Fantastic Four 230
“Firefrost and the Ebon Seeker”
Published February 1981
Writer: Doug Moench
Pencils: Bill Sienkiewicz
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: George Roussos
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Cover: Sienkiewicz and Sinnott


Synopsis

Firefrost, the Ebon Seeker’s companion, explains (at length) their origin — they were created in a black hole billions of years in the future and sent to the past — and tells the FF that if the Ebon Seeker’s energy is not returned to the black hole, it will trigger a new Big Bang, wiping out the universe. Mr. Fantastic siphons energy from the Negative Zone to the Ebon Seeker, whom Firefrost convinces to return to the black hole so he can be reborn as a creature of light, like her. The issue ends with the FF, the Baxter Building and some of New York stuck in the Negative Zone.

What’s going on here

If last issue was all action and no exposition, this issue is the opposite. The first eight pages of this 22-page comic are devoted to first a re-cap of the last issue and then a lengthy explanation of who these new characters are and how they came to be. Another several pages at the end delve into the science of black holes, the Big Bang and the Voyager space probe. It reminded me of the current FF run under writer Ryan North, who seems intent on including a science lesson in each issue.

As discussed previously, the Ebon Seeker is pretty much a straight swipe of Galactus, from his connection to the Big Bang to his hunger to destroy planets to his enlightened, silvery companion. What’s odd is Doug Moench devotes so much time and energy to establishing these characters, only to erase them at the end of the comic. Again, it seems that Moench’s heart is in horror and science fiction, and the Fantastic Four is just the vehicle for him to tell the stories he likes.

Also of note is the appearance of the Avengers, which is pretty brief despite their prominence on the (mediocre) cover. This used to be a pretty common feature of silver and bronze age Marvel: If there was some earth-threatening menace, other heroes would show up, or at acknowledge it. Now, a big, cataclysmic event is the basis for a annual crossover, which amounts to the same thing, but doesn’t reinforce that feeling of a shared universe in the same way.


What I liked

I did enjoy Johnny pulling rank on Captain America:

Given Moench’s predilection for plugging his other books in the pages of the FF, I half-expected to discover he was the new writer of the Avengers. In fact, the Avengers were then being written by assistant FF editor Bob Budiansky (and it was a pretty dismal period for the Avengers so they probably needed the help).

The aliens encountering the Voyager probe far in the future was a nice touch:

Of course, the famous golden recording and image on theVoyager probe — launched in the hope of humanity finally meeting alien life — doesn’t make much sense in the Marvel universe, where encounters with aliens happen monthly. For that reason, I was of mixed minds about this sequence, with Read reading a book by Carl Sagan about the Voyager recording. One would suspect Reed and Sagan were colleagues, and Reed — who has probably encountered more aliens than anyone else on Earth — would have been consulted in the recording.

Also, the the man and woman were buck naked on the real image:

This was mostly a humdrum issue for Bill Sienkiewicz and Joe Sinnott, but I liked this sequence:

What I didn’t like

The explanation of the Ebon Seeker and Firefrost’s origin was hopelessly convoluted and nonsensical. They entered a black hole, encountered “energy beings” there and somehow emerged with new forms and powers. For a writer who seems interested in hard science, Moench seems willing to totally disregard basic physics to suit his story.

Also, why do the aliens — who are green and lumpy — become human-like after their transformation?

Firefrost seems pretty nonchalant when she informs Reed the universe is going to be destroyed:

Likewise, we get all of one panel for Reed to explain his gambit may risk the end of Earth:

Anything else?

A house ad for Marvel Two-In-One. That comic looks a lot better than this one.

Overall

A mess