residents blame the Fantastic Four for their predicament. As the FF try to steer their way back, they are attacked by Stygorr, a Negative Zone warlord. Meanwhile, Lew Shiner, a real estate developer stuck in the Negative Zone, rallies a mob to attack the Baxter Building. Mr. Fantastic devises a plan that both defeats Stygorr and Shiner and returns the missing piece of New York back to its own reality.


What’s going on here?

This is an interesting issue, for a number of reasons. I picked it up expecting the worst: The Doug Moench/ Bill Sienkiewicz run has been a disappointment and given this is their last issue the book, I expected them to mail it. And yet it’s a pretty good comic, with a crazy amount of plots and subplots that generate some real suspense and excitement. I was prepared to give Moench credit where credit was due until, researching this issue, I discovered it was both co-written and edited by Roger Stern (apparently Jim Salicrup was sick so Stern filled in as editor and rewrote some of the comic). It’s impossible to know from this distance who did what, but I’m going to guess the more enjoyable aspects were probably from Stern.

The comic’s art is similarly muddled. Most of the comic is laid out by Sienkiewicz, but only the first 21 pages are inked by Joe Sinnott. The next seven were finished by Sienkiewicz, and the last page, strangely, was penciled by Al Milgrom and inked by Frank Giacoia, neither of whom are credited (apparently, the credits were supposed to read (“& more” but it was rendered as just “Moore.”) The Milgrom/Giacoia art looks very out of place:


But the real story here is the unfettered Sienkiewicz. I’ve discussed before how Sienkiewicz said he appreciated Sinnott’s tutelage, but it’s pretty obvious how hemmed in he was by Sinnott’s conservative style. The pages that are all Sienkiewicz have a freedom and loose energy that foreshadows his work on the New Mutants. Here are a few examples:

The shame of it is we didn’t get to see Sienkiewicz unleashed until the last few pages of his run. With all due respect to Joe Sinnott, a Hall of Fame inker, his conservative style did Sienkiewicz no favors. As it happens, this is Sinnott’s last issue for some time.


What I liked

Along with the above-mentioned art, the story was better than most in recent months. Moench (or Stern) puts several stories in motion: The FF’s desperate struggle to return their slice of NYC to Earth, the menace and attack of Stygorr, the unhinged Shiner and his bloodlust, and lastly, Alicia, Franklin and Lorrie waiting at home for the FF’s return. It’s a lot, particularly because the main storyline involves some complicated (and mostly bogus) science, and it would have benefited from more space to tell the story properly instead of cramming it all into one issue. But the storylines come together nicely and it’s a pretty satisfying comic.

I thought this sequence, where the matter of Lew Shiner intersects the antimatter of Stygorr, was impressively dramatic:


I thought this was smart and revealing sequence, where Ben demonstrates his empathy for ordinary people:

And I liked how Lorrie, Johnny’s girlfriend of the moment, just isn’t that in to him:


Lastly, this was a cool idea from Sienkiewicz, as the various types of New Yorkers set out to discover what happened to them:


What I didn’t like

Stygorr is a pretty silly character. By rights the role of Negative Zone baddie should be played by Annihilus, but since the villain is killed at the end, I suspect he was off limits and so Moench/Stern concocted this Stygorr. Like many villains, including Shiner above, he wears purple, and he speaks like a parody of a comic book bad guy.

The whole comic revolves around very complicated distinctions between matter and antimatter, the Negative Zone distortion field, the FF’s containment field and something called sub-space. It’s mostly gobbledegook and Moench/Stern lays it on heavy:

Like a lot of the so-called science in comics, it’s best ignored.


Overall

Better than it had any right to be.


But wait, there’s more!

As I’ve said before, my initial goal for this blog was A, to read the entire Lee/Kirby run, B, re-read the Byrne run, and C, somehow survive the issues in between. I can now tick the last item off the list. The 129 comics (plus a few annuals) between Lee/Kirby and Byrne was a decided mixed bag, with some surprisingly enjoyable comics and an unfortunate about off crud.

Here’s how I rank the various main runs over that span (this doesn’t account for fill-in issues by other creators):

1, Len Wein/ George Perez / Joe Sinnott (issues 184 -192). A disappointingly brief run but features an early Perez firing on all cylinders and solid storytelling from Wein.

2, Archie Goodwin /John Buscema / Joe Sinnott (115 -118) Another too-short run. Goodwin is a great writer and you can’t go wrong with Big John Buscema.

3, Roy Thomas / John Buscema / Joe Sinnott (119, 126 – 132) Thomas had a number of runs with different artists over this span but these were his best stories.

4, Marv Wolfman / Bill Mantlo / John Byrne / Joe Sinnott (210-218) Wolfman’s stories didn’t always soar but it was a treat seeing Byrne’s layouts.

5, Stan Lee / John Romita / Joe Sinnott (103 – 107). Two words: John Romita

6, Roy Thomas / George Perez / Joe Sinnott (164 -167, 170, 172) An uneven stretch but some Perez gems in there. Plus it’s fun seeing Luke Cage in the FF.

7, Len Wein / Marv Wolfman / Keith Pollard / Sal Buscema / Joe Sinnott / Pablo Marcos (193 – 209) Consistent but unremarkable comics. Pollard occasionally shines.

8, Stan Lee /John Buscema / Joe Sinnott. A run that reminds you just how creative was Jack Kirby. (107 -114, 120 – 125)

9, Doug Moench / Bill Sienkiewicz / Joe Sinnott (219, 222-231) Less than the sum of its parts.

10, Gerry Conway / John Buscema / Rich Buckler / Ross Andru / Joe Sinnott (134 -152) Some real stinkers in here.





“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 230

07 Monday Sep 2026

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Fantastic Four 230
“Firefrost and the Ebon Seeker”
Published February 1981
Writer: Doug Moench
Pencils: Bill Sienkiewicz
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: George Roussos
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Cover: Sienkiewicz and Sinnott


Synopsis

Firefrost, the Ebon Seeker’s companion, explains (at length) their origin — they were created in a black hole billions of years in the future and sent to the past — and tells the FF that if the Ebon Seeker’s energy is not returned to the black hole, it will trigger a new Big Bang, wiping out the universe. Mr. Fantastic siphons energy from the Negative Zone to the Ebon Seeker, whom Firefrost convinces to return to the black hole so he can be reborn as a creature of light, like her. The issue ends with the FF, the Baxter Building and some of New York stuck in the Negative Zone.


What’s going on here

If last issue was all action and no exposition, this issue is the opposite. The first eight pages of this 22-page comic are devoted to first a re-cap of the last issue and then a lengthy explanation of who these new characters are and how they came to be. Another several pages at the end delve into the science of black holes, the Big Bang and the Voyager space probe. It reminded me of the current FF run under writer Ryan North, who seems intent on including a science lesson in each issue.

As discussed previously, the Ebon Seeker is pretty much a straight swipe of Galactus, from his connection to the Big Bang to his hunger to destroy planets to his enlightened, silvery companion. What’s odd is Doug Moench devotes so much time and energy to establishing these characters, only to erase them at the end of the comic. Again, it seems that Moench’s heart is in horror and science fiction, and the Fantastic Four is just the vehicle for him to tell the stories he likes.

Also of note is the appearance of the Avengers, which is pretty brief despite their prominence on the (mediocre) cover. This used to be a pretty common feature of silver and bronze age Marvel: If there was some earth-threatening menace, other heroes would show up, or at acknowledge it. Now, a big, cataclysmic event is the basis for a annual crossover, which amounts to the same thing, but doesn’t reinforce that feeling of a shared universe in the same way.


What I liked

I did enjoy Johnny pulling rank on Captain America:

Given Moench’s predilection for plugging his other books in the pages of the FF, I half-expected to discover he was the new writer of the Avengers. In fact, the Avengers were then being written by assistant FF editor Bob Budiansky (and it was a pretty dismal period for the Avengers so they probably needed the help).

The aliens encountering the Voyager probe far in the future was a nice touch:


Of course, the famous golden recording and image on theVoyager probe — launched in the hope of humanity finally meeting alien life — doesn’t make much sense in the Marvel universe, where encounters with aliens happen monthly. For that reason, I was of mixed minds about this sequence, with Read reading a book by Carl Sagan about the Voyager recording. One would suspect Reed and Sagan were colleagues, and Reed — who has probably encountered more aliens than anyone else on Earth — would have been consulted in the recording.


Also, the the man and woman were buck naked on the real image:


This was mostly a humdrum issue for Bill Sienkiewicz and Joe Sinnott, but I liked this sequence:


What I didn’t like

The explanation of the Ebon Seeker and Firefrost’s origin was hopelessly convoluted and nonsensical. They entered a black hole, encountered “energy beings” there and somehow emerged with new forms and powers. For a writer who seems interested in hard science, Moench seems willing to totally disregard basic physics to suit his story.


Also, why do the aliens — who are green and lumpy — become human-like after their transformation?


Firefrost seems pretty nonchalant when she informs Reed the universe is going to be destroyed:


Likewise, we get all of one panel for Reed to explain his gambit may risk the end of Earth:



Anything else?

A house ad for Marvel Two-In-One. That comic looks a lot better than this one.


Overall

A mess

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 229

30 Sunday Aug 2026

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Fantastic Four 229
“The Thing From The Black Hole”
Published January 1981
Writer: Doug Moench
Pencils: Bill Sienkiewicz
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: George Roussos
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Cover: Sienkiewicz and Sinnott

Synopsis

An ordinary day in New York for the Fantastic Four is interrupted by a monstrous space creature with incredible powers derived from a black hole. The FF battle the creature, called the Ebon Seeker, but are defeated and are left in a lightless region where they are met by Fire Frost, companion to the Ebon Seeker.


What’s going here?

Another Doug Moench issue, another retread of old ideas. In this case, the parallels to the first appearance of Galactus seem pretty obvious. What redeems this issue (sort of) is the amazing black-and-white rendering of the Ebon Seeker. I assume this is largely the work of Joe Sinnott, since Bill Sienkiewicz is only credited with layouts, but I’m only guessing. It’s a powerful effect and it’s more impressive in the context of its era, when coloring wasn’t as sophisticated as it is now, and virtually every comic was rendered in combinations of the same four colors. I think it looks more impressive on the original page than in the Marvel.com reproduction. Here is the Ebon Seeker’s first appearance from each:


Given that the Ebon Seeker is anchoring a multi-issue story, which is rare for Moench, I imagine he was hoping to introduce a major new FF villain but the character appears just once more in subsequent decades.


What I liked

The comic is almost entirely a fight scene, and Sienkiewicz and Sinnott deliver some great action sequences and panels:


There was a fun detail in the credits, with Jim Salicrup “asking” Jim Shooter what he thinks of Alicia’s sculpture of him (I don’t know the backstory but I’m guessing Shooter’s grandiosity, which became more pronounced later in his Marvel tenure, was already an issue):


What I didn’t like

The narrative is boring and derivative, and for most of the issue we have no idea who the Ebon Seeker is or what is motivating him. When we find out — he wants to destroy Earth — it has no impact on the reader because we’ve seen this movie before. It’s more evidence that Moench really didn’t know what he was doing with this comic.

Further, the explanation of the Ebon Seeker’s powers — he is a living black hole — is nonsensical.


I’ve pointed out previously how Moench doesn’t miss an opportunity to plug the other comics he’s writing, but this might be his most blatant example:


New Yorkers turn against the Fantastic Four and riot! Why? Who knows? It’s never explained.


Overall

Impressive art. That’s about it.

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 228

23 Sunday Aug 2026

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Fantastic Four 228
“Ego-Spawn”
Published December 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 Human Torch prepares for a date with his new girlfriend Lorrie Melton, Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman discuss how best to studying Franklin’s budding powers. With Lorrie, the team travels to Seaboard University, where Reed’s former college friend Abe Jankowitz begins testing Franklin. A biofeedback test generates a strange energy field from Franklin that travels to a nearby park where Lorrie and Johnny have decamped. The energy field transforms a local bully into a super villain who seems to embody Franklin’s darkest thoughts. After a scuffle, the FF subdue the villain and Sue unplugs the biofeedback device that triggered the reaction.


What’s going on here?

Another issue, another Doug Moench clunker. This comic begins with promise, with a lot of character development and the re-introduction of Lorrie, Johnny’s new squeeze. Reed and Sue’s commitment to investigating Franklin’s powers is also a nice narrative advancement, and builds on recent plot lines. But it all goes absurdly awry once Franklin is plugged into the biofeedback machine and somehow invents a ridiculously costumed villain. The villain is intended to embody Franklin’s anxieties, but they are never hinted at earlier in the comic (just the opposite — he is eager to be tested) and the storyline all seems so slapped together and nonsensical as to be dismissed out of hand. Further, the basic structure of the story — the FF visit an old colleague of Reed’s — seems identical to last issue.

The most interesting aspect of the story is the appearence of Lorrie, who first appeared in FF 222, and it seems Moench is positioning her to play a major role in Johnny’s life going forward (bringing a date to meet your relatives is a big step!). But as we shall see, she disappears pretty quickly and is ignored by future writers.


Joe Sinnott returned to ink this issue and it looks like he really took the reins from Bill Sienkiewicz (who in fact is only credited with layouts).


What I liked

Moench does a good job with Ben and Johnny’s banter.


And I liked how Bill Sienkiewicz drew this interaction between Reed and Sue (including the weird sculptures in the foreground):


What I didn’t like

As discussed, the transformation of the local tough-guy into a purple-clad supervillain makes no sense, was not established by any foreshadowing and he might go down as one of the most idiotic bad guys in FF history (joining Gaard and Warhead).


An awful lot of this comic was devoted to explaining Dr. Jankowitz’s tests. Biofeedback therapy exploded in popularity in the 1970s and I wouldn’t be surprised if Moench took part.


Speaking of Jankowitz, doesn’t he seem too old to have been a college classmate of Reed and Ben’s?


Anything else?

A fun house ad for Dazzler by a very young John Romita Jr.:


Overall

Dreck

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 227

16 Sunday Aug 2026

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Fantastic Four 227
“The Brain Parasites!”
Published November 1980
Writer: Doug Moench
Pencils: Bill Sienkiewicz
Inks: Bruce Patterson
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: George Roussos
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Cover: Sienkiewicz and Joe Sinnott


Synopsis

An old colleague asks for Mr. Fantastic’s help investigating a meteor that landed in a Florida lake and the team plus Franklin embark on a working vacation to assist Dr. Carruthers. Once there, they discover ordinary animals are dramatically transformed into dangerous monsters by parasites that were carried by the meteor. The parasites also transform Carruthers and the Invisible Girl but are saved when the parasites are removed. It is then revealed that Franklin used his powers to destroy the monsters and parasites.


What’s going on here?

This is another old-timey science fiction story from Doug Moench that has echoes of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Robert Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters. Moench used the mysterious-meteor-with-strange-effects just a few issues ago — it’s how Korgon the giant Viking got his powers — and the FF-encounter-strange-underwater-monsters-on-a-Florida-vacation plot was previously used by Stan and Jack in FF 97.

We’re now seven issues into the Moench run and it seems pretty clear he’s most comfortable with a certain type of story that hews closely to traditional horror and sci-fi tropes. There is a place for those stories, and they can be done quite effectively in the Fantastic Four as we shall see, but telling only those stories wastes the potential of the FF. The Fantastic Four is at its best with big, sweeping epics where the villains are truly menacing and the stakes are high. I had lots of quibbles with Marv Wolfman’s run but he at least understood the importance of big stories. (This is also my main critique of the FF’s current writer, Ryan North, who prefers to deliver monthly science lessons rather than invest in multi-issue arcs.) There are four more issues of Moench; hopefully things pick up.

Joe Sinnott is again MIA (although he did ink the cover), with Bruce Patterson handling the inking. Patterson seems like a jack-of-all-comic-trades — with credits as inker, letterer and colorist — and worked steadily for both Marvel and DC from the mid 70s to the late 90s. His inks are heavy and brooding in this comic, and he gives on Reed and Johnny hollow cheeks that make them look haggard and gaunt.


What I liked

There were some fun action sequences, and Bill Sienkiewicz seems to have a blast with the monsters that attack the FF. As in this splash:


Or here:


I’m not sure this time-lapse sequence of the parasite crawling up Sue is totally successful — initially I thought she was covered in multiple parasites — but it looks cool.


What I didn’t like

The “spontaneous vacation” idea is pretty tired by now. I guess Moench thought he needed a good reason to get Franklin on the trip, but it feels forced.

Also, these recent issues have sequences of panels that jump from scene to scene without any explanation. Like here:

It’s not hard to follow the story, but I’m not sure what is accomplished by the cutting back and forth, either. I do like Franklin’s Spider-Man pool float.

Wait, did Moench finds a way to drop in a cameo of a character from one of his other books? Who could have seen that coming?



Anything else?

This is a cool house ad for a Roger Stern / Frank Miller Dr. Strange collaboration that never happened. You can read why here.


Overall

A heaping dose of meh.

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 226

12 Wednesday Aug 2026

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Fantastic Four 226
“The Samurai Destroyer”
Published October 1980
Writer: Doug Moench
Pencils: Bill Sienkiewicz
Inks: Pablo Marcos and Bruce Patterson
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: George Roussos
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Cover: Sienkiewicz and Bob McLeod


Synopsis

The Fantastic Four learn about a giant robot stealing a train carrying gold on the television news, then are met at the Baxter Building by the three former pilots of the Shogun Warrior robots, now destroyed. The FF and three pilots travel to Japan, where the new giant robot, the Samurai Destroyer, is robbing a bank. While the FF attempt (and fail) to stop it, the pilots travel to the sanctuary where the Shogun Warriors were built. There, they are confronted by the Samurai Destroyer and its pilot who explains he destroyed their robots. The FF catch up with him and eventually defeat him, but not before he self-destructs the Samurai Destroyer.

What’s going on here?

A guest appearance in a Doug Moench-written comic? What are the odds they feature in another Moench-written book? If you guessed 100%, you’d be right. For the third story in a row, Moench has slipped in characters from a former, current or future comic he’s writing (following Moon Knight and Thor). This time, of course, the Shogun Warriors make more than a token appearance, but are central to the whole dismal comic.

The Shogun Warriors were a toy tie-in that had their own comic for 20 issues, all but one written by Moench. I confess I’ve never read them, but they look pretty forgettable. Apparently while Moench was able to wrap up their story (in an issue guest starring the FF, or course), he or someone at Marvel decided they needed to tie up the loose end of three enormous robots that could be commandeered by a villain. Hence this issue, in which the robots are destroyed.

While I sort of respect the desire to address the big robot problem, I wish it hadn’t been at the expense of a decent Fantastic Four comic. This story is forced and clunky, with a cheesy lesson in parenting for Reed and way too much energy devoted to the fates of three characters most readers had never heard of. This is probably Moench’s worst issue, and Bill Sienkiewicz, aside from a few bright spots, doesn’t do much to salvage this dreck.

A few side notes: Joe Sinnott is again MIA, with Pablo Marcos and Bruce Patterson inking. And the cover is inked by Bob McLeod, making his FF debut.


What I liked

It’s hard to go wrong with a giant robot splash page:


I liked this fun scene with Ben and Alicia:


What I didn’t like

As ever, Moench is the master of unnecessary exposition. In this case, the villains’s origin is so lame he shouldn’t have bothered with a back story.


So early in the comic Reed patronizes Franklin, then later uses his story of David and Goliath to defeat the Samurai Destroyer, redeeming him in his son’s eyes. It’s as lame as it sounds.


Were they really still using steam trains in Czechoslovakia in 1980?


Overall

The less said about this, the better

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 225

03 Monday Aug 2026

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Fantastic Four 225
“The Blind God’s Tears”
Published September 1980
Writer: Doug Moench
Pencils: Bill Sienkiewicz
Inks: Pablo Marcos
Letters: Jim Novak
Inks: George Roussos
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Cover: Sienkiewicz and Joe Sinnott

Synopsis

Under the threat of death, the Fantastic Four labor to restore the powers of Korgon, the Norseman who was granted immortality and strange powers by a meteor millennia ago. They succeed, and after Korgon uses his power to recharge the battery of his civilization’s ice dome, he asks Mr. Fantastic to restore his humanity. To prevent this, one of Korgon’s henchmen sabotages the machine, flooding Korgon with power. He attacks the FF, who are joined in battle by Thor, dispatched by Odin who seems to be keeping an eye on these former Vikings. Driven mad, Korgon begins destroying the ice dome. Odin then appears and restores Korgon’s sanity, and a humbled Korgon allows the FF to depart.


What’s going on here?

This is another clunky issue, with lots of exposition, a not-terribly-well explained appearance from Thor and Odin and a lackluster ending. There’s a throw-everything-against-the-wall quality to this story, with its lions and tigers in the arctic and Vikings with motorcycles, that leads to clumsy explanations that do little to further the story. The appearance of Thor makes more sense when you realize Doug Moench began writing Thor the next month, and as with last issue’s reference to Moon Knight, he apparently is happy to cross promote his books to goose their sales. FWIW, the appearance of Odin appearing to make everything better occurs again in FF 262 during the Trial of Reed Richards, although it’s handled much more adroitly by John Byrne.

Pablo Marcos handles the inks again, although Joe Sinnott inked Sienkiewicz’s cover.

One oddity: Despite Korgon and his enclave surviving, this is apparently their first and only appearance. Given Marvel’s propensity for mining its back catalog for characters and concepts, their disappearance might say something about how future writers viewed this particular story.


What I Liked

Bill Sienkiewicz’s pencils are again uneven, but he does hit some high notes. This long vertical panel of Korgon going nuts is great:


So is this panel of Thor


This may not be the best drawn panel but I enjoyed watching the FF cut loose a bit:


And I appreciated a few panels of Alicia and Franklin. On too many of the FF’s adventures that are completely absent.


What I didn’t like

If you read the middle panel, you’ll see Reed is attributing his mental agility to the cosmic radiation that gave him his powers. This has been raised a few times in more recent years, but it seems like a pretty big revelation to drop in the middle of an unrelated story.


As mentioned, the appearance of Thor and Odin feels forced and is a bit of literal deus ex machina. It doesn’t help that Odin mentions Loki, suggesting he has something to do with the story (he doesn’t)


Also as mentioned, there are pages of exposition in this comic that feel totally unnecessary. I really did not need to know the secret of the Vikings’ irrigation system.



Anything else?

It’s that time of year again when the TV networks announce their Saturday morning schedules. Here are ads for NBC and ABC’s (CBS’s ran last month). Of note is Thundarr the Barbarian, a show created by Steve Gerber with character designs by comics legends Alex Toth and Jack Kirby, and the Herculoids, a personal favorite designed by Toth. Also, I have no recollection of the Fonz in space.



Also, a great house ad by Steve Ditko (this would be an amazing piece of original art to own).



Overall

Good riddance

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 224

27 Monday Jul 2026

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Fantastic Four 224
“The Darkfield Illumination”
Published August 1980
Writer: Doug Moench
Pencils: Bill Sienkiewicz
Inks: Pablo Marcos
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: George Roussos
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Cover: Sienkiewicz and Joe Sinnott


Synopsis

The Fantastic Four, home at the Baxter Building, discover that a strange red mist over New York makes their powers erratic. They trace the source of the mist to the Arctic, and depart in their Pogo Plane. While making a reconnaissance, the Human Torch loses power and is captured by what appear to be Vikings with high-tech weapons. Eventually the rest of the team is confronted by the Vikings, and after a skirmish, decide to become prisoners in order to find Johnny and uncover the mystery behind their failing powers. The source is revealed to be Korgon, a Norseman who encountered a meteor-like object that granted him powers and (apparently) very long life. Exiled from his village, he gathered a following and founded a settlement under an ice dome in the far north. He tells the FF he is now dying and demands they help him or lose their lives.


What’s going on here?

This is a clunky, old-school adventure that feels like it came from golden age of science fiction. It’s probably the kind of story Doug Moench was very comfortable spinning, given the dozens of similar stories he wrote for Warren books like Eerie and Creepy. Unfortunately, the set-up of this story — the FF must investigate a strange presence on the Arctic — reads very similarly to the John Byrne-written story in issues 220 and 221, and it’s odd that editor Jim Salicrup didn’t object. And like a lot of those early sci-fi stories, this one is full of plot holes and unexplained inconsistencies that end up distracting from what could be a fun story.

The pencils from Bill Sienkiewicz are generally solid and the comic is inked by Pablo Marcos, filling in for Joe Sinnott, who we are told is busy working on the Superman / Spider-Man crossover (Sinnott does ink the cover). Instead of a letters page or Bullpen Bulletins, the comic includes a number of pinup pages, some recycled and some new (which we will see later).


What I liked

Sienkiewicz has some strong images, here, like this parallel structure of Johnny in the same basic pose in consecutive panels.


I liked this sequence too:



What I didn’t like

Sienkiewicz also has some ill-conceived sequences with no transition from one scene to another, like here:

And here:


One of the unexplained oddities in the story is the Vikings speaking the same language as the FF:


How does the Fantasticar fit inside the Pogo Plane?


Lastly, while I respect the Marvel tradition of inserting its own comics into its stories, having Sue reading Franklin an issue of Moon Knight — the same month Moench’s Moon Knight No. 1 debuted — feels a bit much (and is that a poster of Jeff Lynne on the wall?).


Anything else?

For unexplained reasons, this issue has an alternate version of the cover of FF 3 by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, as well as a new FF pinup (probably a unused cover) from Sienkiewicz and Terry Austin, which looks pretty snazzy.


Additionally, there are four pages of vintage Kirby pinups (oddly, there were two of Johnny and none of Ben). Here are three of them:



Overall

Pretty forgettable

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 223

14 Tuesday Jul 2026

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Fantastic Four 223
“That A Child May Live …”
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 — plus Agatha Harkness and Gabriel — race to New Salem to save Franklin from possession by Nicholas Scratch, Scratch works from the Dark Realm to free Salem’s Seven from captivity. When the FF arrive, they are defeated and captured by the Seven, and Scratch announces his intentions to use Franklin’s power to spread darkness over Earth. But Gabriel and Harkness harness the Fantastic Four’s love of Franklin into a psychic weapon that eventually drives out Scratch. The issue ends with Harkness rendering Scratch an ordinary human and pledging to remain in New Salem to keep an eye on him.


What’s going on here?

This is a pretty uninspiring issue. It resolves the immediate two-part Franklin / Scratch arc, and seems to finally end Scratch as an ongoing threat (he’ll make only a handful more appearances over the next 46 years). But as a story it’s pretty lackluster and a big chunk of the comic seems devoted to exposition. The fight with Salem’s Seven feels abbreviated and Gabriel, a potentially interesting wildcard, disappears for most of the comic. And the finale was just, well, lame. Even the art feels mailed-in, as if Joe Sinnott had to take over for a distracted Bill Sienkiewicz.

What I liked

There were a few nice moments of character development. This sequence between Sue and Johnny felt pretty authentic (and Johnny was totally right, Salem’s Seven again defeated the FF).


I also liked this interaction:


This wasn’t Sienkiewicz’s strongest effort, but a few panels stood out, like this action sequence of Brutacus:

And this one of Vertigo:


What I didn’t like

As mentioned, a lot of this comic felt overly didactic. Here’s an example of a lot of unnecessary explaining:


And this declaration of the power of love just felt cheesy, and a bit like Doug Moench discovering an easy way to wrap up his story:


Lastly, what kid talks like this?


Anything else?

Some notable ads in this issue. In honor of Norm MacDonald, I will never stop posting OJ ads when they appear. And the trademark house ad is weird: what counterfeit comics was Marvel worried about? Aside from DC, no one else was really publishing superhero comics by 1980, and the other publishers of horror, like Warren, and humor, like Harvey, were well established. Comics were just entering the direct-sales era, but was Marvel really worried about indy start-ups like Cerebus the Aardvark? Odd.


Overall

meh

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 222

05 Sunday Jul 2026

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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