Fantastic Four Annual 16
“The Coming of … Dragon Lord!”
Published June 1981
Writer: Ed Hannigan
Pencils: Steve Ditko
Inks: Steve Ditko
Letters: Ron Zalme
Colors: Hannigan
Editor: David Anthony Kraft
Cover: Ditko


Editor’s Note: In my excitement to dive into John Byrne’s Fantastic Four run, it appears I, um, oops, forgot about FF Annual 16, which came out the same month as FF 234. As you will see, there are reasons for that, but because I am committed to reacapping every issue for you, dear reader, I am going back to finish the job.

Synopsis

Ral Dorn, a human from another dimension, comes to Earth fleeing Dragon Riders, who accuse him of murdering the young dragons in his care. His hope is to harness Earth’s Dragon Man as his mount, and he tries to recruit the Fantastic Four to his cause. The FF accompany him to a mine in Pennsylvania, where, after battling the Dragon Riders, he teleports Dragon Man and (inadvertently) the Invisible Girl to another dimension. The FF and the Dragon Riders return to their home dimension, where Ral Dorn, Dragon Man and Sue reappear. Ral Dorn then battles Skagerackrakor (!), the Dragon Lord, in a trial by combat to prove his innocence. Skag cheats, and then admits he killed the young dragons. He then sends riderless dragons to Earth to wreak havoc, but Ral Dorn and Reed track them down and return to them to their dimension. Ral Dorn is proclaimed the new Dragon Lord and the FF return to Earth.

What’s going on here?

Where to begin? This comic is such a bizarre mess that it defies any simple analysis. It seems to be the creation of Ed Hannigan, a true comic book journeyman, who has credits ranging from cover artist of the first Marvel Universe series to penciling Peter Parker to inking Kull to writing the Defenders to coloring Iron Man. But as the expression goes, “jack-of-all-trades, master of none,” and his limitations as a writer are on full display here. The story is overly long, hopelessly convoluted, full of dead ends and plot holes, and ridden with cliches. It reads like a naive, Silver Age story, but it feels totally out of place as a 1980s Fantastic Four annual.

The story reads like an origin story introducing Dragon Lord, with the FF as incidental characters, and my best guess is Hannigan pitched it as a new Marvel title, which Jim Shooter rejected. Because nothing ever goes to waste, I imagine Shooter decided to repurpose it as an FF annual. And Steve Ditko, who at this point in his career was being handed the dregs of Marvel’s titles, was tapped to do the art. You can almost feel Hannigan’s desperation in the note to readers to write in support of Dragon Lord:

Ditko had just one Fantastic Four credit prior to this, as inker on the legendary FF 13, and it’s a shame it took this long for him to pencil an issue

There’s something tragic about Ditko’s decline in the esteem of Marvel, from penciling the first 38 issues of Amazing Spider-Man —one of the most celebrated runs in comics history — to 20 years later being tossed scraps like this annual and Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos. His unique, idiosyncratic style, which served him so well on Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, became more pronounced, and increasingly out of step with mainstream expectations. Unfortunately, his art in this comic did him no favors, as it is at turns cartoony and cramped.

Needless to say, Dragon Lord did not receive the outpouring of support necessary to bring him back, and he faded into obscurity. Bizzarely, he was revived just two years ago by Rob Liefield, of all people, in Deadpool Team-Up, a comic which focues on unearthing forgotten characters. Here he is:

What I liked

Ditko’s art can be endearingly energetic, as in this sequence:

And we still get flashes of his inventive eye, such as in these panels:

I also liked an introductory sequence that showed the FF at brunch, coincidentally using all of their powers (but why is poor Franklin wearing a jacket and tie to breakfast?):

What I didn’t like

There’s no point in detailing all the problems with this comic. Suffice to say almost every page as something I could harp on and it feels mean to kick a comic when it’s down. As we have learned, the Fantastic Four annuals are highly uneven, ranging from the extraordinary FF Annual 6 to, well, this one. Thankfully, we will return to a high with Annual 16 in two years.


Overall

Let’s forget this ever happened