Fantastic Four in the 70s
The End of a Bromance
With the end of the 1960s, the long-running creative team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby began to wear down. The stories becoming weaker and weaker. If you ask me, it sounds like that Jack Kirby was coming up with most of these plots because these stories all center around either the Inhumans or androids, two things Jack Kirby had a massive boner for. One highlight at the end of this legendary run was the naming of Reed and Sue’s child in issue #94.
However, the rest of the run was duds with lame villains like the Monocle, the Monster of the Lost Lagoon (a blatant rip-off of the Creature of the Black Lagoon), peppered between battles with the Mad Thinker, the Inhumans, the Puppet Master, and the mob. There was also a story about the Fantastic Four saving the Moon landing (yes, the first moon landing) Even issue #100 was underwhelming in that the team only fought android duplicates of their rogue gallery.
Kirby left the title (and Marvel) in the middle of a three-issue arc where the Sub-Mariner teams-up with Magneto between issues #102-104. John Romita took over as artist on the book in issue #102. He remained as an artist until issue #106 when he was replaced by John Buscema.
Ain’t Worth Jack
Without Jack Kirby, the Fantastic Four took a heavy blow. Also, it was the late 60's/early 70's and I feel this is the period in which Stan Lee hit the glass ceiling of his creativity. This run shows that Lee ran out of any particularly good ideas, especially without Jack Kirby to work off of. It was so bad that at one point, Lee recycled an unfinished story that he did with Jack Kirby that he had initially rejected. Incidentally, this was about the same time that Jack started working at DC Comics. However, these stories were not that great, featuring two plot lines where members of the Fantastic Four go bad (the Thing and Mr. Fantastic). It also gave us a rather underwhelming foe, the Overmind, who was apparently supposed to be a Galactus level threat that fell kind of flat.If anything, this run is notable for the end of the Human Torch's relationship with Crystal, the first hint that Franklin Richards had powers. There is also a forgettable moment where the Fantastic Four are forced to work with Doctor Doom for the first time. Lee couldn’t even carry that plot forward, having Archie Goodwin wrapping up the Overmind story in #116 and a prolonged epilogue to Crystal leaving the team in the following issues.
After a lukewarm one-off story by Roy Thomas in issue #119 that commentated on racial segregation in South Africa, Stan Lee came back to writing Fantastic Four. Unfortunately, he was still striking out. He wrote an uninspiring return of Galactus, which is one of the weakest Galactus stories ever wherein Galactus has a new herald called the Air-Walker (actually a robot) to try and force the Silver Surfer back into serving him. He then followed it up with the return of the Creature of the Lost Lagoon, one of the weakest characters he and Kirby created.
The Torch is Passed for the First Time
The series was then picked up by Roy Thomas, who can be best described as the guy who picked up the ball when Stan just couldn't come up with great ideas anymore. Thomas has done some great work, but his first run on Fantastic Four (issues #126-137) was suffering from the same lack of imagination that the Post-Jack Kirby comics suffered from. However, there are some minor plus points.
He started off in issue #126 by retelling the Fantastic Four’s origins, giving some esthetic changes to the origins — such as addressing some of Ben Grimm’s racist comments from Fantastic Four #1.
The first being that Roy tried to do something with the Invisible Girl that didn't involve her being the doting female and frequent damsel in distress. To this end, he actually created an interesting plot wherein Sue had grown tired of being on the sidelines to the point where she took her son and left her husband. This leads to the second plot point that is iconic, if not a stellar read: The relationship between Crystal to Quicksilver of the Avengers. This was the final nail in the coffin for any hope that the Torch and Crystal were going to get back together (for a long long time) and it also brought Medusa onto the team. The run ends with a story that focuses on Thomas' obsession with the 1950s. Roy Thomas had a huge boner for revisiting previous decades he grew-up in. If Roy Thomas could shoe-horn a story about the 40s or 50s into a title he was writing, he’d do it. The only revolutionary thing about that story was the fact that since it was published in the 70s it's twice as dated.
Marital problems and Feminism — As Told by Men.
After Thomas, Gerry Conway took over the title from issue #138 to 152. Focusing on the still disintegrating relationship between Reed and Sue. It also features a ridiculously contrived plot by Doctor Doom and reappearances of the Miracle Man and Sub-Mariner. New characters created by Conway, including a race of abominable snowmen and Darkoth are pretty weak.
The only new character introduced that has had any sort of longevity since was the introduction of Thundra. Meant to be a further commentary on women's liberation and treating women as equals fail miserably. A lot of that is the era in which this story was published (the 70s) and the fact that the writer didn't really know what he was talking about. The last story in his arc was finished by Tony Isabella, which certainly didn't help much.
Also, it features a lame resolution to the Reed and Sue separation: The Inhumans and Namor stage a fake attack on New York City, just to make the couple realize they still love each other. Kind of excessive don't you think?
Some highlights though: Franklin's powers getting shut down leaving him in a vegetative state and the wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver.
Len Wein took over from Fantastic Four #154-157, clearly meant as a fill-in writer, one of his stories actually is filler that reprints an old Human Torch story from Strange Tales. Outside of that, it's a particularly weak story about Doctor Doom manipulating the Silver Surfer to steal his powers... again. Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4 however, featured the first appearance of Multiple Man , so there's that.
Mister Fantastic’s Erectile Dysfunction
Roy Thomas later came back to the series and it is riddled with good-not-great stories but mostly a lot of fluff. He brought Sue back on the team and got rid of Medusa. It features a plotline where three realities go to war, clearly trying to copy the various Justice League/Justice Society cross-overs that DC had been doing for years at that point. It featured a universe where Reed Richards was the Thing, and Johnny Storm was a cosmically powered hockey goalie (no joke).
There was also the reappearance of the 50's Marvel Boy (sorta), again typical 50's retro stuff Thomas was known for at the time.
Then there's a rather banal storyline wherein the Thing teams up with the Hulk only to lose his powers. It follows a short-lived and awful, story where Power Man briefly joins the team long enough for Reed to build an exoskeleton that mimics the Thing's powers. This all culminates to a story where the FF have to save Counter-Earth from Galactus, very derivative of the original Lee/Kirby story.
Also running through all this is a plot where Reed is beginning to lose his powers... So basically he's becoming impotent. He later gets dumped into the Negative Zone by his double from Counter-Earth. A plot that completely changes gears, when the story is suddenly taken over by Archie Goodwin and Bill Mantlo. If I were to speculate, it appeared that Roy was looking to change the Fantastic Four roster with Tigra, Thundra, the Impossible Man and the Thing. There's also a Mad Thinker scheme that goes absolutely nowhere.
I suppose if there is any saving grace for this run it's the fact that it is beautifully drawn by the very talented George Perez. It also introduces Johnny's next love interest, Frankie Raye.
Len Wien returned to the series by this point, and it only gets worse from here. In this run, Reed decides that because he lost his powers the Fantastic Four should split up. Instead of replacing him with someone else (like they always did before) the team decides to go for it. It then continues with stand-alone issues where each member of the team is pursuing their own thing.
It introduced forgettable characters like the Eliminator and Nicholas Scratch. It also saw the departure as George Perez as the artist. Keith Pollard takes over from there. While Keith does a decent job, it's not as impressive as Perez.
If It Wasn’t Bad Enough, They Also Brought in HERBIE the Robot
There are a lot of duds in this run. Wolfman tied up the "Reed has no powers thing" by doing a story where Doctor Doom restores Reed's powers and tries to take over the world using a clone of himself. It's very convoluted.
From there, Marv ties up the loose ends from his then recently canceled Nova series wherein the Fantastic Four help Nova and his allies stop a Skrull invasion of the planet Xandar. Also, he tries to cram in a story where Johnny goes back to school, only to abandon it later.
Things only get better -- and only marginally -- with the addition of John Byrne doing the art starting with issue #209. Byrne is one of my all-time favorite artists, so his addition is a sight for sore eyes after watching a parade of artists following the generic "Marvel Style" since the departure of George Perez. Unfortunately, this story also brings in HERBIE the robot from that god-awful Fantastic Four cartoon. There is also a plot where most of the Fantastic Four get turned into octogenarians by the Skrulls. That’s how the 70s end, don’t worry, the next decade gets better, at least for a little while…