Fantastic Four 113
“The Power of .. the Over-Mind!”
Published: May 1971
Story: Stan Lee
Pencils: John Buscema
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Artie Simek
Cover: Buscema and John Verpoorten

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four race to save the life of the Thing after his battle with the Hulk while they receive foreboding warnings about a new foe, the Over-Mind.

What’s going on here?

I confess I was looking forward to the issue, because I’ve always been curious about the Over-Mind. He’s a villain that has faded into obscurity but seemed to be a prominent Bronze age bad guy, so he represented a blank spot on my mental FF map. Sadly, despite a lot of build up in this issue—and a starring role on the cover—he only appears in the last few panels, so I will reserve judgment until next issue.

Instead we get a pretty scattered plot in which the FF fight cops, rescue Ben, race around New York in a plane and confront the mayor (who looks a lot like John Lindsay). There’s enough goofiness in the storytelling that it’s pretty clear Stan’s attention is elsewhere, and he appears to be just mailing it in.

What I liked

As noted earlier, Big John Buscema is really hitting his stride and while Joe Sinnott still gives the art a Kirby-esque touch, it’s clearly Buscema’s book now. I liked this sequence with Reed showing off his powers (although it was a pretty inane scene, story-wise):

This sequence with Johnny does a great job of illustrating his turmoil:

We even get a splash page of the Watcher (who looks nothing like Kirby’s versions but still comes with Kirby Krackle):

What I didn’t like

Not only is the plot disjointed and aimless, the characters act in ways that can only be described as stupid and/or sloppy. Reed forgets that Ben’s thick skin means he can’t hear a heartbeat? Johnny jumps out of a window and forgets to flame on? Ben no longer cares about turning human? Reed needs to send a smoke signal, and not a flare? Maybe this will all be explained next issue as the malign influence of the Over-Mind, but otherwise it seems bizarre.

Then there’s this odd image of Reed walking down his own arms:

And what would be an appearance of the Watcher if he didn’t violate his oath?

Overall

Pretty weak sauce