Marvel’s Long Neglected Flagship
Despite being Marvel’s flagship comic, The Fantastic Four was one of the consistently worst written of all of Marvel’s titles in its first few years. Particularly awful was the last appearance of the Mole Man in issue #22.
So it’s with more than a little trepidation that I approached this issue. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was one of the better written comics of the first few years of Fantastic Four issues.
While it still has some things that come are irksome, they’re a bit minor compared to the writing flaws of past issues. Suspension of disbelief pretty much has to be set to a high threshold as coincidences and especially the Mole Man’s technology seem at times highly questionable.
Probably the biggest flaw that’s emerging in this comic, though, is Ben Grimm’s character. He talks and acts like a buffoon 90% of the time. Particularly annoying is the need to have him reference Yancy Street in every issue.
Still, there are few major plot holes in this issue, and compared to the last few issues, it’s a gem. There is some indications that there’s an attempt at deeper story telling here – especially with the way this issue ends.