Fantastic Four 220
“ And the lights went out all over the world”



Writer: John Byrne
Artist: John Byrne
Inker: Joe Sinnott



The issue starts with The Thing, Sue and Johnny each responding to separate emergencies after all power is stopped in the city. It’s not simply a blackout because while mechanical items begin to fail, an airplane drops out of the air as well. At the same time, Reed is dealing with power loss in the Baxter Building which he assumes is just a localized effect until the others come home and tell him it was the entire city. Soon after, he receives a call from Iron Man and the Avengers who tells him that the entire world suffered power loss and the Authorities are calling on Reed to try to see what the cause was.

The Four take off to the from the Baxter building on a missile /jet to orbit the planet in order to accertain where the disturbance originated. While in orbit, Ben reminisces about the rocket flight that gave them their powers. While flying through Canadian air space they are intercepted by the Vindicator who welcomes their help. Soon, they experience another power loss and crash-land near the magnetic North Pole. They take on foot avoiding the use of their powers in order to keep the element of surprise. Eventually they  see a hole half a mile wide in the ice cap with machinery which is doing something in the water. They see alien life forms swarming over the structure when suddenly a large crystalline tower comes out of the ice.

End of Part one.


Comments: 

This is John Byrnes first foray into Writing/Drawing the FF. The story is a bit generic in that they have a mystery and the four are called upon to find out what it is and solve it. Their origin is thrown in almost like the issue was a jumping on point for readers. This and the following issue are published between Marv Wolfman and Doug Meonchs run. Byrne would take over the book from 232 on what would become one of the most beloved runs in it's history.

I happen to like the inclusion of the Avengers and Alpha flights Vindicator because it shows that world wide emergencies don't happen in a vacuum.  This is something that Byrne would revisit when He has Galactus attack NY in FF # 243-244.

I give this issue a 2 out of 5 stars because it's a vanilla plot.

Tales of the New Teen Titans #48




“Recomnatants”

Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: Steve Rude
Inker: Al Gordon



The issue opens with 3 young people begging for their lives to be spared. It turns out that they are humans created in Dayton Labs out of Recombinant DNA and Promethium gene splicing. The scientists in charge tell them that the decision has been made to destroy them because they exhibit too much independant thought. Before anyone makes a move ,another young person that was part of the experiment and that possesses great strength crashes through the wall and they all escape. As they are leaving , one of them called Aurora casts some illusions to keep  the armed guards at bay.

We follow them as they walk in the city experiencing the outside world for the first time. Meanwhile, the Teen Titans are called in to subdue them. They meet and fight each other until Aurora touches Donna Troy in the temple giving her knowledge of their motivations. Troy calls for the immediate cessation of the fighting and they all return to the lab to find out what is really happening.

When they return to the lab, the Titans find out from the scientists in charge that they are artificial life created in the lab to be soldiers thus sparing “ Real “ human life and that they own the patents to their creation. Also, they tell the heroes that Aurora caused two of their guards to die from heart attacks when they escaped.

Angry at their callous treatment ,The Titans form a chain protecting the four Recombatants but they escape and lock themselves in one of the labs that they were created in. Unable to live with taking someones life, they release acid gas that dissolves them all and destroys the machinery responsible for their creation.


Comments:

 Steve Rude  and Al Gordon are  called in to illustrate this issue while regular Artist George Perez works on the inpending Large 50th wedding issue. The story is a sad riff on how monstrous a scientist can be towards life. The issue hold no real connection to the issue before and after it, thus it's inclusion as a fill in. To my knowledge, this is Rudes first work for either Marvel or Dc after he made his bones on Nexus in the 80's.

I give this issue a 3 of out 5 for the artwork but it loses points from me for the characters  being a blatant DN Agents rip off. 

I always wondered if it was done with a wink. I might have to see if I could get the DN Agents issue.

Transformers #16 is a curious entry in the early Prime/Megatron issues of the comic. It was written not by regular Transformers scribe Bob Budiansky, but by Len Kaminski. At this point in the series, many of the original Autobot crew (e.g. Jazz, Sideswipe) have been deactivated in combat, and replaced by new recruits (like Tracks and Grapple), a crude method of pushing Hasbro's new toys of the year. Transformers #16 doesn't feature these new characters, and instead focuses on Bumblebee , a fan favourite who had missed the climactic battle that fragged many of his comrades.

The story is pretty straightforward; Bumblebee overhears a conversation between the other Autobots, and mistakenly believes that he has been more burden than boon to the Autobots in recent missions. He leaves the Ark in vehicle mode, but is quickly attacked by the Decepticons. Though he manages to escape, he is beaten up badly; two car thieves manage to repair him and Bumblebee temporarily finds comfort in simply acting as their vehicle. Then the Decepticons come after him again, and he is forced to face his responsibilities as a heroic Autobot and protect the people against the Decepticon threat. The other Autobots rescue him, and he decides that his place will always be at the Autobots' side.

What probably strikes me most about this issue is the very abrupt ending. The last panel is very narrow, and focuses on the two car thieves trying to explain their story to the police. Bumblebee is drawn in vehicle mode squished in a corner of the panel, with a fairly big thought bubble that says 'I am a Transformer, and will always be part of that team' (even though his team is supposed to be the Autobots specifically, not the Transformers in general). That's the end. Bumblebee isn't seen explaining anything to the other Autobots, or having a moment of reconciliation or apology.

For the most part, Kaminski seems to have a good handle on the characters. As a Bumblebee fan, I'm pleased to read how he stands up against a lethal Decepticon strike force not once, but twice. Can he win? Of course not, and he makes the smart play the first time and runs. But when push comes to shove, and other lives are in danger, he rises to the challenge. Shockwave and Optimus Prime are also well-written; the other Transformers don't get enough panel time to really be developed in this issue. The art by Graham Nolan is very different from regular artist Don Perlin's style on the book; much darker, and giving the Transformers more dynamic facial expressions, while still maintaining the sense that these are robots. The inks really complement Nolan's art.

So, as an apparent fill-in issue (?), it's very passable. The only jarring thing is that it shifts away the focus from new characters like Tracks and Grapple, but the title ended up doing that a lot in upcoming issues anyway, so in retrospect it's not so bad. The two human characters are kinda generic, but in the end it's more of a Bumblebee character study than anything else, so they're just instrumental to his arc in the greater narrative.

Avengers 239 (the Letterman appearance) was an assistant editor's month issue. The Thor issue that month was #339, the Herc issue (356) was over a year and a half later; it was done because Walt Simonson wanted to take a vacation so they planned a fill in issue.

-M

A quick search of Mike's, GCD or even Lonestar provides answers like that (I used Lonestar). But, an odd quirk-for much of their runs through the 70s and 80s (until shipping frequency got wonky) there was a hundred issue gap between the issues of Thor and Avengers, i.e. when Thor was at 250, Avengers was at 150, when Avengers was at 275, Thor was at 375, etc. And if memory serves, the numbering of Captain America split the difference and was 50 higher than Avengers and 50 lower than Thor. Then Marvel did bi-weekly and other wonky shipping in the late 80s and that all changed. So for instance, books cover dated Feb 1974 had Avengers at 120, Cap at 170, and Thor at 220. I figured that out by chance in the 80s and it always made figuring out what issue of Cap and Thor were contemporary with an issue of Avengers I was getting. It also let me know that The Thor assistant editor month was 339 since I knew the Avengers issue was 239 off the top of my head.

-M

The corresponding numbering only works post-Kree Skrull War I think, the Avengers skipped a cover date month sometime in that storyline I believe resulting in the issue lining up that way. It was an issue off before that iirc. I think it was in the span when they went form 15 cents to 25 cents back to 20 cents in a 3 month span, so around #93 for Avengers. But then my memory might be off.

-M