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The Lady IS For Burning
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We're now into the realm of Issues Of Fantastic Four I Actually Own, and I distinctly remember reading this comic when it first came out, having my mind blown by THREE incredible stories. The main story, as promised on the cover gives us "the startling secret of Frankie Raye" (she's the adopted daughter of the inventor of the original Human Torch, and as a result got given flame powers as a child), while the final story featues "a dramatic development in the life of The Thing". It was the middle story I remember the most though, not for this issue but the next one when it turns out that the woman introduced here is actually Ben Grimm's much-mentioned but never seen Aunt Petunia!
There is, however, no Doctor Doom inside, just as it says on the cover. It's a great cover, and an image that has been repurposed many times (including by me!), but I couldn't find any explanation online as to why such an unusual image was used. Luckily though, as I say, this is a run of comics that I actually own, so I was able to check the corresponding letters page a few months later in issue #243, where I discovered a reader complaining about John Byrne's egomania in putting himself on the cover. In reply, the editor Jim Salicrup reveals that it was his idea, and that he actually came up with the cover concept himself, after Byrne had told him that there were no actual villains in the issue at all.
As I've said before, I love this run and often wished for an issue where nothing much happened, and we just follow the characters through their daily life. I never realised I got so close to what I was after with this very issue - it's even referenced at the start of the final story!
Next time there will be a lot more Doom, and definitely a lot more happening, as we return to the Spider-man newspaper strip for a nefarious scheme that uses a plot point from Watchmen several years before Watchmen ever did!
link to information about this issue
posted 8/7/2020 by Mark Hibbett
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