Here we are again, this time with my review of the 3rd Volume of the Fantastic Four omnibus. This one contains issues 61-93 and annuals 5 and 6. It says annual 7 is also included but annual 7 is actually reprints of older issues so all thats included from the 7th annual in this omnibus is staff photos. Nothing too exciting but its cool to see Stan Lee 50 years ago! As far as I know this is also the end of Stan Lee’s run on the FF as the next omnibus is John Byrne’s which happens somewhere in the #2xx issues.
I enjoyed this omnibus a lot. Having 60+ issues of the FF under my belt from the time I read the first omnibus I can understand why people have been fans of the team for so long. This omnibus kicked off with Reed getting sucked into the negative zone which he had been studying, and Crystal of the inhumans deciding she would rather pursue her love with Johnny Storm than continue being a member of the inhumans.
After she finds them, she returns to the inhumans and recruits the underwater breathing Triton to enter the negative zone and save Reed. However on the way out a creature from the negative zone knopwn as Blastaar followed them out. He would make an unlikely duo with the Sandman before both ultimately get defeated by the FF and return Blastaar to the negative zone. The FF decide to go on a vacation which ends up being an ancient Kree base station. A Kree god mind probes into the FF and tells them they have destroyed Kree property and Ronan The accuser makes his first appearance but is defeated by the FF.
In annual #5 we find out Sue is pregnant and we get a team up consisting of the FF, the inhumans and black Panther as they work to take on Psycho man, a micro sized being who is planning to take over earth. The Silver surfer also got mixed up with the computer life-form Quasimodo and gave him a human body. Reed continues his search for a way to turn the thing permanently back into Ben Grimm. They enlist in another doctor who is actually the mad thinker trying to overcome the FF. He tricks Ben into being angry with the FF for not being able to help him. The FF defeat the mad thinker but awaken his android defender in the process, which Reed defeated by baiting into the negative zone.
We get a crossover where Daredevil gets body swapped with Dr. Doom and appearances from Spider-Man and Thor, I always love seeing the characters crossover into each others comics. The Silver Surfer also steals the spotlight for some issues when has a change of heart and decides humans are ungrateful and do not deserve the planet of Earth. Naturally in a fight with the FF they prove to him the strength and resilience of humans and make him fall back in love with humanity. Then Galactus sends his punisher to retrieve Silver Surver to return him as his herald. The surfer hid in the microverse while the FF held off Galactus’ punisher. FF go after surfer and have a show down in the microverse and they convince surfer to return to being Galactus herald. Although Galactus decides to leave him on earth in case he is needed again down the road.
Finally, Reed comes up with a way to turn the Thing into Ben Grimm once and for all. While out on a date with Alicia Masters, she seems less interested in just plain old Ben. He happened to be carrying around power gloves the FF got from the wizard just in case anything happened. He uses the power within the gloves to revert back into the Thing as that is the life he has grown used to. Doctors become concerned with what effect Reed and Sue’s powers might have on the birth of their child. We also saw the return of an old friend, well Johnny’s old friend when the FF get a call from Wyatt Wingfoot. His people are being harrassed by an aboriginal God named Tomazooma and he calls on the FF for help. When the FF arrive though it turns out its truly a Russian Oil company trying to run the natives out of their land for oil.
Finally in annual #6, the baby who has yet to be named by the of this omnibus was born. Reed and Johnny ventured into the negative zone to find a cure for his potential birth hazards. They encounter Annihulus (whom I understand becomes quite a big deal down the road) and make a deal with him to bring the matter back to Earth and save the baby.
With Sue having to take care of the new born, Crystal decides to throw on her FF outfit and indicate her desire to be a member of the team. The Wizard creates some new gloves to counter the abilities of each of the FF’s members but never anticipated Crystal being a member so she was able to defeat him with her elemental powers. Upon returning to the Inhumans to request permission to completely become a member of the FF, they find Maximus has imprisoned the rest of the Inhumans and is somewhat of a Mad King type. He is also able to trick the FF with a form of hypnosis and make them his prisoners as well. Black Bolt shouts to shatter the glass which is trapping the Inhumans and overthrow Black Bolt.
On their way home to the US, shield stops the FF and sends them on a mission to Latveria to recover some hostages. Upon arrival Dr. Doom is welcoming of the FF and wants to treat them like guests in his nation. When Reed tries to leave he triggers a forcefield and an alarm and Dr. Doom threatens anybody that leaves will be killed and his doombots start attacking citizens at random. Doom hypnotizes the FF to be afraid of their own powers making them subconsciously not as effective. The FF team up with citizens of Latveria and we find that Doom didn’t actually activate the doombots himself and they are acting freely. Reed realizes the cause of their powers being suppressed and helps the team overcome it. After defeating the doombots, Doom himself activates a bomb which is meant to destory the entire landmass of Latveria. However a mysterious force field prevents the bomb from harming anybody or anything. The mysterious force field ends up actually being Sue Storms invisibility ability and she reveals herself.
Doom decides to invite the FF over as guests to a dinner party since everyone is still trapped in Latveria at Dooms discretion. Dooms evil scientist gets angry and attempts to kill the FF using a flamethrower and nearly ignites Dooms art collection with it. This makes Doom quite unhappy and he decides to kill the scientist and send the FF home unharmed.
Upon returning home the FF move into a house in the secluded woods where they can avoid having the celebrity status they had in New York. It turns out to be a trap set up by none other than the Mole Man himself. Reed nearly sacrifices his life to stop a buzzing emission that is causing everyone to be blind, leading to the FF’s victory and moving back to the Baxter Building. This leads us into the final story arc where a Skrull showed up and impersonated Reed to convince Ben to come on a ship with him. He ends up kidnapping Ben to be a slave in a fight to the death on a neighboring planet full of earthly gangsters. Reed modifies the Skrull ship the FF obtained in the first omnibus and they track down the Thing and save him. Also causing a revolution on the gangster planet to overthrow the leaders.
This was a very fun omnibus I would recommend to any FF fan. Having read roughly 100 issues and the first 3 omnibus, I would consider myself a fan of the FF now more so than ever before. Though I still don’t know who or what Yancy Street is other than a bunch of hoodlums the thing doesn’t seem to like. And the poor child of Reed and Sue has gone nearly 20 issues without a name. I wonder when he will finally get named!
Thanks for reading! So long!