FANTASTIC FOUR #200
November, 1978
One of the supreme frustrations of collecting comics back in the 70s was the fact that you could never be sure that you’d be able to get every successive issue of a given title. I was a major, major Fantastic Four fan by the time #200 was to be released, and I haunted my local 7-11 waiting for it. Imagine my horror when #201 eventually showed up. (I suspect a whole week’s shipment failed to appear, since I also missed X-MEN #115 at the exact same time.) FF #200 remained a “holy grail” for me for almost a year before I was able to fill in the hole.
Many people have said unflattering things about Marv Wolfman’s tenure as the writer of FANTASTIC FOUR, including Marv himself. But I liked it, at any rate. And I thought Marv did a fine job on this big anniversary issue, with its climactic conflict between Reed and Doctor Doom (though not so climactic that there wouldn’t be another one in a year or two…) FF #200 also features strong if undistinguished artwork by Keith Pollard and Joe Sinnott, and the last cover Jack Kirby ever did for the magazine.
So the heck with all of you nay-sayers!
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
I had been subscribing to the FF via the mail since issue 197 so I absolutely loved issue #200. I’m afraid I rather abused my original issues and even used stapled to hold it together later on. I didn’t really pay much attention to who was writing and illustrating the books I liked until much later. I feel a little embarrassed that I didn’t know that Marv Wolfman wrote these amazing issues of my favorite comic until I started reading your page.
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I remember there being a major distribution problem with FF #200 back in August 1978. It was delayed for WEEKS before it finally appeared at my local comic store (I was a freshman in high school and made the weekly trek to the store, only to be disappointed week after week when it wasn’t there). I was actually at a convention a few weeks before it appeared, where there were dealers who had copies. I made the mistake of talking with one of them who blew the ending for me (“Dr. Doom goes insane”). My 14-year old self was CRUSHED.
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