Regular readers of this blog will recall how, three months ago, we celebrated \u201cMarvel Milestone Month\u201d in honor of four long-running Marvel series all having hit significant numerical markers in May, 1976.\u00a0 Today, we\u2019ll be looking at yet another comic that signified a notable Marvel milestone of that year, coming out as it did on the fifteenth anniversary of the launch of the Fantastic Four<\/em> title back in August, 1961 \u2014 although, as best as I\u2019ve been able to determine, no one took much notice of that fact at the time.\u00a0 <\/p>\n As Roy Thomas writes in his 2014 introduction to Marvel Masterworks \u2014 The Fantastic Four, Vol. 17<\/em>:<\/p>\n I wish I could tell you that in 1976 artist George P\u00e9rez and I planned FF<\/em> #176 as an anniversary celebration of \u201cThe World\u2019s Greatest Comic Magazine\u201d marking a decade and a half on the nation\u2019s newsstands.\u00a0 But we considered it just one more monthly issue \u2014 except that, by my lights, and those of quite a few other people since, it wasn\u2019t<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Thomas goes on to note with some pride that Fantastic Four<\/em> #176 has gone on to \u201cbecome one of the most-reprinted issues of FF<\/em> after the [Stan] Lee\/ [Jack] Kirby era.\u201d\u00a0 While your humble blogger can\u2019t claim to have thoroughly fact-checked this assertion, the Grand Comics Database<\/a> does indicate that the story has been reprinted some fifteen times\u2026 which seems pretty darn respectable for a regular issue of an ongoing series that doesn\u2019t feature any major \u201ckey\u201d events, such as the debut (or death) of a popular character.\u00a0 And speaking just for myself, this is the one issue of Fantastic Four<\/em> published in the back half of the Seventies that I\u2019ve always known I would write about, assuming the blog ever got this far.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s so special about this one?\u00a0 Well, if you\u2019re altogether unfamiliar with it, you can get a hint from a close examination of the issue\u2019s cover by Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, and John Romita.\u00a0 For more details, however, you\u2019re going to have to wait just a bit, as it\u2019s been more than a minute since we last looked in on the FF, and there have been goings-on both \u201cin-universe\u201d and behind the scenes that it behooves us to touch on at least briefly before jumping into our main event.<\/p>\n First, let\u2019s catch up on the changes on the creative side of things since our last Fantastic Four<\/em> post<\/a>, which was all the way back in June, 2024, and concerned issue #150 (another milestone, incidentally).\u00a0 As you may recall, at that time the series was being written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Rich Buckler, both of whom had been at those jobs for a while.\u00a0 Conway would depart the gig following #152; after a handful of issues scripted by Tony Isabella and Len Wein, Roy Thomas then came on board as both writer and editor, resuming a role he\u2019d previously held for a short stint back in 1972.\u00a0 Buckler, on the other hand, hung around longer, but ultimately did bow out with #163, and was succeeded by George P\u00e9rez.\u00a0 It\u2019s thus the Thomas-P\u00e9rez team, joined by perennial FF inker\/finisher Joe Sinnott, that we\u2019ll find in place for issue #176 \u2014 although it should be noted that several other talents had done some pinch-hitting over the most recent run of issues, including Buckler and John Buscema filling in on art, and Bill Mantlo doing the same on script.<\/p>\n Now, for the stories themselves.\u00a0 Looking back again to FF<\/em> #150, you may remember that that issue saw the marital reconciliation of Reed and Sue Storm Richards following a fraught period of separation; despite that development, Sue\u2019s temporary replacement, Medusa of the Inhumans, continued to serve with the team through #159, at which point the Invisible Girl returned to full-time active duty.\u00a0 Otherwise, the only major development affecting the team\u2019s membership during this period was one involving Ben Grimm, the Thing.<\/p>\n Cover to Fantastic Four<\/em> #167 (Feb., 1976). Art by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cover to Fantastic Four<\/em> #168 (Mar., 1976). Art by Rich Buckler and Joe Sinnott.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In FF<\/em> #167, the latest confrontation between the Thing and his old sparring partner the Hulk \u2014 which had already taken a surprising turn by having the two heavy-hitters decide to stop pounding on each other and team up<\/em>, for a change \u2014 ended with an even more startling twist, as prolonged exposure to the Hulk\u2019s gamma-irradiated bod had an unanticipated effect on Ben, causing him to revert to his normal human self.\u00a0 You\u2019d think that after almost fifteen years of moaning about looking like a monster, the guy would be celebrating the good news \u2014 but instead, he almost immediately caught a really bad case of the sulks when, in the very next issue, Reed hired Luke Cage, Power Man to replace him on the team\u2019s roster.\u00a0 Thankfully for the mopey Ben, this turned out to be merely a temporary arrangement, meant to last only until Mister Fantastic could finish building his oldest friend a \u201cThing suit\u201d \u2014 an exoskeleton that, when worn, would give Ben back most of the strength and durability he\u2019d enjoyed as his old rocky self.\u00a0 First donning the suit in issue #170, Ben was on hand and ready to go for the kickoff of the title\u2019s next big storyline in #171; continuing through FF<\/em> #175, this arc led directly into our main topic of discussion today, so we\u2019ll be spending a little time with it before turning to #176.<\/p>\n Cover to Fantastic Four<\/em> #173 (Aug., 1976). Art by Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, and John Romita.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Big Bad for this five-parter was Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, returning to our solar system intent on chowing down on one of its planets for what even in 1976 felt like the umpteenth time.\u00a0 There was an interesting wrinkle on this particular occasion, however, as the planet the Big G had selected to sate his appetite wasn\u2019t our own Earth, but rather Counter<\/em>-Earth \u2014 the more-or-less exact replica of our world that had been created by the nigh-omnipotent entity who called himself the High Evolutionary.\u00a0 Introduced by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane back in the first \u201cWarlock\u201d story in Marvel Premiere<\/em> #1 (Apr., 1972)<\/a>, Counter-Earth had been pretty much out of sight and out of mind ever since its \u201csavior\u201d, Adam Warlock, left it to go gallivanting across the cosmos at the end of Hulk<\/em> #178 (Aug., 1974)<\/a>.\u00a0 Evidently, Thomas had decided that if neither Warlock\u2019s most recent chronicler, Jim Starlin, nor anyone else was going to make use of his co-creation, he might as well do so himself.<\/p>\n Cover to Fantastic Four<\/em> #175 (Oct., 1976). Art by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Summoned to Counter-Earth by the HE to help fight off Galactus, the FF were offered two alternatives by their old foe; they could find another suitable planet whose inhabitants would willingly (and unanimously) agree to be consumed by Galactus, or they could pick an equally suitable inhabited planet they themselves wouldn\u2019t mind letting him eat.\u00a0 The latter option was essentially a non-starter, and though the team gamely gave the former a try, their efforts seemed doomed\u2026 that is, until the climactic scenes of #175. wherein the Invisible Girl came through with a planet whose populace were indeed ready and willing to be devoured.\u00a0 Taking these accommodating folks up on their offer before they could change their minds, Galactus proceeded to drain the planet dry \u2014 only to have an extremely negative physical reaction.\u00a0 As the FF and HE watched on the latter\u2019s viewscreen, the purple planet-eater screamed in agony, then collapsed; in the end, he was only saved from extinction by the High Evolutionary\u2019s technology, which transformed Galactus into pure inorganic energy\u2026 perhaps forever!<\/p>\n Cover to Fantastic Four<\/em> #11 (Feb., 1963). Art by Jack Kirby and ?.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This was the second appearance of the Impossible Man, whose only previous outing had been all the way back in 1962\u2019s FF<\/em> #10.\u00a0 In that Lee-Kirby classic, the comical-looking alien from the planet Poppup had journeyed to Earth for a fun vacation \u2014 but though he was completely without malice, his particular notion of \u201cfun\u201d, lack of impulse control, and formidable shape-shifting powers had combined to make him an inadvertent menace.\u00a0 In the end, Mister Fantastic had managed to trick the Impossible Man into changing his holiday plans by getting everyone in New York City to ignore the antics of their strange visitor, thereby causing him to become bored enough to leave our planet\u2026 forever!\u00a0 (Now where have I heard that<\/em> before?)<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure it went right over my nineteen-year-old self\u2019s head in 1976, but the one-two of \u201cGood Lord!\u201d and \u201cChoke!\u201d in that last panel is a not-so-subtle tribute to EC Comics \u2014 the 1950s publisher whose twist-ending short stories often ended with one or more characters making those same exclamations.<\/p>\n Anyway, after bidding farewell to the High Evolutionary and his right-hand En route, Ben Grimm began to feel unwell.\u00a0 Thinking it might help, he took off the helmet of his suit, prompting a comment from the team\u2019s new hanger-on: \u201cI<\/strong> always thought orange was your natural<\/strong> color.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIt useta<\/strong> be, pal,\u201d Ben begins to explain, \u201cbut not any more<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Once the transformation had begun, the rest went all to quickly.\u00a0 Within moments, Ben Grimm had once more become the one and only, genuine, original Thing \u2014 and his exoskeleton, shattered by the expansion of Ben\u2019s once-more truly rocky physique, lay in ruins.<\/p>\n And that brings us at long last to Fantastic Four<\/em> #176 \u2014 and the return of George P\u00e9rez on pencils and Joe Sinnott on inks (following John Buscema\u2019s handling of both jobs in the previous issue) \u2014 just in time for them to show everyone they knew at Marvel Comics how good they were at drawing their likenesses\u2026 though maybe I\u2019m getting a little ahead of myself, here.\u00a0 Ahem.<\/p>\n Reed recalls how, while the FF were battling Galactus on Counter-Earth, the world-eater had struck Ben with a powerful energy bolt.\u00a0 Though the bolt had seemed to do no harm at the time, it\u2019s clear now that its effect was only delayed until the team were on the ship heading home, at which point \u201cBen suddenly burst out<\/strong> of the exo-skeleton\u2026 like a butterfly<\/strong> coming out of its cocoon!<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps Ben\u2019s teammates seem a little callous in their attitude that Ben should just get over it,<\/em> already \u2014 but in their defense, his incessant moping in the first issues immediately following his \u201ccure\u201d, when he seemed a lot more bummed out about being sidelined as a superhero than enthused about the opportunity to begin a new, normal life with Alicia, had become pretty grating.<\/p>\n As to the implication that he\u2019s come back as a bigger, stronger Thing, I think we can chalk that up mostly to Roy Thomas not wanting it to seem as though the entire plotline had been entirely without consequence, and that the team was now returning to the same old status quo.\u00a0 That said, I don\u2019t think much was ever made of the Thing\u2019s \u201cupgrade\u201d, story-wise \u2014 I\u2019m not sure it was ever even mentioned again, following Thomas\u2019 run \u2014 so, for all practical purposes, it really was<\/em> a return to the status quo.\u00a0 (Not that there\u2019s necessarily anything wrong with that.)<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026hit the Lake<\/strong> near the 60\u2019s<\/strong>\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026from the Zoo<\/strong> to Morningside Heights!<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n For a guy who\u2019d just moved to Los Angeles, Roy Thomas was sure being liberal with the New York City geographical references.\u00a0 Was he feeling homesick, already?<\/p>\n Johnny Storm hesitates to leap into the Lake, worrying that he\u2019s too winded to hold his breath long enough to reach the submerged spaceship.\u00a0 But it turns out that he had no need to fret, as his sister Sue was able to enclose the vessel in a force-bubble before it hit the water, and it swiftly bobs back up to the surface, all occupants unharmed.\u00a0 Within a minute or two, the weary team \u2014 and their uninvited guest \u2014 are exiting the park\u2026<\/p>\n I guess it stands to reason that even with all the superpeople slugfests, alien invasions, and other extraordinary events that have occurred in the Marvel-Earth version of New York over the years, there might still be at least one wiseguy who refuses to believe any of it until he\u2019s seen it with his own eyes.\u00a0 It\u2019s an amusing idea, at any rate.<\/p>\n Per a text piece Thomas wrote for FF<\/em> #176\u2019s letters page concerning this story\u2019s genesis, the scene above was one of the earliest ideas he had for it \u2014 \u201cmainly because I\u2019ve always wished I<\/em> could do that to somebody who edged into the crosswalk at a stoplight.\u201d\u00a0 While one can certainly understand the cathartic appeal of such wish-fulfillment writing, this does seem a little excessive a reaction on Ben\u2019s part \u2014 and the kind of thing that could make a reader more sympathetic to the ordinary citizens of the Marvel Universe on those infrequent occasions we see them call for the authorities to rein in these so-called heroes just a little.\u00a0 On the other hand, I may well be taking this story a good bit more seriously than its creators intended\u2026 so, moving on\u2026<\/p>\n If only for the specificity of that \u201cConjure\u201d T-shirt, I\u2019d wager that June and her unnamed companion are based on some real-life personages then known to either Roy Thomas or George P\u00e9rez, or both\u2026 but I have no idea who that might be.\u00a0 Anyone else care to speculate?<\/p>\n Your humble blogger doubts that many \u2013if any \u2014 readers of this blog need for me to identify the four gentlemen pictured in the last panel above; but, just to be on the safe side, from left to right we have George P\u00e9rez, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and Jack Kirby \u2014 a quartet of comics creators who, as noted by Thomas in his Marvel Masterworks<\/em> intro, \u201cin Real Life were never in the same room at the same time\u201d, but whose appearance together here seems altogether fitting:\u00a0 the two men who\u2019d originated Fantastic Four<\/em>, side-by-side with their then-current heirs.<\/p>\n For those unfamiliar with it, the conceit that, in the fictional world we call the Marvel Universe, a company named Marvel Comics publishes licensed adaptations of the true adventures of the FF and other superheroes goes all the way back to Fantastic Four<\/em> #10 (Jan., 1963) \u2014 just as indicated in \u201cRascally\u201d Roy\u2019s footnote, above.\u00a0 (Although that\u2019s just talking about \u201cmodern\u201d \u2014 i.e., post FF<\/em> #1 \u2014 Marvel continuity; in fact, depending on how one views the canonicity of the comics published by Marvel [then known as Timely] during the Golden Age, it can be argued that the Stan Lee of Marvel-Earth started hobnobbing with costumed super-people as early as 1941<\/a>.)\u00a0 Ever since then, fictional doppelg\u00e4ngers of Marvel staffers and freelancers have shown up every so often in the publisher\u2019s comics\u2026 although this longstanding tradition may soon face some novel challenges, given the recent announcement<\/a> that Marvel Comics will soon be moving its offices and attendant personnel to Burbank, CA, while its star characters like the FF, Spider-Man, Daredevil, etc., will presumably remain based in the Big Apple \u2014 thus making it a little harder for members of the two groups to cross paths.<\/p>\n But, we digress.\u00a0 \u00a0Let\u2019s return now to our story, picking up right where we\u2019d so rudely interrupted that preeminent idea-man, Jack \u201cKing\u201d Kirby, just as he was about to share his latest brainstorm\u2026<\/p>\n According to Roy Thomas\u2019 Masterworks<\/em> introduction, negative fan reaction to the Impossible Man\u2019s debut in FF<\/em> #11 was the chief reason the character hadn\u2019t appeared again since:<\/p>\n As a reader, I loved that story, which reminded me of a 1950s science-fiction novel, Martian[s], Go Home!<\/i> <\/a>by Frederick Pohl.\u00a0 I wrote and told Stan so, only to be advised that he was unfamiliar with that book.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So, naturally, when in the early \u201970s I became one of the first post-Lee FF scribes, I wanted to bring back the Impossible Man.\u00a0 But I\u2019d known, ever since coming to work for Stan, that in \u201962 there\u2019d been an outpouring of letters from fans who absolutely hated<\/i> that yarn and never wanted to see Impy again!\u00a0 Stan took them seriously and wouldn\u2019t let me use him in a story.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n By 1976, however, Stan was more willing to accept the judgment of his writers and editors (and I was both), so George and I plowed ahead\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Evidently, the idea of Impy using his shape-changing powers to mimic aspects of Marvel\u2019s heroes wasn\u2019t part of Roy Thomas\u2019 original plot for the issue.\u00a0 As he explained in the issue\u2019s \u201cThe Story Behind the Story\u201d text piece:<\/p>\n \u2026as I was plotting the tale\u2026 [production manager] John Verpoorten and [art director John] Romita informed me that if I wanted Jack \u201cKing\u201d Kirby to pencil the cover for F.F. # 176, I\u2019d better give him a coast-to-coast phone-call right away and describe a cover scene to him\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So I called Jack.\u00a0 Yes, he said, he vaguely remembered the Impossible Man.\u00a0 The thin green guy with the pinhead, right?\u00a0 I said right.\u00a0 And here\u2019s the important part: I asked Jack to have Impy, on the cover, using some of the gimmicks George and I had planned for the interior, such as hosing the Human Torch and hammering the Thing.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But, as Jazzy Johnny Romita always said: \u201cJack at his worst is better than most guys at their best!\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And not only is Jack seldom at his worst \u2014 but on this cover, he was definitely at his best!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A few days later, I got this strange penciled cover in the mail which was just what I\u2019d asked, except that Impy was blasting the F.F. with hands shaped like Iron Man\u2019s glove and Thor\u2019s magic hammer!\u00a0 And there was even a note suggesting he could have shaped a fist like Captain America\u2019s shield!\u00a0 Immediately I saw Jack\u2019s reasoning: this was the Marvel Comics office, right?\u00a0 So why not have him using Marvel-type gimmicks?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Ten minutes later I was on the phone describing the cover to George, and we instantly decided (since George was just beginning to draw the last half of the book) to utilize Jack\u2019s ideas\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n That\u2019s Marvel writer\/editor Marv Wolfman coming into frame in the third from last panel above \u2014 while the legs extending into the panel from the other side apparently belong to his then-wife Michele, who happens to have been the colorist for this very issue.<\/p>\n As for \u201cJumbo\u201d John Verpoorten, he was of course a longtime inker at Marvel, as well as its production manager \u2014 and while he never did any credited work on Jack Kirby\u2019s adaptation\/continuation of 2001: A Space Odyssey,<\/em> he had<\/em> recently embellished Kirby\u2019s pencils on the first four issues of The Eternals<\/em>, and had a couple of Captain America<\/em> jobs with the King coming up soon after this, as well.\u00a0 (Sadly, Verpoorten wouldn\u2019t have too many more opportunities to appear on-panel following this story, as he would suddenly and unexpectedly pass away just a year and a half later, in December, 1977.)<\/p>\n George P\u00e9rez\u2019s graphic storytelling is just great throughout this whole story, using varying page layouts and camera angles to keep things visually interesting without ever sacrificing clarity, and also maintaining a breakneck pace that still leaves room for every gag to land.<\/p>\n In the first panel above, \u201cMarie\u201d can only be legendary penciller, colorist, and production staffer Marie Severin \u2014 an artist whose gift for likenesses had seen her pulled in on various occasions (sometimes credited, sometimes not) to keep Stan, Jack, et al \u201con model\u201d for their cameos.\u00a0 (It\u2019s an indirect testament to the talents of George P\u00e9rez and Joe Sinnott that one doesn\u2019t<\/em> miss \u201cMirthful\u201d Marie\u2019s touch in this story\u2026 well, not much, anyway.)\u00a0 Meanwhile, \u201cJim\u201d might be either Jim Shooter or Jim Salicrup, both of whom were on staff at Marvel at this time.<\/p>\n The second panel includes a great visual gag regarding the high turnover in the editor-in-chief position at Marvel since Stan Lee\u2019s promotion to publisher in 1972.\u00a0 Back in 1976, certain aspects of the joke likely went over the heads of virtually everyone who wasn\u2019t actually then working for Marvel \u2014 since, to the best of my knowledge, Roy Thomas\u2019 last-minute decision not to return to the job following Marv Wolfman\u2019s departure (indicated here by the crossed-out \u201cROY THO\u201d on the door) hadn\u2019t been reported in the fan press of the time.<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, Archie Goodwin had been introduced as the new Marvel EIC with the preceding adjective \u201camiable\u201d by no less a personage than Stan Lee himself in his \u201cStan\u2019s Soapbox\u201d column published one month earlier.\u00a0 On the other hand, whatever anonymous person had welcomed Goodwin back to Marvel in a \u201cMarvel Bullpen Bulletin\u201d published about a year before that had called him \u201cArtful<\/em> Archie\u201d, so you can see why the poor guy might be confused.<\/p>\n In the first panel above, we meet both Marvel art director John Romita and writer\/editor Len Wein, the latter of whom was at this juncture responsible for The Amazing Spider-Man<\/em>, The Incredible Hulk<\/em>, and The Mighty Thor<\/em>\u2026 but who\u2019d also be adding Fantastic Four<\/em> to his slate in about eight months.<\/p>\n \u201cGerry\u201d is of course Gerry Conway, who\u2019d preceded Thomas as the writer of Fantastic Four<\/em> \u2014 and who\u2019d both gone to work for DC Comics and<\/em> returned to Marvel in the months since then.<\/p>\n \u201cRoger\u201d is another character for whom more than one real-world model is possible.\u00a0 He could be either Roger Slifer, who\u2019d come to work for Marvel in 1974, or Roger Stern, who\u2019d joined the House of Ideas earlier in 1976.\u00a0 I\u2019ll leave it to someone with more knowledge of how either of those guys might have been wearing his hair back then to speculate as to which identification is the more likely.<\/p>\n \u201cMarvel Comics<\/strong> hasn\u2019t got time to waste on silly-looking characters!<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0 This Howard the Duck-centered gag carries an extra level of irony for those who\u2019ve read Thomas\u2019 Masterworks<\/em> intro, in which he confesses that \u201cthe readers\u2019 earlier [negative] response to Impy was the major reason I forced poor Steve Gerber to \u2018kill off\u2019 Howard at the end of his debut in a \u2018Man-Thing\u2019 tale<\/a> \u2014 not my smartest move ever\u201d<\/p>\n And thus ends an issue of Fantastic Four<\/em> which, whether you consider it a milestone or not, remains a pretty special one, half a century later.<\/p>\n Cover to Fantastic Four<\/em> #177 (Dec., 1976). Art by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s worth noting that \u2014 contrary to Thomas\u2019 assurance in that last panel that \u201coffbeat time is over!\u201d \u2014 the light-hearted spirit of FF<\/em> #176 actually continued into the following issue, as the Frightful Four\u2019s auditions for a new member was played largely for laughs, with applicants that included Captain Ultra (an impressively powerful figure who utterly collapsed in the presence of a struck match) and the Texas Twister (an over-the-top cowboy parody).\u00a0 Also turning up for the occasion, albeit under false pretenses, were a former Frightful, Thundra the Femizon, as well as another female adventurer, Tigra the Were-Woman \u2014 both of whom (along with the Impossible Man) would end up hanging around as supporting characters for a while.\u00a0 But the winning applicant for the supervillain team gig ultimately turned out to be none of the above \u2014 rather, it was the Reed Richards of Counter-Earth, who\u2019d inadvertently stowed away on the High Evolutonary\u2019s spaceship, unseen, back in #175.<\/p>\n Cover to Fantastic Four<\/em> #183 (Jun., 1977). Art by George P\u00e9rez and Joe Sinnott.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In his previous appearances in Warlock<\/em>,<\/a> this version of Reed had been portrayed as a good guy \u2014 at least when not in the mutated form of his alter ego, the Brute.\u00a0 But an accidental bump on the noggin had turned him rotten, at least temporarily, and he contrived to dispose of \u201cour\u201d Reed, secretly trapping him in the Negative Zone (what, again?<\/a>) while taking his place as the leader of the FF \u2014 and as the husband of Sue.\u00a0 Those developments (the latter one in particular) had some dark, even creepy implications \u2014 too dark and creepy for the more freewheeling mood of issues #176 and #177 to be reasonably sustained.\u00a0 Still, everything worked out all right in the end (though not before some additional strife involving Annihilus and the Mad Thinker had gone down), and following a last-minute reverse heel-turn by Counter-Reed, the one true Mister Fantastic was restored to his rightful place in the closing scenes of FF<\/em> #183.<\/p>\n By the time that issue went into production, however, the Roy Thomas-George P\u00e9rez era of Fantastic Four<\/em> had already sputtered out.\u00a0 The two creators were being spelled by Gerry Conway and Ron Wilson, respectively, as early as FF<\/em> #179, after which missed deadlines forced #180 to carry an unscheduled reprint of #101.\u00a0 Thomas returned briefly for #181, but after that bowed out completely; ultimately, the plotlines he and P\u00e9rez had initiated were wrapped up in #182-183: two issues that required the efforts of seven, count \u2019em, seven<\/em> writers \u2014 plotters Len Wein, Archie Goodwin, Jim Shooter, Rogers Slifer and Stern, and Ralph Macchio, plus scripter Bill Mantlo \u2014 as well as two artists, Sal Buscema and Joe Sinnott \u2014 to be brought to completion.<\/p>\n Happily, things settled down somewhat after that, as Len Wein took the reins as writer\/editor, P\u00e9rez returned as penciller, and Sinnott stayed put on inks.\u00a0 Under their management, the saga of the Fantastic Four would continue \u2014 and, naturally, we\u2019ll be checking in on the team\u2019s future adventures here on this blog\u2026 though whether or not that\u2019ll happen prior to their next bona fide numerical milestone, Fantastic Four<\/em> #200, only time will tell.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Regular readers of this blog will recall how, three months ago, we celebrated \u201cMarvel Milestone Month\u201d in honor of four long-running Marvel series all having hit significant numerical markers in May, 1976.\u00a0 Today, we\u2019ll be looking at yet another comic that signified a notable Marvel milestone of that year, coming out as it did on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7052488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133742,109260,180810,214906,214907,142131,142132,139081,214908,214909,214910,183658,214911,214912,122489,214913,214914,173043,214915,151781,142133,98106,214916,214917,214918,214919,133749,214920,214921,214922,214923],"tags":[2396,3894],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7052487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archie-goodwin","category-bronze-age-comics","category-fantastic-four","category-frightful-four","category-galactus","category-george-perez","category-gerry-conway","category-hulk","category-human-torch","category-impossible-man","category-invisible-girl","category-jack-kirby","category-jim-salicrup","category-jim-shooter","category-joe-sinnott","category-john-buscema","category-john-verpoorten","category-len-wein","category-luke-cage","category-marie-severin","category-marv-wolfman","category-marvel-comics","category-michele-wolfman","category-mister-fantastic","category-roger-slifer","category-roger-stern","category-roy-thomas","category-stan-lee","category-thing","category-thundra","category-tigra","tag-fantastic","tag-november"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nman<\/del> super-evolved ape, Gorr the Golden Gorilla, the FF boarded HE\u2019s spaceship for the return ride home.\u00a0 Accompanying them \u2014 whether they liked it or not \u2014 was the Impossible Man.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/50yearoldcomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ff175-cured-e1784094603705.jpg?resize=425%2C353&ssl=1\")
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