Top 60 of the Four Fantastic Stories: 9-7
Today, we’re taking a look at your picks for the 9-7 of the greatest Fantastic Four stories ever told!
As always, you have voted, I have counted the votes and now we are counting them back, four at a time. If I don’t add a date for the series, it means that this is the original volume of the series I’m talking about.
9. Fantastic Four # 25-26 “The Avengers Take Over!”
The Fantastic Four # 12 was the first time the Marvel Universe had a crossover (tied with The Incredible Spider-Man # 1 which came out the same week), but a year later they’ve really exploded with this team of the Avengers and Fantastic Four as they each face off against the Hulk. The story (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and George Roussos) opened with the Fantastic Four first confronting the Hulk on their own and getting terribly beaten. The Avengers stepped in in the next issue, but even the combined power of the heroes wasn’t enough …
It’s especially nice to see how they pointed out that superheroes don’t necessarily get along during their fight with the Hulk.
8. The Fantastic Four # 67-70 (1998), The Fantastic Four # 500 “Unthinkable”
This Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo, and Karl Kesel script opens with pretty much the name of the story – an unthinkable act of horror from Doctor Doom that makes it clear this time around he’s going to take it out on the Fantastic Four in ways you couldn’t even imagine (or, I guess, “think”), as Doom gets the love of his life, Valeria, to admit she still loves him too, which means that his sacrifice of her is powerful enough to strip her skin and turn her into special magical armor …
Daaaaaaaaaang!
Doom squarely commits to using magic to torment the Fantastic Four returns to Reed Richards, Mister Fantastic, who must try to master something he ALSO can’t really “think” – magic!
7. Fantastic Four # 236 “Terror in a small town”
John Byrne celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Fantastic Four with one of the great villain games in comic book history. The heroes awoke to a seemingly perfect world, only things shifted slightly, including Reed Richards’ academic pursuits as a researcher continuing to be thwarted by his moron boss. During this time, the various characters were haunted by dreams where they were superheroes.
Finally, Reed Richards finds out the truth. It’s quite an elaborate plot and the reveal of who’s behind is one of the great villain reveals of all time (doubly so because it’s an homage to some of Jack Kirby’s figurative work of the past, only here, Doom IS actually much bigger than the FF!).
It’s a rare pleasure that a birthday number is so strong
About the Author