Super-Skrull | Percival Henry: The Fantastic Four and more

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1964, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 32, jack Kirby, Skrulls, Stan Lee, Super-Skrull

Fantastic Four 32
“Death of a Hero!”
Published: Aug. 1964
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Chic Stone
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Stone

Synopsis

FF 32 opens in the Baxter Building with Mr. Fantastic, once again, trying to return the Thing to human form. The procedure works, but Ben loses his memory of the team and Alicia, so Reed reverses the process. Meanwhile, a ray from outer space blasts open a volcano on earth, and an unknown creature emerges. The creature enters the prison cell of Franklin Storm, the father of the Human Torch and Invisible Girl introduced last issue, and takes his form, sending Storm to outer space.

Sue and Johnny Storm, attempting to visit their father, find him transformed, and he uses new powers to blast out of prison. Sue and Johnny summon Reed and Ben, and together the team confronts Franklin, who is now costumed and calls himself the Invincible Man. They fight, but Sue and Johnny can’t bear to hurt their father, and the Invincible Man escapes, much to the chagrin of Reed.

The team retreats to the Baxter Building, where Reed devises a gizmo to defeat their foe, who, he tells Sue and Johnny, is not really Franklin Storm. When the team confronts the Invincible Man, Reed tells him he is communicating via “ultra-sonic radio transmitter” to his home galaxy, and demands Franklin Storm be returned. The Invincible Man then reveals himself to be the Super-Skrull, who had been trapped in the volcano since FF 18, and he is transmitted back to his home planet while Franklin Storm is returned.

Storm, however, is booby-trapped with a bomb, and he absorbs the blast rather than endanger the FF and his children, dying a heroic death in the arms of his children.

What’s going on here

FF 32 marks the second half of Franklin Storm’s story arc. Introduced last issue as a fugitive surgeon, it seems Stan and Jack liked his character so much they used him again. They also tied up any potential messy loose ends by killing him off, but not before we hear his sad story.

He then has a poignant—and long!—death scene, told in part with this nice perspective from Jack:

Unlike in FF 31, where Franklin’s appearance was awkwardly jammed into the comic, FF 32 is much more coherent, and tells a satisfying story. Not that there aren’t some holes in the plot: It’s not obvious why the Super-Skrull needed to take the form of Franklin Storm to defeat the FF—Reed says it was to discredit the team when the Storm children refuse to fight their father—and Reed defeats the Super-Skrull by basically threatening to fight him to the death, leading him the Skrull to run away. Some warrior.

Stan and Jack also spend nearly four pages on Reed’s latest unsuccessful effort to transform Ben back to human form. While it gave us some nice character moments, with Johnny torn about whether he wants Ben as a happy human or his monstrous teammate, the episode has no further bearing on the plot and feels like padding.