Fantastic Four #323-325

[iamrman]

Demons have invaded New York, but more important than that, Mantis is there too!

Fantastic Four #323, written by Steve Englehart and pencilled by Keith Pollard.

Elsewhen...

Kang captures Mantis, but she escapes while he is gloating.

Fantastic Four #324.

Everybody wants Mantis because she is so important and is the greatest thing ever.

Fantastic Four #325, pencilled by Rich Buckler. Writer is credited as SFX Englehart due to his unhappiness with various executive decisions he was forced to make. Can’t think what they would be...

The Silver Surfer rocks up and starts gushing about how she is the woman he loves. Thankfully, the Cotati arrive to interrupt the simp-fest.

Comments

[mazway_75]

Once more, Englehart's belief Mantis was this wildly popular character is nuts not to mention other Avengers writers who keep thinking Celestial Madonna storyline is on part with Dark Phoenix Saga.

[zylly]

I’ve always been vaguely impressed by Englehart’s ability to work Mantis into whatever he’s working on… even at other companies.

I certainly don’t begrudge writers having their pet characters, but Mantis was a lot. (Honestly, my favorite version is from the PS4 game, which combines MCU space case with comics celestial Madonna)

[florence1]

Can someone remind me why Ben has the deluxe super pointy rock look?

[iamrman]

Additional exposure to cosmic rays.

[blues32]

More cosmic rays. Same reason Sharon Venture, formerly Ms Marvel, is now She-Thing. I believe people refer to this as Ben's pineapple phase.

[scorntx]

...
... Englehart writes Kang a little differently from some other writers, no?

"My most audacious plan."
Well... I guess? Maybe?
But if your most audacious plan is trying to kidnap a woman to force her to bear your child, that's a bummer of a career.
(Seriously? More impressive than conquering Egypt while blind? Or taking over the entire 41st century? That game with the Grandmaster? Kidnapping a few women is your career highlight?)


Surfer telling Kang to bring it and then getting zapped is a little funny, at least.

(Still trying to figure out if Ben's mutated form is just too ridiculous or not.)

[donnblake]

One of the weird notes in my head about the Thing- and I don't know whether this was an aside in early FF story of if I've invented it entirely- is that he was a big fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, or as he called them, "Dem Bums," and never really got over the heartbreak of their leaving New York for the West Coast.

Obviously, that's one of those things that is no longer plausible given the sliding timescale.

[full_metal_ox]

Just as the catchphrase “What a revoltin’ development this is!” was a direct quote from the old radio drama “The Life of Riley.”—which, in my age bracket, would have to reflect a taste for the second-wave nostalgic revivals of the 60s and 70s; nowadays, it would put him among a niche group of retropunk preservationists.

(Chester A. Riley was the Ur-ancestor of all the tedious too-dumb-to-live bungling sitcom dads to follow; the character I liked on that show was proto-Perkygoth Digger O’Dell, the Friendly Undertaker. Digger was a gleeful walking memento mori, but he was wise and compassionate and ready to help Riley out of whatever hole he’d dug himself into that week.)

[blues32]

Well, that just ruins the concept for me. A Jets fan and a Giants fan living together? It would never happen!