Attack Of The Nega-Man!

 

Fantastic Four #108 is a story spawned from loose ends--specifically, a number of pages of unfinished art by Jack Kirby meant for issue #102, but shelved for a time due to Kirby's resignation from Marvel Comics in 1970 and Stan Lee reportedly having issues with the story as submitted.

Kirby's story has Reed and Sue hosting an archaeologist who has unearthed a statue of Janus, the Roman god of transitions and dualities--which by coincidence coincides with the appearance of a super-powered threat named Janus, who begins raids on banks for cash and who bullies his physically afflicted twin brother into covering for him with the promise of using his new power to mend his crippled legs.

Fast-forward to March of 1971, where Lee has reshaped Kirby's premise and finally given this story legs with the help of artists John Buscema and John Romita to supplement Kirby's original work, while bringing the character of Janus new depth as a former college classmate of Reed's whose experiments with "nega-power" produced an evil side of himself which sought to bring New York City under his control.

Yet the first we learn of Janus is when the character approaches Reed in present-day--a man who has gone on to use the nega-power to mend his legs but who now seeks the wellspring of negative power to be found in the Negative Zone. That meeting takes a violent turn when Janus sees that Reed has no intention of helping him--and so Reed gathers his team to recount the story of Janus in flashback form (more for our benefit than theirs, since the FF vividly recall those events), with the addendum that Janus has breached the entry to the Negative Zone and is on the brink of achieving ultimate power.

Lee's main contribution vis-à-vis Janus is obvious in light of Kirby's earlier treatment, in that Janus, the "Mega-Man" who developed "mega-power," is now Janus the Nega-Man who craves the power to be found in the domain that Reed has shuttered since the birth of his son. And since the reader has never been privy to the story of Janus, good use is made of Kirby's pages as we see them woven into the story that Lee now fashions--where we again find that Janus has chosen the same bank where the Thing is tending to his own account.

Shock follows shock, however, when Reed gets a call from an all-too-familiar figure to Ben and Johnny--someone who appears to be the exact opposite of the person whom they encountered in the city, though there's no denying the power that this man Janus possesses, whatever form he presents.

And so on a hunch, Reed has split the team, each pair fated to encounter some aspect of Janus while hopefully bringing all four of them one step closer to solving this mystery. Johnny and Ben, however, having seen Janus only recently communicating with Reed from Midvale, can only wonder how it is that their own assignment to patrol New York can have possibly borne fruit; fortunately, Janus only wishes today to strike fear in the populace, the better to deliver an ultimatum which promises a harsh response should those in office fail him.

Meanwhile, in Midvale, Reed and Sue strike paydirt--for not only do they meet with the classmate Reed remembers, but they also confront what appears to be the man's twin, in an unguarded moment that allows his capture. But this Janus will face a reckoning, nevertheless, one that allows all of us to finally learn the secret of his existence.

Thirty-eight years later, Lee would return to tell this story once more, only this time as Kirby originally laid it out and including his unpublished panels, in a special issue titled Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure (as detailed in a previous PPC Marvel Trivia Question). Giving Lee an assist was artist Ron Frenz, with Joe Sinnott returning on inks and colorist Chris Sotomayor adding the final touches to bring Kirby's panels to vivid life. In Kirby's story, with Janus having an actual evil twin brother, we see quite a different denouement play out in front of Reed and Sue--and it's both men who live to face the music.

But what of the Janus who got the drop on Reed and broke through to the Negative Zone? Obviously he isn't the same mild-mannered invalid who Reed and Sue left in Midvale; as Reed explains, now he's become a potential threat to the entire human race.

NEXT:
Look out, it's Janus vs. Annihilus! (With the FF caught in the middle!) Check it out in the PPC's earlier review of the story.