The Fantasticast

Tank O' Doom

Hello, and welcome to episode 224 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 indulging our villainous side, as we explore Super-Villain Team-Up #5. Namor and Doctor Doom take the lead, leaving the Fantastic Four to move in their orbit. Despite being a team-up title, Doctor Doom has condemned Namor to a slow, suffocating death, and only the Sub-Mariner's sometime love rival Reed Richards can help him.

With Steve Englehart, Herb Trimpe, and Don Perlin at the helm, things are a little more complex than this, with multiple flashbacks, underwater devastation, a personal challenge, some glorious gloating, and a moment where Johnny takes a little to long to admire Namor's tiny green trunks. Well, they're not that tiny, if you get my drift...

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.

Spinal Discord

Hello, and welcome to episode 223 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 sees the team come to terms with its new line-up, just in time a mysterious force to take control of Luke Cage, MASTERing him like some kind of PUPPET. Yes, it's Fantastic Four #169, in which Ben Grimm goes looking for a fight, Luke Cage goes looking for some continuity, and Roy Thomas goes looking for a clumsy bit of setup for an upcoming annual.

Pencils are provided by Rich Buckler, in what would turn out to be his final full issue of the Fantastic Four for over 150 issues. We take a few minutes in this episode to look back on his work, a few minutes before Andy is forced to face an uncomfortable truth about 1970s pop culture.

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.

Charles Atlas Meets Scientology

Hello, and welcome to episode 222 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 encountering ghosts and the devil's offspring in a deserted town, in Marvel Two-in-One #14. Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, guest-stars in an issue in which he and The Thing go on a ghost/demon hunt, all because Alicia Masters has a strange feeling about an eerily-accurate model. Bill Mantlo, Herb Trimpe and John Tartaglione present a tale that we've chosen to read as including a Nazi Doombot Thing, full of Shat and getting strident with a trident.

Joining us for this episode is returning guest-host Chris Thompson. Chris is Brand Manager for Titan Comics, and is previously an Eisner Award-winning retailer. He's also a huge fan of the Son of Satan, which is a bit of bonus as neither of the regular hosts can consider themselves such a thing. Chris can be found on twitter as @popculturehound, his fantastic interview podcast can be found at Multiversity.com, and Titan Comics can be found at http://titan-comics.com

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

Ben & Alicia 'Celebrating'

Hello, and welcome to episode 221 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, it's all change for the Fantastic Four. It's out with the now-human-and-powerless Benjamin Grimm, and in with the unbreakable-skinned Power Man, Luke Cage. Yes, thanks to an ancient bylaw that definitely wasn't made up by Roy Thomas as he sat down to plot this issue, only people with super powers can be on the Fantastic Four, and Reed wastes no time in chucking his best friend to the curb.

Rich Buckler returns to pencil Luke's first adventure with the Fantastic Four, as the team take on The Wrecker, paperwork, reckless piloting, truncated television interviews, faulty Danger Room doors, and lots and lots of barely-off-panel nookie.

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.

F$%& The Red Hulk

Hello, and welcome to episode 220 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 teeter on the edge of big changes for the Fantastic Four, as issue #167 sees Ben Grimm, the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing, fighting side-by-side with ol' jade jaws himself, The Incredible Hulk. From a secret army base to the top of the Gateway Arch in St Louis, it's an all-out action issue.

In amongst all the punching and changing of status quo, there's also time for Sue to take a level-up in awesome and how she uses her powers, Reed to be a massive tool at exactly the wrong moment, and George Perez to continue to impress at the end of his short fill-in run.

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.

Pulsing & Throbbing With A Life Of Its Own

Hello, and welcome to episode 219 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 the world of Marvel Two-in-One as Luke Cage, Power Man tangles with both The Thing and a pair of giant green shins. It's the semi-tragic tale of Braggadoom, The Mountain That Walked Like A Man, that only gains its tragic nature if you ignore the multiple deaths and the sheer scale of city-wide destruction. We're asking only the most important questions on this podcast - just what do a plotter, two scripters, a penciller and an inker think a mountain looks like anyway?

Joining us for this historic first team-up between Luke Cage and any member of the Fantastic Four is Joe Cunningham. He's the host of Cinematic Universe, a guide to comics adaptations on screens both big and small, and he joins us to investigate the relative sizes of boats and bridges, and to wonder just what would happen if this comic featured Chuff and Spack - The Mountains That Walked Like A Man!

Cinematic Universe can be found at cinematicmultiverse.com, and Joe can be found on twitter where he is @JoeCunningham14

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.

Johnny The Air Stewardess

Hello, and welcome to episode 218 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 covering Fantastic Four #166, in which large wheels are set in motion that will affect the Fantastic Four forever. Well, for a few months at least... The team are called in to help track down The Hulk and cure him permanently, but a duplicitous military threatens to tear the team apart.

It's a tale of unnecessary coincidences, uselessness during aviation disasters, an invisible hippy named Charlie (seriously, he has his own page on marvel.wikia yet we never even noticed him in this issue), reluctant punching, and an awesome yellow circle.

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.

Locational Coincidences

Hello, and welcome to episode 217 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

This time around, we're taking a brief look at Marvel Team-Up #40, in which the Human Torch plays second fiddle to Spider-Man, the Sons of the Tiger, the Big Man, the Crime Master, the Sandman, 2/3 of the Enforcers, and a dead pigeon. That's at least ninth fiddle, depending on how you're counting your fiddles. Oh, and he also flies away from the plot halfway through the issue. Spoilers, I guess...

We're also taking a look at the short-lived 1975 Fantastic Four radio series, in which a bunch of early FF issues are read aloud into a microphone and the fed through some ear-splitting electronic distortion. The series is perhaps best known for featuring a pre-fame Bill Murray as The Human Torch, as well as featuring Stan Lee as The Narrator (aka the person explaining everything because the plots were never adequately adapted for a non-visual medium). The episodes are freely available online, so why not give them a listen?

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.

Venusian Fiduciary Services

Hello, and welcome to episode 216 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 Fantastic Four #165, by Roy Thomas, George Perez, and Joe Sinnott. We've got a whole load of 'splaining to do, as we discover the origins of the Crusader, his connections to a 1950s iteration of the 1940s character that would feed directly into a 1970s character who would become prominent in the 1990s. Oh, and it turns out that thanks to the power of retcon, it's not that person after all. Thanks, Jeff Parker!

Somewhere amongst all of the continuity porn is a story of misplaced revenge, confused motivations, sensible bank managers, unreasonable loan requests, and people miraculously having their heads crushed by high-velocity masonry. What else would expect from the mighty world of Marvel?

And, just as a heads-up, next week's episode will include a discussion of the 1970s Fantastic Four radio series, featuring Stan Lee and Bill Murray. You might want to check out archive.org or Old Time Radio Downloads for some episodes.

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.

Chicken Blindness

Hello, and welcome to episode 215 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

We're off to Israel for this week's episode, strapping into a test rocket and heading for the stars with Marvel Two-in-One #12. Tony Stark has hired The Thing to test a new rocket ship, and nothing could go wrong. Well, maybe some incredibly poor engineering choices and the reappearance of Praestor John. But apart from that, everything will be fine.

We're also welcoming penciller Ron Wilson, who turns out some impressive debut pencils on this issue. And some less-than-impressive debut pencils as well. We're also examining some very non-blue blueprints, and Steve has a bone to pick with The Swordsman. All this, and more, on the latest Fantasticast.

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.