The Fantasticast

A Review

Hello, and welcome to episode 262.5 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

And we're back, sneaking in with a special minisode just before the end of the year. And we're not the only ones who are back. Marvel Two-in-One #1 sees the Fantastic Four appearing together in a Marvel comic for the first time since at least the end of Secret Wars, and we're here to take a look.

This is a spoiler-packed discussion of Marvel Two-in-One #1 by Chip Zdarsky, Jim Cheung, John Dell, Walden Wong, Frank Martin, and VC's Joe Caramagna. How do the adventures of Johnny and Ben bear up given the weight of expectations born by the FF's long absence, both in-and-out of the Marvel Universe? Find out, as we take a look at this new #1.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at www.TheFantasticast.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

The Fantasticast is Patreon supported. Visit www.patreon.com/fantasticast to donate and support us.

The Fantasticast is part of the Flickering Myth Podcast network.

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

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

KISS Me Quick

Hello, and welcome to episode 262 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

We close out our episodes for 2017 with a nifty little threesome. First up, we find out what happens when Spider-Man goes up against the entire Fantastic Four, in Marvel Team-Up #61. Well, as close to the entire team as you can get, while just being one person. The Human Torch guest stars as future Fantastic Four creators Chris Claremont and John Byrne, along with Dave Hunt, make their debuts.

Then we're off to Long Island to check in with Marvel's teen superhero, Nova. In amongst his battles with perennial FF nemesis The Sandman, he finds time to put the fear of the almighty into the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing. And finally, we check in Gene Simmons et al as KISS find themselves on a whistle-stop tour of the Marvel Universe, in Marvel Comics Super-Special #1.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at www.TheFantasticast.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

The Fantasticast is Patreon supported. Visit www.patreon.com/fantasticast to donate and support us.

The Fantasticast is part of the Flickering Myth Podcast network.

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

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

Meadows, Airplanes, and Hypnosis

Hello, and welcome to episode 261 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 return to jolly old London town for the further adventures of Ben Grimm in the Land of Blighty. Both the Thing and Spider-Woman find themselves on the trail of the missing Alicia Masters, to stop HYDRA from turning her into a horrific spider-mutant. Meanwhile, the most unlikely treasure hunt since the last Nicholas Cage movie continues.

Yes, it's Marvel Two-in-One #31, presented by Marv Wolfman, Ron Wilson, and Sam Grainger. As well as kicking holes in the plot, we examine the events of the Blitz, the use of body horror in contemporaneous Marvel comics, the appearance of Spider-Woman-Woman, and the events that made Andy remark, ?I don't think they thought this through..."

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at www.TheFantasticast.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

The Fantasticast is Patreon supported. Visit www.patreon.com/fantasticast to donate and support us.

The Fantasticast is part of the Flickering Myth Podcast network.

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

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

11PT SPLASH SUBTITLE HERE

Hello, and welcome to episode 260 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

Brutacus! Hydron! Thornn! Vakume! Gazelle! Reptilia! Vertigo! Salem's Seven are here, and you'd better be afraid of their awesome might! See how they cow the Fantastic Four! Marvel at their powers! Delight in their artistic depiction! Snigger at their method of defeat!

Len Wein, George Perez, and Joe Sinnott present Fantastic Four #186, featuring the introduction of Salem's Seven. And, let's be honest, we'd all rather that they hadn't. Thrill as we discuss the possibilities of water-absorbing snakes! Gape agog as we discover the dumbest thing since Strange Tales! Plug your ears as someone sings!

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at www.TheFantasticast.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

The Fantasticast is Patreon supported. Visit www.patreon.com/fantasticast to donate and support us.

The Fantasticast is part of the Flickering Myth Podcast network.

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

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

Cripes, Explosion!

Hello, and welcome to episode 259 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 returning to jolly ol' London town for an issue of Marvel Two-in-One. Ben just wants to relax and see the sights, but Spider-Woman insists on attacking at every opportunity, and two crooks are content to blow up everything they can to avoid attracting attention. It's not a particularly clever plan, but it's the one we've got.

Marv Wolfman, John Buscema, and Pablo Marcos present Marvel Two-in-One #30, a comic book that, if you hold at an angle and squint slightly, makes sense. As well as the plot and art, we discuss how to forget Julia Carpenter, the usefulness of Spider-Woman's hood, and just what Steve misses about Eastenders.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at www.TheFantasticast.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

The Fantasticast is Patreon supported. Visit www.patreon.com/fantasticast to donate and support us.

The Fantasticast is part of the Flickering Myth Podcast network.

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

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

Construct-A-Non-Fantasticar

Hello, and welcome to episode 258 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

Where there be witches? Here? Here there be witches? Uh-oh... we'd better be nice about them, then. And considering that the witches that be here eventually give way to Salem's Seven, that's not going to be easy... Yes, the Fantastic Four continue their baby-and-nanny hunt with a trip to New Salem, a town hidden behind a terrible wind. Make your own jokes...

Len Wein, George Perez, and Joe Sinnott introduce us to Nicholas Scratch in Fantastic Four #185. And if you think his name is suspicious, that's nothing compared to his beard... All this, plus some retro uniforms, a very specific form of subtlety, and a sort of heat portal thing that totally makes sense, oh yes.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at www.TheFantasticast.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

The Fantasticast is Patreon supported. Visit www.patreon.com/fantasticast to donate and support us.

The Fantasticast is part of the Flickering Myth Podcast network.

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

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

Bruce Forsyth is... The Master of Kung-Fu!

Hello, and welcome to episode 257 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

Groetjes uit Nederland! And I totally had to Google Translate that... Yes, the Big Move (tm) is over, and Steve is ensconced in a small town in the south of The Netherlands, with only a few issues of Marvel Two-in-One for company. Luckily, one of these is Marvel Two-in-One #29, in which Shang-Chi and The Thing team up to beat up HYDRA agents beneath the streets of London.

Marv Wolfman, Ron Wilson, and Sam Grainger present a tale of introspective wanderings through the (mostly accurate) streets of London, a suspicious Italian restaurant, and a narratively-unimportant boyfriend. We also get to see The Thing on a Routemaster, and we ask the question: Who is the mysterious colourist?

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at www.TheFantasticast.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

The Fantasticast is Patreon supported. Visit www.patreon.com/fantasticast to donate and support us.

The Fantasticast is part of the Flickering Myth Podcast network.

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

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

Abyssinia Surbiton

Hello, and welcome to episode 256 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

It's a bittersweet week for one of our hosts on The Fantasticast. It's the final episode recorded in the place where the podcast was conceived, where every episode was recorded, edited, and published. And yet, among all the endings is a reminder of beginnings, as we cover the first comic that Steve ever brought that was older than him - Fantastic Four #184.

Len Wein, George Perez, and Joe Sinnott are on hand to transition us away from the crowded Baxter Building to the dilapidated Whisper Hill, as the Fantastic Four start their quest to locate Reed and Sue's missing son Franklin, encountering cyborgs, movies, vacuum jets, metallic eggs, and the many costumes of Thundra.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at www.TheFantasticast.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

The Fantasticast is Patreon supported. Visit www.patreon.com/fantasticast to donate and support us.

The Fantasticast is part of the Flickering Myth Podcast network.

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

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

Weekend At Deathlok's

Hello, and welcome to episode 255 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 heading under the Atlantic Ocean to adventure in Atlantis with the Sub-Mariner. Marvel Two-in-One #28 sees the return of The Piranha, a villain so obscure that he would be forgotten about for another 24 years of comics. Anyway, it's not really him, but hundreds of mutated piranhas who ate the original Piranha and mutated into copies of him and... I need an aspirin!

Marv Wolfman, Ron Wilson, and John Tartaglione present this story of unlikely air traffic routes, breathing pills, ampitheatre mechanics, piranha-ical proportions, and a Crisis on Multiple Irene V's!

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at www.TheFantasticast.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

The Fantasticast is Patreon supported. Visit www.patreon.com/fantasticast to donate and support us.

The Fantasticast is part of the Flickering Myth Podcast network.

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

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

Annihilus's Aerial Butler

Hello, and welcome to episode 254 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

And lo, there shall come an ending (of sorts). We're looking at Fantastic Four #183, featuring a battle at the Baxter Building, in which almost all of the in-progress plots come to a head almost seamlessly. You wouldn't guess that there were six writers involved in the creation of this comic. Or maybe you might...

Anyway, Mantlo, Wein, Shooter, Stern, Macchio and Slifer team up with Buscema (S.) and Slifer to bring us this tale of Annihilus, abandoned androids, inopportune times to loot the Baxter Building, a reversal of a blow a head making you evil, and an ill-judged attempt to replicate the success of This Man, This Monster. All this, and a discussion as to the value of a retcon. Because we love you. Somewhat.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at www.TheFantasticast.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

The Fantasticast is Patreon supported. Visit www.patreon.com/fantasticast to donate and support us.

The Fantasticast is part of the Flickering Myth Podcast network.

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

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.