B. Radtz
It’s 1990, and Walt Simonson has just begun his run on the Fantastic Four, with the three-part “Acts of Vengeance” crossover, with comic legend Rich Buckler (native Detroiter too!), and the downfall of the Mutant Registration Act failing to pass, Walt would begin his run as writer and artist properly with issue #337. Walt and Marvel seems to have a thing about the number 337, because that’s the exact issue of Thor that Walt began his now legendary run on the character, so it almost seems fortuitous that he’d start his run with the First Family’s 337th issue.
A little backstory: After legendary writer Roger Stern left Marvel and the Avengers, the book would have some guest writers until issue #291, when Walt would come on with artist John Buscema, who is quite possibly the greatest and influential artists to work on the book, where he would introduce a Nebula Kang (who would later turn out to be Kang’s first love, Ravonna Renslayer), who would use Doctor Druid to take over the Avengers, and use them in her plot to destroy the Counsel of Kang’s, as well as the Avengers themselves. The storyline would indeed end with the Avengers dissolved, with the death of Namor’s bride, Marrina, and Nebula and Druid stuck in the timestream, with what looks like they’ll never be seen again (insofar as “they’ll never be seen again” has any real meaning in comics, but I digress).
At the same time as his run writer on the Avengers, he was also the artist on X-Factor, which was written by his wife Louise Simonson, where he would take his leave at the end of the “Inferno” storyline, that would see the death of Madelyne Pryor, and the integration of Madelyne’s, the Phoenix, and Jean’s memories, emotions, and personalities integrated together. As lauded his run on Thor was, fans didn’t warm to his brief time on the Avengers title, which led to his departure from the title with the 300th issue. Walt’s presence during this time would be absent for the rest of 1989, until he was tapped to take over the Fantastic Four upon the news of Steve Englehart’s run would be ending.
Despite the lukewarm response from the fans over Walt’s Avengers tenure (in fairness, he was run off the book before he really got a chance to take it in his own direction – most of his time was spent wrapping up lingering plot threads left from Stern’s abrupt departure), he’d pick up the pieces, and bring them over here. The story starts with a ripple through time that threatened to destroy the earth, and the universe itself, and only the Fantastic Four (technically five with Ms. Marvel, aka Sharon Ventura, aka the She-Thing – which is a whole ‘nother Throwback Thursday for another time), with the aid of Thor and Iron Man. Using Doctor Doom’s time traveling platform technology that had come into their possession, as well as Reed’s own modifications, these adventurers would sail off into the time stream to save everyone, and everything, from complete destruction.
Not gonna lie. Before I read this, I’d never heard of Death’s Head, and thought I’d hate him. I didn’t.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “I thought he said Walt used storylines from his Avengers run. This doesn’t sound anything like that!” and you’re right. I didn’t say anything, but that time is now. See, while Nebula and Druid are stuck in the timestream, she feels a tremor that’s coming, and convinced to use every ounce of his telepathic powers to shunt Nebula’s consciousness into Reed, but was unable to put her psychic hooks into his personality, and was forced to find someone else. Who could that be? Well, it’s Johnny, her patsy. But Nebula wasn’t the only past plot line he would use, Walt would go back to the Eternals maxi series, with his long-time Mighty Thor co-creator, Sal Buscema, with the Sleeping Celestial, and his station under the Diablo Mountains in California.
As the assemblage of heroes would jump into the timestream, they would find the cause of this maelstrom that threatens the universe, a giant sphere that seems to be sucking all of time and space into it. As they head closer to the sphere, time became more confusing, and dangerous, for those on “Rosebud II” (bonus points if you catch the reference), that some time displaced Kang’s attacking them, the original Death’s Head, Gladiator of the Shi’ar’s Imperial Guard, Galactus, the Black Celestial, this story is just chock full of nuance, humor, and action.
Judgment comes to those who wait…and don’t wait.
While Walt’s Nebula plot wasn’t a hit on the Avengers, it turned out to be one of the best Fantastic Four stories from this era. There was already an influx of hype to the book from the moment Walt was announced. Sure, his run technically began with the Acts of Vengeance crossover, but it felt almost like filler, or a slapdash story pieced together in order to give Simonson more time to complete the story, since he was doing the writing, penciling and inks.
Walt’s voice for Reed is quite possibly one of my favorite takes on the character: his aloofness and absent-mindedness is the perfect synergy of mad scientist, and lovable d-bag, that you’ve come to expect from a well-written Mr. Fantastic. The other character to get the mo development is Ben, who’s currently Thing-less (lol low hanging fruit) during this time, but he’s mainly there to sling out the one-line zingers, which began to annoy me as time went on. Unfortunately the rest of the gang, Sue, Johnny, and Shery, received very little in the way of development, which honestly is a pretty big letdown. Johnny was possessed by Nebula, and Sue was basically wallpaper, which is a shame considering how Byrne treated her during his run. The same could be said about Ms. Marvel/She-Thing. Just nothing from them. It began to frustrate me as the story went on.
Walt takes the phrase larger than life to a new high
Despite my frustration for the lack of development of the cast that’s not Reed or Ben, this story was the shake up the book needed after the lukewarm reception that the Englehart run began to sputter out to. Walt went with real life science, and twisted it just enough to give it that super science feeling that’s integral to any Fantastic Four run. He used some of the tropes that were beginning to take the comics world by fire, tossed them aside, and decided he’d go with substance, but integrated it with style giving a sleek opening arc that would lead to some of the quirkiest, and fun runs on the book. What this arc lacked in soap opera, it made up for it with over the top scientific shenanigans.
Can you believe how amazing Walt makes everything look larger than life?
Also the use of Kang, the Celestials, et al, would come at a time when Marvel would begin to dust off these concepts that could be sprinkled across their publishing line. Whether it’s Immortus messing with time through the Scarlet Witch, and the unfinished Darker than Scarlet story (to be told in an upcoming Throwback article), Thor vs. Arishem, and the birth of a Celestial in the Black Galaxy Saga (two of the best DeFalco/Frenz comic storylines ever), X-Factor and the origin story for their cognitive Ship being a piece of Celestial tech, etc. it was just a great time for some hard sci-fi in a world where grim and gritty was all the rage.
