Fantastic Four: 1967

FANTASTIC FOUR IN THE 1960s, 

Pt. 7

1967 was basically a more-of-the-same year for FF. Kirby and Sinnott furthered their illustrative synergy, Lee and Kirby premiered a dozen ideas that bedazzled and continue to bedazzle subsequent generations, and the now formidable cast of characters intersected in unexpected and ever-twisting ways.

Is there a sense that Kirby is pulling back, ever so slightly, in '67? I think so. It will become much more pronounced in '68, but it was in 1967 that Carmine Infantino was promoted to editorial director over at the Distinguished Competition. This resulted in an exploratory phone call to Kirby about switching companies. Kirby wasn't quite ready to do so, but the wheels began turning in his head. But the real mental break from Stan/Marvel began in November 1967, according to Mark Evanier, as a result of Stan's changes to the "Him" storyline.

"Lest anyone doubt the creative input from Kirby, from November '65 to November '67 - two years where Jack was pretty much doing the stories on his own, plus plotting for other books that he wasn't drawing - from the imagination of this man came:

"Black Bolt, Gorgon, Crystal, Triton, Karnak, Lockjaw, Galactus, The Silver Surfer, Wyatt Wingfoot, The Black Panther, Klaw, The Negative Zone, The Microverse, Blastaar, The Sentry, The Supreme Intelligence, The Kree, Ronan, Him, Psycho-Man, Hercules, Pluto, Zeus and the Greek Pantheon, Tana Nile and The Space Colonizers, The Black Galaxy, Ego the Bioverse, The High Evolutionary, Wundagore and The New-Men, The Man-Beast, Ulik, Orikal, The Growing Man, Replicus, The Enchanters, The Three Sleepers, Batroc, A.I.M., The Cosmic Cube, The Super-Adaptoid, Modok, Mentallo, The Fixer, The Demon Druid, The Sentinels, and The Mimic. This is not complete as secondary creations such as The Seeker, Prester John, The Tumbler and others weren't mentioned, but they all premiered within the two-year period.

"After November '67, for the last three years that Jack worked for Marvel, you get the exact opposite; many secondary characters, but very few memorable ones. In FF, the only character of note after November '67 is Annihilus. (...) Jack does some good work with some of the classic characters like Dr. Doom, the Mole Man, and Galactus among others (but) it's pretty obvious where 'The House of Ideas' got their 'ideas' from; but now the House was being put under creative foreclosure; in fact towards the end, Jack was asking Stan to come up with ideas for the stories, which is why you have characters like The Monocle, the Crypto-Man, and a retread of The Creature from the Black Lagoon in the last few Lee/Kirby issues." 

I disagree with the totality of Evanier's conclusions re: the sole authorship of all these characters and ideas, but Kirby was certainly growing disenchanted with his creative partnership with Stan. 

Let's have a look at FF # 58-69 and Annual #5.  

1967!

Sgt. Peppers! In Like Flint! The Six Day War! City on the Edge of Forever!

1.

SURFER DOOM, CONTINUED.

Doom's theft of the Power Cosmic from the Silver Surfer leads to his decisively defeating the Fantastic Four. He's talked out of destroying them at the last minute by a gambit from Reed, who plays on Doom's vanity by making him think the FF are now too unimportant for one such as he to destroy. 

The real-world implications of Doom's power grab are sketched out enjoyably. Reed addresses the globe, warning them of an impending Latverian New World Order. (We're a long way from 1961, when Reed couldn't even address New York City without setting off a panic.) A country that resembles the Soviet Union launches an air strike on Latveria, which Doom easily repels, and world leaders panic. 

The FF struggle to overcome Doom, who stays ahead of them at every turn. Finally, Reed has Army Ordnance and Stark Munitions build an "Anti-Cosmic Flying Wing" from his prototype, and it arrives in Latveria (where they have launched their final assault) just in the nick of time. Reed gambles that Galactus set some kind of trap/ enforcement on his decree that the Silver Surfer should be Earthbound forever, and he is right. Doom disappears when he chases the Wing into space and smacks into the barrier, and the board heads back to the castle to reunite (and free) the Surfer.

As with the Galactus Trilogy we looked at last time, any handful of panels here would have been better on the big screen than what we saw in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. (Or any of the other FF movies for that matter.) 

2.

THE INHUMANS

Meanwhile, Black Bolt frees the Inhumans by shattering the dome with his scream.

Such a cool visual. Goes for most of the Inhumans.

Crystal is reunited with Johnny (and there is much rejoicing), and the Inhumans initially settle on one particular island in the Caribbean also claimed by other powers, but... all in good time. The Royal Family (Black Bolt, Triton, Karnak, Medusa, Lockjaw, Crystal) move out into the world of humans while the rest stay behind to rebuild their city.

3.

THE KREE

Not content with just the Skrulls and other alien and subterranean races we've seen, this year introduces a whole new race of spacefarers, the Kree, whose long-dormant sentry is discovered, coincidentally enough, on the island Ben randomly picks for himself, Reed, and Sue to vacation on a map of the South Seas. Ben tries to back out of accompanying the newlweds on a rare vacation from superheroics, but Reed says "Nonsense! With Alicia out of town, you'll just get into trouble." (Sue isn't asked.) 

In Issue 65, the Kree Supreme Intelligence sends Ronan the Accuser to Earth to make the FF pay for destroying its Sentry, but they are able to get Ronan to fire "The Weapon Supreme"  on himself. He disappears, and Reed hopes this display of Terran resistance will dissuade them from further meddling. It doesn't, of course. The Kree, like the Skrulls, will return time and again in the next few decades, often during some of Marvel's most seminal events (The Death of Captain Marvel, The Dark Phoenix Saga, The Kree-Skrull War, the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, etc.)  

4.

THE NEGATIVE ZONE 

A pretty good battle with the Sandman (who was never as formidable in other creators' hands as he is in Kirby's) forces Reed to open up a portal to an alternate dimension he's been monitoring: the Negative Zone. 

The Negative Zone was a showcase for Kirby to go even more cosmic with his space backgrounds and otherwordly gadgetry, but this time around, Reed (after being rescued by Triton, whose ocean-trench-swimming hide can navigate the spaceways of the Zone) brings back one of its denizens, Blastaar, who immediately "teams up" (i.e. bosses around as his lackey) with the Sandman. 

I was waiting for the Negative Zone to show up in all its whacked-out glory, as well as good ol' Blastaar, who was one of the first FF villains (outside of Doom and Galactus) to leave an impression on me, thanks to the stories Byrne set there during his 80s run. (Here's the one I remember buying off the stands, though I'd borrowed my buddy Mike's FF comics for a full year before I started allocating a portion of my allowance to the series. So, I think I may have come across the Zone before that one.) And while not much is done with the Zone itself in this issue, it still evokes much the same sense of wonder in me in 2016 as it did back then.

5.

"HIM" and THE CITADEL OF SCIENCE

Here is the story that widened the storytelling wedge between Lee and Kirby to an unworkable degree. Alicia is kidnapped by a mysterious being called "Hamilton" and brought to "the Beehive," the super-lab of an organization known as the Citadel of Science. They've created a super-being but can't get near him - he (actually "Him") has gone rogue and only a blind sculptor like Alicia can get close enough to him for them to figure out what they're dealing with.

The full story is at that TwoMorrows link (here it is again) but here's the short version.

"Jack originally intended for this storyline to represent his take on Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy. Jack probably did not consciously think, 'Here's my answer to Ayn Rand'; his primary goal was, as always, to just write a good story. But in Jack's original story, the scientists are well-intentioned, with no evil plans. They are attempting to create a being totally self-sufficient, intellectually self-reliant; not encumbered by superstition, fear, or doubt; in short, a being based on Rand's absolutes. Of course such a being would be totally intolerant of those who created him; a truly Objectivistic being would not cope with the flaws in others. (But) when Stan received the first part of this storyline, he felt that changes had to be made. (He) felt that every story had to have a bad guy, so he had to come up with one. He could only choose between the being or the scientists and it was simplicity to just go the "Mad Scientist/Sympathetic Creature" route (...) When Jack (saw the dialogue Stan added) he wasn't pleased at all. His storyline had been corrupted; the entire reason for the story had been gutted, replaced with a standard comic book plot; and he was now (due to the fact that this issue was going to print) forced to change the rest of his story to support Lee's version."

"The story that Jack wanted - 'Create a superior human and he just might find you inferior enough to get rid of' - became, through Lee, just another 'bad guys try to take over world and get their comeuppance' story."

"Him" becomes Adam Warlock in subsequent Marvel continuity. The Beehive becomes the Enclave and get up to lots of mischief.  

6.

BAXTER BUILDING, 90210

Now that section-title doesn't make much sense. I'm just trying to get across that we've reached the soap-opera-and-personal-relationships part of the proceedings, hence the "90210" zip code, but since the Baxter Building already has a zip code (10017) I fear the meaning gets a little muddled. Ah well - I'll come up with something better next time. 

As mentioned above, Crystal finally reunites with Johnny. Johnny ditches Lockjaw and his buddy Wyatt to go parking and share frappes and fries at the proverbial malt shoppe.

Her heretofore-somewhat-vague powers are defined a little better, which is appreciated. And she ends up becoming Sue's replacement when it is revealed that she and Reed are expecting child.

Ben goes through his usual mopey bullshit. And Reed and Sue continue to push gender role boundaries.

Wait - the complete opposite of that.

Subtext!

7.

ANNUAL

The '67 FF Annual introduces a character who will be a considerable thorn in the side of the FF in years to come: Psycho-Man, the only non-Micronaut-related denizen of the Microverse. Or a microverse, at least. (This is all mk1-Marvel-continuity, of course; I have no idea what happened with the microverse or Psycho-Man after the early 90s). 

Psycho Man is building a machine that will deliver his Hate rays worldwide. He needs one last thing to make his weapon operational: "Component Four." He sends his lackeys to acquire it, which they do, but they deliver it to Alicia Masters by mistake. (Oopsy-daisy!) This naturally brings the FF into things, but not just them, as the island Psycho-Man has chosen for his Caribbean lair is also the island the Inhumans have chosen as their base of operations. Furthering the coincidence/kismet of things, it is also an island owned by the Kingdom of Wakanda. (They call it "Panther Island." Not so imaginative, guys.) 

Hi-jinks ensue and the heroes manage to defeat Psycho-Man.

Not without hearing his origin story/ ingesting a few dozen super-villain-monologues, though.

The other stories in the Annual are one of those Stan-and-Jack-in-the-Bullpen little whimsies, and a Silver-Surfer sequel to the Quasimodo story from last year's Annual.

The Surfer comes across the tortured Quasimodo and imbues him with the Power Cosmic to make him corporeal.

Naturally he immediately attacks his would-be savior, so the Surfer turns him into a real-life gargoyle.

The remaining stories in '67 involve the Mad Thinker infiltrating the Baxter Building and turning the Thing into a resentful killing machine. Happens to these guys a lot! But it carries over into 1968, so we'll look at it in more depth next time, and plenty more. See you then.

~

King's Highway pt. 83: The Regulators

"His almost lifelong interest in footnotes had deserted him."

The Regulators was the "mirror" novel to Desperation, both released in 1996. Also published that year: The Green Mile. Not a bad year for the King (although the Thinner movie probably sullied things just a tad) but a great year for publishers and book-sellers. And readers, too, of course.

The two novels are parallel universes and feature the same supernatural entity, Tak, and the same characters, just re-shuffled (the primary bad guy of Desperation, Entragion, is a secondary protagonist in The Regulators, etc. Johnny Marinville is the King-stand-in-writer-guy .) Tak has the same origin in both books (it was imprisoned in the China Pit mine-shaft until the Desperation Mining Corporation accidentally unearthed it), but its powers are a little different In Desperation, Tak has the ability to control the local desert wildlife, while in The Regulators, he is capable of willing ideas into deadly three-dimensional objects: a child's toys become three-dimensional motorized killers, strange animal hybrids attack our heroes, etc.

"His remaining sight was almost gone, but there was enough left for him to see the perfectly round moon rising between the fangs of the black Crayola mountains."

In both novels, it is Tak's ability to take direct control of human hosts (causing them to rapidly deteriorate) that provides the key to defeating him. 

Okay, so first things first, this does not enjoy the greatest reputation among either critics (this Tor reread entry or the original NYT review) or King fans, usually clocking in the bottom rungs of any of the various King's Rankings out there. Whereas I'm some crazy fool who lists it as his 20th favorite King book - go figure.

Technically it's a Bachman book and not a King one. Does it need to be? I think it works for the double/mirror release, but does The Regulators have all that much in common, stystylistically or thematically, with other Bachman books? The destructive-nightmare potential of television and (if you count Regulators' minute-by-minute, live-update chapter design) a "countdown" sort of structure: that's pretty much it. Maybe it's enough. 

(And is this the only Bachman book with a relatively happy ending? I think it might be.)

What it seems to want to be, moreso than a Bachman book, is a kind of multi-media event. The kind the internet would popularize in later years. (Yes, the internet was around in '96, but, for most of us, just barely. People certainly weren't doing Lost-style tie-in stuff, at any rate.) 

King has his customary lack of success in making the diary entries/ letters sound as if they are written by actual people, or different people. None are badly written, per se, just you can always see the strings, so to speak.

If this came out now, I wouldn't be surprised if the various epistolary and "found items" elements of The Regulators were twitter entries and the story itself serialized on a website to tie-in to Desperation's release. (Maybe even a MotoKops actual cartoon - definitely Todd McFarlane-designed toys and Power Wagons.) 

If I had my way, it would be the other way around. Desperation has a helluva opening and an irresistible set-up, but... it flounders, badly, as it goes on and on (and on.) The Regulators in contrast starts just as boldly as its twinner but is much leaner and more focused.


The story - Tak terrorizes the residents of one suburban town with images he's plucked from the mind of his human host, an autistic child named Seth - might have seemed like "King on autopilot" to audiences of the time. (I get that impression from some of the reviews from when it came out, at least.) And in a way it's true that many elements are familiar (writer-protagonist, an outcast child with fantastic powers and genius beyond his outward appearance/condition, ordinary folks being terrorized by Joe Hill's toys, etc.), but to me - especially coming after the "feminist phase" of King's 90s-writings - this seems like a self-aware summation of his entire career before that point. Almost an affectionate tribute before moving on to newer pastures.

On Writing - which revealed the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of King's imbibing in the 80s - had yet to come out, so this passage where Johnny Marinville reflects on his writing retirement is interesting in retrospect:

"He could not, he said, imagine ever writing another novel. That fire seemed to be out, and he didn't miss waking up in the morning with it burning his brains... along with the inevitable hangover. That part seemed to be done. And he could accept that. The part that he didn't think he could accept was how the old life of which his novels had been a part was still everywhere around him, whispering from the corners and murmuring from his old IBM every time he turned it on. I am what you were, the typewriter's hum said to him, and what you'll always be. 

"It was never about self-image, or even ego, but only about what was printed from your genes from the very start. Run to the end of the earth and take a room in the last hotel and go to the end of the final corridor and when you open the door that's there, the one you heard on so many shaky hungover mornings, and there'll be a can of Coors beside your book-notes and a gram of coke in the top drawer left, because in the end that's what you are and all you are. As some wise man or other once said, there is no gravity; the earth just sucks." 

Okay, so there are a few little things King doesn't do so well (the epistolary stuff) or does too much (autistic child with psychic powers, King-stand-in-writer-guy, which is tough because it's difficult to make an author of King's stature come across realistically in print. He doesn't even seem realistic as himself in Song of Susannah and DT Bk7, for crying out loud. It's an irony of his Horatio Alger-esque story/ position.) But there's plenty here I do like, and if you don't mind I'll switch to bullet points.

- King has said this book is about TV while Desperation is about God. That made more sense to me on my first read. This second time around it seemed less "about" TV and instead just used tropes from television (the old violent westerns of King's childhood and adolescence, and the cartoon violence of his own children's/ Seth's) in traditional-King-horror ways. 

SNAKE HUNTER: A deep-space Power Wagon assault? Could be a quick trip to that Boot Hill in the sky!

ROOTY: Root-root-root-root!

ALL: Shut up, Rooty!

Pictures of Dutton edition (including that Power Wagon above) from here.

In other words, there's less message in The Regulators (especially - as we are invited to at every turn - when compared to Desperation) and more just simple mayhem. Not simplistic, though. I quite enjoyed the subtext of a lot of what was going on. The paperboy blown away, the little redheaded girl from Charlie Brown, grown-up and bikini-clad, blown away, the real-life projections of The Wild Bunch and Bonanza, not to mention the insanity brought on by a steady diet of chocolate milk and canned spaghetti-and-meatballs: all of it adds up, Tommyknockers-style, to an ideographic (and unsettling) mirror-universe of the TV nuclear family / suburbia.

- Along these lines, King's fine eye for detail serves the book well. One scene showcases a Charles Barkley/ Space Jam fast food cup, and another has Marinville in one of the victims' houses looking over the framed photos of Corgis with amazing facts printed on them. ("SHOWED APPARENT ABILITY TO ADD SMALL NUMBERS.") And then there's stuff like this:

"He realized he was still holding the dead girl's hair. It was kinky, like an unraveled Brillo pad - no, he thought coldly. Not like that. Like what holding a scalp would be like, a human scalp. He grimaced at that and opened his fingers. The girl's face dropped back onto the concrete stoop with a wet smack that he could have lived without."

- I really liked Steven Jay Ames, "a scratched entry in the great American steeplechase." King writes the sections dealing with him with his "No problems / ZERO PROBLEMS" mantra splitting it up.

- Constant Reader might notice a few elements that were repurposed for later King books, such as Audrey's Montauk-world or Seth's dream-corridors (recalled in the Dark Tower books, as well as Dreamcatcher) or the "mental slime" left in the wake of Tak's possessions (End of Watch).

That's it for my Regulators notes. I hope it's rediscovered someday, as it would make one hell of a movie.