Fantastic Four 149: Why It Matters

 

 Its a good issue. As part of Gerry Conway's run on the FF, it's a pivotal moment. After months of separation and despair, Sue and Reed finally sort things out. And its not like Sue doesn't have choices or options in life; she didn't have to come back, let alone get wrapped up with Namor. For those unfamiliar with Gerry's work, his trademark is conflict and development. He killed off Gwen in Spider-man, so who's to say what he would do with the FF? 

The real impact of the book is the ending. 

Its a well crafted, thoughtful, resolution to the conflict...

I truly wish the lesson that Gerry was trying to teach me would have stuck in my head better when I had become married. I guess sometimes you have to live through things, not just read about them. The story holds significance for me on a personal level, but it had an awesome impact on me when I read it as a child.  The conflict between the characters was pretty mature stuff to me. The good news was that Gerry had brought the FF full circle. They were reunited, but it would be issues later before Sue returned to battle along beside her teammates. 

Rich Buckler and Joe Sinott did a bang up job on the art for this issue. Sinott made Buckler look a lot like Jack Kirby.

The next issue, the 150th anniversary issue would feature the FF and the Avengers attending the wedding of Crystal and Pietro. It would also become a big event issue, with the return of the Inhumans, and the menace of Ultron. 

The FF during this era is comics gold for the most part. 

My life feels non sequential sometimes so sequential art gives my life meaning...

 

...and so it goes...

  It has been my story since i was eight. In a sense, things have recently come full circle for me. 

It really started with Donald Duck in Volcano Valley, then a Big Little Book with comic book panels pasted one per page of that book. I remember keeping that book for years, and now quietly wonder if I gave it away. 

Fifty years later, i get a copy of the Gladstone book from several years back and reread it. 

Needless to say, the book holds up wonderfully.

 It's in full color this time, and uncut as far as i can tell. It's pure Barks.  Absurd and funny, and I found myself smiling at the gags pretty much like i did when i was eight. As an adult,  i have finally recovered my love of funny books. I think it's a sign of a circle closing, as that big little book led to a life in pursuit of comics. Comics, with their sequential art, giving meaning to my mundane boring life and terrible childhood. I know my memories of my childhood are indeed, fragmented in comparison to my adult life. 

But I remember every comic book I read. 

The experience was always memorable.