Turmoil on War World!

 

OR: "This Isn't The Wife You're Looking For"

With the 20th anniversary issue of Fantastic Four in our rear-view mirror, let's jump ahead ten years to 1991, and the book's 30th anniversary--the last anniversary acclamation to appear before Volume 1 of the series came to an end. Billed as a triple-sized issue, and clocking in at nearly 80 pages, issue #358 would include only seven pages of ads, while buffering the forty pages of story with 29 pages of FF memorabilia that included pinups, a look back at the series by writer Peter Sanderson, a brief Dr. Doom tale by Tom DeFalco and Arthur Adams, as well as a reprint of Stan Lee's original working synopsis for Fantastic Four #1.

Unlike issue #236's stand-alone story by writer/artist John Byrne, #358 didn't have the luxury of presenting a special FF tale that subtly but effectively evoked a sense of nostalgia for the FF's beginnings even as those elements were woven into a contemporary story; but DeFalco, along with artists Paul Ryan and Danny Bulanadi, do alright with bringing to a head a continuing story involving Johnny Storm and his wife, Alicia Masters, which reaches its climax with a shocking scene that cliffhanged the previous issue, thanks to information delivered to Ben Grimm by Alicia's stepfather, the Puppet Master.

To add fuel to the fire, Lyja, the Skrull spy who has been masquerading as Alicia since before Johnny and "Alicia" began their relationship, announces to Johnny that she is pregnant with his child--a development which, with the exception of the Skrull twist, you could no doubt find in one form or another on any number of daytime dramas when they still saturated network television. There is also the added complication that Lyja truly loves Johnny, with Johnny, despite his anger and frustration toward this situation and toward Lyja, feeling the same.

And so this issue proceeds to wrap up this storyline, one way or another, as the FF take off for the Andromeda galaxy with the intention of rescuing the real Alicia from Skrull captivity, with Lyja volunteering to help as their guide. But considering the level of danger involved, and that this team's visits to the Skrull galaxy often has them barely escaping with their lives, will this issue truly be a cause for celebration?

 

While there are pinups in the issue which pay homage to the classic moment where Reed and his three partners launched into space and gained their abilities, the story itself presents that scene, in context with Reed Richards blaming himself for being so manipulated by the Skrulls, just as he still blames his carelessness for not anticipating the harmful conditions of their space flight.

Clearly DeFalco has updated Reed's reasons for initiating the space flight in order to account for the passage of thirty years in real time--something we'll come back to in a moment.

To make a long story short, the FF face a harsh reception on the Skrull destructor-class cruiser known as War World, where Lord Captain Paibok, Lyja's former commander, has been specially engineered to confront the team as the Power Skrull (along with a horde of armed troops). With Reed breaking off in a planned move to make his way to the confinement chamber where Alicia is being held, the fierce battle between Paibok and the remaining members of the FF tilts back and forth, culminating in a moment of tragedy.

At that moment, Reed's sabotage of War World's nuclear core causes pandemonium throughout, as Paibok's troops abandon the fight and attempt to escape the coming destruction (enraging Paibok, who begins mowing them down as traitors). Meanwhile, the rest of the FF race back to their ship--including Reed, who meets with success in his search for Alicia.

Once the FF's ship clears the blast radius of War World's obliteration, it's a bittersweet reunion they must face with Alicia, for whom no time has passed since her kidnapping on Earth--nor, of course, is she the person that Johnny fell in love with and married. It's an awkward situation for both Johnny and Ben, to say the least.

Which leaves the rest of this issue's added material to thumb through. All in all, there are nine pinups to peruse, some taking the form of a throwback to the popular FF rogues gallery submissions that were to be found in past annuals. Several artists participated in the new images, including Ryan, Mike Mignola, Ron Garney, Dan Green, Bud LaRosa, Al Milgrom, John Byrne, John Romita, and Ron Lim--though I was partial to the portrait of Dr. Doom by Ron Frenz and Joe Sinnott.

There's also the initial interior two-page spread by Ryan and Bulanadi, which the reader sees first thing upon opening the issue's die-cut cover*--a '90s gimmick that perforates the outer cover to reveal part of the image within (in this case, the FF's "4" emblem). Thankfully, the image is reproduced in its entirety inside the back of the issue.

*Angel Medina's cover to Warlock and the Infinity Watch #25 is another example of this effect.

Unless I'm mistaken, Ryan is also the uncredited artist (perhaps inking his own work?) for the individual two-page profiles on each FF member, a nice nod to previous efforts in the '60s.

The supplemental material isn't all nostalgic, however, as we come to a two-page spec sheet of Four Freedoms Plaza, constructed when the Baxter Building was destroyed in space (!). Sanderson's tribute to the team makes a point of mentioning the Baxter Building in the past tense (while including its own layout)--but a new Baxter Building, constructed in space (!!), eventually took its place.

Finally, there's Lee's synopsis to take in, with its fascinating trivia of conceptual notes regarding this new group of heroes being built from the ground up. It appears DeFalco takes his cue from Lee's aside when revising the team's origin for this issue; and Lee's own profiles of each team member are eye-opening in terms of what direction he could have gone with their powers and character, had he not done a little fine-tuning later.