“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 197

16 Sunday Nov 2025

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1978, Dr. Doom, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 197, Joe Sinnnott, marv wolfman, Red Ghost

Fantastic Four 197
“The Riotous Return of the Red Ghost!”
Published May 1978
Writer: Marc Wolfman
Layouts: Keith Pollard
Finishes: Joe Sinnott
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: Barry Grossman
Editor: Wolfman
Cover: George Perez and Joe Sinnott

Synopsis

Under the threat of harm coming to his teammates by a mysterious figure (later revealed in this issue to be the son of Dr. Doom), Mr. Fantastic is forced to board a rocket designed to expose him to cosmic rays, thus restoring his powers. But while his powers return, the cosmic rays also (somehow) reconstitute the Red Ghost, who has been dematerialized and floating in space. The two battle and the Ghost sabotages the space ship, which crashes into the ocean with Reed managing to escape. Meanwhile in Latveria, Doom holds the other FF members captive, while summoning Alicia Masters to sculpt his image.

What’s going on here?

This issue continues the Doom / Zorba story arc that will conclude in issue 200. But the big event here is Reed’s battle in space with the Red Ghost, which doesn’t really have anything to do with the main story or Doom’s machinations. The Red Ghost shows up in one of those only-in-comics coincidences, and his appearance feels like an unnecessary distraction from the main story arc. On the other hand, the other three FF members had their own solo stories that followed the team’s break up (well, sort of: Sue shared her’s with Namor) so maybe it’s only fair that Reed gets his own. The other big development is Reed gets his powers back; more on that later.

The introduction of Doom’s son is a bit of a head fake, as we shall see. He’s not to be confused with Kristoff, who will debut in a few years.

Joe Sinnott returns to inking, and the comic reverts to its familiar style in his hands. The Pollard / Sinnott team is solid, but I miss Pablo Marcos’s inks, which gave the book a refreshingly different look. George Perez and Sinnott deliver an excellent cover.

Jim Shooter is now credited as “editor-in-chief.” He’s the first Marvel EIC to be so credited, as far as I can recall, and it’s somewhat revealing about how he viewed himself.

What I liked

Despite his implausible return, the Red Ghost is an entertaining bad guy and in his fight with Reed, shows he’s no joke (despite what the new Fantastic Four movie would have you believe).

I also liked this sequence of Reed’s power returning:

And I liked the sequence with Alicia and Doom, which serves to add more depth to his character:

What I didn’t like

There’s a lot in this comic that doesn’t make much sense. Reed is being forced to take a space flight but just takes it on this guy’s word that Sue and the others are his captives.

Further, Reed apparently designed and built the space ship, yet has no ability to control it:

Then there”s the matter of his lost powers. Reed’s powers faded over the course of many issues before disappearing altogether, which led him to disband the Fantastic Four. It was never explained why his powers ebbed (or why the other’s did not) but the assumption was we would eventually learn the cause. In this issue, however, they are returned to him by renewed exposure to cosmic rays. No further explanation is offered. Did they simply wear out? It’s a frustrating failure of story telling, probably due to the book having three writers over the length of the story arc.

Now that his powers have returned, Reed is apparently more powerful. Here, he squeezes through a tiny crack:

A get the impression that Wolfman was eager to return the team to the status quo ante as soon as practical, and didn’t feel the need to get bogged down with the particulars.

Overall

A mixed bag

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 29

24 Tuesday Aug 2021

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1964, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 29, jack Kirby, Red Ghost, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 29
“It Started on Yancy Street”
Published: May 1964
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Chic Stone
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Stone

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four, visiting Yancy Street to investigate a rise in crime, are assaulted by the hidden Yancy Street Gang. The team escapes, pursued by a drone. Once back at the Baxter Building, Ben and Alicia come close to breaking up before reuniting. The team then turns to its fan mail, when Ben opens a package from the Yancy Street Gang, which explodes after he opens it. The package contains a note daring the team to return to Yancy Street.

But back on Yancy Street, the team is attacked not by the gang but by three apes with super powers, who are eventually revealed to the Red Ghosts’s super apes. The Red Ghost, last seen in FF 13, who vowed revenge, used a ruse to lure the FF to Yancy Street. After a battle, the apes take the Human Torch hostage—for once, it’s not the Invisible Girl—and the Red Ghost orders the FF onto a spaceship and they return to the moon.

He jettisons the team on the moon (surely there was a simpler way of killing them) but the Invisible Girl creates a force filed around the team containing enough air to save them until they reached the Blue Area and the home of the Watcher. Mr. Fantastic uses the Watcher’s technology to draw the Red Ghost’s ship back to the moon, where the team defeats him but his apes escape. The FF are then returned to Yancy Street by the Watcher.

What’s going on here

Fantastic Four 29 is a fun combination of old and new elements. There’s a lot that’s familiar: the Yancy Street schtick, the drama between Ben and Alicia, the hanging around the Baxter Building, the opening of fan mail. But there’s some new stuff as well. The issue opens in media res (fancy-talk for in the middle of things) rather than the slow build up to the action that’s customary. There’s the continued expansion of Sue’s powers, which prove indispensable in this issue. And there’s this amazing photo collage by Jack, the first (but certainly not last) that he will deploy in the Fantastic Four:

I was unable to find the source of the photo used by Kirby. It’s likely it was taken in 1959 by Luna 3, a Soviet satellite, since the first images of the moon from a US spacecraft didn’t appear until July of 1964, several months after the issue appeared.

It’s what’s inside that counts

FF 29 is one of the earliest issues I actually own, and so I was able to read it as Stan and Jack intended. That means I got to see awesome ads like this: