Fantastic Four #184 (July 1977)

When I was trying to figure out what comic to look at this week, I figured, "Hey, the Fantastic Four hasn't appeared in this blog for a while, why not give them some spotlight this week"? I also thought it would be nice to show off another comic with art by one of my favorite artists: George Perez.

Perez may most be known for his work with the Avengers, the Justice League, and the Teen Titans, but he also did a run on the Fantastic Four in the 1970s. During this time, he penciled Fantastic Four Annual #14 (1979), which marked his very first collaboration with Marv Wolfman. Since mobody seems to talk about his time on FF, I thought I'd give it a little spotlight with a look at Fantastic Four #184!

The cover is a George Perez, Joe Sinnott, and a Danny Crespi piece. And naturally, it's pretty cool. It depicts the villainous Eliminator standing over a defeated Fantastic Four. And naturally, it has some of that trademark Perez rubble. This cover makes the Eliminator look like a serious threat.

"Aftermath: The Eliminator"
Writer: Len Wein
Penciler: George Perez
Inker: Joe Sinnott
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Editor: Len Wein
Editor-in-Chief: Archie Goodwin

The story begins with the FF and their allies Thundra and Tigra aiding Reed Richards.

In the previous issue, an alternate version of Reed Richards that was an insane villain ended up regaining his sanity and helped rescue the mainstream version of Reed from the Negative Zone (This Reed was the one who put the mainstream Reed in it in the first place), during a battle with the villainous Mad Thinker that also involved Annhilus. It was a whole thing.

But now that's over, and Reed needs rest. Ben notices the mess the battle left behind. Thundra, Tigra, and Johnny Storm all head out, leaving poor Ben with the task of cleanup. Johnny flies towards his then-girlfriend Frankie Raye's Greenwich Village apartment, only to seemingly get blasted out of the sky.

Ben is cleaning up when he notices the Impossible Man floating nearby, reading a newspaper. Ben tries to get the green Poppupian's help, but the shapeshifter is more interesting in seeing a movie...as soon as he learns what that is. Ben tells him it's basically a bigger version of television. Having grown rather fond of TV, the Impossible Man is amazed, and flies off in the form of presumably a frisbee to watch one. Leaving poor Ben to clean up alone.

Reed wakes up, and Sue briefs him on something else that has gone down: Their young son Franklin. You see, in issue #181, Franklin's nanny Agatha Harkness made off with the boy. The next issue revealed they ended up captives of a shadowy group. She needs Reed up so they can find him. Reed is reluctant to aid them, as he feels that since he no longer has his powers, he would get in the way. 

Yeah, in issue #157, Reed's stretching powers were starting to fade away. They would eventually fade completely in issue #178. Sue gives him his uniform anyway, pointing out that he is more than his powers. Back to Ben's cleanup attempt!

Talk about sweeping it under the rug. With that all taken care of, the rest of the FF head out to where Agatha and Franklin were last seen.

Whisper Hill, Agatha's home. The heroes get blasted out of the sky...sort of. They're actually caught in a tractor beam. The Fantasticar's powerful engines try to fight the beam's pull, but the beam is too powerful, and it ends up tearing the First Family’s trademark ride to shreds. Reed, Ben, and Sue are saved from being paint splats on the ground by Sue's forcefields. As the FF recover, Ben spots what looks like the remains of a metallic egg. It's like something hatched out of it...

But that's a mystery that can be investigated another time. The heroes head into the darkened mansion, where they find Johnny Storm. 

Remember when he was seemingly blasted earlier? Well, he was actually caught in a tractor beam, like the one that destroyed the Fantasticar. So, what kind of being could do something like this? Well, this guy.

Meet the Eliminator. His job is, well...pretty obvious. His duty is to eliminate all evidence of Agatha Harkness being among humans. And that includes the Fantastic Four. Reed demands to know what this seemingly cybernetic monster has done to Franklin. The Eliminator tells him that his masters will deal with Franklin. With his classic battle cry of "IT'S CLOBBERING TIME", Ben Grimm gives the big red monster...

No, not Kane! Ben gives the Eliminator a Mighty Punch. And with that, the fight is on.

The Eliminator proves to be quite a formidable foe, able to withstand the Thing's punches, and is able to counter Torch's flame powers with vacuum engines in his boots. Reed hatches a plan to deal with him. Sue attacks the Eliminator, only to seemingly be vaporized by the cyborg monster.

A grieving Reed attacks the monster, only to seemingly suffer the same fate. The Eliminator then seemingly beats Ben to death, and blasts Johnny Storm with flame, causing him to go nova.

The Fantastic Four are dead. Long live the Fantastic Four. With that done, the Eliminator has one job left. A panel in his chest opens up. The chest has five holes in it, arranged for a quintet of fingers. The cyborg places his fingers in the holes and triggers the flamethrowers in his fingers. The vacuum engines in his boots stick him in place. This is his final act: Destroy Whisper Hill...and himself. It seems his mission is successful. 

Well...except for one little wrinkle.

The FF liiiiiiiiiive! How, you may ask? Well, thanks to a bit of trickery. When the Eliminator blasted Sue, she used her forcefields to protect herself and then went invisible, faking her being atomized. She used a her forcefields to protect Reed and Ben from the Eliminator's attacks, and they faked dying. In Johnny's case, he pretended to lose control and go nova. Nice little bit of wicked trickery there from our heroes.

Since the Eliminator is about to self-destruct, the FF decide to make tracks.

The FF realize they won't be able to get far enough away in time to avoid the explosion. Sue whips up a forcefield as Whisper Hill goes kablooie.

The story ends with the FF looking over the smoking remains of the house, vowing to find Agatha and Franklin...despite the house's destruction meaning that whatever clues may be there are now basically up in smoke.

I personally enjoyed this issue. The Eliminator himself isn't much to write about. He's a one-note villain created just to give the FF something to fight. Although considering the eventual villain of this storyline, the Eliminator's appearance is strange to me. I get the impression from the character's design (detailed as it is, which is classic Perez), that he's some kind of cyborg. You'd think he'd look more like...an evil wizard or something. I dunno.

One of the fun things about the issue was the nice character moments. Especially with Sue reminding Reed that he is more than his powers, which he showed in the battle against the Eliminator. I got a good chuckle out of Ben's way of cleaning things up...as well as Ben getting left to do the job all on his own. And the battle with the Eliminator itself was pretty awesome, although I have to admit, the end of it did make me scratch my head. They took quite a gamble on the Eliminator, well...eliminating himself when he thought they were dead. 

And naturally, George Perez turns in some awesome artwork. It's detailed, and his usage of layouts is awesome in places. We see some of the classic Perez artistic trademarks here: usage of multiple panels to show motion, lots of detail, and the rubble. The man loves his rubble.

If you want to read this issue for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2005 trade paperback Fantastic Four Visionaries: George Perez Vol. 1. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, wear a mask, and get vaccinated and boosted! See you next time!