Fantastic Four 87
“The Power and the Pride”
Published March 1969
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencil: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Artie Simek
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

Synopsis

The issue immediately follows the events of the last issue, when the Invisible Girl showed up to save the team from destruction in Latveria. Now, the team—reunited and with Crystal—prepares to take on Dr. Doom in his castle. Doom, however, welcomes their incursion, as he plans to destroy them with a piano that emts “hyper-sound.” That’s right, a super piano.

As the FF crosses the drawbridge, a trap door opens and Sue and Crystal are whisked inside the castle. When the Thing tries to open the door, a booby-trap sends him, Mr. Fantastic and the Human Torch to the castle’s roof, where a “air gun” fires on the Torch. As Ben and Reed battle their way in, Sue and Crystal eventually find themselves before Doom, where he invites them to a feast.

Meanwhile, Doom”s lackey, Hauptmann, has discovered Doom’s portrait artist and art curator is a secret agent of SHIELD, and prepares to incinerate him and Doom’s priceless collection of artwork. Doom is horrified at the thought of his art being destroyed and uses the hyper-sound piano to kill Hauptmann instead. Then, seemingly bored with it all, Doom gives the FF safe passage to leave Latveria and instead of pushing their advantage, the team exits.

What’s going on here

As genuinely suspenseful and thrilling as last issue was, Fantastic Four 87 is as unsatisfying and anti-climactic. The finale of a four-issue arc that brought the FF to Latveria only to be tormented by Dr. Doom, we’ve been primed for a confrontation between our heroes and their nemesis. Instead, we get a plot that turns on an incoherent narrative about Hauptmann and concludes with a fizzle. The ending is reminiscent to the poorly-paced FF stories from the early 60s where Stan and Jack would cram fives pages worth of story into the last page.

Further, much about the story makes little sense. Reed and Doom both maintain the FF are still prisoners in Latveria, but it’s not obvious how; they have their powers back and they are no longer mind-controlled. And then, just as the FF have battled their way into Doom’s stronghold, they seem willing to abandon the fight just because Doom has lost interest. Why not press on and capture Doom?

It’s hard to not to feel Stan and Jack just mailed this one in.

The Feasts of Doom

Fantastic Four 87 features a splash page of Doom welcoming Sue and Crystal to join him with an extravagant feast before him.

Doom hosting his friends, enemies and frenemies with lavish meals has become something of a Marvel comics trope. Here are a few examples from over the years.

Here, Doom surprises Reed at a Empire State University reunion (Doom is a fellow alum, after all):

At his castle in the Adirondack, he hosts Storm:

In Latveria, Ben is offered a solo feast:

Doom offers Namor a lesson on the rights of kings over a meal.

Nazis! I hate these guys!

In FF 87, we find out that Doom’s toady, Gustav Hauptmann, was a Nazi who worked for Hitler. (Incidentally, his death in this issue complicates his reappearance in FF 258 (as discussed here) but that Hauptmann was apparently his brother, Gert Hauptmann.)

Mrs. Who?

Crystal initially shows Sue proper respect and calls her “Mrs. Richards” but a few panels later they are on a more familiar basis.

Weird science

Here’s that hyper-sound piano.

It’s Clobberin’ Time

Ben apparently now has super-breath. No sign of X-ray or heat vision yet.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Another cool Doom splash:

Another postcard from scenic Latveria:

And a cool panel (with lots of credit to Joe Sinnott):

Also on newsstands

What other comics were on sale in March of 1969?

Next issue: Reed and Sue go real estate shopping!