By Tim Powers
The podcast currently has 12 episodes available.
Jocular Jon Bogdanove and Tim Powers are back with a look at Fantastic Four #8: Meet the Puppet Master. We ALSO meet the future Mrs. Benjamin J. Grimm, Alicia Masters.
Reed has been working on a formula to try and change the Thing back to human form and has Sue and Johnny try to bar Ben from entering his lab until it is finished. This leads to a fight between Ben and the others. Fed up with being kept in the dark, the Thing puts on his coat and hat and leaves the Baxter Building. Worried about Ben, Sue turns invisible and follows after him to make sure nothing bad happens to him. However, the Thing soon becomes aware that Sue is following him and tells her to leave him be. However, Sue spots someone climbing up to the top of the Queensborough Bridge and fires up a signal flare to alert Reed and Johnny. When Reed cannot stretch that far to save the man, Johnny flames on and flies after him.
Not far away is the Puppet Master, who is testing out his radioactive clay that can control the people it is modeled after. Before he can make the man jump, the Torch saves his life and the heat from the Torch's flame causes feedback that burns the Puppet Master's finger. Furious over the interference the Puppet Master vows to eliminate the Fantastic Four before they can meddle in his plans further. When his step-daughter Alicia enters the room to inquire as to what is wrong, he silences her and tells her to obey his wishes as his step-daughter. To get revenge against the Fantastic Four, the Puppet Master fashions a puppet to resemble the Thing taking control of him and sending orders to come to his apartment. However the Puppet Master is unaware that the Invisible Girl is present with him, and seeing Ben enter a trance-like state, she turns invisible and follows after him to see what's wrong.
When Ben and Sue enter the apartment, Sue's presence is betrayed thanks to Alicia's sensitive hearing. Realizing that the Invisible Girl has followed the Thing to his home, the Puppet Master places gas masks on himself, Alicia and Ben and then fills the room with ether, knocking Sue out. Seeing a resemblance between Sue and Alicia, he disguises Alicia as the Invisible Girl and orders her to accompany the mind controlled Thing back to the Baxter Building so the Fantastic Four will fall for his trap even more. The Puppet Master then begins the next phase of his scheme which involves taking control of the warden of the state prison. When Ben and Alicia arrive at the Baxter Building, both Johnny and Reed are unaware of the trap until Ben suddenly starts attacking them.
However, the battle quickly ends when the Thing slams into Reed's chemistry experiment, dousing himself in chemicals that revert him to human form, thus freeing him from the Puppet Master's control. Back in human form, Ben explains everything that happened and Alicia finds comfort in Ben. At first she finds him different, but he suddenly reverts back into the Thing and instantly recognizes him by the touch. Ben is depressed by the fact that the only woman who would be interested in him in his monstrous form just happens to be a blind woman. Meanwhile, the warden at the state prison is ordered by the Puppet Master to free all the prisoners there instigating a massive jailbreak.
Waking up from the ether, Sue tries to flee the apartment, but the creaky floorboards give her away. The Puppet Master uses a puppet of Sue to trip her up, but she still manages to fire off a flare signal to alert the Fantastic Four of her location. Soon Ben, Reed, Johnny and Alicia arrive on the scene. While the male members of the group are held at bay by the Puppet Master's robotic puppet, the group saves Sue, but the Puppet Master gets away. They then hear news reports of the prisoners trying to break out of the state prison and rush to the scene to stop the prisoners from escaping.
With their superior powers, the Fantastic Four are easily able to stop the prisoners from escaping. Meanwhile, the Puppet Master returns to his apartment to try and utilize a puppet of himself that he believes will make him king of the world. However before he can use the puppet Alicia tries to stop him, knocking the puppet from his hand. Lunging for Alicia, the Puppet Master trips over the puppet and goes crashing out the window, down into the street below. The Fantastic Four then arrive and believing that the Puppet Master is dead, comfort Alicia but are left to wonder what caused him to fall out of the window to his apparent demise
Tim Powers & Jon Bogdanove are back with the 7th issue of the original run of Fantastic Four.
Kurrgo the ruler of Planet X is seeking to find a way to save his world from a runaway asteroid that is poised to strike the planet causing an extinction level event. Monitoring the Fantastic Four on Earth, Kurrgo believes that only they can help save his doomed world. This is because the people of Planet X had previously found no reason to explore space and as such only have two working spaceships. Kurrgo takes one of these ships to bring him and his robot to Earth.
On Earth, the Fantastic Four have been invited to attend a government dinner in Washington D.C., although most of the team worries that their powers will cause them to be regarded as freaks or cause embarrassment to themselves, however, they all decide to go when Reed does not accept any of their excuses to bow out. Reed points out to them that he is less than thrilled to go either since he is in the middle of developing a new rocket fuel, but insists that they must attend this social gathering. As they fly to Washington in the Fantasti-Car, Kurrgo's ship lands and his robot uses its atomic scanner to locate the Fantastic Four. As the heroes attend the dinner and are awarded a trophy for their work, Kurrgo activates a Hostility Ray that makes the people of Washington hostile.
his also includes the guests at the dinner who begin attacking the Fantastic Four. Not wanting to hurt the civilians, the Four flee the dinner, using their powers to get past the armed guards who try to bar their path. They board the Fantasti-Car and fly back to New York when they notice that they are being followed by Kurrgo's ship and try to flee it, but it follows them the whole way back to their headquarters the Baxter Building.
There Kurrgo's robot reveals itself to them and shows how the entire population of Earth now hates the Fantastic Four and that they have swarmed the Baxter Building to try and get at the super group. With no other choice, Reed and the others agree to board Kurrgo's ship and return with them to Planet X.
When they arrive on the planet, they learn that Kurrgo has summoned them to use Reed Richard's intelligence to find a way to save his people. Johnny and Ben try to fight against Kurrgo's robot, but Sue makes them stand down and Reed agrees to help. Learning that they have only two working space ships and no time to build more and no means of destroying the asteroid.
Reed devises a shrinking gas that he uses to shrink the entire population of the planet so that they can fit in one rocket, giving the only supposed cannister of growing gas to Kurrgo. As the Fantastic Four blast off back to Earth in one ship, the people of Planet X pile into another. Kurrgo has decided to withhold the growing gas so that he could rule over his diminutive subjects for the rest of his life. However as the planet begins to crumble, Kurrgo trips and falls and witnesses in horror as the ship containing his people blasts off without him. The Fantastic Four meanwhile rocket back home to Earth where Reed reveals to them that he deceived Kurrgo, as he did not create an enlarging gas, telling his teammates that in the vast universe size is relative and that the people of Planet X will find a suitable home, regardless of their actual size.
-- and MUCH MORE.
Jon Bogdanove and Tim Powers are back again to discuss the SIXTH issue of Fantastic Four, when Dr. Doom teams up with the Sub Mariner to try and defeat the Mighty Foursome.
Life seems to finally be taking on a semblance of normalcy for the Fantastic Four, although Sue and Johnny fight over her not-so-secret crush on Namor. Meanwhile, Dr. Doom swearing vengeance for his defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four, recruits The Sub-Mariner to aid in the destruction of the male members of the team. The Fantastic Four had difficulty beating each of these villains on their own - how can they possibly stand up to the combined forces of the Diabolical Duo?
Namor intrudes inside the Baxter building. Then Doom transports the Baxter building in to space. Namor has second thoughts about the team-up, and turns against Doom. There`s a battle and Doom is flung in to space.
Merry Christmas, everybody. Here's the Radio Dramatization of FF#5 to go along with the commentary Jon and Tim did on the issue in the previous episode.
Dig it.
Award winning comic book artist Jon Bogdanove and his pal ciomedian Tim Powers break down Fantastic Four #5 and pay tribute to the late, great Stan Lee, who had just passed shortly before recording this episode.
The Fantastic Four come face to face with Doctor Doom for the first time, the evil genius who would become the group's greatest foe as he attacks the Baxter Building with the intention of recruiting the Fantastic Four to perform a task for him. Taking the Invisible Girl hostage as a bargaining chip, Doom forces Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch, and the Thing to travel back in time via his time machine to steal Blackbeard's treasure for him.
In the past, the three of them find more suitable clothing and to disguise the Thing, Reed covers his eye with an eye patch and gives him a fake black beard. The three then go to a tavern, where they are drugged and shanghaied. They awake aboard a pirate ship and escaping from the hold they assist the pirates in a raid upon another ship; one which is loaded full of gems. Upon their success, the pirates choose the Thing to be their captain, and due to his fake black beard they name 'Blackbeard'.
The Thing tells Reed and Johnny that he wants to stay in the past, since he's the captain of a ship here, but in the present day he's merely a freak. Reed and Johnny try to convince him otherwise but a tornado hits before the Thing can make a final decision. The tornado smashes the ship to bits and Johnny, Ben and Reed make it to shore and recover the treasure chest which Reed fills with old chains, claiming they never agreed to bring Doom the actual treasure, just the chest. Doctor Doom believing they have had enough time recalls the trio and after a confrontation with a robot mimicking himself he captures the trio once more. Forgetting about the Invisible Woman though she manages to escape Doom's presence and free her comrades before both they and Doom escape and go their separate ways.
The 1975 radio dramatization of FF #4 which re-introduces the Sub-Mariner into the new Marvel Universe.
Bill Murray is the Human Torch!
At a stage performance, a man who calling himself the Miracle Man demonstrates his amazing powers including invulnerability and strength greater than the Thing. The Fantastic Four flying home in their Fantasticar are relieved that the Miracle Man isn't a menace. However, unbeknownst to them, the Miracle Man has indeed decided to turn to crime beginning by bringing a monstrous statue to life!
Splitting up to search for the giant monster Mr. Fantastic finds the it robbing a jewelry store and tries to stop it but the monster escapes when the Miracle Man throws a brick at Mr. Fantastic. The rest of the team then encounter the monster but as the Human Torch burns it to the ground though the Miracle Man escapes though the Invisible Girl manages to tail him while invisible. The remaining members of the team meanwhile get into a fight and Johnny Storm storms off.
The Miracle Man discovering the Invisible Girl hypnotizes her into obeying him. Ordering her to signal the Fantastic Four he then sabotages the Fantasti-copter and attempts to flee in a stolen atomic tank and the Fantastic Four set off in chase. During the chase the Human Torch makes his flame so bright that the flash blinds the Miracle Man, rendering him powerless since all along he was merely hypnotizing people to see things. However, the Human Torch and the Thing argue once again and the Human Torch announces that he is leaving the Fantastic Four forever and flies away.
Comics art legend Jon Bogdanove and comedian Tim Powers plow through two important issues of The World's Greatest Comic Magazine; Issued 3 and 4.
At a stage performance, a man who calling himself the Miracle Man demonstrates his amazing powers including invulnerability and strength greater than the Thing. The Fantastic Four flying home in their Fantasticar are relieved that the Miracle Man isn't a menace. However, unbeknownst to them, the Miracle Man has indeed decided to turn to crime beginning by bringing a monstrous statue to life!
Splitting up to search for the giant monster Mr. Fantastic finds the it robbing a jewelry store and tries to stop it but the monster escapes when the Miracle Man throws a brick at Mr. Fantastic. The rest of the team then encounter the monster but as the Human Torch burns it to the ground though the Miracle Man escapes though the Invisible Girl manages to tail him while invisible. The remaining members of the team meanwhile get into a fight and Johnny Storm storms off.
The Miracle Man discovering the Invisible Girl hypnotizes her into obeying him. Ordering her to signal the Fantastic Four he then sabotages the Fantasti-copter and attempts to flee in a stolen atomic tank and the Fantastic Four set off in chase. During the chase the Human Torch makes his flame so bright that the flash blinds the Miracle Man, rendering him powerless since all along he was merely hypnotizing people to see things. However, the Human Torch and the Thing argue once again and the Human Torch announces that he is leaving the Fantastic Four forever and flies away.
AND
Picking up where the last issue ends Johnny Storm following an argument with the Thing, and generally feeling under-appreciated by the team, quits the Fantastic Four and flies off. Soon after the other members of the Fantastic Four go in search of him and fearing him to be a threat the military and police set out in hunt of him as well. The Thing finds Johnny working on his hot rod and the two fight before Johnny flees to the Bowery to hide. In a Bowery flophouse the Human Torch then discovers the Sub-Mariner.
The Sub-Mariner disheveled and suffering from amnesia has his memory restored when Johnny Storm realises it is him and drops him into the sea in an attempt to restore his memory. The Sub-Mariner swims off to his home only to find his home city of Atlantis destroyed by nuclear bomb tests and he swears vengeance upon mankind. Using the Horn of Proteus, the Sub-Mariner summons Giganto, a massive sea monster and the Fantastic Four, once again reunited, defeat the monster by having the Thing carry an atomic bomb into it's stomach.
Sub-Mariner about to attempt to summon more sea monsters with the Horn of Proteus, is unable to do so when the Invisible Girl steals it from him. As the Sub-Mariner grabs her she becomes visible and the Sub-Mariner instantly falls in love with her and promises to give up his war on humanity if she will be his queen. Sue agrees, but when the other team members try to intervene, he vows to have both Sue and his war!
This episode presents the 1974 VINYL RECORD that came with an abridged version of FF 126 as a Book & Record set from the good people at POWER RECORDS. Listen and see if you don't think The Human Torch sounds an awful lot like Speed Racer.
Produced by Herb Davidson and Charlotte Saunders. Written by Roy Thomas, art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott.
Award Winning Marvel and DC Comics artist Jon Bogdanove and Podcast Producer Tim Powers go issue-by-issue through the original 1961 run of Marvel's Fantastic Four. This episode: #2. "Meet the Skrulls."
This issue is broken into 4 sections which delineate what happens pretty well. In section 1, The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space!, we are introduced the Skrull for the first time, but not before they are shown impersonating the fantastic team performing crimes. The reveal that these crimes were actually perpetrated by shape-shifting Skrull worked pretty well and I think they were clever in simulating the Fantastic Four's powers with various technology. The second section, Prisoner of the Skrulls, shows our heroes imprisoned by the army for the crimes, but not for long – there aren't many cells that can hold the super powered team, and soon The Human Torch has found the base of the Skrull. In part 3, The Fantastic Four Fight Back!, the team heads to the Skrull mothership and convinces the leadership that Earth's most powerful warriors – creatures depicted in Marvel's Strange Tales, and Journey into Mystery comic books – are too much for the Skrull to take over the planet. The final section, The Fantastic Four Captured, show how the team takes care of the remaining Skrull on Earth and convince the army they didn't commit the crimes.
This issue takes off from the first and only briefly touches on the origin story, but it makes sure that readers who jump on at this point know how the team got their powers. But it is made pretty clear that the Fantastic Four are known to the world and to aliens from outer space. The Skrull know the team are powerful and try to make the authorities take them out before the invasion happens so I've got to give them credit, along with their ingenuity for how they pull off their impersonations. I'm still not too sure about the Thing's aggression towards everything, including his teammates, but he IS the only hero who's been turned into a rocky beast.
The podcast currently has 12 episodes available.