BHOC: MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS #45

As I recounted yesterday, I purchased this issue of MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS as well as the issue before and after it at Bush’s Hobbies in Ronkonkoma on Memorial Day following a parade performance by my grade school band. I was indifferent to being in the parade but excited by the prospect of being able to prowl around in Bush’s Hobbies for a bit. It was distant enough from where I lived that I could only get down there occasionally, and I was enthralled by the older issues that they had for sale. Bush never stocked new comics, at least not during my time in the area–it was strictly a back issue dealer. But I can remember some of the wall books even to this day; FANTASTIC FOUR #6! FIGHTING AMERICAN #3! AVENGERS #93! And others! The place was honestly a dump but I took no notice of that–all I cared about was the comic books.

This issue of MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS reprinted the story from FANTASTIC FOUR #62 from 1967, a moment where creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were firing on all cylinders. Also critical to that mix was the slick sci-fi inking of Joe Sinnott, who’d become associated with the strip for decades. This sequence was really the apex of the artwork in the title, still being produced twice-up. Once the smaller art boards came into use, Kirby eventually adapted, but his approach to the page changed as a result–he began to compose across the entire page in a way that wasn’t possible at the larger size.

This issue opens dealing with the crisis established at the end of the prior chapter: Reed Richards has been pulled into the Negative Zone and is drifting inexorably towards the explosive area and certain demise. The remaining members of the team have no way of getting to him to rescue him–but as this issue opens, Ben remembers that Reed has built a communications device that can reach people in the Zone. But reed confirms that there isn’t any way for them to rescue him. Not even the sudden arrival of Crystal, whom the Human Torch has been searching for a way to free from imprisonment behind the Great Barrier, isn’t enough to lift everybody’s spirits. Due to the placement of ads in this reprint, unfortunately a rare double-page spread is broken in this issue. It’s one of Kirby’s collages, which he’d make out of found images in magazines, and it depicts Reed falling through the Zone while the rest of the team watches on a remote viewer.

Crystal, though, isn’t ready to throw in the towel and she suggests that possibly her brethren the Inhumans will be able to help. She and Lockjaw teleport away to retrieve them, leaving the rest of the FF to face the inevitable. Meanwhile, within the Negative Zone, we see a strange spacecraft approach the debris field surrounding the explosive area. They’re a prison ship bringing a captive to final execution of his sentence. They remotely attach their passenger, enshrouded and contained in a protective cocoon, to one of the large asteroids heading towards the explosive area. And in the sort of coincidence that drives a lot of the stories of this era, Reed soon comes to alight on that selfsame asteroid. He sees the strange craft withdrawing but is unable to attract its attention and gain its aid. He’s still just as doomed as before.

From here, we cut away from the Baxter Building to far-off Europe, where agents of a hostile world power intent on conquest land on what they believe to be an uninhabited island, intending to make it a base for their impending attack. Unfortunately for them, the island isn’t uninhabited–it’s where the Inhumans have set up shop. So we get an extended action sequence that showcases the individual powers of these strange characters; Karnak, Medusa, Triton, Gorgon and the silent Black Bolt. The group is swiftly able to overwhelm the landing party and cripple their sub, causing them to withdraw. It’s at this moment that Crystal arrives, carried to this spot by Lockjaw’s ability to teleport instantaneously. She hurriedly explains the danger that Mister Fantastic is in, and with immediate insight, Black Bolt selects the Inhuman who will go to render assistance to their friends in America.

As Crystal reappears at the Baxter Building, it turns out that the one chosen to undertake the rescue is Triton, the aquatic Inhuman. Which doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense here, but Stan gives some lip service to Triton’s ability to locate a single strand of seaweed on the ocean’s floor as the reason. The idea being that navigating in the Zone is akin to navigating in the ocean. But certainly Black Bolt himself would have been a better choice. Or, heck, couldn’t Lockjaw simply teleport to where Reed is and get him out? But, hey, best not to question the wisdom of the Inhuman’s ruler. Over a page or two, Triton enters the Zone, navigating past all dangers to the spot where Reed is approaching the explosive area. Anyway, Triton is able to effect Reed’s rescue, but just as they begin to withdraw, the creature sealed within the cocoon liberates itself through explosive power generated by its fingertips. This is Blastaar, the Living Bomb-Burst. A criminal conqueror in exile, he uses his explosive thrust to follow Triton and Reed as they head for the entranceway back into our positive dimension.

There’s a bunch of rejoicing as Triton and Reed emerge from the Negative Zone chamber, but the klutzy family is so focused on their own relief that nobody notices Blastaar come through the chamber as well. Fortunately, Blastaar decides to quietly exit out of a nearby window. Unfortunately, this is the same window that the sandman escaped through last time. The two menaces wind up encountering one another atop the Baxter Building as a result, and decide to throw in with one another. And that’s the threat that the Fantastic Four and their guests will be facing next issue. But as this one closes, it’s joy all around as Reed is reunited with Sue and his friends and everybody back-=pats Triton for his expert rescue.

This issue also included another Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page of the past, which hipped me to the launch of CRAZY magazine as well as the twin debuts of the Son of Satan and his sister Satana–you think Marvel was trying to get in on the sudden interest in the occult? This was also the month when Marvel began writing little promotional messages about other titles at the bottom of most of their story-pages, an effort they only kept up for a couple of months. But it’s one of those things that I really associate with the Marvel of the 1970s, and while on a certain level it was tacky as hell, it also served to tease me about events in other comics that I’d want to read. So I kind of dug them, and didn’t question their presence at all. They were just another manifestation of the promotional spirit of Marvel that permeated the outfit’s offerings every issue.