{"id":33354,"date":"2025-07-17T16:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T16:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33354"},"modified":"2025-07-17T16:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T16:49:12","slug":"fantastic-four-marvel-masterworks-volume-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/07\/17\/fantastic-four-marvel-masterworks-volume-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic Four Marvel Masterworks volume 19"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Marv Wolfman<\/strong>, Bill Mantlo<\/strong>, George P\u00e9rez<\/strong>, Peter Gillis<\/strong>, John Byrne<\/strong>, Keith Pollard<\/strong>, Sal Buscema<\/strong>, Joe Sinnott<\/strong>, Pablo Marcos<\/strong>, \u201cD Hands\u201d<\/strong> (Al Milgrom<\/strong>, Frank Giacoia<\/strong>, Frank Springer)<\/strong>, Stan Lee<\/strong>, John Buscema<\/strong>, Rudy Nebres<\/strong>, Rick Veitch<\/strong>, Bob Budiansky<\/strong>, Bob McLeod <\/strong>& various (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-1-3029-0347-3 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Marvel\u2019s cinematic arm tries once again to get it right with their founding concept, expect to see a selection of fabulous FF material here culled from their prodigious paginated days\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

For Marvel everything started with The Fantastic Four<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Monolithic modern Marvel truly began with eccentric monster \u2018n\u2019 alien filled adventures of a compact superteam as much squabbling family as coolly capable costumed champions. All that Modern Marvel is, company and brand, stems from that quirky quartet and the inspired, inspirational, groundbreaking efforts of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby\u2026<\/p>\n

Cautiously bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961, Fantastic Four<\/strong> #1 – by Stan, Jack, George Klein and\/or Christopher Rule – was raw and crude even by the ailing publisher\u2019s standards; but it seethed with rough, passionate, uncontrolled excitement. Thrill-hungry kids pounced on its dynamic storytelling and caught a wave of change beginning to build in America. It and every succeeding issue changed comics a little bit more\u2026 and forever. As revealed in that premier issue, maverick scientist Reed Richards<\/em>, fianc\u00e9e Sue Storm<\/em>, close friend Ben Grimm<\/em> and Sue\u2019s bratty teenaged brother survived an ill-starred private spaceshot after cosmic rays penetrated their ship\u2019s inadequate shielding.<\/p>\n

All permanently mutated: Richards\u2019 body became elastic, diffident Sue became (even more) invisible, Johnny Storm<\/em> burst into living flame and tragic Ben shockingly devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. After the initial revulsion and trauma passed, they solemnly agreed to use their abilities to benefit mankind. Thus was born The Fantastic Four <\/strong>– you can add your own fanfare and timpani here if you wish…<\/p>\n

Throughout the 1960s it was indisputably the key title and most consistently groundbreaking series of Marvel\u2019s ever-unfolding web of cosmic creation: a forge for new concepts and characters. Kirby was approaching his creative peak: unleashing his vast imagination on plot after spectacular plot, and intense, incredible new characters whilst Lee scripted some of the most passionate superhero sagas ever seen. Both were on an unstoppable roll, at the height of their powers and full of the confidence only success brings, with The King particularly eager to see how far the genre and the medium could be pushed\u2026 which is rather ironic since it was the company\u2019s reticence to give the artist more creative freedom that led to Kirby\u2019s moving to National\/DC in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Without Kirby\u2019s soaring imagination the rollercoaster of mindbending High Concepts lost out to traditional tales of characters in conflict, with soap opera leanings and supervillain-heavy Fights \u2018n\u2019 Tights forays abounding. With Lee & Kirby long gone but their mark very much still stamped onto every page of the still-prestigious title, this full-colour luxury compendium collects Fantastic Four<\/strong> #204-218 and Annual<\/strong> #14, spanning March 1979 to May 1980.<\/p>\n

What You Should Know<\/em>: After regaining his lost stretching powers in a regime-changing war against Doctor Doom<\/strong>, instituting the reign of Latverian leader Prince Zorba Fortunov<\/em> and formally reuniting the team family, Reed Richards and the FF were attacked in their own restored Baxter Building by a mystery presence using Iron Man<\/strong> armour and pacified a child with out-of-control cosmic powers, before settling into some well-earned family time…<\/p>\n

Following writer\/editor Marv Wolfman\u2019s ruminatory reminiscence in his backward-looking Introduction<\/em>, the drama resumes with a return for the FF\u2019s second oldest enemies: scurrilous shapeshifting Skrulls<\/em>. In FF<\/strong> #204, Wolfman, Keith Pollard & Joe Sinnott address \u2018The Andromeda Attack!\u2019<\/em> as Johnny goes out gallivanting and governess\/guardian\/witch queen Agatha Harkness<\/em> picks up little Franklin Richards<\/em>. With only grown-ups in residence, Reed\u2019s supercomputers pick up an astral anomaly, materialising an alien princess in the lab. She\u2019s instantly followed by a Super-Skrull who blasts her before falling to the team\u2019s counterattack. Interrogating the wounded woman, they learn she has come seeking help for her shattered world and near extinct civilisation of Xandar…
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\nAlready illicitly supported by a Watcher<\/em> breaking his oath of non-intervention, the last survivors of Andromeda\u2019s most benign culture have been reduced to a quartet of domed stations linked together and careening through space, defended only by the last of their peacekeeper Nova Corps<\/em>. Now the fugitives are being targeted for extinction by rapacious Skrulls and desperately need someone\u2019s… anyone\u2019s… assistance…<\/p>\n

The FF are keen to help Suzerain Queen Adora<\/em> return and happy to help the Xandarians, but the Human Torch has a new girlfriend and opts to stay behind for now to woo enigmatic Frankie Ray<\/em>. He\u2019s also set on finally following up on his long postponed higher education commitments and has enrolled in specialist academic institution Security College. Naturally, Johnny promises to catch up later, but no sooner do his partners beam out to the stars than he\u2019s attacked on campus by an old foe…<\/p>\n

In #205, \u2018When Worlds Die!\u2019<\/em> Reed, Sue & Ben arrive with Adora at New Xandar. Finding the planetary remnants under attack by a Skrull war fleet, they join the Nova Corps to repel the assault, consequently driving closely-monitoring Skrull Emperor Dorrek<\/em> insane with fury. Although Xandar\u2019s physical resources are almost gone, he actually wants their greatest asset and treasure – a repository of their knowledge and power stored in an awesome array of superprocessors linking countless generations of expired citizens together… the Living Computers of Xandar!<\/em><\/p>\n

Chief administrator Prime Thoran<\/em> and severely wounded Nova Centurion Tanak<\/em> have been holding back the storm with ever-diminishing forces, but now need the FF to turn the tide, while back at Security College, Johnny has stumbled into mystery and peril too, as a strange force seizes control of the students…<\/p>\n

In Andromeda, his family\u2019s first foray against the Skrulls leads to their defeat and capture. Humiliated, tortured and put on display in a cruel show trial, they are ultimately blasted with a ray that will inescapably result in \u2018The Death of… The Fantastic Four!\u2019<\/em>, rapidly aging them to the end of their natural lifespans in a matter of days. Dorrek\u2019s gleeful gloating is spoiled, however, by the arrival of his terrifying, ambitious wife Empress R\u2019kylll<\/em>, the increased resistance of the Xandarians and, inevitably, the escape of the fast-aging Fantastic Four…<\/p>\n

Ordering all-out assaults on the battered prey, Dorrek is further frustrated by Prime Thoran who gains astounding power by merging with the Living Computers of Xandar and the arrival of a colossal ship from Earth…<\/p>\n

Here the saga dovetails with another Wolfman series that recently ended its run on a cliffhanger. The Man Called Nova<\/strong> was in fact a boy named Richard Rider<\/em>, a working-class nebbish in the tradition of Peter Parker<\/em>, except he was good at sports and bad at learning, attending Harry S. Truman High School, where his strict dad was the principal. His mom worked as a police dispatcher and he had a younger brother, Robert<\/em>, who was a bit of a genius. There were many more superficial similarities and cosmetic differences to Spider-Man<\/strong>. For more, you can either check out our numerous reviews or better yet, the actual comics tales, best seen in Nova Classic<\/strong> volumes #1-3.<\/p>\n

The 2-year saga culminated with Nova joining despised enemies The Sphinx<\/em> (last seen battling the FF and Inhumans<\/strong> in Fantastic Four Annual <\/strong>#12), Chinese superbrain-in-a-robot-body Doctor Sun<\/em>, dastardly thug Diamondhead<\/em> and hero-team The New Champions <\/strong>(The Comet<\/em>, Crime-Buster<\/em> and Xandarian refugee Powerhouse<\/em>) aboard a pre-programmed, out-of-control spaceship hurtling towards Andromeda. Nova <\/strong>volume 1 ended with #25, with the unhappy crew lost in space and attacked by very angry Skrulls…<\/p>\n

Meanwhile back at this review, the newcomers\u2019 arrival piled on the pressure and concatenated the chaos as both the magical ancient immortal and futuristic Sino-cyborg abandoned ship, each determined to take the limitless power of Xandar\u2019s Living Computer network for their own…<\/p>\n

Back on Earth for #207, Wolfman, Sal Buscema & Sinnott tune in on the Torch and favourite frenemy Spider-Man<\/strong> as they unite to expose the scandals of Security College, deprogram its students and almost fall foul of the sheer destructive \u2018Might of the Monocle!\u2019<\/em>, after which the Torch joins his team in Andromeda. Aghast at the ongoing death sentence they\u2019re enduring, Johnny is just as helpless before \u2018The Power of The Sphinx!\u2019<\/em> (Sal B & inking cavalry \u201cD Hands\u201d AKA Al Milgrom and Franks Giacoia & Springer), which is boosted even further by stealing all the wisdom of the Living Computer system…<\/p>\n

With hyper-energised Prime Thoran busy battling Skrulls, the Sphinx soon solves the eternal secrets of the universe and heads back to Earth, resolved to turn back time and prevent his agonising eons of existence even happening, whilst seeing all reality endangered, increasingly elderly Reed has only one gambit to try…<\/p>\n

John Byrne begins his first tenure on the Fantastic Four<\/strong> with #209 (August 1979) as the reunited team seek to enlist the aid of cosmic devourer Galactus<\/strong>, pausing only long enough for Reed to construct – with Xandarian aid and resources – an all-purpose aid. The result is the H<\/strong>umanoid E<\/strong>xperimental R<\/strong>obot, B<\/strong>-type, I<\/strong>ntegrated E<\/strong>lectronics (latterly, H<\/strong>ighly E<\/strong>ngineered R<\/strong>obot B<\/strong>uilt for I<\/strong>nterdimensional E<\/strong>xploration; don\u2019cha just love nominative deterministic acronymics?).<\/p>\n

At this time, an FF cartoon show had rejected fire hazard Johnny for a cutely telegenic robot, and Wolfman cheekily made that commercial rejection in-world canon here, dividing fans forever after, as the bleeping bot is pure Marmite in most readers eyes…<\/p>\n

Riding the mile-long starship Nova & Co arrived in, the FF\u2019s search takes them across the universe before leaving them \u2018Trapped in the Sargasso of Space!\u2019<\/em> to face murderous aliens determined to use the new vessel to escape their stasis hell. Meanwhile, the New Champions and Xandar\u2019s forces prepare to face their final battle, just as impatient R\u2019kylll divorces her husband with a single ray gun blast and changes the course of history…<\/p>\n

Despite odd, inexplicable increasingly hazardous incidences, the FF continue \u2018In Search of Galactus!\u2019<\/em> and at last locate him, causing chaos in his colossal world-ship. Ultimately, they convince the Devourer to stop the Sphinx, but only by rescinding the vow that prevents Galactus from consuming Earth, and if the humans first bring him a new herald…
\n\"\"
\nThat occurs in \u2018If This Be Terrax\u2019<\/em>, on a distant world enslaved by brutal despot Tyros<\/em>, when the pitiless killer is painfully subdued by the heroes and converted by Galactus into a being who will rejoice in finding worlds to consume irrespective of whether civilisations will be consumed with them…<\/p>\n

In #212, Earth trembles as the Devourer unleashes his herald to cow humanity whilst his master faces The Sphinx, but \u2018The Battle of the Titans!\u2019<\/em> is subject to mission creep when the immortal Egyptian wizard sees his new knowledge as a way to restore his own past glories. With his master fully occupied in cosmic combat, Terrax the Tamer seeks to settle scores with the humans who toppled Tyros\u2019 kingdom, only to fall \u2018In Final Battle!\u2019<\/em> for a ploy devised by Reed and executed by H.E.R.B.I.E. It is the last hurrah as Reed joins Sue and Ben in cryo-suspension, seconds from death, barely aware that Galactus has triumphed, but at immense cost…<\/p>\n

Fantastic Four<\/strong> #214 (January 1980) reveals \u2018…And Then There Was… One!\u2019<\/em> as Johnny frantically seeks a cure for his family. When S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers<\/strong> and others all prove helpless, a fortuitous attack by vengeful cyborg Skrull-X <\/em>offers a germ of hope, but one necessitating a huge gamble: defrosting Reed and hoping he can use what the defeated alien revealed before decrepitude ends the Smartest Man on Earth…<\/p>\n

Of course, it all works out, and a revived and even excessively rejuvenated team are in fine fettle for Fantastic Four Annual<\/strong> #14 as Wolfman, George P\u00e9rez & Pablo Marcos put Franklin and his nanny Agatha Harkness in the spotlight for \u2018Cats-Paw!\u2019<\/em> When magical cult Salem\u2019s Seven<\/em> abduct and brainwash the adult FF in hopes of resurrecting their master Nicholas Scratch<\/em>, even the Avengers are helpless to stop the carnage unleashed, but the extra-dimensional mission of the kid and the crone is enough to set everything right…
\n\"\"
\nThe arcane epic is augmented by \u2018A Gallery of the Fantastic Four\u2019s Most Famous Foes!\u2019 <\/em>by Keith Pollard & Marcos, giving the lowdown on late-debuting villains and ne\u2019er-do-wells including Invincible Man<\/em>, Attuma<\/em>, Gideon<\/em>, Dragon Man<\/em>, The Frightful Four<\/em> and Quasimodo<\/em>, before monthly FF<\/strong> #215 and Wolfman, Byrne & Sinnott reintroduce Negative Zone terror \u2018Blastaar!\u2019<\/em> who somehow escapes the antimatter universe and takes over the Baxter Building just as a reinvigorated Reed Richards is distracted by former colleague Professor Randolph James <\/em>who has hyper-evolved himself to offset an otherwise fatal beating by thugs…<\/p>\n

Sadly, his accelerator device has not advanced James\u2019 ethical outlook, and after taking vengeance on his attackers, the future man proves that \u2018Where There Be Gods!\u2019 <\/em>there be trouble, as the mental marvel aligns with Blastaar only to fall before a far greater power… angry cosmic child Franklin…<\/p>\n

Bill Mantlo scripts #217 for Byrne & Sinnott, as \u2018Masquerade!\u2019<\/em> at last exposes the viper in the team\u2019s midst: an inimical force responsible for most of the recent setbacks and accidents, and almost the deaths of the heroes and Johnny\u2019s new intended girlfriend Dazzler<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

No spoilers here this time, but back then we all just knew<\/em><\/strong> who the hidden villain actually was…<\/p>\n

This compilation concludes with the last half of an old-school saga that, for completeness, means you need to read Peter Parker, the Sensational Spider-Man<\/strong> #42 before enjoying the contents of FF<\/strong> #218. What\u2019s not here is how ESU student Peter Parker goes on a class jaunt on a party boat and is lured into a trap by the Frightful Four<\/em> (\u2018Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death\u2019<\/em> by Bill Mantlo, Mike Zeck & Jim Mooney if you were wondering). The villains had broadsided the wallcrawler after new recruit Electro<\/em> impersonated the Human Torch and, in the concluding chapter \u2018When a Spider-Man Comes Calling!\u2019<\/em> (cover-dated May 1980 by Mantlo, John Byrne & Joe Sinnott), the Trapster<\/em> repeats the tactic to ambush the comfortably at home quartet, allowing his comrades The Wizard<\/em> and Sandman<\/em> to take over the Baxter Building citadel of the heroes… at least until the fighting-mad webspinner finally breaks free and launches an unstoppable counterattack…<\/p>\n

Although that satisfactorily settles affairs for now, the bonus section opens with a lost yarn first seen in Archie Goodwin\u2019s mature comics magazine Epic Illustrated<\/strong> #1 from Spring 1980. An existential dialogue between master and servant, \u2018The Answer: A Tale of the Silver Surfer\u2019 <\/em>was written by Stan Lee, pencilled by John Buscema, inked by Rudy Nebres and coloured by Rick Veitch, with noble Norrin Radd<\/em> seeking and failing to solve the ultimate mystery of universal existence…
\n\"\"
\nWith covers by Milgrom, Sinnott, Pollard, Dave Cockrum, Frank Giacoia, Walter Simonson, Byrne, Ron Wilson & Joe Rubinstein, and Rich Buckler, also on show are the covers for Marvel Treasury Editions<\/strong> #21 by Bobs Budiansky & McLeod; Budiansky\u2019s pencils for the cover of F.O.O.M.<\/strong> #22 and the printed final result from Autumn 1978 as inked by Sinnott as well as interior features \u2018HERBIE the Robot Blueprints!\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Stan Lee Presents: The Fantastic Four Cartoon Show\u2019<\/em>, plus a wave of\u00a0 house ads, and a Sinnott cast pinup.<\/p>\n

Although the \u201cWorld\u2019s Greatest Comics Magazine\u201d never quite returned to the stratospheric heights of the Kirby era, this collection offers an appreciative and tantalising taste-echo of those heady heights and a tantalising taste of fresher thrills still to come. These extremely capable efforts are probably most welcome to dedicated superhero fans and continuity freaks like me, but will still thrill and delight the generous and forgiving casual browser looking for an undemanding slice of graphic narrative excitement – especially if this time the upcoming movie delivers on its promise\u2026
\n\u00a9 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, George P\u00e9rez, Peter Gillis, John Byrne, Keith Pollard, Sal Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Pablo Marcos, \u201cD Hands\u201d (Al Milgrom, Frank Giacoia, Frank Springer), Stan Lee, John Buscema, Rudy Nebres, Rick Veitch, Bob Budiansky, Bob McLeod & various (MARVEL) ISBN: 978-1-3029-0347-3 (HB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Fantastic Four Marvel Masterworks volume 19”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94,18,317,189,234,219,107,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avengers","category-captain-marvel","category-doctor-doom","category-inhumans","category-nova-graphic-novels","category-s-h-i-e-l-d","category-science-fiction","category-spider-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8FY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33363,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33354\/revisions\/33363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}