In a way, this issue of Fantastic Four is an example of how the comic would lose its innocence with Lee's departure. Obvously it wouldn't "read" the same, with Roy Thomas and subsequent writers giving their own take on the foursome; but Thomas, Gerry Conway, et al. seemed so eager to bring Reed, Ben, Johnny, and Sue into contemporary times that in the process they compromised the strong foundation that Lee had given these characters. For instance, Thomas almost immediately had Sue and Reed experiencing marital troubles, which would only get worse and drag the book down like a lead weight; and while you'll get no argument from me that Sue needed much more dimension than Lee gave her, there are other, more intriguing ways of doing that rather than taking the easy road of sowing discord with a husband and wife, particularly given the relationship that's been built between these two for over 120 issues.
Lee, on the other hand, wrote comics, not novellas--and these characters were able to thrive within that world. The FF didn't have to struggle to conform to the "real" world that the rest of us lived in--they had their own world that we enjoyed escaping to. Lee had his dry spells, like any other writer--but he wrote some compelling scenes for the FF, a team that even in the worst of times pulled it together when they needed to. And he was a master of balancing the light-hearted with the drama, the human with the hero:
And so, where did Lee leave us, and these heroes--in this, his last story as regular writer of the book? Well, Reed was certainly in no shape to play hero:
And Ben and Johnny were only just beginning to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, finally making some headway in identifying their foe:
As for Sue, given the state she was left in, she'd be a natural for "The Perils of Pauline":
So Stan had better get busy, because he already has one foot out the door, remember?
Continued »»»
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