My year of frustration continued with FANTASTIC FOUR #207, another issue of my favorite title that I first saw out in the world in spinner racks the week that it came out. But having won a free subscription to the series, I had to wait until my copy finally made its way to me through the mail. I didn’t have enough free income to afford to buy each issue twice, but I was sorely challenged on a number of occasions–deferring gratification wasn’t something that I loved doing. Eventually, though, my copy did turn up in my mailbox, none the worse for wear for the delivery, and I got to experience this issue for myself.
It’s an interesting issue in that it’s only somewhat a Fantastic Four story. To be honest, I’ve often wondered whether writer/editor Marv Wolfman set this story in motion with the idea that it could potentially run in any number of places: in FANTASTIC FOUR, in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN which he was also writing at this point, or in MAREVL TEAM-UP. Helping to convey this impression was that the issue was penciled by Sal Buscema as a fill-in art job, though the ever-reliable Joe Sinnott was still on hand to maintain the visual consistency of the title.
As you can see from this page, important story beats in the running AMAZING SPIDER-MAN series take place in this story, and for the whole of it, Spider-Man almost seems more like the lead character than the Human Torch. And none of the other members of the FF even appear–no mention is made of the cliffhanger that we left them in last month. As such, this feels like a story that was designed as an evergreen, but one that Marv subsequently dialogued after he’d placed it so as to knit it into the ongoing chronology a bit more precisely than perhaps it had been plotted. There’s nothing visual in this scene between Peter and Daily Globe editor Barney Bushkin that establishes this as the first time Peter has tried to sell photos to him in a very long time–but Marv dialogues it that way.
In previous issues, Johnny Storm was invited to enroll in Security College, and exclusive school for the gifted and the wealthy. The place is secretly being run by an obscure FF foe, the spy calling himself the Monocle. He’s using his understanding of hypnosis to mesmerize the student body, sending them back home to steal vital secrets and the like for him, with the students having no conscious memory of having done so. The Monocle is doing this as an agent of the Enclave, a shadowy group that remained shadowy–eventually, this story thread was wrapped up off-handedly by John Byrne without ever really revealing who the Enclave was and what was up with them. But that’s what sometimes happens when the writer driving a particular plotline leaves the company.
The Monocle, however, is intending to betray his Enclave benefactors, and so he doesn’t shut down the operation when ordered to do so. Meanwhile, Peter Parker’s been given the assignment from his new boss Barney Bushkin to poke around the strange, exclusive college and see what he can see. Peter is surprised to find Johnny Storm in residence, and the two link up and compare notes. Shortly thereafter, the Monocle sends his hypnotized army of kids, including the Torch, to raid a nearby army base. Spider-Man follows and prevents the crew from getting away with any ordinance. He also pursues them back to the campus, where he wakes up the Torch and tells Johnny just what has been going on while he’s been unconscious.
Discovering the two heroes, the Monocle activates the student body and sends them to kill Spidey and the Torch. This doesn’t work out so well, but it does send the campus into a chaotic battle sequence. In the midst of this, the Torch recognizes the Monocle and attempt to grab him. But unfortunately, the Monocle is able to reassert his hypnotic control over Johnny, and he sends the Torch at Spider-Man. But the wall-crawler is more than a match for a mesmerized Torch, and he’s soon able to web up his fiery cohort and take off after the escaping Monocle.
But it’s too little, too late, as the Monocle is able to get to an escape craft and rocket away. Now freed from the mind control, the Torch races after him, but is unable to catch up–that is, until the Monocle’s ship self-destructs, theoretically killing the villain in the blaze. This was all orchestrated by the Enclave, who have dispatched the Monocle for his disloyalty. And as the issue wraps up, we learn that this mysterious organization has captured Medusa of the Inhumans, and intends to use her to accomplish their ultimate goal. Those plans, of course, wouldn’t ever reach fruition, but this was Medusa’s status quo for a couple of years.
The Fantastic Four Fan Page includes a letter from Cat Yronwode, who was about to become an editorial force at the new independent comic book operation Eclipse. But Yronwode had been a fan first and foremost, and here she talks about the feeling that the weight of established history was beginning to drag the Marvel Universe down. Mind you, this was in 1979–today, the place would be all-but-unrecognizable to Yronwode, and yet it still keeps on chugging along.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
I also found that when I subscribed to four Marvel mags, they would arrive a week or two later, after the issues had hit the comic shops and spinner racks. This was an eternal frustration for me, especially when creative teams had changed just the month or two after I subscribed… SO annoying. I let my subscriptions expire and began to haunt the various comic shops in Detroit.
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I had the same experience. And I was already shopping at a very good comics store, so why I subscribed in the first place, I don’t know.
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Kurt, as a recent college grad who had student loans to pay off, we were being careful to save wherever we could. The lure of getting four series for the price of three sounded great to us… especially if you had 4 series that you were interested in…but then discovering that the US Mails were going to be delivering them late….
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I too knew that “pain”. My subscription as child was Daredevil, first issue I received was 159.
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The nearest comic store was about 30 miles away from where I lived, so I sort of had to subscribe. People didn’t make 30 mile jaunts on the spur of the moment back then, at least in my family, so I was blissfully ignorant of them arriving late back then.
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Only ten miles off for me, but it was two bus rides away, up until I got my driver’s license.
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I think around this time I subscribed to Avengers, Ironman, FF, Defenders, X-men, Hulk, Marvel 2 in 1, and Godzilla. Defenders might have been a replacement when Godzilla got cancelled? I don’t recall the deal exactly but it was a lot of free titles… like pay for 5 and get 3 free or some such.
I only did this for a year I think because I didn’t like the book arriving creased and sometimes the brown paper sleeve would be glued to the back of the book in spots.
I don’t recall the books being late compared to the newsstand… if anything they showed up earlier….either the mail was quick or our local distribution was slow. Who knows?
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I only remember subscribing to one. It was DC (I can’t remember the title now) and it was not only late but almost always folded in half.
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You can always tell a silver age Marvel that was a subscription copy. If it has a white line running exactly down the middle of the cover, it had been folded in half when mailed. Fortunately, when I subscribed in the 1980s, that were mailed flat… however I had the impression that the post office didn’t think much of them, as they would frequently arrive late… in fits and spurts…and occasionally, I had the impression that someone had slipped the issue out of the mailing brown paper “tube” and read the issue before reinserting it and sending it along its way…
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I was in the Navy at this time, so a subscription was the only way I could keep up with my favorite Marvel titles. You never knew what would be on the racks at the commissary.
I remember getting Spider-Man, FF and the Avengers, but drawing a blank on what the fourth title would have been.
Remember well having the same problems with the folds and paper sleeve. Plus, with mail at sea it was possible that issues would not arrive for several weeks after publication or not at all.
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I didn’t realize it back when I got this issue, but Johnny Storm flying after the Monocle in his one man shuttle reminded me of another hypnotized by a Fantastic Four foe ( The Thinker ) Human Torch ( a.k.a. Toro ) [ Sub-Mariner#14 ( June 1969 ) ]. I know I felt disappointed in the way John Byrne ended the whole Enclave vs. The Inhumans story ( Though considering Attilan is full of super-powered beings with advanced technology, the Enclave were clearly delusional in targeting the Inhumans considering who they were later revealed to be ( No way their technology is a match for the Inhumans’ powers and technology ).
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Terry Vance and Deadline Dawson caught psychiatrist Dr. Mefis ( a.k.a. the Phantom Burglar ) who hypnotized his patients to rob themselves [ Marvel Mystery Comics#32 ( June 1942 ) “The Mystery of the Phantom Robberies” ] & 1967 Spider-Man cartoon season 1 episode 9a ( November 4, 1967 ) “The One-Eyed Idol” – hunter Harley Clivendon sent a one-eyed idol to J. Jonah Jameson that hypnotized him to steal his own money.
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The layouts here by Sal Buscema are really good and imaginative.
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It also occurred to me seeing it that while Sinnott could overpower most artists full pencils, everything that set apart Sal’s art even as breakdowns still was as evident as it was with any other inker. Either Joe had more respect for Sal’s talents or Sal was just that good that non could make his art lesser. As good as the art was it still was story-wise another clunker by Wolfman. Either he gained better inspiration when he moved back to DC or Marvel just wasn’t the place for him in general. His tenure on Spider-Woman and the earliest Nova issues are really the only runs of his I enjoyed at Marvel.
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TOMB OF DRACULA!!!
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Okay, I forgot about Tomb Of Dracula. Until near the end, it was impeccable.
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Could not be pecced!
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His Werewolf By Night run was good (but brief), also. When I read your response, I just assumed you had not read Tomb of Dracula. That was nice work that was underrated at the time but now has a cult (I guess that is appropriate, given the subject matter).
I also liked his Daredevil run, although he himself admits he did not quite get it done (Uri Geller!!), But his attempts to make The Jester an A-List Villain were clever and fit the zeitgeist in 1976.
I liked his Superman and, especially, his re-launch of Teen Titans with George Perez and his Green Lantern run at DC.
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When I first read this, oh so long ago, I figured it was prepared as an inventory story, but it hadn’t occurred to be that it could have as easily been used in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN or (less likely), MARVEL TEAM-UP. It’d have fit MTU just fine, but Marv probably would have reserved it for one of his books.
Side note to superheroes everywhere: Never attend anything called “Security University.” If it sounds like a prison, it probably is one.
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I had/have this and all I can say is I really like that first page splash by Joe and Sal. The Torch just looks great.
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If I recall right, didn’t they call these “filler” issues? Something to plug ‘n play if there was a problem meeting that month’s deadline for some reason… You’re right, this could have easily been a Team-Up or Spider-Man issue — for sure. Always drove me crazy when I was excited to see what happened after a cliffhanger ending the previous issue to have one of these inventory stories pop up instead. As a kid, I had no idea what happened. Wondered if I missed an issue because I was always hunting down books from either the local 7-11, grocery or drug store whenever I could get to one. Random treasure hunts…
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Mr. Brevoort, I love these scans you post. Is that a perk of being a Marvel editor supreme, or are they from your own collection?
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The Monocle is one of those foes who just can’t be made interesting or formidable. This feels like he ponied up a few thousands dollars to buy a Dr. Faustus Franchise.
I subscribed to JLA while in college. They failed to keep up with my switching addresses home in summer and then back to college so I lost out on the deal.
I agree with Kurt Busiek that TOD cannot be pecced.
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