Fantastic Four (1981)

[vanhornluke]

Fantastic Four (1981)

First Story:
By ?

APPEARANCES:
Fantastic Four (Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing, Mr. Fantastic), Alicia Masters, Franklin Richards, unnamed Skrull woman (also in flashback), Commander Solbrodd (also in flashback), Kree soldiers, Skrull prisoners, Kree Sentry robot

SYNOPSIS:
FLASHBACK:
A Skrull scientific expedition is attacked by a Kree ship. Most of the Skrulls, including Commander Solbrodd, would rather die than ask humans for help, but a Skrull woman on board disagrees and steals a shuttle before she can be captured. She heads for Earth and plans to ask the Fantastic Four for assistance.
PRESENT:
While Ben and Johnny help Franklin assemble a model space shuttle, Reed detects the incoming Skrull spacecraft heading for the Baxter Building. The shuttle lands on the roof and the Skrull woman disembarks, begging the FF to help her save her people. Reed agrees and the team takes the Pogo Plane into space. They locate wreckage from the Skrull vessel and then find the Kree ship. Sue turns them and the Pogo Plane invisible so that they can sneak up. Bashing through the hull of the Kree ship, the Thing and Torch attack, fighting their way to the captured Skrulls so they can be freed. Meanwhile, Reed stretches through the walls of the ship, turning off the weapons and power supply. With the FF’s help, the Skrulls overpower the Kree and take command of the ship. Commander Solbrodd tells the Skrull woman that she has shamed them by stooping to asking humans for help, but she begs for their lives. In minimal thanks, Solbrodd allows the FF to leave instead of killing them on the spot.

NOTE:
This comic is given the unhelpful title of merely “Fantastic Four.” I’m not sure how MCP would want to refer to it. Placement suggestions would be welcome. The only placement clues I noticed are pretty unhelpful: Sue is the Invisible Girl, not Woman, and the FF are at the Baxter Building.

Second Story:
By ?

APPEARANCES:
Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, Thing, Invisible Girl, Human Torch), Thunderbolt Ross, Red Ghost (also in flashback), Super-Apes (Miklho, Peotor, Igor) (also in flashback), guard

SYNOPSIS:
FLASHBACK:
A flashback to when the Red Ghost and his original Super-Apes got their powers.
PRESENT:
Thunderbolt Ross contacts the FF to let them know that an unidentified object is moving toward an American space shuttle. They take the Pogo Plane into space to intercept it. The mysterious object is a Soviet station the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes have commandeered, though they are trapped in space. The Red Ghost wants to seize the shuttle so he can return to Earth. The FF board the station and a fight breaks out. The FF can’t stop the apes until Reed rigs a communication device to jam a control signal the Red Ghost is sending to the apes. Free of his control, the apes stop fighting the FF, and Igor actually sucker-punches the Red Ghost, knocking him out. The FF take the Ghost and his apes with them on the Pogo Plane and return them to Earth, dropping them over Moscow to be seized and punished by the Soviet government.

NOTE:
As far as I can tell, the flashback doesn’t reveal anything new, so I’m not sure MCP would want to list it, or, if y’all do, I’m not sure what the formatting should be.

Again, placement suggestions are welcome.


Chronologies:

HUMAN TORCH II/JOHNNY STORM
See above note

IGOR
See above note

INVISIBLE GIRL/SUE STORM RICHARDS
See above note

MASTERS, ALICIA REISS
See above note

MIKLHO
See above note

MR. FANTASTIC/REED RICHARDS
See above note

PEOTOR
See above note

RED GHOST/IVAN KRAGOFF
See above note

RICHARDS, FRANKLIN BENJAMIN
See above note

ROSS, GEN. THADDEUS E. "THUNDERBOLT"
See above note

SOLBRODD, COMMANDER
FF1981-FB
FF1981

THING II/BENJAMIN J. GRIMM
See above note

[Clive_Reston]

Couldn't hurt to identify it as "Fantastic Four: Save the Shuttle" or "Young Model Builders Club Giveaway."

If I had to guess, I'd say the art on the first story was by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott, and the second story was Herb Trimpe and Jack Abel (the two close-ups of the Red Ghost's face are very Trimpe-ish), but I have no source for that other than my eyes.

[StrayLamb]

This one is listed as "Fantastic Four Young Model Builders Club Giveaway" on Amazon.com, mycomicshop.com, and other sites. These sites also list John Buscema and Herb Trimpe as artists, with no other credits, so good eye there Clive_Reston

[Michael]

Placement of the second story is complicated because it has to take place when the Red Ghost is able to turn solid and Ross is a general- and that's a surprisingly narrow window. The Red Ghost is trapped in his ghost form in Iron Man 82- he's then transformed into mist in Iron Man 83 and he doesn't regain his human form until Fantastic Four 197. As for General Ross, he suffers a nervous breakdown courtesy of Moonstone in Hulk 229 and doesn't resume his duties until Hulk 264. Then he commits treason in Hulk 287 by allying with MODOK. So this should probably take place sometime between Hulk 264 and FF 251, when the Fantastic Four go into the Negative Zone (which leads into the story where their costumes change).

[ShadZ]

The cover of this comic can be seen here: https://www.comics.org/issue/1631753/cover/4/