And I say, "No. It's the one where the FF first meet the Inhumans."
"Then you're like us!" They say. "Come with me to our underground lair where I can introduce you to my bizarre family and their paranoid ways!"
I say, "Thanks, luv, but I get enough of that at home."
That aside, it's all true. The first Inhumans story is indeed my favourite Fantastic Four tale of. And it all kicks off with the magnificent issue #44, surely as random and meaningless a comic as there's ever been.
Gun in hand, she forces him to help her flee a mysterious figure called Gorgon who likes kicking things. While the Torch and Medusa are chin-wagging, they bump into Dragon Man - freshly revived after his last appearance, and up for doing a King Kong with Medusa.
It all leads to a rooftop confrontation, involving the FF, Medusa, Gorgon and the Dragon Man, before Dragon Man abducts Sue, Gorgon abducts Medusa, and everyone else finds themselves trapped in a collapsing building.
This feeling's especially strong if you've read later instalments. Given what we know about what happens in those, nothing that Medusa or Gorgon do or say in this issue makes any sense at all.
But who cares? What we're seeing is a strip approaching the peak of its creativity, one that means all sense and logic become irrelevant. It's pure escapism and it's great.
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7 comments:
My brother and I a fans of the classic King Kong. He later watched the Jackson version with his wife, who pointed out the many plot holes in the story. Yet when she had seen the first version, with the same plot holes, she said nothing. Why? The pace of the first movie is so much faster you don't have TIME to nitpick, you just want to enjoy the action.
Much the same with the FF at it's best. Who has time for plot holes when you're having so much fun!
i also dug this story! the Inhumans are interesting
I always found the Inhumans kind of boring. Apart from Medusa and Crystal perhaps.
They were certainly not great when it came to carrying a strip of their own. But, as supporting characters - and as a concept - they always grabbed me.
I do think they were improvising on the fly with many of their comics. I think that the genius lies in that they were able to take these pieces and make them meaningful. In this day in age of overarching "mythologies" in shows like "Alcatraz" or "Lost" I truly appreciate that they were to after the fact find an interesting niche for the Inhumans.
Lazarus Lupin
http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/
I loved this story. Actually, I think FF #44 is where this comic really started to click.
Lazarus, of course one of the main criticisms of Lost was that they were 'making it up as they went along'. In fact, they weren't, but I never saw the problem with improvising a story. It often brings a kind of dream logic into play, that sense that anything could happen next - and that's what you get with these freewheeling Fantastic Four tales when Stan let Jack off the leash.
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