|
This was an animated series that ran as part of the Marvel Action Hour and was preceded by Iron Man. It only ran for two seasons I believe, before finally getting cancelled but it did manage to squeak out 26 episodes, all included here.
The Main Characters
--Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic (voiced by Beau Weaver) is the leader of the Fantastic Four. He is a genius and has the ability to stretch his body.
--Sue Richards / Invisible Woman (voiced by Lori Alan) is the wife of Reed. She has the ability to turn invisible and create invisible force fields.
--Johnny Storm / Human Torch (voiced by Brian Austin Greene in season one and then Quinton Flynn) is the brother of Sue and has the ability to turn himself into flame and can fly. He can also hurl fireballs.
--Ben Grimm / The Thing (voiced by Chuck McCann) is the only one not related. His super power is super strength and the cosmic rays that gave the group their powers also turned Ben into a rocky monster.
The Setting
The FF’s main headquarters is the Baxter Building in New York City.
The Plots
---Disc 1---
Note: There are two times listed next to the episode title. The first is actually the time of the Stan Lee introductions, and the second is the episode running time.
1) The Origin of the Fantastic Four Part 1 (:25)(21:51)
The episode starts with clips of the FF battling Namor and him hailing a giant beast. What we are actually watching is Dick Clark’s scholarship telethon with the FF as his guests. The FF are shilling their book Fan 4. Immediately we see Reed as the smart one, the Thing as the rough one, Johnny as the wisecracking one and Sue as the straight one. Reed tells Dick of their origin. The four of them went into outer space to take a look at some sort of phenomena traveling faster than the speed of light. So they go to space, are bombarded by cosmic rays, and they got their powers. Reed can stretch his body and make it elastic, Sue can turn invisible, The Thing turned into a super strong rocky monster and Johnny could turn into flame. While talking about their origin, they see a man trying to jump off a bridge. The FF save him but unbeknownst to them, the Puppet Master is using radioactive clay to control the person. He gets burned when Johnny picks up the puppet. Of course, he wants revenge on people who are more powerful than him. We also see that The Puppet Master has a blind stepdaughter named Alicia Masters. So The Puppet Master controls Ben and lures him to his hiding spot. Sue follows invisibly along. Alicia is enamored with Ben and senses Sue’s presence as well. So the Puppet Master manages to capture Sue. The PM hatches a scheme to send Ben home with Alicia dressed as Sue to destroy the others. The PM also plans a prison break, and we are to be continued.
2) The Origin of the Fantastic Four Part 1 (:26) (21:51)
We continue from Part with the Thing in the Puppet Master’s control. The PM’s stepdaughter is dressed as Sue Richards and they are off to destroy the remaining members. The PM is also planning a prison break. So the Thing goes home and attacks Johnny but Reed lures Ben into his lab and douses him with some chemicals that turn him human, and breaks the spell. Ben tells them of the PM and Alicia is revealed. The chemical on Ben wears off and Ben turns back into the Thing. So The FF are off to save Sue. Sue manages to escape anyway but PM takes a puppet and trips her up. The FF show up and save Sue and are now en route to stop the prison break, which they do. So Alicia moves out and she and Ben seem to have a thing going on between them. Ben is flummoxed and leaves, when the PM walks in. Ben goes back to the rest of the gang where Reed neutralizes the rest of the clay. They decide to check on Alicia since if he had any spare clay, it’d be at her house. The PM does have a puppet there of him and he has goals of world domination. The FF arrive after Alicia and the PM fight for the puppet and the PM goes flying out the window. This was a very good debut for the FF. I think they should’ve gone with a stronger villain but it showed the characters off well and told of their origin. Newbies to the show would now know what the FF are all about, their powers, how they act with each other, etc. It also introduces Alicia right off the bat as a love interest for Ben. The episode was based almost exclusively on Fantastic Four # 8, which was the first appearance of the PM. Overall, a solid debut for Marvel’s First Family.
3) Now Comes the Sub-Mariner (:39)(21:44)
The FF rush to see a science exhibit and when they get there they see an eccentric old man preaching about pollution and its affect on undersea life. He takes off his mask and unveils himself as Prince Namor, king of Atlantis. They scuffle and the beauty of Sue Richards takes Namor aback. Sue is thinking about Namor, too. She takes a walk on the beach after Reed ignores her and Namor kidnaps her and brings her to Atlantis. Sue is reluctant to stay but Namor says she must or else she will be enslaved when he takes over the surface world. Namor is happy Sue is in his kingdom but Namor’s minions are less than thrilled with Namor convalescing with a land-dweller. The FF realize that Sue has been kidnapped by Namor and don’t even know where to look for her since she can be anywhere in the ocean! Reed manages to track her down of course and they go off to find her. Reed creates a device that enables them to breath underwater for 3 hours. The FF attack Namor while Namor realizes his own minions have betrayed him and have already attacked the surface world. Namor teams up with the FF and defeat his minions to stop the threat. Namor returns to Atlantis to restore order. This wasn’t really based on one of the early FF comics, but I do recall a story like this, not sure when it was though. This was a decent enough episode. It worked better in the early issues of the comics when Sue was single and really could go with Namor. The team-up with Namor was quite sudden and should’ve been drawn out a bit, but it is only a 21-minute cartoon.
4) Incursion of the Skrull (:26)(21:50)
The opening scene is of an alien invasion and the first thing they do is knock down the twin towers. It’s only a video game but something like could never be done now in a post-9/11 world. Well, Ben is playing a video game that has the FF stopping the Skrulls. It gets broken up when the president (who looks and sounds like Bill Clinton) tells the FF of trouble and the FF go investigate. The FF are off but we see that it was actually the Skrulls (who can shape shift) impersonating the president to send the FF out on a wild goose chase, getting them out of the way. With them gone, the Skrulls impersonate the FF and perform illegal actions, thus discrediting them. The president says the FF must be captured. The FF are captured willingly but then escape to find out who is impersonating them. The FF find who is impersonating then in a stunning twist of fate, impersonate the Skrulls and they show Earth’s second line of defense (from old monster movies) and the threat is called off. This is taken wholly from FF # 2. It was a very good second story there and it translates well here. It shows the genius of Reed Richards using his brain to stop the Skrulls.
5) The Silver Surfer and the Coming of Galactus Part 1 (:30)(21:50)
Reed is monitoring the universe and sees planets disappearing. Reed, Ben and Johnny also see a streaking matter which, if you remember from the first episode, was what they went to investigate and when they ended up getting their powers. Sue comes in and has bad news for them, they are being evicted. All of a sudden, the sky goes on fire! The FF go to investigate and see if is just a hologram. Reed also sees that someone has entered their lab. They go to investigate and it is the Watcher who has come in! The Watcher is a race of beings who do nothing but observe and can’t interfere. So he interferes every time we see him. Anyway, he tells the FF of the impending threat of Galactus, the planet eater, and that he created the giant hologram to hide this planet from the Silver Surfer, Galactus’ herald. It doesn’t work and the Silver Surfer spots the Earth. So the FF attack the Surfer to prevent him from telling Galactus. It doesn’t work and the Surfer informs Galactus and Galactus arrives. He doesn’t acknowledge the FF since they are but cockroaches to him. The Watcher tries to deal with Galactus but negotiations fail. The Earth is doomed.
6) The Silver Surfer and the Coming of Galactus Part 2 (:32)(21:49)
So Galactus is about to eat the world and the Silver Surfer is knocked out on the ground. He awakens and hears Alicia Masters’ piano playing and he goes to her and she can sense a goodness in him. The Surfer realizes he shouldn’t have brought Galactus to a world teeming with life. He vows to stop Galactus. The Watcher then tell the FF that there is a device that can stop Galactus and it’s up to Johnny to get it. The rest of the FF need to stall Galactus’ machine until Johnny can return. Galactus then sends out Terrax and the Firelord to fend off the FF. The FF fight valiantly and Johnny comes back with the device (the ultimate nullifier) and Galactus is defeated. The Earth is saved. The landlady does come back at the end but the FF bail. This whole story (minus the eviction) is taken from the classic issues #’d 48-50 and is probably still one of the best FF storylines to this day. The buildup in issue # 48 to Galactus’ arrival and the battle that ensued and it translated excellently here. I’m glad they made it a two parter to increase the tension.
7) Super Skrull (:36)(21:50)
Calling back to the episode, “The Incursion of the Skrulls,” the Skrull emperor realizes that the video Reed gave him was a fraud. He is pissed. By the way, continuity in a cartoon? I’m impressed. The Skrull emperor has created the ultimate weapon, the Super-Skrull, a being that has all the powers of the FF as well as his own Skrull powers. In another stunning bit of continuity, the landlord is still evicting the FF and wants reparation for the damages done to the building. Luckily, Ben has sold the FF’s right to MTV to star in a music video. Right as they go to the studio, the Super Skrull arrives, right in the middle of Times Square! They battle the Super Skrull and are horribly beaten except for one time when a helicopter with Ben’s agent flew overhead. Reed figures out the reason that happened is because the Super Skrull is getting all his power from his home planet so Reed constructs a device that will hamper his power. They manage to defeat the Super-Skrull and Ben’s new hit, “It’s Clobberin’ Time,” give the FF the money they need to pay for their damages. The song is semi-catchy, too. Overall, a very good episode as well. The Super-Skrull appeared in issue 18 or thereabouts and that’s about the only thing they took from the comic. The story was written well and the way they defeated him was done excellently as well.
--Disc 2—
8) The Mask of Doom (Part 1) (:32)(21:49)
The Fantastic Four are practicing their dance moves when Dr. Doom lands on the top of the Baxter Building. He coats the building with an electromagnetic field and causes Ben and Johnny to fight. Reed goes to check on them and while he’s gone, a pack of Doom’s robots kidnap Sue. He forces the male members of the FF to board his ship and they fly to Latveria, where Doom is ruler. He imprisons the four of them in inescapable prisons and forces Sue to dine with him, and Doom tells her his origin. His father was a gypsy with healing powers who was always sought after by criminals due to his lucrative healing payments. Sue urges Doom to keep talking and the other three manage to escape their prisons and are on their way to save Sue.
9) The Mask of Doom (Part 2) (:36) (21:49)
So the FF have escaped to find Sue as Sue is listening to Doom’s lifestory. His father was a healer and was kidnapped one day to try and heal some Baron’s wife. He was unable to and fled with his son. Armed guardsmen caught up with them and fired upon and thought the both of them dead. Doom lived and his father told him to be strong. Doom only sought revenge and dedicated his life to revenge. The Baron killed his mother and his father, and he wanted revenge. Doom did various evil deeds in his time and Ben, Reed and Johnny race against the clock to save Sue before sunrise, battling all of the booby traps in Doom’s castle. Doom goes on to tell Sue of his experiments and the experiment that exploded in his face and scarred his face. He escaped to Tibet and became the masked horror he is today. Ben, Reed and Johnny escape to Doom’s laboratory and he tells them he planned this. They must go to Greece and they have 48 hours to bring back an artifact, or else Sue will die. He wants the coffin of Argos, or Sue will DIE and they will be stuck in the past FOREVER!!!
10) The Mask of Doom (Part 3) (:36) (21:50)
This is the third part of the three-part Mask of Doom story. The FF were captured by Doom, who told his origin to Sue. Ben, Johnny and Reed are also thrust into the past to gain a precious artifact (the coffin of Argos) from ancient Greece or else Sue will die. So the FF were sent into the past and that’s where we pick up here. Ben, Johnny and Reed are back in Greece and manage to get themselves in bits of trouble. They manage to don the threads of the day after helping the Greeks defeat some other forces, deal with an oracle and finally find the mysterious coffin, only to be befallen by sleeping gas and captured by said forces the defeated when the first got their. They are chained up but no mere chains can stop the FF. The Perkses are preparing to invade Greece in the battle of Solami and the FF escape to assist the Greeks in order for history to come out the right way. They win, they get the coffin of Argos but Ben wants to stay in Greece where he isn’t an outcast. There is a waterspout and Reed and Johnny think they lost Ben but he is there. The three of them head home with the coffin of Argos, but just the coffin. The contents, which is what Doom really wanted, was lost at sea. The three return to Doom and Sue is let go. Doom escapes after learning he was tricked and the FF watch him fly away. This was taken from FF # 5 and everything was almost exactly the same except for the FF being sent to Greece. In the comic they were sent to Blackbeard’s time. Again, the pacing of this arc was excellent. They didn’t rush a thing and the slow build showing Doom’s origin and the FF in Greece was great. The ending seemed way too rushed though, with the FF just watching Doom fly away. Other than that, probably one of the better 3 part cartoons you’ll see.
11) Mole Man (:33)(21:50)
The Mole Man is out stealing landmarks of the world and goes about stealing Rock Center as one of his landmarks. As luck would have it, the FF are there attending a ball (and Johnny Storm sings an AWFUL song that Brian Austin Green probably petitioned for, my goodness, it is BAD) when it is plucked from underneath and placed deep under ground. The FF go to investigate and Johnny brings his date from the ball. They split up and Johnny, Reed and Melinda (Johnny’s date) are blinded by underground diamonds and they meet the Mole Man, the ruler of below the Earth. Mole Man says this was plan all along to neutralize the FF so he can take over the world. Meanwhile, Sue and Ben are wandering around and meet clay monsters, which Ben at first thinks he defeats but Sue and Ben need to retreat through an underground an ocean to an island. The island turns out to be a huge turtle, which they ride to Reed and Johnny’s location. They find him but the Mole Man has started his suction machine which will suck Washington DC into the caves! If Reed tries to stop it, the Earth will be split apart. When they break free Reed says he’s going to accelerate the suction device. Reed simply aimed the ray at a different spot and sucked the landmarks back to where they belong and the Mole Man back to where he should be. This episode was loosely based on issue # 1, but was poorly done in execution. The story was incredibly boring, Johnny’s stupid song was completely lame, and Melinda as a character was just a crutch to the action. This is by far the worst episode that aired to this point.
12) Behold the Negative Zone (:43)(21:50)
So Reed is doing some experiments and somehow finds a place where negative energy is transformed into anti-matter. Reed calls it the Negative Zone. When the annoying landlord stops by and unplugs what Reed is watching, a hole opens and creatures from the Negative Zone enter through. One is Annihilus, a winged insectisoid creature and the other is Blaastar, a creature that can fire concussive bolts from his hands. Annihilus starts to build a home above the Empire State Building and the police try to stop him but he fires upon them. The FF save their falling helicopter and as the FF try to reason with him, the cosmic rod on his chest is used to attack the FF. Blaastar and Annihilus meet and both which to rule the Earth. They have a battle to the death to determine who will rule and will fight in an hour. That gives Reed an hour to figure out how to neutralize their anti-matter powers. So the FF journey to the Negative Zone after re-opening the portal, figure out how to defeat Annihilus and Blaastar, and send them back to the Negative Zone, then close it. The FF have won again. There as also a sub plot of Ben being on the home shopping network to save up for Alicia’s surprise, an elephant. Pretty decent episode that was a lot better than the episode before. Blaastar and Annihilus were strong enough villains and the show moved quickly. It is loosely based on a couple of FF issues, one being Annual #6 I believe which had the first appearance of Annihilus, though I haven’t read it so I don’t know.
13) The Silver Surfer and the Return of Galactus (:38) (21:50)
So Ben and Alicia are enjoying a romantic evening alone and ate watching TV, and one of the characters pops out of the screen! Johnny comes in and turns on Iron Man, and again one of the characters popped out of the screen!!! So Reed comes home and sees himself this happens after dinosaurs pop out of the screen. The FF go to find this elemental source and find it just two miles above Manhattan. The FF leave, leaving Alicia behind. While she’s standing there, the Silver Surfer stops by saying he needs to meet the FF since the Earth may be in grave danger. He says he saw this energy above the Earth and it can only be Galactus. He tells Alicia of his story and why he fought for Earth. The FF find what they believe is Galactus’ base and the Silver Surfer comes to tell him it’s not his. The true villain is revealed as Dr. Doom. He did this to lure the Silver Surfer to his presence so he can steal his cosmic power! And he does! So Doom appears to be unbeatable, but Silver Surfer invokes an old rule (when he mentions Galactus, he will show up) and Galactus appears! The Surfer tells Galactus that Doom stole his cosmic powers and so Galactus grants them back to Surfer as Doom flies away into space. The Surfer is exiled again to Earth but the day is saved. Doom is without his powers and seemingly gone forever. This is another very good episode and the reason why it is based on an excellent comic book story. Stan Lee wrote some classics in his time and it translates well into animated form when they adhere to the story. This would be the end of Season 1, which actually had some pretty good episodes. The only bad one would be the Mole Man episode but overall, it was, well fantastic.
14) And a Blind Man Shall Lead Them (:26)(22:10)
The show actually has a cold opening with The FF battling robots looking for Sue, who seems to have been captured by Doom, who must’ve come back from the depths of space. This may have been the start of Season 2 since the animation appears different. Doom flees the island and the island explodes, with the FF on the island. Yes, this is definitely a new season as the opening sequence is different, and better, without the corny theme song, and images taken right from the original comic covers, which I though was awesome then and I still think awesome. Ok, so the FF survived the blast but as they awaken from the blast, they find their powers have disappeared. Doom learns that the FF survive and plans on finishing what he started, though he doesn’t yet realize they lost their powers. Meanwhile, Alicia brings Ben to her lawyer to help the FF hide the fact they don’t have their powers anymore. Since the public knows the FF’s identity, they are in great danger. The lawyer is a fellow blind man named Matt Murdock, who savvy Marvel fans know as Daredevil. Meanwhile (part two), Reed figures out ways to simulate their powers to mediocre success. While they practice, Doom takes over the FF’s building and starts attacking the FF. The FF only escape only with the help of Daredevil. The FF now must storm the building and stop Doom without their powers. Daredevil keeps Doom occupied while the FF try to sneak in. Daredevil keeps Doom occupied in time for the FF to show up. Doom knocks them down with freezing ice, then sucks the air out of the room. Ben goes into the power stimulator, becomes the Thing again (to his chagrin of course) and the Thing is on a rampage now. Nothing Doom can throw at Ben will stop him and just like the comics, Ben goes apeshit on Doom, and is only seconds short of killing him when Reed stops him. The FF have their powers back and Doom is handily defeated, until he detonates a bomb in the building. Sue puts a giant force field around the building, and the day is saved, though their building is gone. Ben is bummed that he is now the Thing and Alicia won’t love him anymore and walks away. This was a superb episode and a great way to start off the season. It is based on one of my favorite FF stories when they teamed up with Daredevil in issues 39 and 40. The storytelling was just fantastic and this episode was almost scene for scene from the comic.
--Disc 3—
15) Inhumans Saga Part 1: And the Wind Cries Medusa (:30)(22:00)
Ben Grimm is scouring the streets when he hears a woman cry for help. He goes over to help her and her would be attacker is actually Hydro-Man, a super villain who can turn into water. The woman is also a villain named Medusa, who can control her hair a la Mr. Fantastic. Their leader is a guy by the name of The Wizard, a master of electronics and technology. The final member of this Frightful Four is named The Trapster, who shoots glue. Hey, not all super villains have the best powers. So the Frightful Four capture Ben Grimm. He is then sent to destroy his own teammates. We visit the FF and they are in their new Four Freedoms Plaza. Alicia comes in distraught when they hear a distress call from Ben. So Reed, Johnny, Sue and Alicia fly over there but only Johnny, Sue and Reed go into the warehouse where the Frightful Four get the jump on them. With Ben’s help, the bad FF defeat the good FF. Only Alicia’s interference can bring Ben back to the side of good and the FF defeat the bad FF. In the chaos, Medusa escapes as the crew head home. We see Medusa with a gun seemingly running from an imposing man as the cliffhanger.
16) Inhumans Saga Part 2: Inhumans Among Us (:31)(21:01)
We recap last episodes highlights and then get rolling on the new story. Johnny leaves after getting yelled at by Reed for letting Medusa go. As fate would have it, Medusa runs into him and urges him to drive away. The imposing fellow following him tracks her to Four Freedoms Plaza, steals one of their planes and find Medusa. We learn his name is Gorgon who can cause powerful tremors by stomping his hoof feet and that Medusa is an Inhuman from Attilan. The FF tackle Gorgon and Medusa tells Gorgon that somebody named Maximus hypnotized her into leaving Attilan. Gorgon crushes a building that allows him and Medusa to escape. Johnny of course goes to find them and sees the helicopter Gorgon stole. He lands and meets a gorgeous woman named Crystal, who is also an Inhuman who can control the elements, even fire. Johnny flames on and Crystal assumes Johnny is, “one of them.” Johnny also meets Lockjaw, a dog who can teleport. Johnny goes with Crystal to meet the family. They see Karnak, who can find the weakest point of all objects to destroy it. Of course, Gorgon and Medusa find Johnny and Gorgon and Karnak start attacking while Crystal and Medusa tell them not too. We hear mention of a person named Black Bolt, the king of the Inhumans. Johnny alerts the rest of the FF who find the Inhumans. They battle and the FF is shocked to see Ben walloped by Black Bolt. Thus we have another cliffhanger.
17) Inhumans Saga Part 3: Beware the Hidden Land (:29)(21:57)
So the Fantastic Four battle the Inhumans and we meet some more Inhumans. There is Triton the fish man who escapes to the water when his water supply is depleted and is captured by someone. Crystal also mentions that Maximus the mad is the ruler of Attilan where the Inhumans must stay for the fresh air. Black Bolt is also revealed as having as having a powerful voice, so powerful it will level a town and he must stay quiet. The Inhumans leave and Johnny joins them just to be with Crystal. The rest of the FF are picked up by an Inhuman named the Seeker who tells the FF of their origin, how they were transformed by Terrigen Mists to gain powers and went to the Great Refuge to hide from the Neanderthals who were afraid of them. The FF are thrust from the Seeker’s ship but Reed put a tracer on it. The Seeker returns to Maximus who reveals his plan to launch the Terrigen Mists on the world, poisoning the humans, and killing them, and then launches an attack on Black Bolt and the royal family. All seems lost until Johnny shows up to defeat the Alpha Primitives. Maximus then takes over the throne and declare Medusa his wife. Inhumans start battling Inhumans with Johnny stuck in the middle and the rest of the FF join the fun. They defeat Maximus and Maximus’ plan to kill the FF with the Terrigen Mists fail when Reed tells him they are all humans in a way. Maximus gets his revenge by forming a negative barrier around the Great Refuge and Johnny had to be pulled away from Crystal by Ben. Johnny is distraught he’ll never see Crystal again, and she is just as sad. See kids, to quote a famous Internet writer, it really can be Shakespeare. The three-parter didn’t stray far from the comic version (which ran from issues #’s 38-40 or thereabouts) and is actually quite excellent. I think to this point it is one of the best stories they did on the TV show. There was action, storyline, plot development and everything you could want from a cartoon series.
18) Worlds Within Worlds (:31)(22:34)
So Reed finds a new element then goes out for a date with Sue and Johnny comes along, leaving Ben at home. All of a sudden, some character named the Psycho-Man arrives and is able to scare Ben and Alicia, who had just arrived. Ben manages to fight him off to protect Alicia, and Psycho-Man escapes, leaving his suit behind. The family comes home and Reed starts to analyze the suit and finds out the element he discovered are from the same place! He then opens the can of the elemental ooze and all the FF members start acting very strange, with all of them fighting and bickering. Reed realizes it is the goo that is causing it and places it in his secret vault. Of course, the Psycho-Man is watching this whole time and impersonates Reed, kidnaps Sue, then tricks Ben into bringing “Element X” to them. When he gets to their location, Sue attacks Ben. Sue is no longer the invisible girl, she is a leather clad villain known as Malice. She completely destroys Ben and they steal Element X and Psycho-Man is revealed as the Reed impersonator. They then reveal their plan to destroy the FF. Ben, meanwhile, regroups at home and tells Reed of what happened. Reed finds out that Malice is Sue and they go to Psycho-Man’s domain, a microscopic world. So Reed goes into the ship that will shrink them to that small, but they only have a half-hour to find Sue. The FF are of course captured by Pycho-Man and shrunk even further as Psycho Man reveals his plan to use the FF as his fear police. Reed escapes then frees the others and then destroys the Psycho-Man. They then run into Malice but Reed channels his anger into Sue, which causes a psychological explosion, freeing her from his reign. She then defeats the Psycho-Man with a minute to spare and head home, as Reed and Sue make out in the back while invisible. I always thought the Psycho-Man was a bit of a weak character but this episode took probably his only shining moment and made it a winner. Another strong story based on the comic (in this case Annual # 5)
19) To Battle the Living Planet (:32) (22:23)
The FF are enjoying a nice day in the office when all of a sudden chaos strikes. There are earthquakes in NYC, flooding and raining in Spain and natural disasters are happening all over the world. The FF go outside to protect people getting harmed from falling debris and the Avengers are there with the assist. We see Giant-Man, Vision, Iron Man, Hercules, She-Hulk, Rage, Speedball and some others we don’t see that clearly. The FF go back to their base when an object flies from the sky right into the FF’s building! It is none other than Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor! The FF follow the hammer since it always returns to Thor and see Thor knocked out on an asteroid. The FF rescue him then see the causes of Earth’s bad weather. It is Ego, a living planet. Ego has boosters on his backside to bring him to Earth to destroy it. The FF are attacked by beings and are saved by Thor. Apparently, Thor opened a portal with his hammer that brought Ego to Earth. They head back to Four Freedoms Plaza but Ego attacks again. They need to destroy Ego’s thrusters but only one man can do that, the one who created them, Galactus. Thor and Reed travel to meet Galactus while the rest of the FF are attacked by Ego’s creatures again. Sue escapes with the others and they are on a mission to find the center of Ego’s conscious and destroy it with the huge explosive device. Galactus, meanwhile tells of why he put the thrusters on Ego, to dispose of him since his power was equal to Galactus. Galactus says he will help in getting rid of Ego, but only if Reed releases his vow to stop Galactus from sparing Earth, to which Reed accepts. Galactus shows up to defeat Ego but the Thing is stuck inside Ego! Thor manages to find him and they escape in time. The Thing thanks Thor for thanking him as Galactus leaves, but not before reminding Reed that he may come back to consume the Earth. So the immediate threat has ended, but at the cost of an impending threat. Great story telling makes for another sensational episode as the continuity is surprisingly good, harkening back to episode Galactus first appeared. The appearance of Thor was done quite well, too. This was based on an FF issue I remember reading though the number escapes me at this time.
20) Prey of the Black Panther (:40)(22:33)
Wakanda. It’s a highly advanced African nation ruled by one T’Challa. On a trip, two Americans encounter a huge red ape, and two native Wakandan’s witness this and tell their king. The big red Ape was impervious to spear and bullets and disappeared as quickly as it came. We cross over the Atlantic to the Four Freedom’s Plaza where Johnny is still bumming over losing Crystal. Ben consoles him then walks by a sleeping Reed and notices that someone is on the roof. Ben goes to investigate and it attacked from above by the Black Panther! The Panther escapes and causes the FF to follow him to Wakanda. The FF don’t exactly follow but are pulled via magnetic beam to Wakanda, a highly advanced nation full of electronic wonders. The Black Panther splits up the four members of the FF and defeats them one by one. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how resourceful the FF are and defeat the Black Panther. Black Panther then tells his story. He is trying to save his people from a mad scientist named Dr. Klaw. He came to Wakanda 10 years ago looking for Vibranium. T’Challa’s father, T’Chaka, stood up to Klaw and was killed. The Wakandan’s were no match for Klaw’s sound weapon and they were intent on destroying the village. Young T’Challa took Klaw’s sound gun and maimed Klaw’s hand. T’Challa built up his empire and thought that if he could defeat the FF, he could defeat Klaw. Of course, Klaw chooses this moment to attack and Klaw’s red ape appears on the scene. The FF find Klaw and seemingly defeat him using his own device but Klaw himself reappears as living sound with a sound gun on his hand where T’Challa blew it off a decade ago. Reed then realizes that Vibranium is the one element that can absorb sonic energy and Wakanda has plenty of it. Klaw is completely absorbed by this Vibranium and the threat is over, and the FF have an ally in the Black Panther.
21) When Calls Galactus (:28)(21:58)
So the FF are at a benefit and some pretty redhead named Frankie meets Johnny and Johnny is taken aback by her beauty. All of a sudden she feels strange, and bursts into flame! She starts flying away and Johnny catches up to her and picks her up when she falls. Reed runs some tests on her and they find a repressed memory! Her father was the scientist who created the android Human Torch, and she must’ve absorbed some of the traits when she wandered into her father’s lab. Frankie and Johnny make out in the sky when all of a sudden Terrax (Galactus’ herald we saw in the Ego episode) shows up! Terrax has the power to command all rock and brings the entire city of Manhattan up into the air. Terrax tells the FF that he is not Galactus’ herald anymore but needs the FF to stop Galactus. Frankie then has a feeling that Galactus is coming, and he shows up! Galactus tells of his story that Terrax poisoned him and it is actually Frankie that saves Galactus. Terrax goes wild fighting everybody and Reed deduces that it’s Terrax that is actually recharging Galactus’ strength! Galactus finally awakens and banishes Terrax. Galactus is grateful for what the four did and sends Manhattan back to Earth. Galactus is still weakened though, and Galactus must feed now! Galactus starts to feed but The FF, Frankie and other heroes fight against him. Thor shows up and Ghost Rider shows up! Galactus is defeated and is shrinking, but Reed says he will try and save him. Reed knows places where he can go but without a herald he can’t get there. Frankie then decides she’d be his herald. So Johnny loses yet another girlfriend. This episode was actually based on issues way into the 200’s but fits nicely here, as it ends the saga and threat of Galactus and gives Johnny yet another reason to mope. Very well done.
22) Nightmare in Green (:34)(21:59)
Ben is moping now, complaining to Alicia that Reed is so busy trying to crack the Negative Barrier to free Crystal that he brought in a new scientist named Bruce Banner, and is not working on a cure for him! As he’s talking, some petty thieves steal Alicia’s purse so Ben chases after them and gets the purse back and then the Hulk shows up! Now the battle starts. Film crews are alerted and all are on hand to see the Hulk seemingly defeat The Thing! Dr. Doom was watching the whole, as he’s been tracking the gamma radiation across the country. He even finds out the Hulk’s human identity, that he is Bruce Banner and he is helping Reed Richards! The next day, Reed reveals he has been working with Gamma radiation to cure Ben! His exposure weakens him and he needs to rest. Meanwhile, Bruce’s assistant, Rick Jones, takes a spin with Johnny on one of their floating rides and fly by the X-Men and Juggernaut! As that happens, Dr. Doom kidnaps the Hulk. Doom plans on using the Hulk to destroy the FF. So Doom sets the Hulk against the Fantastic Four and again the Thing and Hulk tango as the world watches. Sue leaves Reed’s side to help leaving the door wide open for Doom to see to Richards. Of course, he had captured Rick Jones and Rick escaped when Doom unwittingly let him free. So Rick saves Reed and they go to help out Ben and the others. The Hulk just destroys Thing and Doom shows up to finish Reed and Sue, but when he shoves Rick Jones out of the way, and Alicia calls out to the Hulk, Hulk realizes who the real enemy is and thwarts Doom’s attempts to kill the FF. It may be too late, though. The Thing has no heartbeat. Doom is vanquished and luckily, Ben pulls through. Another great bit of storytelling, and throwing in the X-Men as a cameo was awesome. This would actually lead to a Hulk show on UPN that lasted shorter than this even.
--Disc 4—
23) Behold, A Distant Star (:37)(21:57)
The FF were battling the Skrulls and were successful until a piece of shrapnel hits Sue. Sue is in dire straits and only one man can save her, Sue’s father. That poses one problem though, he hasn’t been seen in years, and Sue has told everyone that he’s dead! So, much to everyone’s surprise, Franklin Storm shows up and saves Sue, but Franklin gets arrested since he has been wanted to murder! Sue is okay but Johnny is incensed he never knew about his father! Sue tells him the whole story. Franklin was in a car accident and their mother died and he was crushed. He fell into a life of gambling and fell into the wrong crowd. He borrowed money from less than reputable people and when the bookies went to get the money, one was killed accidentally. Franklin fled rather then be arrested since no one would believe him and had Sue tell Johnny he had died. Meanwhile, we see in jail that an alien is shot down from the stars into the Earth, takes Franklin’s form, and then sends him to a far off place. The fake Franklin reveals himself to Sue and Johnny and becomes The Invincible Man. He attacks the FF and he has all the same powers as the Four!!! Reed realizes that this man is the Super-Skrull and defeats him, revealing the Invincible Man in his true form to Johnny and Sue. Reed demands the real Franklin back and he is sent down, but he is booby-trapped and explodes, meant to take out the FF! The FF are incensed and vow to take on the Skrulls. They get their battle sooner than expected, being brought to the Skrull world, but their powers have been neutralized and they are imprisoned. Reed then strikes a deal to escape death. He takes his power ray and strikes down the rest of the four, and the Skrulls turn the ray on Reed. Of course he tricked them and the FF’s powers are restored and they make short order of the Skrulls. Johnny then realizes that getting revenge on the Skrulls only keeps the pain alive. Truly touching. The Invincible Man wasn’t much of a villain and overall I thought it was a weak episode.
24) Hopelessly Impossible (:32)(21:58)
Johnny sees Lockjaw and thinks he can get back with Crystal. Meanwhile, a green alien called the Impossible Man finds the Four Freedoms Plaza as a Skrull materializes in front of him! It is not just any Skrull, it’s the Super Skrull! The Impossible Man hides and then breaks into the Four Freedoms Plaza. He reads a book on the Four complete with flashbacks to earlier episodes. I guess to keep costs low they just used animation from earlier episodes. Seriously, the first 12 minutes are nothing but scenes from earlier episodes this season. Finally Johnny shows up again with Lockjaw and the Impossible Man pop-ups again. Impossible Man is a metamorph who can change into anything. The Impossible Man tells Johnny he is being followed by the Super-Skrull and he needs help. Johnny cuts a deal with the IM, he will protect him only if he can rejoin Johnny with Crystal. This leads to more flashbacks, with Johnny first meeting Crystal. The Impossible Man is able to defeat the Super-Skrull but Johnny still can’t see Crystal. 90% of this was flashback and re-used animation. Completely awful episode.
25) The Sentry Sinister (:38)(21:58)
Sue decides the FF need a vacation and Reed begrudgingly agrees. They decide to go to an island off the South American shore. It looks to be fun. Of course, a pair of scientists on the same island reveal some ancient alien spacecraft and awaken an old robot guard. Meanwhile, at the Four Freedoms Plaza, Johnny decides to stay home and Crystal is in Attilan thinking of Johnny. It seems the air in there is fading and when it’s gone, they will die! Mad Maximus is the only one who can break it, and he’s not telling! Meanwhile, the FF fly to the island and the Sentry (the guard that was re-awakened), attacks them. The Thing actually makes short work of the Sentry and rescues the two scientists. Back at Attilan, Black Bolt has a plan. He sends all the Inhumans to the shelter and he speaks! He breaks the negative barrier with his powerful voice. Of course, all of Attilan is destroyed, but the Inhumans are free. Johnny is back in New York flying around and comes home to see Crystal at the Four Freedoms Plaza! Back with the other three, the scientists leave and they have a chance to relax, until the Sentry comes back again. Reed tells Sue to call Johnny to get one of his destabilizer rays but Johnny is out with Crystal. Lockjaw sees the message though and runs to get Johnny. Johnny, Crystal and Lockjaw join Ben, Reed and Sue and together they defeat the Sentry, and the island explodes in the process. They head back to the Four Freedoms Plaza and all is right with the world. Johnny and Crystal are together and Ben is stuck walking the dog through all corners of the world. The episode was very weak again and they should’ve centered on just the Inhumans as the story with Reed, Sue and Ben was resolved way too quickly and not done well. It was an improvement over the episode before though.
26) Doomsday (:33)(21:57)
The episode starts with the Silver Surfer pondering with the animals. The Surfer is still a prisoner on Earth. He flies around and sees some Marvel cameos (the Marvel Studios, Namor, Speedball, Nighthawk and others) and flies over Latveria where he is lured into a trap by Doom, who steals his cosmic powers and his surfboard again. He will be the ruler of the world! But, he has to defeat the FF first. We see the FF and Reed and Sue are off to a romantic dinner and Ben is by himself reading a zombie book. Doom attacks Ben and then freezes him in place. Crystal and Johnny find Ben and unfreeze him. Ben tells them it was Doom’s doing. Doom is busy going after Reed and Sue now, anyway. Johnny, Ben and Crystal join but Reed concedes defeat. Doom wanted to humiliate them so he can take over the world and they live in fear. Reed then tells the rest of them after Doom leaves he was just playing to Doom’s game, knowing that Doom wasn’t trying to kill them. So Doom sets out to take over the world and Reed sets out on a way to defeat Doom, but not before Johnny leaves after getting pissed at Reed. Reed creates a device to anger Doom and weaken him at the same time. Meanwhile, Crystal contacts Reed and tells him that Johnny is going to Doom to try his super-nova blast. Johnny goes over and does it, but fails. Doom is just too powerful. The rest of the FF show up and Reed’s device manages to vanquish Doom and the Silver Surfer gets his powers back. Another weak episode to close Disc 4, which was easily the worst disc on here. The story was done before and better just this season alone and it was basically just Doom stealing the cosmic powers and losing, again. This was a pretty bad way to end the series as well, though they probably didn’t know it at the time.
Series Review
The first season and most of the second season were surprisingly good for an animate series. The episodes were actually fantastic and the stories were great because it stuck to the original stories that were in the Silver Age FF Books. Then something happened. After the Hulk episode, the show just tanked. Maybe they knew they weren’t coming back and just wrote it in (I mean, look at the Impossible Man episode). Still 6 bad episodes combined out of the 26 aired isn’t too bad, and some of them were gold, especially the Galactus arc, the Doom origin and the Inhumans story. It wasn’t as good as the X-Men or Spider-Man series (which were phenomenal in terms of blending comic books with original ideas) since it was based too much in the comics and didn’t offer too much new but it was by far better than its Marvel Action Hour counterpart, Iron Man, and other shows around the time like the Hulk and the Avengers. The animation was decent, the stories for the most part were great and any fan of the Silver Age FF would love it. Overall, call it a better than average run that ended when it should since it clearly had run out of steam.
DVD Features
A) Extras
1) Episode Introductions with Stan Lee
These are introductions that Stan Lee did before the episodes, and they were actually played before the episodes when they first aired. He just talks about the story being told, really.
2) Stan Lee’s Soapbox (7:45)
Stan says his editor was talking to the editor of DC and the DC editor said that his Justice League book was selling like crazy so the Marvel editor came to Stan and told him he needed to create a team book. Stan had never read the Justice League books and he talks about how he came about with the idea of four members. He wanted a leader, with a girlfriend, who had a kid brother, and another loveable monster. Stan said this lead to creating other teams like the Avengers and the X-Men. Stan always thought of the FF as a family. Stan mentions the guilt Reed feels about Ben being transformed into the Thing. He talks about Dr. Doom as his favorite character and being a king of his own country. Stan talks more about writing the book and even throws a mention of the Incredibles! Well, it is a Disney DVD. I always enjoy Stan talking about creating these characters since he’s created so many of them.
3) Sneak Peeks
There are sneak peeks for: Chicken Little (1:10), Chronicles of Narnia (:34), Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2:23), Spider-Man: The ’67 Collection (:49), Spider-Man: The Venom Saga (:45), Scrubs (1:22), The Pacifier (2:33), Power Rangers SPD (:33)
B) Audio/Video
The audio is done in the standard Dolby Digital Surround Sound and the video is just plain old 1.33:1 or full screen. The cartoon looked better than the old VHS tapes I had of the show, so it’s an improvement. It’s what you’d expect from a mid-90’s cartoon.
C) Liner Notes
There aren’t any, actually. There are some fliers for other TV shows now on DVD. Other than that there is nothing but the slipcase, a fold open DVD case which houses the DVD’s (one over each other) and a list of the episodes.
D) Easter Eggs
None
Overall Review
Disc One starts off with some trailers. We’ve got Chicken Little, a teaser for Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and a DVD trailer for Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. That’s pretty much all the extras too! There’s the Stan Lee introductions but those aren’t really extras since it was part of the original show. There’s the Stan Lee soapbox that is about 8 minutes and then the trailers. The 26 episodes were pretty decent in themselves (see the review above) but besides that the DVD was pretty bare thin. I mean, in one way I am happy it actually came out (due to the movie and all and cross promotion) but seeing this come out makes me really wish for X-Men and Spider-Man full season sets coming out as well. The show was short lived so I don’t know how well known it is, but it was very true to the comics and any real FF fan would enjoy it. I hesitate from recommending it only because watching and reviewing this set I was overwhelmed by mediocrity. There’s nothing that makes it jump out and say look how great this is but nothing to jump out and say, wow this DVD sucks. Overall, we’ll go right in the middle with a 5.0.
Overall Rating
5.0
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
|
