Fantastic Four #123 (June 1972)
"This World Enslaved!"
Stan Lee-John Buscema/Joe Sinnott
NOTE: This post was originally published on February 8, 2010.
Karen: You only have to look at the cover of this one to know it's going to be a blast - how could it not be, with President Richard Nixon featured?!
Doug: This would be a somewhat better depiction for Tricky Dick than Steve Englehart would give him some years later!
Karen: Reed Richards threatens to destroy Galactus' ship unless the world-devourer promises to leave the planet unharmed and never return.
Galactus basically offers Reed his version of mutually-assured destruction: if his ship goes, he'll destroy Earth anyway. The Surfer gives in and tells Galactus he'll serve him in order to save the planet; but Reed emphatically tells him ,"No! You must not! Will we never learn the lesson of history? Not even survival is worth the cost of abject surrender! There can only be peace through good will - not the sacrifice of another!" I was struck by what a contrast this is compared to the Reed of the recent Civil War series, who seemed to feel that principles were less important than the final results. Personally, I prefer the guy in this issue!
Karen: Galactus gives Richards time to consider, but unfortunately General Thunderbolt Ross and his men decide to attack Galactus, who responds more like King Kong or Godzilla than an omnipotent cosmic being! The Big G tosses railroad cars at the tanks and crushes them.
Doug: I thought the art in this section of the book was really inconsistent, and I'd wager that Big John didn't do the pencils on Galactus on page 4 of the story. Really weird-looking... Buscema never misses on proportions and/or camera angles, but there were several panels here that were just bad.
Doug: Agreed on Galactus' reaction. As I commented in last issue's review, Stan gave us a much more physical Galactus than we'd ever seen. I can only wonder what Jack Kirby thought of this story, if he read it. It's certainly been well-documented that the King didn't care for the way Stan steered the Surfer; we can only wonder what he felt about Galactus here.
Karen: In the meantime President Nixon (who would it be if they retconned this story? Clinton?) tries to reach Reed, to tell him what to do, but Reed still takes matters into his own hands (thankfully!).
Doug: I couldn't decide what to make of Stan's take on the president. On one hand, I thought he had his personality down pat; on the other hand, the lens of history sort of clouds my view -- it's really hard to think of a pre-Watergate Nixon!
Karen: That's an understatement! The Surfer vows to follow Galactus "wherever in this universe you may go." Reed lands the ship in the city. Just as an aside, where the heck was that huge intersection he landed in? They have some weird streets on Marvel Earth.Doug: Unquestionably silly. And not just the landing, but the fact that Reed could pilot the ship at all. I had to crack up at your comment last issue that Reed found the stick shift -- well, looking at this issue's splash, you were right!!
Karen: As Galactus takes off in his ship, the Surfer starts to follow but Reed tells him to wait.
We get a pretty exciting sequence with the Surfer riding off on his board and Richards straining to his limits to hold on to him. A soldier shoots Richards to make him stop, which enrages the Thing. The Surfer takes Reed to a quiet forest area and uses the power cosmic to heal him. Both the rampaging Thing and healing sequences were very well done. It's fun seeing the Thing fight soldiers!
Doug: Leave it to old "Thunderbolt" Ross to spice up an apocalyptic story -- as if things weren't bad enough. I wonder how this was received back in 1972, what with Vietnam going on and all. Do you suppose Stan's portrayal of the military as hot-headed and arrogant was a jab at our armed forces, representative of societal views of the day, or am I perhaps making a mountain out of a mole hill? Agenda from the Bullpen, or no agenda?
Karen: Hard to say. Maybe he was just supposed to be a 'blood and guts' general, ala Patton? Certainly if the story had been written by a younger writer, like Gerry Conway, I would have assigned some meaning to it.
Karen: The now healthy Reed and the Surfer return to the city and with the help of Agatha Harkness, Reed sends a message heard throughout the globe. He explains that they need not fear Galactus returning, because he set the controls of Galactus' starship for the Negative Zone, which is not in this universe -and hence, the Surfer did not break his word! OK, seems a bit specious to me, but it did appear to work!Doug: Now there's an untold tale -- Galactus vs. Annihilus and Blastaar, and all of the Neg. Zone goons! I'd like to have seen that one! Stan did a nice job in the last couple of panels showing how the public was so two-faced once the threat seemed to be gone. And the FF, like the true heroes that they are, just stood there and took it.
Karen: I enjoyed revisiting this little saga. Although I would not put it on the same level as the first Galactus story, this one had many entertaining elements of its own, not the least of which was Gabriel! I was glad that they found a way to bring him back later on. It's also quite amusing today to see Richard Nixon in a comic - but there's that Marvel realism for you!
Doug: Yep, a really fun Bronze Age story, and one of the last tales Stan wrote before Roy the Boy took over the writing chores with issue #126. What a run Stan had... when you look at the first 125 issues of the FF, and couple it with the first 100 issues of Spidey, has there ever been a finer run in comics than those two series? I say thee, nay!
"This World Enslaved!"
Stan Lee-John Buscema/Joe Sinnott
NOTE: This post was originally published on February 8, 2010.
Karen: You only have to look at the cover of this one to know it's going to be a blast - how could it not be, with President Richard Nixon featured?!
Doug: This would be a somewhat better depiction for Tricky Dick than Steve Englehart would give him some years later!
Karen: Reed Richards threatens to destroy Galactus' ship unless the world-devourer promises to leave the planet unharmed and never return.
Galactus basically offers Reed his version of mutually-assured destruction: if his ship goes, he'll destroy Earth anyway. The Surfer gives in and tells Galactus he'll serve him in order to save the planet; but Reed emphatically tells him ,"No! You must not! Will we never learn the lesson of history? Not even survival is worth the cost of abject surrender! There can only be peace through good will - not the sacrifice of another!" I was struck by what a contrast this is compared to the Reed of the recent Civil War series, who seemed to feel that principles were less important than the final results. Personally, I prefer the guy in this issue!
Karen: Galactus gives Richards time to consider, but unfortunately General Thunderbolt Ross and his men decide to attack Galactus, who responds more like King Kong or Godzilla than an omnipotent cosmic being! The Big G tosses railroad cars at the tanks and crushes them. 
Doug: I thought the art in this section of the book was really inconsistent, and I'd wager that Big John didn't do the pencils on Galactus on page 4 of the story. Really weird-looking... Buscema never misses on proportions and/or camera angles, but there were several panels here that were just bad.Doug: Agreed on Galactus' reaction. As I commented in last issue's review, Stan gave us a much more physical Galactus than we'd ever seen. I can only wonder what Jack Kirby thought of this story, if he read it. It's certainly been well-documented that the King didn't care for the way Stan steered the Surfer; we can only wonder what he felt about Galactus here.
Karen: In the meantime President Nixon (who would it be if they retconned this story? Clinton?) tries to reach Reed, to tell him what to do, but Reed still takes matters into his own hands (thankfully!). Doug: I couldn't decide what to make of Stan's take on the president. On one hand, I thought he had his personality down pat; on the other hand, the lens of history sort of clouds my view -- it's really hard to think of a pre-Watergate Nixon!
Karen: That's an understatement! The Surfer vows to follow Galactus "wherever in this universe you may go." Reed lands the ship in the city. Just as an aside, where the heck was that huge intersection he landed in? They have some weird streets on Marvel Earth.Doug: Unquestionably silly. And not just the landing, but the fact that Reed could pilot the ship at all. I had to crack up at your comment last issue that Reed found the stick shift -- well, looking at this issue's splash, you were right!!
Karen: As Galactus takes off in his ship, the Surfer starts to follow but Reed tells him to wait.
We get a pretty exciting sequence with the Surfer riding off on his board and Richards straining to his limits to hold on to him. A soldier shoots Richards to make him stop, which enrages the Thing. The Surfer takes Reed to a quiet forest area and uses the power cosmic to heal him. Both the rampaging Thing and healing sequences were very well done. It's fun seeing the Thing fight soldiers! Doug: Leave it to old "Thunderbolt" Ross to spice up an apocalyptic story -- as if things weren't bad enough. I wonder how this was received back in 1972, what with Vietnam going on and all. Do you suppose Stan's portrayal of the military as hot-headed and arrogant was a jab at our armed forces, representative of societal views of the day, or am I perhaps making a mountain out of a mole hill? Agenda from the Bullpen, or no agenda?
Karen: Hard to say. Maybe he was just supposed to be a 'blood and guts' general, ala Patton? Certainly if the story had been written by a younger writer, like Gerry Conway, I would have assigned some meaning to it.
Karen: The now healthy Reed and the Surfer return to the city and with the help of Agatha Harkness, Reed sends a message heard throughout the globe. He explains that they need not fear Galactus returning, because he set the controls of Galactus' starship for the Negative Zone, which is not in this universe -and hence, the Surfer did not break his word! OK, seems a bit specious to me, but it did appear to work!Doug: Now there's an untold tale -- Galactus vs. Annihilus and Blastaar, and all of the Neg. Zone goons! I'd like to have seen that one! Stan did a nice job in the last couple of panels showing how the public was so two-faced once the threat seemed to be gone. And the FF, like the true heroes that they are, just stood there and took it.
Karen: I enjoyed revisiting this little saga. Although I would not put it on the same level as the first Galactus story, this one had many entertaining elements of its own, not the least of which was Gabriel! I was glad that they found a way to bring him back later on. It's also quite amusing today to see Richard Nixon in a comic - but there's that Marvel realism for you!
Doug: Yep, a really fun Bronze Age story, and one of the last tales Stan wrote before Roy the Boy took over the writing chores with issue #126. What a run Stan had... when you look at the first 125 issues of the FF, and couple it with the first 100 issues of Spidey, has there ever been a finer run in comics than those two series? I say thee, nay!
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