“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 215

26 Sunday Apr 2026

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1979, Blastaar, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 215, John Byrne, marv wolfman, Marvel, Marvel comics

Fantastic Four 215
“Blastaar!”
Published November 1979
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: John Byrne
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Joe Rosen
Colors: Carl Gafford
Editor: Wolfman
Cover: Ron Wilson and Joe Rubenstein

Synopsis

The issue opens with the Fantastic Four battling an explosion in the lab of Dr. Randolph James, a friend of Reed’s, whose experiments into evolution are going haywire. Meanwhile, Blastaar enters the Baxter Building from the Negative Zone, and the FF rush to confront him. A long battle ensues, and Blastaar escapes. Reed then gets a call from Dr. James, who has been assaulted and needs help. When Reed arrives he find James has used his evolutionary device to evolve himself into an advanced being.

What’s going on here?

This issue took me by surprise. This is Marv Wolfman’s last issue as a full writer of the FF (he just plots the next issue), and following the very long and elaborate Sphinx/Galactus arc and Annual 14, I just assumed he would mail it in with a by-the-numbers story. Instead, this is one of the best issues of Wolfman’s FF run, as the slightly odd Dr. James subplot delivers a genuine surprise at the end. We knew something was up with him but I will fully admit I was not expecting him to turn into this:

Instead of the main event in this comic, Blastaar then serves as a mildly interesting distraction. Of the two main Negative Zone villains, Annihilus is by far the more compelling, and Blastaar mostly takes up space. Here, Wolfman takes advantage of that to occupy the FF (and the readers) with a satisfying fight scene before the big reveal. (Although it should be said we never get an explanation of how Blastaar can just stroll in from the Negative Zone). Overall the issue is well paced with nice moments of character development, while Byrne and Sinnott do an outstanding job on the art.

The cover is by Ron Wilson and Joe Rubenstein, who is making his Fantastic Four debut. Rubenstein will go to have an incredibly long and prolific career, inking just about every comic character created by Marvel or DC, but never had a steady run on the FF.

What I liked

This issue reveals how good Byrne is at constructing action sequences (as if we had much doubt), like in these panels. Note how the perspective changes in the bottom three panels to create the illusion of Blastaar falling.

It’s not just action, where Byrne excels, either. I really like this quiet sequence, where the dynamic shifts in angles keeps our attention in what could have been a few dull, expository panels.

And I really liked this image:

What I didn’t like

It’s been a while since we had a Reed-is-a-Jerk moment, but Wolfman gives us one on his way out:

James’s assault doesn’t make much sense. These thugs just show up because they hear he’s a scientist? And it happens very conveniently just after the FF’s visit.

This is a great splash page but it reminds me that whenever Blastaar appears, he seems anatomically lacking in, ahem, certain respects. Note the cover as well. Maybe that’s why he’s so mad all the time.

Lastly, Wolfman cannot let the Herbie subplot drop:

Anything else?

This ad is awesome. I am pretty sure I had the Hammerhead action figure.

Overall

A pretty good comic book

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 63

05 Sunday Jun 2022

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1967, Blastaar, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 63, jack Kirby, Sandman, Stan Lee

**Fantastic Four 63**
“Blastaar, the Living Bomb-Burst!”
Published: March 1963
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

**Synopsis**

Fantastic Four 63 picks up where the previous issue left off, after the Inhuman Triton rescued Mr. Fantastic from the Negative Zone, allowing Blastaar to enter their dimension. Blastaar, now allied with the Sandman, uses his power to create an explosion on the roof to the Baxter Building, leading Triton to confront him.

Blastaar defeats the Inhuman, and he and the Sandman then battle the Human Torch, who had been canoodling in a restaurant with his love interest Crystal, on the streets of Manhattan. The Thing soon joins the battle, but the Sandman traps him and dumps him into the river. Finally, Mr. Fantastic enters the fray with a helmet designed to negate Blastaar’s power. After further struggle, they eventually neutralize Blastaar while Ben disperses the Sandman in the river.

What’s going on here?

This is a fun, action-packed comic that’s pretty much one rollicking battle from the first page to the last. Unlike the last dozen or so issues, there’s no interludes updating us on the progress of the Inhumans or Johnny and Wyatt — those plot lines were effectively wrapped up last issue, and the team (plus Crystal) is intact. There are also no subplots or quiet moments, no family scenes in the Baxter Building or with Ben and Alicia, just a lot of fighting. The action is magnified with bigger-than-usual panels — many pages divided into just four panels, instead of the normal six. The FF would be a much-diminished comic if every issue was like this one, but every now and then it’s satisfying to seem them just cut loose for 22 pages.

Starting with this issue, and in virtually every subsequent appearance, Blastaar is called “the living bomb-burst.” I had assumed a “bomb-burst” would be a thing readers were familiar with, but I never knew quite what it meant, and searching the internet reveals it’s actually not a common phrase. There’s the “bombs bursting in air” lyric from the Star-Spangled Banner, of course, and there’s an aerobatic maneuver called a bomb-burst, but otherwise it seems to be something Stan just invented.

Perhaps intentionally, Blastaar is also highly bombastic, and rants and raves about his power in the best Marvel villain tradition. Maybe it has something to do with being from the Negative Zone, because Annihilus is also a very strong ranter-and-raver.

(Also, and there’s no delicate way to phrase this, it’s possible Blastaar is compensating for what appears to be his missing male genitalia. Or maybe his species just reproduces some other way).

Weird science

Naturally, the New York Police Department has a cement gun on hand.

And Reed has “healing balms” at his disposal (and I’m not hydrogenous means what Reed thinks it means).

Fist fighting

Apparently boxing isn’t a sport in the Negative Zone

Bang! Pow!

There are some excellent sound effects in this comic.

The sexist sixties

Sue does virtually nothing in this issue except whimper and cringe.

Clobberin’ Time

A very good set up and deliver from Mr. Grimm.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

This sequence with Triton fighting Blastaar is textbook Kirby (note the fist-fighting).

A cool panel:

This one too:

Also on the news stand this month:

Next issue: The Sentry!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 62

30 Monday May 2022

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1967, Blastaar, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 62, Inhumans, jack Kirby, negative Zone, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 62
“And One Shall Save Him!”
Published: Feb. 1967
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Frank Giacoia

Synopsis

Fantastic Four 62 picks up where the last issue left off, with Mr. Fantastic tumbling through the Negative Zone toward the “exploding area” while the rest of the team watches helplessly through a scanner in the Baxter Building. The Inhuman Crystal and her teleporting dog Lockjaw then appear—Crystal has been looking for the Human Torch for about a dozen issues now—and she offers to help.

We then cut to a Mediterranean island where the rest of the Inhumans repel an invasion by a hostile army. Crystal arrives and explains the situation, and Black Bolt dispatches Triton to save Reed.

Back in the Negative Zone, a space craft drops off a menacing package near where Reed flounders, soon revealed to be the villain Blastaar. Triton then appears and rescues Reed, and as they return to our dimension, Blastaar sneaks in behind them. He is then confronted by the Sandman, who has been on the roof of the Baxter Building since the last issue, and they form an alliance. The issue concludes with the happy reunions of Reed and Sue and Johnny and Crystal.

What’s going on here?

A bit of an unsatisfying issue. For one, despite the promise of the cover, Blastaar —a major villain making his first appearance—doesn’t fight the FF in this issue. He appears, but there’s no confrontation—they don’t even intersect with each other. More significantly, the rescue of Reed is incredibly anticlimactic. Instead of Reed figuring out some scientific whammy, or Ben plunging into the Negative Zone after him, he’s rescued by Triton in a development that comes out of left field. And Triton just … goes and gets him. It’s explained that Triton’s ability to navigate the ocean depths makes him uniquely suited for this mission, but the rescue seems pretty straightforward. There’s no real drama or unusual heroics required.

The arrival of Crystal does serve to reunite her and Johnny, resolving their soap opera separation that began in issue 48. We also get a lot of Inhumans action, seemingly setting them up for their own series.

They didn’t get their own book until 1970, however, and even that they had to share with the Black Widow. As I recall, the mistreatment of the Inhumans was another factor that led to Jack leaving Marvel for DC.

Negative Zone

FF 62 also marks the first time the Negative Zone is really understood to be an alien dimension, complete with its own races and civilizations. Blastaar is he first villain to appear, but eventually we’ll be introduced to Annihillus, a first-tier bad guy.

The Negative Zone becomes a major part of the FF’s mythos, and Reed and the FF are often either exploring it or using it place to store undesirables, such as when Reed created a prison there during the Civil War.

Civil War Front Line 5 (2006, Ramon Rachs and John Lucas)

Kirby Kollage

This is the first double-page splash in 62 issues of the Fantastic Four, and another amazing Kirby collage. Unfortunately I don’t have the tools to stitch the two pages together properly.