Roy Thomas's Illicit Wank

Hello, and welcome to episode 155 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

This week, we're looking at Roy Thomas's final issue of the Fantastic Four for a couple of years. It's the concluding part of the two-part story pitting Crystal, Quicksilver and Johnny against the Alpha Primitives in the Inhumans' Great Refuge, and big changes are in store for the team by the end of the issue. Costume changes, lineup changes, relationship changes, writer changes... everything's changing!

It's a story of maturity, and a story of confused imperialistic themes and of misplaced audience sympathies. It's also a story of Steve trying to tiptoe through the language of talking about this, with mixed success. It's also a story of Black Bolt's Coffee Shop, but that's a very small part of the story.

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Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.