The Thing: February 2009 Archives

Let us begin a week of celebrating the Presidents of the Marvel Universe.  And what better President to start with than numero 37—Richard Milhous Nixon!

In Fantastic Four #103, the Atlanteans attacked New York City—again!  As this was 1970 and early in Nixon’s administration, naturally he’d be concerned about a city full of liberals getting overrun by mermen.  The Thing is pretty excited to see the commander in chief on Reed’s big screen TV.  I suspect Ben’s really elated to have a device that is decades ahead of its time!

You’re going to see one line over and over again in these Nixon appearances: “Let me make one thing perfectly clear!”  This was Nixon’s signature line in speeches and press conferences.  The Thing’s pretty sure this will be over as soon as he gets his hands on Namor.  Only the problem isn’t just “fish-face”, it’s the evil mutant Magneto behind the attack on NYC!

When the Fantastic Four fail to defeat Namor, Nixon gets on the horn a few hours later.  He’s pretty quick to smackdown Reed for his failure to stop the armed hordes running around Manhattan.  “This is a sad day for Amahrica!”  Love how Stan Lee writes that Nixon accent.  I have to admit, seeing the Sub-Mariner lining up his troops in the Big Apple, that Nixon may have been justified in his frustration.

Nixon lets Reed off the hook one last time.  What’s he gonna due, nuke New York?  He might prefer getting rid of those liberal voters.

My favorite Nixon line seems to be a prophetic one: “We’ve never lost a war before—and I don’t intend to lose one now!”  That’s a not-so-subtle reference to the real-life Vietnam war, which we did lose under Nixon.

The Thing’s reply is classic: “Why worry?  There’s lotsa wars!  Ya lose one—ya find another!” 

I’ll bet anything that Stan voted for Hubert Humphrey. Nuff said.

Fantastic Four had a great run during the mid-1970s, when Roy Thomas wrote the series and was joined by artists like Rich Buckler and George Perez.  During one of these stories, the Thing lost his powers and reverted back to Ben Grimm.  Who replaced him in the FF?

You got it baby: Luke Cage, PowerMan!  Hired at a really good hourly rate by Reed Richards to fill out the team’s roster.  You’d think Ben Grimm would have been happy about getting a break and being able to schwing with his girlfriend, Alicia Masters.  Oh no!

Ben’s feeling left out and jealous when the FF goes off to fight the Wrecker.  It’s kind of ironic, in this 1975 story, Luke Cage fights the Wrecker for the second time (the first was in Defenders #17-19 in 1974).  In New Avengers #7-8 he helps defeat the Wrecker once again, but steals his Asgardian forged crowbar, which he uses to escape the Dark Avengers in New Avengers #49.

Luke Cage only stays with the FF for three issues.  By issue 170, Cage is under the thrall of the Puppet Master and fighting Ben Grimm, who is inside a robot suit that resembles his former rocky self.

There’s gotta be great What If or Exiles material in here somewhere.  What If Cage stayed with the FF and Reed Richards was killed and Cage married Sue Storm?  What If Cage stole Alicia Masters from Ben Grimm?  What If Cage Became the Herald of Galactus?  Sweet Christmas, it’s time to get off this planet!  Nuff said.

I began searching my memories of the Thing's team-ups with African-American superheroes.  Sure, he teamed up with Black Goliath and even Brother Voodoo in Marvel Two-In-One.  But they weren't that great.  Then I saw a visual of the Thing smashing a very powerful sign in 1971 and remembered this issue...

Fantastic Four #119, from 1971, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by John Buscema/Joe Sinnott.  In this issue, the Black Panther has been captured in the fictional country "Rudyarda", but you can completely see this is South Africa.  The Panther has been captured, and the Thing and Human Torch take a trip over there to bust him out.

The villain of this issue is Klaw, the Panther's mortal enemy since his childhood.  However, what really stuck in my memory is this sequence where the heroes see the signs "Coloreds" and "Europeans".  At this point in time, the United States is just emerging from the Civil Rights movement, where this type of thing has been abolished.  As a kid, I was surrounded by relatives from the South, some of whom were pretty racist.

Comics, or any type of fiction/media that young people are exposed to, can help shape values.  Even Alan Moore referred to this in recalling the impact Superman comics had on his youth.  While I always had the feeling that segregation was wrong, the ideas expressed in this Fantastic Four comic really helped me secure my opinions of right and wrong.

The writers of the 1960s-1970s Marvel Comics were really progressive for their times.  The image of those signs behind smashed is what has stayed in my memory for over 30 years!  Nuff said.

Giant-Size Superstars was re-titled Giant-Size Fantastic Four with issue #2, as this Marvel ad heralded to all fandom, it was now available in a Giant-Size 50 cent edition!

I always thought this cover premise was a bit of a letdown.  Yes, we like seeing the Thing and the FF fighting cosmic or world-ending menaces like Galactus.  Gangsters in the roarin’ twenties?  Not so much.  Maybe the editor who came up with this idea had loved the Star Trek episode, “A Piece of the Action”, where Kirk and Spock encounter a world full of Mafia types.  Nuff said.