Walt Simonson
July 1991
*****
The team erases the records of the MU before it’s interdicted by a temporal agency (a la Anti-Monitor!). Simonson adds his comic-surreal touch by engineering the team’s escape aboard a transdimensional locomotive! An imaginative finale to a marvelous run that’s stressed adventure over crimefighting.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #353]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #355]
Archive for the ‘She-Thing’ Category
The Fantastic Four #353
July 12, 2013
Walt Simonson
June 1991
*****
Walt’s found his groove. The Four have been detained by an omniversal bureaucracy that polices spacetime for continuity infractions—like #337-41! A preposterous SF idea, it epitomizes the sense of fun that Simonson has brought to his FF run. Even his art—like the Thing’s extra-rocky hide—sizzles.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #352]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #354]
The Fantastic Four #352
July 11, 2013
Walt Simonson
May 1991
*****
An ingenious issue of SF comics! While the team escapes from Doom’s traps, Mr F duels the Doc across a half-hour of time-jumps. The issue’s time-coded so readers can follow the action linearly or hop achronologically with the combat. Even the cover, a flashback to #350, is a panel in the story!
[continued from The Fantastic Four #350]
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #351]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #353]
The Fantastic Four #350
July 10, 2013
Walt Simonson
March 1991
***
An extra-long ish sees Dr. Doom cure She-Thing’s condition, &, ironically, Ben Grimm regain his rocky hide. Then Doom traps the team at his Ruritanian castle to challenge Reed to a time-duel! Simonson doesn’t quite have Doom’s voice down. But his art has bigger problems: Milgrom inks a rush job, eliminating the backgrounds & losing WS’s heavy line; the colorist washes out the remainder.
[continued in The Fantastic Four #352]
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #349]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #351]
The Fantastic Four #349
July 9, 2013
Walt Simonson // Arthur Adams & Gracine Tanaka
February 1991
***
A dozen players chase a Maguffin, an egg that hatches a robot WMD. Mr. F & Mole Man hold the focus; Wolverine & Ghost Rider never seem wholly present. Simonson doesn’t have a handle on the guests’ voices or superpowes. His strongest suit, aside from Mr. F himself, is approaching comic books as fun.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #348]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #350]
The Fantastic Four #348
July 8, 2013
Walt Simonson // Arthur Adams
January 1991
***
A team of A-list solo guests sows the mag’s tongue in its cheek. But other than the goof, WS has no use for them; it’s Adams who justifies the cameos. His style has a toon-like element—esp. lovely monsters & Sue’s doe eyes—which looks past the Image era to super-manga like Joes Maduriera & Quesada.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #347]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #349]
The Fantastic Four #347
July 7, 2013
Walt Simonson
December 1990
****
A renegade Skrull zaps the Four then recruits a 1990 Marvel marketer’s dream-team to replace them. Meanwhile, Simonson brings in more monsters, in this case Kirby kaiju! Adams’ baroque art has all the density of the era’s unfortunate style but, bonus, a sense of anatomy, backgrounds, & pacing.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #346]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #348]
The Fantastic Four #346
July 6, 2013
Walt Simonson
November 1990
****
The 4+1, sans powers (except for a Thing exosuit), help a GI squad survive a time-displaced isle. Simonson’s signature is a stylized dinosaur, so it’s no surprise he revels in this 2-issue adventure. But he takes time to enrich the romance btw Ben & She-Thing, who proposes staying in the Cretaceous.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #345]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #347]
The Fantastic Four #345
July 5, 2013
Walt Simonson
October 1990
****
The FF skid through a time-storm to land on a Pacific isle—packed with dinosaurs! Simonson adds to the pulp conceit by sapping the team of their powers. Ben, already human, steps up to act the mensch with his paramour, Sharon Ventura, who’s anxious about her body now that it’s flesh instead of rock!
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #344]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #346]
The Fantastic Four #344
July 4, 2013
Walt Simonson
September 1990
****
To avert WW3 on a parallel Earth, the Four & She-Thing tussle w/ a cyborg Stalin piloting a mecha suit! Simonson is inspired, a contrast in tone to the era’s gun-toting urban vigilantism. His art, however, carries a rugged weight & vibrant SFX—he’s like Chaykin’s younger, more popular brother.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #343]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #345]
The Fantastic Four #343
July 3, 2013
Walt Simonson
August 1990
****
The team have landed on a parallel Earth where Pres. Quayle & 100-year-old Stalin prep for WW3. Funny, since reality, where the SU is imploding & the US fights a recession! But the true-blue heroics contrast happily w/ super-comics’ fad for antiheroes. Plus WS looks great after WS’s month off.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #342]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #344]
The Fantastic Four #342
July 2, 2013
Danny Fingeroth // Rex Valve
July 1990
*
Editor Macchio pulls a fill-in from his files, flashing back to ’88 (Engleheart’s era—a spikey Thing!). The wet tale revises a skippable issue from Byrne’s run: a teen kills himself by emulating the Torch. Overwrought emo, a tin ear for slang, and a finale that has Johnny rap with kids about suicide.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #341]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #343]
The Fantastic Four #341
July 1, 2013
Walt Simonson
June 1990
***
Rather than consume the universe, Galactus commits euthanasia by that Kirby ex machina, the Ultimate Nullifier. Reed defeats a space succubus just as easily. As bold as Simonson’s art is, his plot feels too indebted to King Jack’s retro SF; he’s not pioneering a new perspective the way his Thor did.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #340]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #342]
The Fantastic Four #340
June 30, 2013
Walt Simonson
May 1990
****
Mr. F, the heroic focus of this arc, susses a Celestial plan to weaponize Galactus & tosses the Kirby God into G’s black hole! WS writes super-drama underpinned by grandiose beings & fantastic machinery, a la the King; his art, since Thor, has added a fine-lined filigree in the Art Adams manner.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #339]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #341]
The Fantastic Four #339
June 29, 2013
Walt Simonson
April 1990
***
Delightful super-SF comics. To destroy the black-hole machinery of mighty Galactus, Reed & the gang refit a space empire’s munitions plants as interstellar depth charges! Also, Simonson pauses the space adventure to indulge in a heavyweight superhero boy: Thor v. an alien Superman analog.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #338]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #340]
The Fantastic Four #338
June 28, 2013
Walt Simonson
March 1990
****
A multiversal trio of Kangs race a space succubus to harness a black hole. Our heroes learn that it’s actually feeding Galactus, & also must contend w/ an oddball marc from the future. Confused? This SF adventure couples grandiosity w/ whimsy, as when the team skirts the hole’s event horizon!
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #337]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #339]
The Fantastic Four #337
June 27, 2013
Walt Simonson
February 1990
****
The ebullient Simonson writes, draws, & inks! Reed’s latest experiment, an explosion of op-art, leads to a Ditko embolism in spacetime (a dangling thread from Walt’s Avengers run). So the team + a few Avengers pile into a time sled, whose “redundency existentialators” help penetrate the bubble!
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #336]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #338]
The Fantastic Four #336
June 26, 2013
Walt Simonson // Ron Lim
January 1990
***
In a unique victory, Dr. Richards defeats Congress! He pokes enough holes in the concept of a federally mandated registration act to table the bill (HS 39110). Then a Doombot ends Acts of Vengeance & Grimm, in his robosuit, kayos an android. Also note: the covers to #334-6 are their own comic!
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #335]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four# 337]
The Fantastic Four #335
June 25, 2013
Walt Simonson // Rich Buckler
late December 1989
***
The FF testify for a Congressional sub-committee. The scene lets Simonson dismantle the silly “realism” of registering superheroes from left, right, & center. Sounds dull, but he also turns out a moderately entertaining farce as more D-listers flail clumsily in their attempts to fight the Four.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #334]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #336]
The Fantastic Four #334
June 24, 2013
Walt Simonson // Rich Buckler
early December 1989
***
Simonson debuts & instantly shifts the mag’s tone from lugubrious to lighthearted. As part of the Acts of Vengeance crossover, he pits the FF against D-list supervillains (who can’t even get in the building!). Buckler’s three-tier grid has a cheery flatness, but he does realistic, expressive faces.
[last issue: The Fantastic Four #333]
[next issue: The Fantastic Four #335]
Index Indigo 