Mayhem on Monster Isle!

 

At the end of 1982, when Fantastic Four artist/writer John Byrne had hit his stride with the book and introduced the team to the might of the Shi'ar warrior named Gladiator, another Byrne-produced story was published which presented the team in a new light*--one that saw their history develop very differently from what we know, and instead brought them together as a team which approached a crisis without the benefit of their fantastic abilities. A pity we can't say the same for the all-too-familiar threat which emerges from the depths of the Earth to menace them anew, for the first time.

*In case the FF masthead isn't enough to catch the eye of the comics browser, Byrne stacks the deck a bit by including an additional corner box so that the full super-powered team in all its glory stands out--and, while he's at it, also ensuring that the Nova blurb takes advantage of the double-feature aspect of the issue.

At the size of a regular (at the time) 20-page story which obviously focuses on the incursion of the Mole Man, the beginning of this new FF "origin" must of course first deal with why and how our four principals apparently avoided the chain of events which led to their exposure to cosmic rays--and while the segment perhaps spends too little time on this portion of the story which details the success of their rocket flight, it covers the bases well enough, while expanding the flight's mission substantially.

In the original story, it was clear that time was of the essence given the urgency that both the United States and an unnamed communist country felt to win the "space race"--so much so that Sue Storm, of all people, would stress the need for launching as soon as possible and ignoring what all of them appeared to acknowledge to be true about their ship's inability to protect them against cosmic ray exposure. Here, however, the concern is fiscal rather than foreign; their project has stalled, and there is worry about losing their funding if they aren't able to justify its continuation. Perhaps they finally realized that taking a little extra time to successfully bring this project to fruition was preferable to it all ending in disaster.

And so in the here and now, Reed's company continues to benefit from the generosity of the goverment, while Reed himself has become a trusted and valued consultant whose expertise is sought when nuclear plants across the world are disappearing beneath the surface without explanation. But even Reed is surprised to see which research installation has now been added to the list.

It's a confusing pivot at this point for Byrne's otherwise engaging tale, as it continues to deviate from the original story in certain respects. For one thing, by virtue of a pit at the site which extends deep into the Earth's crust, Reed has been able to pinpoint and identify Monster Isle--a conclusion drawn despite his complex being on land and presumably nowhere near the sea, much less an island which has never been located or even proven to exist. (We can only assume he's been triangulating previous attack sites while his 'copter has been hovering.) Also, despite the government's ties with Reed, no Army personnel accompany these four (or are even requested) when they decide to rappel down this pit which reaches into utter darkness; instead, we learn later that the Army has travelled to Monster Isle directly using conventional means. Why bother with an access point and literally plunge into the unknown when you can go straight to the source (as they did originally)?

Reaching the bottom (using heaven only knows how much rope that would take), the group are soon set upon by rock creatures and become separated--Reed and Johnny falling into a deep chasm and hitting the bottom hard, escaping serious injury (!) except for Reed's shoulder being dislocated. Once they regain consciousness, they have no choice but to make their way deeper into the Earth through a number of tunnels, before finally coming to a monorail system--one which they board and travel several hours until they reach what we remember as the Valley of Diamonds, which blacks them out and puts them at the mercy of the unknown master of this region.

Meanwhile, Ben and Sue have their own problems, having no recourse but to escape their numberless rock-like attackers by making use of a man-made access duct--while ahead of them (let's assume that a duct leads to something as useful as a monorail), Reed and Johnny wake up hours later only to encounter a very strange individual, with quite the grudge.

We never knew originally who the Mole Man's dancing partner was in this scuffle, though because of Reed's injury it would have to be Johnny this time around--who learns that despite the diminutive stature of the Mole Man, this foe can be something of a bruiser when he feels he has the advantage.

Fortunately for Johnny and Reed, their odds of surviving increase with the arrival of Sue and Ben--even more so when Ben manages to deprive the Mole Man of his ace in the (literal) hole.

By now it's become clear that Byrne's tale will likely end up being all in good, nostalgic fun--with none of the major, tragic plot twists which obliged these early What If tales to end on a dour note, but rather a simple example of the road not taken. Of course, Reed is being optimistic and perhaps a little naïve in believing the Mole Man to be harmless enough to be carted off to the authorities and that's that. Whatever his pathetic state of mind, a man who has demonstrated the ability to threaten every major city and has carried out such acts of destruction with the intent of eventually subjugating the human race--and, by the way, has been discovered to have nuclear capability--shouldn't be underestimated, particularly on his home turf where he has the means to signal the monsters that live in the darkness with him.

It's wishful thinking to conclude a man who has tunnels reaching all over the world has "sealed himself" anywhere just because he's detonated an access point. At least originally Sue had mused whether they've really seen the last of the Mole Man--heck, just shy of their 300th issue, it turned out they hadn't even seen the last of Monster Isle. (Though on this Earth, who can say, eh?)