Damage Control #2 (June 1989)

All the way back in 2022, I took a look back at the first issue of the first Damage Control miniseries. Basically, in the Marvel universe, Damage Control is a group dedicating to repairing the, well, damage and destruction caused by superhero battles. I think the concept is really neat, and the Damage Control miniseries that have been done over the years are hidden gems, underrated bits of Marvel output, and I wish they got more love. As such, I wanted to look at the next issue. What further adventures do these brave fixer-uppers get up to? Let's find out what happens when they cross paths with a certain Latverian dictator in Damage Control #2!

The cover is an Ernie Colon piece. It's one of the outright funniest covers I have ever seen. It has Dr. Doom looming over Albert Cleary, who declares that Doom will pay his bill. It's such a dramatic cover for something seemingly so mundane as paying a bill. But this is Dr. Doom. He does nothing in a mundane manner.

"In It Up to Arrears." 
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Penciler: Ernie Colon
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Colorist: John Wellington
Letterer: Rick Parker
Editor: Sid Jacobson
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The story begins in Manhattan, in particular on the Upper West Side. A group of German-speaking scientists are working on a new weapon. And as it goes in these things, something is about to go horribly wrong. 

"I told you not to order those parts off Temu, Hans!"

The overloading cannon caused the brownstone and everything inside to be turned to glass. This gets the scientists worried, as it turns out, ol' Doctor Doom gave them this project to work on, and this is not supposed to be the result. 

This gets the attention of, naturally, our heroes of rebuilding. Robin Chapel calls in a meeting of the main characters of the team: Account Executive Marie Leahy, Senior Foreman Lenny Ballinger, R&D Director Gene Sailors (I accidentally said his last name was "Strausser" in my look at the last issue), and fellow Account Executive John Porter. Sailors gives the group the 411 on what Doom's new weapon did to the brownstone. Ballinger has no clue how to fix it, as evidently the transformed building is putting out vibrations that shakes any equipment that comes near it to pieces. 

Comptroller Albert Cleary points out that Doom has not paid his bills to the company in six months. Why on Earth should they fix this? I mean, it's not like people lived in that brownstone or anything. But to be fair, Damage Control is a business, and they can't stay in business if people don't pay their repair bills. Hoag asks Cleary to send the bill over as the company doesn't have a collection department yet. He agrees, even though Porter is quick to point out that Doom is a killer. 

We get the skinny on who Doom is, because evidently, Cleary has no idea who he is. Does he live in a cave with no TV? Victor Von Doom in universe is the dictator of a nation. He's fought various superheroes for years. How can Cleary not know who Doctor Doom is?!

The rest of the gang realize Cleary can't go alone, so they draw straws to see who goes with him. And guess who "wins"?

"Ha ha ha ha...I'm gonna die."

...John Porter is a dead man. Nice knowing ya, Johnnie! Well, not really. An intern named Bart Rozum wants to come along, as he never gets to do anything. There is a good reason for that. Kid hasn't even graduated from college yet. Cleary decides to bring him along anyway, much to Porter's relief. 

Cleary and Bart head out to the Latverian Embassy. After all, when he's not battling American superheroes, or crushing Latverians with his iron-covered fists, that's where he likely hangs his green hood. But Doom is not the only one with issues with Damage Control right now. Here's the Thing!

"THE BEER WAS WARM!"

You may have noticed that Ben is a bit...spikier than normal. That's because of the events of Fantastic Four #310 (January 1988). In that comic, during a battle with a villain called Fasaud, Ben Grimm got exposed to cosmic rays and they mutated him into this new spiky form. Fun fact, the animated series Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes paid homage to this form in the episode "Annihilation". 

Benjy Grimm is in a Karen mood today, as he demands to see the manager about the FF's own bills to the company. So, the secretary throws Porter under the bus. Well, Porter's able to handle himself just fine. Ben has an issue with the FF's insurance, but Porter's found the problem.

It turns out the FF's insurance only covers the original roster of the FF, but not their current roster. Yeah, like any long-running superhero team, the FF have had their fair share of roster shake-ups over the years. If you know of the Scott Lang Ant-Man and She-Hulk from the MCU, in the comics, they both served as members of the FF for a while. Not at the same time, but yeah. 

Porter is able to clear that up, with a little help from Ben's angry growling. Meanwhile, Cleary and Rozum arrive at the Latverian Embassy. They are greeted by a Count Gunter Flounder, who is supposedly speaking on behalf of Von Doom. He announces that Doom is not only discontinuing the usage of Damage Control's services, but that the bills will not be paid. However, Doom himself is seemingly in the house.

"No, Dr. Doom! We didn't see you playing with your dolls again!"

Cleary plays with Doom's ego a bit, telling the mad monarch that he and Flounder were discussing the money that Flounder was embezzling from Doom. Flounder tries to tell Doom is a lie, but he's not hearing it. Gunter Flounder, you are fired!

Back at Damage Control HQ, Ben Grimm is amusing the employees by telling some stories of his misadventures. He has one for every occasion. He's about to leave as the insurance issue is settled (just needed to write a check for the deductible) until Robin remarks that she hopes Cleary is doing well trying to get Doctor Doom to pay his bills. Ben thinks he's in danger (this is Doctor Doom after all), and so, calls in the FF. 

"Oh my God, that meteor has the FF logo on it!"

At the time, the FF is not comprised of its classic roster. Instead, we got Ben, Johnny, Crystal Amaquelin of the Inhumans, and Sharon Ventura, aka She-Thing.

Sharon Ventura, aka formerly the second Ms. Marvel. Yes, in the comics, there was a Ms. Marvel between Carol Danvers and Kamala Khan. First appearing in The Thing #27 (September 1985), she first met Ben during his time as a pro wrestler. She joined the FF in Fantastic Four #306 (September 1987), and then was mutated into the She-Thing in Fantastic Four #310 (January 1988). She would appear on and off over the years. In her most recent appearance as far as I know in Astonishing Avengers #17 (June 2025), she somehow gained the ability to switch between her human and She-Thing forms at will. 

Anyway, the FF fly into action, however...it turns out that Cleary and Rozum are just fine. Doom not only willingly pays the bill, he even offered Cleary a job. 

So, yeah. The FF can go home, although Ben does wonder if that's the actual Doom or it's just a Doombot, robotic doubles Doom's been known to deploy on occasion. I believe the concept was introduced by John Byrne in Fantastic Four #258 (September 1983) as a way to explain inconsistencies in Doctor Doom's characterization over the years. 

With that taken care of, Damage Control can get back to work. There's still one problem, though. Lenny and his crew have no idea how to approach repairing the building. Thing is, Porter has not only a knack for insurance law, but he also has a knack for finding the simple solution to a problem. He picks up a rock. He throws the rock at the glass building, and...

John Porter unintentionally ruined a piece of art.

Just sweep up the glass and rebuild the building. Porter even found the original blueprints. Lenny tells him he should ask for a raise. Porter agrees, as he feels overworked. 

This was a fun issue. I always loved the concept of Damage Control as a way of exploring the Marvel Universe from the perspective of a regular person. It makes sense that in a universe like this, there would be an organization dedicated to cleaning up the messes caused by superhero battles. I also loved this miniseries as it's a way for Marvel to tell a more comedic story than in their standard titles. The characters are a delight.

I know some would count this appearance of Doom as a Doombot, but I actually would personally prefer if it was the actual Doom here, as having it be the real Doom would not only be much funnier, but I can imagine that Dr. Doom, petty as he can be at times, would do this if only because I can imagine him thinking he can rub this in Reed Richards's face somehow. "DOOM ALWAYS PAYS HIS BILLS, UNLIKE THAT DEADBEAT RICHARDS!" 

I can imagine that the late Ernie Colon was having quite a good time drawing this comic. He has said growing up that he wasn't fond of superheroes outside of the Billy Batson Captain Marvel because he found him fun and willing to be silly. Makes sense a more humorous title would be right up his alley. His art is fun to look at. It does remind me of the style the (sadly recently passed) Sal Buscema would adopt in the 90s, only less heavy with the lines and angular. 

In a way, I think Damage Control was ahead of its time. If this came out when the US version of The Office started broadcasting, I can imagine it would have become an ongoing series that would have lasted quite a while. If you want to read this story for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2015 trade paperback Damage Control: The Complete Collection. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! If you like what I write and wish to give my blog some additional support, please make a donation to my Ko-fi! See you next time!

Fantastic Four #232 (July 1981)

In honor of the release of Fantastic Four: First Steps (Great film, by the way), I thought I'd take a look at a comic book starring Marvel's First Family. Now, I wondered what comic I should look at this week. First steps clearly drew from the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby era (which makes sense, as it was the foundation for the Marvel Universe as we know it today), but I decided to go in a bit of a different direction. I love 80s comics, so...why not look at something from the John Byrne era? 

This comic was the first issue of his run on the run. Well, kind of. You see, he had actually joined the book with issue #209 (August 1979), his role being pencil breakdowns for Joe Sinnott to make into finished art. The first FF comic he wrote was actually a promotional comic starring the FF for Coca-Cola. They didn't like the comic as they felt it was too violent, so it got made into issues #220-221 (July-August 1980). It wouldn't be until this comic that he fully took over as writer, penciller, and inker. Originally, it was planned for Byrne to write with Bill Sienkiewicz doing the art, but the latter would go and do Moon Knight instead, and the rest is history. 

Byrne was just what the book needed at the time, as Fantastic Four was struggling in the early 80s. His work and imagination helped revitalize the book, as he wanted to show what made the FF great in the first place. Byrne's run would see the FF go through changes, like She-Hulk joining up in place of Thing for a while, Alicia Masters leaving Ben for Johnny Storm, and the group would even get a new headquarters. He left the book after five years, claiming that he grew tired of "office politics" and he found the book "no longer fun" to work on. But that would be in the future. For now, let's look at the proper start of John Byrne's run, Fantastic Four #232!

The cover is a John Byrne and Terry Austin piece. It's really cool. It depicts what looks like a giant Diablo trying to make the FF into the victims of a ritualistic sacrifice. It's a really cool creepy cover, got me wondering how the First Family of Superheroes are going to get out of this.

"Back to the Basics!" 
Writer: John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: John Byrne
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Letterer: Jim Novak
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The story begins with Diablo, the mad alchemist, doing what he does best: Mad alchemist stuff. He's created small effigies of the FF, and it's not because he wants to enter the action figure-making business. A shame really, as I think he could make a legit mint. Worked for Todd MacFarlane. 

Now, this is the FF's book, right? So, what are they up to? Well, let's first check in on the team's powerhouse: Susan Storm, the Invisible Girl. Yeah, she hasn't become the Invisible Woman quite yet. That's a ways off. She's getting her hair done. It's the 80s, after all. It is then that a being made of rocks attacks, demanding the head of Sue Storm. Naturally, Sue is not interested in just letting this wannabe Ben Grimm get it, so she goes invisible to try an avoid the beast. she wants her FF flare to call for help, but the rock creature blasts dirt all over the room. The dirt sticks to Sue, threatening to suffocate her.

"Aw God! It's in my mouth! Tastes like donkey poo!" 

Elsewhere, Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters are leaving a Broadway show. They both were moved to tears by it. Ben notices that it's raining...on him.

Only you, Ben. The rain then solidifies into a bubble.

"Doc says I'm not supposed to be in wet clothes!"

Ben tries to fight his way out, but the bubble is stubborn. He also has another problem: He didn't get a chance to take a breath before he got trapped. And now he's running low on air. 

So, considering that we're just about to see Ben Grimm friggin' die, let's look in on Johnny Storm, shall we? The second Human Torch is flying over Central Park, because he has a bit of a meeting of his own: a redhead named Frankie Raye. The two are having some issues in their relationship, but that ends up tabled when a wind monster attacks the Four's resident firebrand.

When Red Tornado wants his money, he's going to get his money.

Ten minutes earlier, Reed Richards was doing what he does best: working in his lab in the Baxter Building. He's looking into some strange energy fluxes in the city at the moment (presumably thanks to Diablo), when he notices that it's gotten rather warm in the room. 

He goes to open a window when the reason for the heat reveals itself: an angry fire monster.

"Oh dear, Johnny's on a bender again."

The fight causes the temperature of the Baxter Building to increase, making the lab get hotter and hotter. Soon, Reed may melt from it. The fire monster blabs that his comrades are taking out his teammates. Reed manages to escape by leaping out of the Baxter Building in the form of a ball. He then stretches out into a sail-like form and glides to Central Park. It'll be a good place to deal with the fire monster. It's a big space, and the damp leaves on the trees will reduce the potential firestorm. It's here he meets up with Frankie Raye, who tells him about the wind monster attacking Johnny.

Reed engages the wind monster, and the fire monster catches up with him. However, the fire monster backs off when Johnny Storm tries to engage it, saying it's forbidden to battle their analogues. The fire monster tries to flee, but Johnny is in...hot pursuit.

Yeah, sorry. This gives Reed a brainwave. 

He pretends to flee, the wind monster chasing him. Back at the hairstylist, Sue is able to free herself from her dirt prison with her forcefields. She then also gets the idea to use her forcefields as a form of quick transport. Meanwhile, the drowning Ben Grimm spots a sporting goods store. He realizes they may have scuba tanks. Summoning the last of his great strength, he heads inside. Luckily, one of the employees has a filled scuba tank ready to go. 

To her horror, Patty realized the tank was filled with laughing gas.

The water monster then covers the employee in its element. Sue Storm-Richards to the rescue! She uses her forcefields to contain the water monster, allowing Ben to fight the Earth monster. He shatters the monster with one Mighty Punch. However, like the T-1000, shattering the earth monster doesn't kill it.

Reed arrives, air monster right behind him. He spots Sue outside of the sporting goods store, deducing that she lured the earth monster there for Ben to deal with. He spies a nearby generator, and picks up a couple of live wires, as he has a plan to deal with the water monster. Don't worry, folks. He's wearing unstable molecule gloves. They're good for this.

He has Sue snare the air monster in a forcefield.

"This will make a wonderful decoration, darling."

He then uses some electrical wires from a water generator on the water monster. The electricity causes the monster's watery body to undergo electrolysis, splitting it up into its component gases: hydrogen and oxygen. Science wins again!

This also allows Reed to confirm that Diablo was the man behind these critters. Ben defeats the earth monster by blasting it with water from a broken pipe, causing it to "melt" into mud. Finally, the air monster. Reed has Sue compress the monster with her forcefield. It's difficult, but the lady pulls it off. The increased pressure of the forcefield caused the air monster to condensate into water. Three monsters down one left to go: the fire monster. And they have no idea where it is. Johnny pursued it, but they have no idea where they went off to.

I don't think they'd be that hard to find. 

I've heard of a firefight, but this is ridiculous!

The fire monster, being literally made of fire, is able to bring the heat better than Johnny could. However, our man has one trick in his bag that could help: his Nova Blast. Basically, Johnny released his flames in one massive burst of power. Think of it like a pro wrestler's finishing move.

Johnny Storm was banned from eating beans forever.

The blast consumes all the oxygen in the immediate area, snuffing the fire monster out. However, this also knocks Johnny's powers out of commission for a bit. He ends up falling into the river, but he's able to signal a nearby tugboat. 

Reed explains to Sue and Ben that this is clearly the work of Diablo. Ben finds that ridiculous as he seemingly died during the events of Fantastic Four #193-194 (April-June 1978). Reed points out that Diablo has escaped death before. Reed then makes a call to someone he knows can help. 

That night, Diablo tries to sneak out of town, when he's caught by Reed. Diablo points out that the scientist can't connect him to the attacks by the elemental monsters. Reed admits that's true, but he's done some checking. As it turns out, a group of statues representing the classical four Greek elements had been stolen from various museums...and Diablo has them in a nice little customized suitcase. Diablo wants to know how Reed found him. Well, he called in one of his Illuminati buddies.

"That'll be $50, Reed."

Yup, ol' Doc Strange himself. Yeah, the Illuminati wasn't established yet, but I can imagine that this was the reason that Reed was able to contact Strange so quickly.

I enjoyed this comic. It's a simple story, but it lives up to the title. This is really a jumping on point for new readers, and something probably done by Byrne himself to introduce himself to the readers before he gets truly comfortable with the characters and stretches his muscles. The idea of the Fantastic Four reflecting the four classical Greek elements is not a new one. Heck, I know of one pastiche of the FF that was explicit about it. And it's not hard to see why. Another thing I liked about this story was that the heroes used some brains to win the day out. I do wish the statue thefts were more set up at the beginning, but otherwise that, this was a fun story. Byrne himself also turns in some strong enjoyable artwork for this. 

If you want to read this 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, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time!

Fantastic Four #184 (July 1977)

Superheroes' lives can go at a break-neck pace. Just when one crisis is abated, it seems like another one pops right up. It doesn't matter if you're a solo hero or part of a team of heroes, the superhero's life can be an endless parade of craziness. For the Fantastic Four, that is especially true, even if they prefer to be seen as "imaginauts". This comic here provides an example of what I am talking about. And it is another opportunity to show off some art by my favorite comic artist of all time: George Perez. This is Fantastic Four #184!

The cover is a George Perez, Joe Sinnott, and Danny Crespi piece. It's really good. But of course, it's George Perez. You have our villain, the Eliminator, front and center.

"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 rescuing Reed Richards from the Negative Zone, aided by their allies Thundra and Tigra. Ben takes Reed to get some rest and presumably to get checked over. I can imagine that the FF have some kind of gadget that can do medical checkups better than any doctor.

Johnny and Tigra look out at the Negative Zone portal's window. The Human Torch notes the irony that Counter-Earth's Reed Richards (who became the evil Brute) attempted to trap Reed in the Negative Zone for good, only for himself to end up there. 

Elsewhere, Sue Storm-Richards keeps an eye on her husband, worried what Ben will do if he finds out that their son's nanny, Agatha Harkness, made off with Sue and Reed's son Franklin.

But Ben has a different concern on his mind at the moment: Calling his beloved Alicia Masters and letting her know he's okay. Afterwards, he heads back to the portal room, finding it...a bit of a mess.

Page 147, Panel 7

The Baxter Building does have auto-repair systems, but the fracas with the Brute knocked them out of commission. 

As such, they will need to clean up. However, Tigra and Thundra, being liberated 1970s women, they decide cleaning the place up is Ben and Johnny's job. Well, yeah. Ben and Johnny do live in the Baxter Building, Tigra and Thundra were just guests helping out for a bit. Johnny is like "Well, time for me to hit the dusty skies", flames on, and flies off. While he's out in the big blue yonder, he finds himself thinking about this girl he's met named Frankie Raye. However, someone has him in their sights.

Yeah, 50 points!

Page 149, Panels 3-6

Ben tries to clean the Negative Zone portal room when he gets another visitor.

Page 150, Panel 3

Yup, the Impossible Man! And he has a very important question for Ben Grimm. One that could break the Marvel Universe as we know it:

...what's a movie? Yeah. That's his big question. An annoyed Ben tells him that a movie is basically a bigger version of TV. The Impossible Man is like "I like TV! These movie things sound awesome" and flies off. Ben hopes he chokes on popcorn. So, how is Reed doing?

He had that dream about Marie Curie twerking again.

Page 150, Panel 8

Yeah, he's fine. Sue briefs him on Franklin's disappearance and gives him his uniform. Reed is reluctant as he has lost his stretching powers. Sue points out that if his powers were all he contributed, then he could easily have been replaced with a rubber band. That's funny, but it's true. Ben finishes up the cleaning, and the group head to Whisper Hill, Agatha's home. However, something blows up the Fantasticar, sending the three members of the FF reeling. Sue uses her forcefields to cushion their landing. Ben finds a strange metallic egg nearby. Something hatched from it. They enter the old house and find the missing Johnny.

Page 155, Panel 6

Johnny tries to warn his fellow Fantastic Four members, but the being that zapped him introduces themselves.

Page 156, Panel 5

Meet the Eliminator. His job is rather self-explanatory. He was sent to eliminate any evidence of Agatha Harkness's existence among mortals...including anyone she knows. And that includes the FF.

Sue fears this big lug may have killed Franklin. However, the Eliminator tells her he didn't. His masters will deal with the boy in their own way. The Eliminator may be tasked with killing the FF, but that doesn't mean our heroes will let him, as Ben demonstrates by ambushing him. The Eliminator is a tough cookie and himself doesn't go down that easy. He blasts at Ben with flamethrowers in his fingertips, but Johnny absorbs the flames, allowing Sue to knock down the Eliminator with a forcefield.

The Eliminator was prepared for that. His boots have jets that can also work as a vacuum, which he uses to put out Johnny's flames. He uses his hammer hand to knock down the FF and then blasts at the heroes with a laser beam from his head. Sue tries to counter it with a forcefield. It...does not go well.

Page 159, Panel 6

Howling with grief and rage, Reed tries to attack the Eliminator, only to eat Omni-Beam. He then takes down Ben, and overloads Johnny. With the Fantastic Four seemingly dead, the Eliminator triggers his self-destruct sequence, as part of his mission. However, he gets a surprise.

Page 161, Panel 9

The Fantastic Four LIVE!

"How did they live", you ask? Well, a little bit of trickery on their part. Sue's forcefield actually protected her from the Eliminator's Omni-Beam. She turned invisible, and use her forcefields to protect Reed and Ben, and Johnny faked his overloading. They outsmarted the monster.

With that, they decide now is a good time to run.

They flee as fast as they can, but they fear they won't be able to outrun the explosion. Sue throws up a forcefield as Whisper Hill blows up.

The story ends with them vowing to find Agatha Harkness and Franklin Richards.

One thing I always liked about this issue was that the Fantastic Four managed to defeat the Eliminator not by out-brawling him, but with guile and trickery. The Eliminator is a character I find kind of funny. I always had the impression that he was some kind of cyborg. I mean, look at him. He looks like someone who would be the main villain in a B-Movie Terminator ripoff. Yet he claims he was sent by New Salem, which was a community of witches. It's so bizarre to me. Yes, this is the Marvel Universe, where it's possible for Doctor Strange to team up with Deathlok, but in this particular occasion...it feels...off. If the Eliminator's design was changed to make him look more magical, I think it would make more sense.

The only real criticism I have about this comic is that it does feel like we're stuck in the middle of something. Which...it was, really. We were in the middle of some storylines at the time. There is plenty of action, and everything goes at a good pace. 

As for the art, it's George Perez, enough said.

If you want to read this for yourself, you should track down the 2005 trade paperback Fantastic Four Visionaries: George Perez Vol. 1. You can also find it in the 2024 trade paperback Fantastic Four Epic Collection Vol. 10: Counter-Earth Must Die. Thanks for reading this blog entry! if you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time!