“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 150

27 Sunday Oct 2024

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

Tags

1974, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 150, Gerry Conway, Inhumans, Rich Buckler

Fantastic Four 150
“Ultron 7: He’ll Rule the World!” and “The Wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver!”
Published June 1974
Writer: Gerry Conway
Pencils: Rich Buckler
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: Linda Lessman
Editor: Roy Thomas
Cover: Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia

Editors note: Apologies for skipping a week. This post was delayed, ironically, because I spent a few days at New York Comic Con. We should be back on track going forward.

Synopsis

Ultron 7, whose head is attached to the gigantic form of Omega, unleashes a mental blast that stirs the powers in comatose Franklin, and the resulting feedback shuts down Ultron while awakening Franklin, to the delight of his parents. In an epilogue / second story, Crystal weds Quicksilver while the gathered heroes consider their own love lives.

What’s going on here

After the jumble of Avengers 127, things finally cohere in FF 150 into an intelligible plot. The confrontation with Ultron is thankfully brief; mostly the robot rants and raves, explains how Maximus launched it upon the Inhumans, and then is disrupted by Franklin’s psychic energy. Ending the threat of Ultron while wakening Franklin was a neat plot twist I didn’t see coming, and combined with Sue’s rapprochement with Reed last issue, serves to end a two-year period of disharmony between Reed and Sue. My guess is that this will also end Medusa’s tenure as a member of the FF, but we will see.

The wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver still doesn’t make a ton of sense, but they stuck it out for almost two decades in real time and had a daughter, Luna, before Pietro went nuts and the marriage fell apart. While it lasted, it was a fun inter-Marvel relationship, connecting the Inhumans, the FF, the Avengers and the X-Men.

Gil Kane again did the cover. Not his strongest work, but Johnny looks cool.

What I liked

I’m a sucker for quiet moments comics—where heroes aren’t in the middle of epic battles and can reflect on their lives—and this issue’s second story provided a lot of that. There was a nice moment between Reed and Sue, and an odd sequence where Thor and Iron man discuss their romantic troubles. (Not sure what “Scenario” means here but whatever).

We finally get some angst from Jonny about his ex getting married:

And there are some big, Kirby-esque splash pages from Rich Buckler:

What I didn’t like

For a robot, Ultron talks sooo much. Here is but a sample of its blather:

Anything else?

There is a curious panel that identifies the Golden-Age hero the Whizzer as the father of Pietro and Wanda. This was an idea introduced briefly in Giant-Sized Avengers 1, but was eventually swept aside when it was revealed their father was actually Magneto (and eventually this too would be retconned away).