The cover is pretty neat. It's a John Byrne, Terry Austin, and Gaspar Salandino piece. It depicts the Fantastic Four recoiling with a blank silhouette of a man. The FF are in yellow and the silhouette of the an is in white, contrasting against the plain red background. The cover asks the questions: "WHO is he? WHAT is he?" Well, we gotta read to find out, I guess. The cover promises that Marvel's First Family will face the Man...with the POWER. It's a bit misleading. You'll see what I mean.
"The Man with the Power!"
Writer: John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: John Byrne
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Jean Simek
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
The story begins with a look at a man waking up in his bedroom.
Say hello to L. R. "Skip" Collins. At first glance, he may seem like an ordinary man. And he is, in many ways. However, he may be the most powerful man to ever walk God's green earth. Skippy gets ready for another day at his job and he looks around at his messy bedroom. Skip is from a different time, and wishes that his wife Elly would clean the place up. He leaves the room, and the room magically cleans itself up, much to the surprise of his waking wife.
Skip is surprised the house is in a nice state, considering the party he and his neighbors had there last night, but he doesn't think much of it. He finds his youngest son Leroy Jr. in the kitchen, reading a girlie mag at the table. Skip tries to tell Junior to not do that, as it upsets Elly. However, he's basically like "Then she shouldn't look". This depresses Skip. All he wants is his son to make something of himself, or at least get his hair cut.
However, Junior's hair is still long and he's still grumbly. Maybe the power has its limits...or maybe Skip secretly desires not to exert too much control over his kids. Skip then goes to his ordinary garage, gets into his ordinary car, and goes to his ordinary job. For 18 years, he's taken a particular route to his job, and on this day, he runs into a traffic jam. This leads Skip to wish that he has left a half-hour earlier to avoid it. And like magic...it is a half-hour earlier.
Like with the bedroom cleaning itself, Skip doesn't notice. He's just relieved that he'll make it to work on time. You'd think he'd notice the traffic jam clearing itself up. Skip arrives at his job, but he finds that he left the keys to his office at home. He has a spare in the office, but that's not going to help. He laments that he didn't leave the door unlocked. After all, it's not like there's anything really valuable to steal, and the factory is guarded. Unnoticed by Skip, the spare key, as if empowered by magic, flies off its hook and unlocks the door. Skip thinks he left the door open after all.
Later in the day, Skip gets a visit from his boss, a Mr. Wilkins. He has a bit of a favor to ask of him. Wilkins has a business meeting in New York City on Monday morning. However, his daughter has a piano recital that afternoon, and he really does not want to miss it. So, he wants Skip to go in his place. I get the feeling that this is not ethical or legal. But Skip's excited. He gets to see the big city!
It's Saturday morning. Skip Collins is ridin' on a jet plane to New York City!
Skip notices a headline on the newspaper the passenger he's seated next to. The headline states that another GI is sick with leukemia, and the article is talking about a epidemic of illnesses in soldiers that were in nuclear tests. That gets our man's attention as he was one such soldier during his Army days back in 1955.
He was doing maneuvers with his unit in Nevada one fateful day. His troop had been given new orders: head out to the desert. Being good obedient soldiers, they did so. The soldiers were ordered to sit with their backs pointing northward and their hands over their eyes. The soldiers felt silly, but obeyed orders. A nuclear device went off, bathing the men in the radiation.
Over the next few weeks, the men were given every examination under the sun, Skip was no exception. Skip felt fine, but felt a strange buzzing in the back of his skull. He said nothing about that, as he thought it was no big deal. It had been 25 years since that day (remember, this comic is from 1981), and the buzzing is still there. He is long used to it.
He's always wanted to visit the City that Never Sleeps, and thanks to this business meeting, he finally gets to visit. Skip goes to see the sights, and like many tourists in the Marvel Universe, he makes his way to the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four. Oh yeah, this was a Fantastic Four comic, huh? And speaking of the FF, our unknowing reality warper spots two of the comic's titular team out on the town.
A starstruck Skip follows them around until they happen upon a scene. A young girl was dared to go inside a condemned building due to be brought down today. She ended up on a ledge that is rather high up, and is too frightened to jump to the fireman. Reed Richards, using his stretching powers, is able to grab the girl as the ledge she is standing on collapses. The building itself goes a-tumbling down, but Sue Richards is able to keep it from crushing anyone with her forcefields.
Reed hurriedly orders her to clear the debris. Sue does so, but she wonders why Reed is so worried. He asks her if she felt a bit of vertigo before the building collapsed. She admits she did. The street starts to crumble and rumble. They see every building in the city is starting to come down. Skip was hoping to see the FF in action, but not like this!
We next head to Clancy's Irish Pub. The owner, Mick Clancy, is an old friend of Ben Grimm's. They were test pilots together. And speaking of the Thing, the Idol o' Million himself is enjoying a little drink at said pub. Like every other building in the city, the pub starts a-crumbling down on Ben and Mick's heads. Luckily, the Thing's rocky body ensures he and Mick make it through okay. Ben is horrified by the scene.
Where is Johnny at, you ask? Well, he was at the apartment of his then-main squeeze: One Frankie Raye. She had been part of the Fantastic Four's supporting cast for several years at this point, having first appeared in Fantastic Four #164 (November 1975), co-created by Roy Thomas and George Perez. Frankie and Johnny's (Heh) relationship has been on the rocks, and Johnny is trying to win her back. When they're about to kiss, the building starts to crumble to dust. Johnny flames on and manages to save her and the other tenants of the building. He then heads back to the Baxter Building, the only building that seemingly survived the destruction. Unnoticed by the Human Torch is Skip Collins, who laments the situation.
At the Baxter Building, the FF learn that this phenomenon is far from local. It's hit everywhere. Washington, DC got hit. Paris and London are in flames. Moscow is now just a big pile of rubble.
Even the West Coast of the US has gone silent. It's like some sinister force is attacking the planet all at once.
Reed already has some ideas as to what's caused this, and sends the rest of the Four to help out where they can.
Skip watches Sue, Ben, and Johnny fly off and it makes him feel helpless. Skip is a good man, and he wishes he could help out. Almost as if the cosmos heard his wish, the man vanishes.
The FF go where they can to help. At the Brooklyn Bridge, the Thing is trying to keep the landmark from utterly collapsing. It's not that easy as there's a freighter snagged in it, and the riverbed has appeared to have given way. Ben is the only thing keeping the bridge up. He then notices Skip on the bridge. At this moment, the freighter is able to get clear of the bridge. A piece of the bridge's stone framework breaks away, and smashes into Skip.
Yup, that'll hurt.
Ben dives into the water. He finds the piece of bridge that pulverized Skip...but Skip's body is missing. The Thing is forced to surface, but sees a flare in the shape of a "4" in the sky. Reed's a-calling. Reed has discovered that the destruction was caused by something out in space using waves of gravity as a probe. New York City was hit the hardest because the probe was focused on him. It could be a possible prelude to an attack from outer space.
A somehow-hale and hearty Skip watches the Fantastic Four's rocket take off from the Baxter Building. This breaks the man's heart, as he believes the Earth is doomed. If the FF couldn't save them, what hope is there? This disaster...should never have happened. And Skip's power...grants his wish.
Skip's strange power not just fixes the damage, but brings things back the way they were before the gravity waves wrecked everything. In a now-restored New York, a confused Skip finds himself standing on a dock, wondering how he got there. He looks at his watch, and gasps at the time. He's got tickets to a Broadway show, and he's going to be late! He's gotta find a taxi! Skip heads out to hail a cab, the strange buzzing in his head now gone. Although he doesn't really notice.
Out in space, the Fantastic Four are flying out to the source of the gravity waves. They pass into a field full of remnants of destroyed planets. The group discover a gigantic cloud of gas. Reed believes that cloud is the source, so the group head into it.
Inside the cloud, they find massive vine-like tendrils...and they look like they're decaying. Reed states they are inside a bio-verse. A clearly dying one. The rocket is pulled by gravity towards something, and they'll be clear of the cloud. However, when they do get clear...the FF discover where they are.
You may know of Ego the Living Planet if you ever watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, portrayed by Kurt Russell. That's right, he's come to Earth to pursue an unknown enemy of his, and he's willing to destroy Earth to get them!
This comic was really good. We have seen many a story of regular people gaining superpowers and dealing with the changes in their lives as a result. The idea of someone gaining godlike power and not even being aware of it is a great twist on the concept. It's neat seeing Skip go through his life not realizing that he has the power of a god, and being a man who unknowingly helped save the world. I can imagine this may happen in the Marvel Universe more than people realize.
The only thing that I could regard as having any real criticism is that Skip seems a bit too oblivious. I do get that Byrne is trying to show that he's not an imaginative man who desires anonymity and to just live like a regular Joe, but you'd think that he would notice some of the odd stuff going on around him, especially since he lives in a world like the Marvel Universe. Also, I would have liked to have seen some other superheroes react to the utter destruction of New York. After all, the City that Never Sleeps has many superheroes active in it.
John Byrne turns in some very fine artwork for this story. The layouts, in my opinion, help give the comic a bit of a cinematic feel to it, which fits a story about the utter destruction of an entire city. Byrne uses panel size to great effect for this. The narration in the comic does feel a bit Claremont-esque, but that's likely an influence from his and Chris Claremont's work on X-Men together.
This comic, early in the run, is a preview of the imagination that John Byrne would bring to the story. If you want to read this story for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2009 trade paperback Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 1. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! Join me next time, where we join the Justice League as they deal with a group of anti-nuke superheroes from another world...
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