gc8's Fantastic Four #3 - The Menace of the Miracle Man! review

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    Starts Off Good, Ends Badly

    A lot of classic Fantastic Four elements are added in this issue - the cover is the first one to bear the now familiar tag line, 

    The Greatest Comic Magazine in the World!!  

    It also includes the first appearance of the Fantasticar, and the first time the team appears in the trademark blue suits designed by Sue Storm (The Thing rips his to shreds in the first battle, keeping only the long pants).
     
    The villain here is The Miracle Man, a stage magician who appears to be able to do practically anything - and that's where things begin to go bad. Just like Mr. Mxyzptlk in the Superman comics, or Loki in the Thor comics, whenever you have a character with unlimited powers, you start to get into the realm of goofiness.
     
    Things hold pretty well for the first three chapters, but they go off the rails in a big way in the final chapter. Among other things, the creators fall back on the old standby, hypnotism, to make a hero do things against their teammates. Then we get a sudden bit of information from the Human Torch that Miracle Man has "cut the drive cables of [the] copter!" how and when he was able to do this is a mystery given that they just arrived in the copter and started fighting him.
     
    But of course, there is a reason for this - it's all so the FF can hop into one of the antique racing cars that somehow appear out of nowhere and Reed informs us are stored at this junkyard(?) between exhibitions (What? How did he know that? Why are they there? And with the keys in the ignitions?) It just keeps going down from there... Human Torch jumps in the car with Reed and Ben, even though he can fly, because it's "more fun". Then the bad guy shoots off a wheel, and so Mr. Fantastic becomes a tire and installs himself while the vehicle is still in motion (and without getting dizzy), the three chase the villain until the Human Torch decides to fly anyway.
     
    The whole thing ends with the Human Torch quitting the team which is really the only really interesting development in this whole mess, other than the FF's new costumes and toys.

    Other reviews for Fantastic Four #3 - The Menace of the Miracle Man!

      The Menace of the Miracle Man! 0

      So this is finally where Lee and Kirby throw their gloves down and quit pretending that these guys (and gal!) weren’t anything but Superheroes. Showered with an assortment of gifts, the Four are given their famous costumes (which the Thing promptly rids himself of), their Fantasti-Car and of course we’re treated to a great drawing of their HQ.So an important issue for sure, but one that still finds itself lacking in the story-telling department. Aside from the gradual development of the characte...

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      Fantastic Four #3 0

      This is the weakest of the first three Fantastic Four issues. The villain doesn't even get on the cover. Instead they focus on the new costumes, the Baxter building and their vehicles. These days all of this creations would only serve as secondary to the toy market, so I guess times have changed. Also, it's yet to be explained how Reed Richards could have a fully functional rocket hidden in his building, or be able to afford and construct all of these vehicles and devices. It's surreal. This is ...

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