Fantastic Four 192
“He Who Soweth the Wind…!”
Published December 1977
Plot: Len Wein
Script: Roger Slifer
Pencils: George Perez
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Joe Rosen
Colors: Glynis Wein
Editor: Marv Wolfman
Cover: Perez and Frank Giacoia


Synopsis

After the breakup of the Fantastic Four, the Human Torch travels to the southwest for a car race, where he is reunited with his old roommate, Wyatt Wingfoot, whose friend, Rebecca Rainbow, is also in the race. The race is interrupted by an attack by the mercenary Texas Twister, who is being paid to deliver Johnny to his employers. They fight to a draw and the Twister escapes.

What’s going on here?

This is a fun, albeit pretty lightweight, Torch solo story that works well in the context of the FF’s purported dissolution. If you’re going to tell solo stories, this is the time to do it. It’s a pretty conventional one-and-done set-up, with the Torch ambushed in some random locale, but at least we have a guest appearance from Wyatt Wingfoot, a great and underutilized member of the FF’s supporting cast.

As discussed in my last post, Len Wein is being phased out as the FF’s writer, and here he is only given credited for the plot. The script is by Roger Slifer, a relatively new writer who would spent about a decade mostly writing Marvel’s B- and C-list books before going on to DC’s Omega Men. He later worked in animation before he was seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident and was institutionalized until his premature death.

The villian, the Texas Twister, is a mostly fun, occasionally annoying character who first appeared in Fantastic Four 177 as one of the potential new members to audition for the Frightful Four. He eventually becomes a hero and a member of the Rangers, a regional team that would show up from time to time. Here is his origin, from FF 177 (story by Roy Thomas, art by Perez and Sinnott) (I blogged about the comic here):

I’m not sure I like the character as much as I like the idea of the character, or his later incarnation as a hero. As a kid, I loved minor-league super teams, like the Rangers and Great Lakes Avengers. It meant the Marvel universe was populated by more that the characters we saw every month, and it made sense that other parts of the country besides New York had heroes.

One other note: Has Johnny Storm ever successfully completed a race? Or is he always interrupted or abducted by a villain before he gets to the finish line? I can think of least two other instances of this trope. One is in the recently blogged-about Fantastic Four Annual 12, where Crystal and Lockjaw somehow fit into his race car and teleport him away:

And in Fantastic Four 263, he is abducted mid-race by a villain that wants his powers for nefarious purposes (story and art by John Byrne):

What I liked

There’s a breezy, easy-going quality to the story, despite the over-wrought cover and title. It’s hard to take the Texas Twister too seriously, and nothing much of consequence happens. I liked the banter between Johnny and Wyatt, which gets very close to a sexual innuendo:

Rebecca Rainbow, Wyatt’s friend, is a fun character and I wish she stuck around. She was introduced in a Marvel Two-in-One issue, which is further proof I really should be including MTIO in this blog:

And this was a nice quiet moment for Johnny:

The art in this issue is very by-the-numbers and one Perez’s less inspired efforts in his FF run, The cover in particular is one of his weakest. But I liked this panel design showing Rebecca overtaking Johnny in the race:

What I didn’t like

One of my persistent gripes about the Fantastic Four over the years is the inability of writers to understand how Reed Richards would fit into the real world. The world’s smartest man—one who invented interstellar space travel, unstable molecules and no end of amazing gizmos—would never be wanting for money or opportunities. Think of a benevolent Elon Musk, but one who’s an actual genius. At the very least he would be at a university with his own lab. Every time we get a story about how the FF are broke or need jobs it reads like the writers don’t have a clue how the world works. Here, Reed is (absurdly) looking at help wanted ads in the paper:

The Texas Twister’s accent and idiomatic speech is laid on very thick. I wonder of Slifer ever met an actual Texan?

Anything else?

Some interesting ads. I’m not sure who this Pizzaz ad is supposed to appeal to … I can’t imagine it would entice a super hero fan. And this is the first reference to Star Wars I think we’ve seen in an FF comic. The movie opened a few months earlier.

Overall

A perfectly acceptable comic book