Fantastic Four 202
“There’s One Iron Man Too Many!”
Published October 1978
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: John Buscema
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: Janice Cohen
Editor: Wolfman
Cover: Buscema and Sinnott

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four are attacked in the Baxter Building by a doppelgänger of Iron Man, who triggers a new device installed by Mr. Fantastic that allows the top six floors of the building to fly across the world (yes, really). The FF team up with the real Iron Man to track down their building and discover Quasimodo, an artificial intelligence, created a replica Iron Man and stole the Baxter Building to drain its power. After a battle, Quasimodo escapes into space in the FF’s rocket.

What’s going on here?

This issue is only notable because of the appearance of Iron Man, but the story makes clear there’s no legitimate reason for Iron Man to be in the comic. Quasimodo explains he needed a robot to serve as his arms and legs — makes sense! — but he could have built anything. It seems he chose a replica of Iron Man to compel Iron Man’s guest appearance in the comic. It’s the sort of plotting problem an editor could save a writer from making, but in this case, writer Marv Wolfman serves as his own editor. It’s a reminder that Wolfman is much stronger at dialogue and characterizations than in story telling, and another reminder (if we needed one) that writers need actual editors.

John Buscema fills in for Keith Pollard on pencils and delivers his usual steady work.


What I liked

Despite its practical impossibility, I liked the idea of the top floors of the Baxter Building shooting into the sky like a bottle rocket. And Reed’s explanation — that the landlord demanded some sort of failsafe to protect other tenants — actually makes sense.

This scene with Tony Stark is a flashback to our pre-MCU concept of Iron Man, where everyone somehow accepted he was Stark’s body guard, despite them never being seen together.

This cliff hanger ending was intriguing:

What I didn’t like

My big complaint is the dumbness of the story’s premise. But I’ve said my piece about that.

Also, I can usually accept that the image on the cover is meant as marketing, and doesn’t literally capture a scene from the comic. But it’s been a while since I’ve seen one this divorced from the events in the story. Even the the blurb — “Mayhem Over Manhattan! — is misleading.

And why does the FF keep a wooden desk in their high-tech control room?

Anything else?

A very eloquent letter to the editor from Cat Yronwode, who would go to be the editor-in-chief of Eclipse Comics, among many other diverse and varied roles.

Overall

The Yronwode letter is this month’s highlight