Fantastic Four 119
“Three Stood Together!”
Published: November 1971
Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencils: John Buscema
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Artie Simek
Editor: Stan Lee
Cover: Buscema and Sinnott

Synopsis

The Thing and Human Torch rescue the Black Panther from a white supremacist prison before all three tangle with Klaw.

What’s going on here?

This is an interesting issue, for a few, interrelated reasons. The main development is that it’s Roy Thomas’s first time writing the FF. By this point in his career, Thomas had been writing a range of Marvel comics, including the X-Men and Avengers, and was Stan’s right-hand man in many ways. He goes on to have his own run on the Fantastic Four but this was a standalone issue for him.

Thomas’s story is surprisingly topical, as Ben and Johnny are summoned to “Rudyarda”—perhaps named after Rudyard Kipling?—a white-supremacist nation bordering Wakanda and clearly modeled after South Africa. Ben and Johnny are offended by the country’s official racism, and it’s brought up several times over the course of the story.

Speaking of current events, this issue also marks a name change for the Black Panther to “the Black Leopard,” specifically to avoid confusion with the activist group in the US. It didn’t last long.

What I liked

There’s a gritty, contemporary quality to the story that’s unusual in the FF, and it’s either to Stan’s credit that he allowed Thomas to take the comic in a new direction—much as he did with Archie Goodwin last issue—or he simply wasn’t paying attention. Either way, it’s feels fresh, which is a good thing after a decade of FF comics.

What I didn’t like

Ben and Johnny take a commercial jet to Rudyarda, which doesn’t make a lot of sense given the fleet at the FF’s disposal, except it sets up a skyjacking scene. The sequence doesn’t add anything to the story—although it allows Thomas to slip in another topical reference—and it takes up space that could be better used elsewhere.

Those two pages could have been used, for example, to give the climactic fight with Klaw some breathing room. As printed, Buscema crammed 18 panels into two facing pages, creating a visual overload that is begging for more space.

The story also opens with yet another silly fight between Ben and Johnny, and ends with the introduction of this monstrosity, which is clearly paving the way for the dreaded H.E.R.B.I.E. Thankfully, A.U.N.T.I.E. only appears in this one issue. I wish I could say the same about H.E.R.B.I.E.

Also, that cover is terrible. Yuck.

Anything else?

This seems to be a goof, either on the part of Thomas’s script or Simek’s lettering. But it’s pretty clear from the story these thugs are blood enemies of Wakanda, not blood brothers.

Overall

Definitely an interesting comic book.