“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 89

28 Saturday Jan 2023

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

Tags

1969, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 89, jack Kirby, Mole Man, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 89
“The Madness of the Mole Man!”
Published May 1969
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

Synopsis

This issues picks up where issue 88 left off, sort of. The Thing is now at the Richards’ new house and under attack by the Mole Man, when last issue he very clearly was not present. Now he and the rest of the team are blinded and stumble about trying to defeat the Mole Man. The Mole Man has the upper hand until Mr. Fantastic tricks him into damaging his staff, and the Invisible Girl removes his glasses, rendering him helpless. Reed is badly injured, but revived by Ben.

A new subplot introduces a Skull “slaver” who is traveling to earth to abduct an unnamed contestant to compere in the Skrull’s games. Who could it be?

What’s going on here?

I hate to say it, but this issue is a dud. Last issue had a fun set-up and revealed a genuinely surprising villain, but this comic took a turn to the pedestrian. Most of the issue is a simple fight between the Mole Man and the FF and even blinded, it shouldn’t have been that difficult for them to overcome a non-powered human. I can think of half a dozen ways Reed could have concocted to end the fight much earlier, leaving room for a more interesting twist. And not only is there a very obvious continuity error of including Ben in the battle, when he was supposed to be in the city, but Stan and Jack chose not to include Alicia in the story, whose blindness surely would have made the story more interesting. What better answer for a villain who wants to turn the world blind than a character who already is blind?

More interesting was the tease for next issue’s story featuring the skulls. Although just three pages, two were splashes, and together they promised more drama and fun than the turgid story we were reading.

The Space Race

The Skull subplot features a rare Kirby collage—we haven’t seen one of these in a while—and a reference to the Apollo missions, which were building to the first moon landing in a few months.

It becomes more obvious in the next panel:

I love you, man!

FF 89 also features a declaration of Ben’s affection for Reed. It would be more poignant if the outcome —Reed is going to be OK!—didn’t seem so obvious.