Fantastic Four 156
“Middle Game!”
Published December 1974
Writers: Len Wein and Roy Thomas
Pencils: Rich Buckler
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: Janice Cohen
Editors: Wein and Thomas
Cover: Bucker and Sinnott

Synopsis

To rescue his beloved Shalla-Bal, the Silver Surfer hypnotizes the Fantastic Four and delivers them to Dr. Doom, who further humiliates him. The FF, who submitted to the Surfer’s hypnotism to infiltrate Doom’s castle, break free of their confinement and defeat an army of Doom’s androids while Doom plans his next move.

What’s going on here?

This is the second of three comics in this arc (hence the story’s title) and a big improvement over the first one. It’s not great: there’s still a lot of purple prose, Doom’s ranting begins to get repetitive, and the FF-are-trapped-in-individual-cages plot device has become a cliché at this point. But the story is suspenseful — we really don’t know what Doom’s intentions are — and the action sequences are a lot of fun. Hopefully the conclusion of the story maintains the momentum of this one.

The credits for this issue are a bit odd, with Len Wein and Roy Thomas both credited as both writers and editors, but a note in the letters page explains that Wein intended to write the entire arc but stepped down to replace Thomas as editor. Thomas, slated to become the new regular writer, picked up the story halfway through. The Bullpen Bulletins further explains that Thomas is now “editor emeritus” (a lofty title for someone who just turned 34) while Wein is now running the show. This begins a chaotic period where Marvel went through five editor-in-chiefs in four years: Wein (1974-75), Marv Wolfman (1975-76), Gerry Conway (1976), Archie Goodwin (1976-78)and finally Jim Shooter, who took over in 1978 and restored some stability to the company.

What I liked

There’s some big, bold art from Rich Buckler, who seems to have gotten his mojo back, at least for this comic. This is a classic Doom splash page:

And I liked this action sequence:

Hidden in all of Doom’s scenery chewing, there was also this intriguing nugget of backstory, hinting at some unknown motivation for his hatred of Reed. I don’t know what he’s referring to, and I hope it’s revealed in the next issue:

What I didn’t like

As mentioned above, confining the FF in cages designed to counter their powers has probably been employed in half a dozen issues by now. At least in this one Ben and Johnny note how easy it was to escape.

Anything else?

This ad was cool. I wonder if I can still get these cars?

Overall

A marked improvement from last issue