12:01 PM
Brad
Plot Overview: An orb appears outside of the Baxter Building and the FF try to subdue it. Sue ends up getting sucked in and the other members follow. They are greeted by the Watcher and he's decided to give them a warning about a threat to the galaxy. He shows them a nuclear accident that creates the Molecule Man. The Molecule Man figures out that with his wand that he can control any molecule and bend it to his will. The Watcher can not help them past that and sends them back to New York.
Upon their arrival they find the Baxter Building to be gone and the Molecule Man giving orders to the people of New York. Reed confronts him but the Molecule Man creates two magnets and uses them to try and pull Reed apart. The Torch makes the save and then goes in for his turn. The Molecule Man creates a shield and then easily escapes the Torch. The Thing charges in but the Molecule Man makes a mountain out of the pavement and then throws the Thing into the sewers and tries to crush him with the pipes.
Reed and Sue devise a plan while the Torch rescues the Thing. Reed distracts the Molecule Man while Sue tries to grab the wand but is unsuccessful. The FF are at a loss and decide to retreat for the time being. The New Yorkers are dismayed to see their heroes defeated. The Molecule Man sends the people of New York out to find the FF while he seals the island of Manhattan inside of a special bubble.
The FF flee through the streets of New York until the Yancy Street Gang helps smuggle them to Alicia Master's apartment. The Thing is not amused about being helped out by the Yancy Street Gang. Reed figures out that the Molecule Man's powers only work on inorganic material. Reed has Alicia disguise the FF as statues. She calls the Molecule Man in and he decides to change the statues to amuse himself. The feedback from attempting his powers on organic molecules cause a powerful feedback that stuns him. The FF use that chance to grab his wand and the Watcher arrives on the scene and takes the Molecule Man into custody.
My Take: The Molecule Man was kind of an interesting villain. Nice and powerful with a sort of original power set. Of course, he had to have a weakness to exploit because it's the Silver Age. But it ultimately made sense within the context of the story and it wasn't like his weakness has a color or something.
This issue felt a little different than some of the previous issues of Fantastic Four. The heroes come back to an essentially conquered New York and have to save the day from a position of weakness. It was a nice change of pace plot wise. The pace was also really good in this story. The fight scenes got a decent amount of pages and it felt like the plot was constantly moving forward. It also feels like they've started to cut down on the number of word ballons and exposition coming from the characters. It feels like the books are getting a little more streamlined with fewer clunky chunks of dialogue.
Now, I did have a problem with the energy bubble at the beginning of the issue. The FF's first instinct was to attack and I'm not sure that's what they should be doing. Reed is a scientist at heart and I could see him telling everyone to hold off while he examines it. What they did felt rash and not in the spirit of how I think adventurers and scientists would react to that.
I really dug the art in this issue. The Molecule Man looked a little silly but he was memorable. The facial expressions in this book were also really good. I think this was probably one of the better drawn books I've seen since starting this project.
I give this *** out of *****.
Notes: This issue features the first appearance of the Molecule Man. I would classify him as a C list villain. He pops up here and there in various books throughout the years. He's been seen as recently as a few years ago if I remember correctly. Another little side note to this issue. An episode of the 1960s animated Fantastic Four series was very loosely based on this issue.
Next Issue: Tales to Astonish #49
Posted in: Alicia Masters,Fantastic Four,Human Torch,Molecule Man,Reed Richards,Sue Richards,The Watcher,Thing
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