FANTASTIC FOUR #284

"REVOLUTION!"
Artist/Writer: John Byrne | Letterer: John Workman | Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Edits: Michael Carlin | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
And welcome back to Al Gordon, Inker

The Plot: She-Hulk toils as a slave in the mines of Nuvidia, her will sapped by Psycho-Man. She meets Pearla, former queen of Nuvidia, who explains how Psycho-Man came to rule her land. When a guard comes across the pair and wounds Pearla, She-Hulk snaps out of her fearful state and fights back.

Meanwhile, Psycho-Man escapes the Fantastic Four’s custody and the remaining trio splits up to find him. When Reed begins to doubt himself, Sue realizes Psycho-Man is nearby. Using her power of invisibility, she gets the drop on him and takes his emotion control box, which she then uses on him.

Johnny runs across She-Hulk and Pearla and the FF are reunited. With Psycho-Man defeated, Pearla reclaims her throne. In the aftermath of the conflict, Sue declares that the Invisible Girl is no more — she will now be known as the Invisible Woman.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: First and foremost, this issue marks a major (and long overdue) update to Susan Richards: she adopts the codename “Invisible Woman” to reflect the experience and maturity she’s gained since becoming an adventurer years earlier.

X-MEN: PHALANX COVENANT

Hardcover, 2014. Collects 1993-94's UNCANNY X-MEN #306, #311 - 314, & #316 - 317, X-MEN #36 & 37, X-FACTOR #106, X-FORCE #38, EXCALIBUR #78 - 82, CABLE #16, and WOLVERINE #85.

No, your eyes don't deceive you. Reading the contents above and comparing them with the contents of THE WEDDING OF CYCLOPS AND PHOENIX, which we covered last time, we've skipped five issues of X-MEN. This can be seen in greater detail over on my popular X-Men Collected Editions Chart. This gap is notable for being the only chunk of Fabian Nicieza's X-MEN uncollected, as well as one of only two chunks (along with issues 58 - 61) of uncollected X-MEN in general when using Scott Lobdell's five-year run on the sister title as a measuring stick (which itself is only missing issues 338 - 340 at this point). With any luck, someday in the near future, Marvel will plug these small holes and we'll finally have a full run of the Lobdell/Niciza UNCANNY and X-MEN in collected format.

At any rate -- "Phalanx Covenant" was 1994's X-Men event, pitting the merry mutants against the techno-organic Phalanx, a sort of mutated offshoot of the alien Technarchy which begat deceased New Mutant Warlock. The hardcover collection starts up with the obligatory recap, before moving into some lead-in material preceding the crossover proper. Remember when X-MEN: FATAL ATTRACTIONS skipped UNCANNY X-MEN #306 but included issue 315 as an epilogue? Well, PHALANX COVENANT is here to fix that little problem, plugging the issue 306 hole by printing that Phalanx-centric tale here, but skipping the non-Phalanx issue 315 instead. It's almost like they planned it that way!

UNCANNY 306's inclusion is due to the fact that it's the X-Men's first encounter with the Phalanx, as writer Scott Lobdell and artist John Romita, Jr. send Archangel and Jean Grey into the clutches of their old enemy Cameron Hodge at Archangel's one-time home in New Mexico. This represents something Lobdell did often during his run on UNCANNY; something I really like: he introduces the villain of the following year's crossover somewhere in the vicinity of the current year's. In this case, the X-Men were in between chapters of "Fatal Attractions" when the Phalanx were introduced.

TRANSFORMERS: WAR WITHIN: THE DARK AGES #1

Writer: Simon Furman | Pencils: Andrew Wildman | Inks: Erik Sander
Colors: Espen Grundetjern, Rob Ruffalo & Ramil Sunga | Letters: Benjamin Lee
President: Pat Lee | VP/Editor-in-Chief: Roger Lee

The Plot: Optimus Prime and Megatron are lost in a space bridge accident. Meanwhile, a being called the Fallen appears in the wake of their disappearance. Eventually, the Transformers splinter into several factions smaller than simple Autobots and Decepticons. In the ruins of Iacon, Hound reports to Prowl that the Decepticons' new mobile base is nearly complete. Elsewhere, the Fallen recruits Bludgeon, Mindewipe, and Bugly as his disciples.

Later, Grimlock's Lightning Strike Coalition steals a shipment of Energon from Starscream's Predacons. Beneath Cybertron, the Fallen tells his followers to go after Grimlock, then leads them into a hidden chamber.

Continuity Notes: An undetermined amount of time has passed since the first WAR WITHIN mini-series, and I'm only saying that here because there are literally no other continuity notes to be found in this issue. Simon Furman is clearly looking straight ahead at this point.

G1 References: The space bridge, an interplanetary teleportation system, is an invention of the original TRANSFORMERS cartoon series, though it later played a role in the Marvel comics as well (where it was artistically literalized as an actual glowing suspension bridge for some reason).

Grimlock nearly calls Swoop "Divebomb" in one scene, a reference to a tale from the U.K. comics in which the character had that name "stolen" from him by a Decepticon.

FANTASTIC FOUR #283

"TORMENT"
Penciler-Scripter: John Byrne | Inker: Jerry Ordway
Letterer: John Workman | Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Edits: Michael Carlin | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: The Invisible Girl finds herself trapped in an alien world with slightly "off" versions of Mister Fantastic, the Thing, and the Human Torch. Sue fails to use her force field to protect Johnny from death, and then is paralyzed by inaction when the Thing dies as well. Reed berates her to the point that he fails to spot his own demise, then he, too, perishes.

These visions are the work of Psycho-Man, who has Reed, Sue, and Johnny prisoner at miniature size in his lab. He taunts the team as he manipulates Sue’s emotions. Meanwhile, She-Hulk is prisoner of Psycho-Man’s subjects in a dungeon, where she is told she will soon be sent to the Mines of Nuvidia.

Reed escapes from his cell and defeats Psycho-Man, who he has deduced is actually still at his normal size within a gigantic exo-skeleton. He then frees the others, but Sue begs the question: where is She-Hulk??

THE UNBOXING - SEPTEMBER 2016

As noted last month, my purchasing has dwindled quite a bit recently -- and while I don't necessarily mind, it makes for a mild annoyance when I don't have an Unboxing ready for a given month. I already skipped May of this year, and September was also going to turn up empty, which would've been a record around these parts.

So, even though I didn't get any newly released items from Marvel, DC, or the rest, I decided I would "unbox" a few things I already had. See, while I post all my monthly pre-ordered arrivals here, I do acquire other books throughout the year via gift cards, sales, etc. So today we'll take a look at a couple of items I've actually had for several months, thanks to some Christmastime Amazon gift cards: SPIDER-MAN: THE ULTIMATE NEWSPAPER COMICS COLLECTION volumes 1 and 2.

Released by IDW's imprint The Library of American Comics, these volumes collect all of the original syndicated Spidey strips by Stan Lee and John Romita, as published between 1977 and 1981. Marvel previously released this material themselves some years back in both hardcover and paperback format, but as I understand it, both versions had issues so I opted to skip them. But IDW has impressed me with their Library of American Comics offerings (more on that at some point in the future), so I decided to finally take the plunge.

There's a recently released third volume out there as well, collecting stripes beyond '81 by Lee with artistic contributions from Larry Leiber and Fred Kida. I plan to pick that up when the opportunity presents itself.

The Spider-Man strip has, in recent years (and for some time as my teenage recollections seem to recall) been... not great. But I really look forward to reading these "new to me" Lee/Romita Spidey stories, and you'd better believe that when I get to them -- most likely sooner rather than later -- I'll talk about them right here!

Available on Amazon: Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3

TRANSFORMERS: THE WAR WITHIN #6

Story: Simon Furman | Pencils: Don Figueroa | Inks: Elaine To
Colors: Rob Ruffalo | Color Assists: David Cheung & Elliot Kravchik
Letters: Dreamer Design | Graphic Design: Kevin Lee & Matt Moylan
Pre-Press: Kell-O-Graphics | President/Art Director: Pat Lee | VP/Editor-in-Chief: Roger Lee

The Plot: As Iacon crumbles thanks to the mechaforming process, Optimus Prime hunts Megatron beneath Cybertron's surface. Meanwhile, Kup, Ironhide, and Wheeljack battle Starscream's forces in the mechaforming control room. Shockwave orders a Decepticon retreat from Iacon and the Autobots follow suit.

Optimus defeats Megatron while Grimlock arrives to aid Kup and company. Scrapper attempts to deactivate the mechaforming, but Starscream holds him back. Optimus Prime appears and rallies the Autobots. Together they force Starscream into retreat and destroy the Cybertronian engine conducting the mechaforming. However the damage is done and Iacon is destroyed.

Reunited with the rest of the Autobots, Optimus Prime rescinds his order to evacuate the planet, telling the Autobots they must stay and fight as an underground guerilla force. Meanwhile, Megatron finds Soundwave beneath the surface and together they head back topside. Later, Optimus tells Grimlock that he was given the combined knowledge of all previous Primes the day he was anointed, but he has chosen to ignore that information and make his own way as the new Autobot commander.

FANTASTIC FOUR #282

"INWARDS TO INFINITY!"
Script-Pencils: John Byrne | Inker: Jerry Ordway
Colorist: Glynis Oliver | Lettering: John Workman
Editor: Michael Carlin | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Young Franklin Richards has a bizarre dream in which he’s chased by monsters across an alien landscape and meets an injured space horse, culminating with his crossing paths with the child super-team, Power Pack. Franklin then awakens and goes to tell his parents about the dream.

In the basement of Avengers’ Mansion, Reed has reconstructed his reducto-craft for a trip to the Microverse, though he’s uncertain the FF should leave Earth since the Beyonder is lurking about. But Sue’s vehement desire for revenge on Psycho-Man convinces Reed, and after leaving Franklin with Jarvis, the FF depart.

The reducto-craft is hit by an unknown force as it crosses the barrier to the Microverse. When the FF arrive, Reed and Johnny note that the realm seems different somehow. Johnny takes off to scout, but is captured, with the rest of the team joining him in short order. The Fantastic Four realize that they are prisoners of Psycho-Man, who is unexpectedly several times larger than them.