Fantastic Four 103
“At War With Atlantis!”
Published: July 1970
Story: Stan Lee and John Romita
Script: Lee
Pencils: Romita
Inks: John Verpoorten
Letters: Sam Rosen

Note: I’m back! After taking the summer to mourn Jack Kirby’s departure from the Fantastic Four, I plan to resume regular weekly blog service. You may notice some changes in the format; basically I’m trying to streamline the writing process and make it more efficient so I can continue doing this. But hopefully nothing will be too jarring. As always, let me know if you have ideas or suggestions. Onward!

Synopsis

Magneto goads Namor into war against the surface world, then takes the Invisible Girl hostage.

What’s going on here?

This is obviously the first issue without Jack Kirby—and notably, also without Joe Sinnott—but Stan and the two Johns do a credible job of covering for them. In part, that’s because Romita and Veroorten seem to be deliberately copying Jack’s style. There are places where it’s obviously not Jack, such as close ups of the characters faces, but overall it’s a successful effort. Romita takes a back seat to no one in the comic-art business, so there will be no nitpicking of him here.

What I liked

It’s always fun when a villain crosses over from one book to another. This is the first time the FF tangle with Magneto, as far as I am aware, and he’s definitely in his early, raving megalomaniac mode here (vs. his more statesman-like megalomaniac mode of more recent years).

There’s also a very overt depiction of Richard Nixon as president (and Ben even makes a Spiro Agnew reference). While the president often shows up in comics, he’s often more generic, and not always this recognizable as an actual person.

What I didn’t like

One of the oldest and most tedious cliches in the early FF plots was how often Sue was taken hostage. By my count it was like a dozen times in the first 40 issues. Now, despite it being a new decade and with a new art team, Sue is once again taken hostage (along with Lady Dorma, for good measure).

Also, the Bullpen Bulletin item welcoming Romita as the FF’s new penciler fails to acknowledge jack or his accomplishments, which seems a bit bush league.

Overall

A respectable start to the post-Kirby era.