Fantastic Four 206
“The Death of … the Fantastic Four!
Published February 1979
Writer: Marc Wolfman
Pencils: Keith Pollard
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: Ben Sean
Editor: Wolfman
Cover: Pollard and Sinnott

Synopsis

Now prisoners on the Skrull home world, Mr. Fantastic, the Thing and the Invisible Girl are brought before a court, where they are zapped with a ray while trying to fight back. It’s later revealed the ray will speed up their metabolism so they will die of old age in three days. After escaping once again, the FF steal a Skrull spaceship and travel back to Xandar, when they are unknowingly attacked by a spaceship carrying Nova, the Sphinx and other characters.

What’s going on here?

The FF’s Xandar arc continues and a storyline that started off promisingly now seems to drag. The sequence of the FF in the Skrull court did nothing to advance the plot, the lengthy scenes with Xandar’s Queen Adora and her consort Tanak don’t add anything, and while there’s some fun Skrull palace intrigue, it feels the whole issue could be told in half the pages.

By far, the most discordant element of the comic is the sudden appearance of Nova and a collection of characters who are not introduced and were utterly unfamiliar to me (save for the Sphinx, who we last saw as a villain). These are apparently the Champions of Xandar, although they won’t get that name for another few issues, and while readers of Nova might know who they are, FF readers would have no clue.

Again, this is a serious failing of Wolfman’s, who is writing and editing both the FF and Nova at this point. Besides this being a serious disservice to the reader, it’s also a bizarre lapse in marketing. I understand this is before the ear of crossovers, but surely you would signal on the cover that this issue includes a guest appearance of another Marvel hero.

As far as I can tell, Nova’s inclusion was Wolfman’s attempt to wrap up a story that he began in Nova but couldn’t complete because the series was canceled with issue 25. While this happens occasionally (Chris Claremont pulled lots of his characters from defunct series into the X-Men), it’s rarely done so awkwardly.

I did track down Nova 25 to figure out what was going on and man, it’s got some gorgeous art by Carmine Infantino, in his brief stint at Marvel, and the great Klaus Janson.

Also of note: Johnny doesn’t appear in this issue, and his Monocle subplot isn’t advanced.

And the cover (an excellent one) is the first that features Keith Pollard’s distinct lower-case signature, the first FF comic where he uses it. It’s one of my favorite signatures in comics.


What I liked

The old-age ray is an intriguing concept. I look forward to seeing how it plays out, although I think we all know it won’t be permanent.

I also liked the bickering between Skrull Emperor Dorrek and the Empress R’Klll. Like the Kree and Shi’ar, and unlike most other alien races in comics, the Skrulls have a well-developed structure and characters, giving their stories more depth and favor.

What I didn’t like

After what was arguably Pollard’s best FF issue last month, his work here is much more pedestrian and it feels like Joe Sinnott is carrying him across the finish line. Aside from the great cover, the art is a disappointment.

As mentioned earlier, the court scene dragged on and offered little. And strangely, the FF are accused of treason, which doesn’t seem possible, because they are not Skrulls. Although I liked the idea of the Skrulls having archaic rules of procedure dating to the Convention of Fornax.

Lastly, the Adora / Tanak romance would be a lot more interesting if we had been given any reason to care about these characters. As it is, it’s incredibly dull.

Overall

A misfire