Thing is the team’s new leader, and his first acts are to recruit Crystal of the Inhumans. She comes to the FF’s HQ to visit her husband, who the team captured last issue when he attacked them—holding them responsible for Crystal having cheated on him. He’s crazy, and while it’s good to see Crystal stand up to him (above), he then assaults her.
But Crystal is hardly a shrinking violet. She can control the Earth.
And, basically, she kicks her husband’s ass. And then dumps him.
And then joins the FF.
Very nice sequence, and the best part of this issue.
Also, she’s having indigestion from the Terrigen Mists, so Reed makes an antidote.
It’s a bit ridiculous that he is a biochemist, mechanic, robotics expert, biologist, chemist, physicist, etc. etc. He can do anything science!
For the rest of it, Johnny Storm—who just married Alicia, the woman Thing had been dating for like two decades worth of books—throws a fit because he used to date Crystal and now Thing has brought her on to the team. So Johnny is a hypocritical jerk.
It’s about time Thing had it out with Johnny, but I don’t recall him having super breath.
In all, a good comic.
And in other news, Franklin Richards looks creepy now.
Art is John Buscema (breakdowns), Joe Sinnott (finishes). Joe Sinnot did inking and finishing for Jack Kirby, so it’s worth noting his work on FF now.
At the end of the issue, Dr. Doom shows up to set up the annual: He wants his son, Kristoff, back–and Reed is holding the boy in a padded cell in the Baxter Building.
The Thing having “super-breath” doesn’t surprise me at all- he has it for the same reason Superman and everybody else with super-strength has it- his body is super-strong! This is a condition that would naturally extend to the respiratory system, as well, so anybody with a super-tough body is going to possess this ability- Thor, Hercules, Wonder Man, the Hulk, the She-Hulk, possibly even Power Man and the Valkyrie……and the Thing. Quicksilver and Crystal’s divorce came as no shock, because Quicksilver was never marriage-material to begin with. Too much of a jerk. As for Crystal’s assertion of being “an innocent” as of the time of her dumping Johnny for Pietro, well,……..no. Crystal may have been young as of the time of ‘FF’#’s 131 and 132, but she was no ingenue. She knew what she was doing. She dumped poor ol’ Johnny simply because she had become bored with him. Johnny was her first boyfriend, so at the time of her “switching up”, she simply had no perspective. Quicksilver seemed new and exciting to her at the time, and sometimes you have to jump the fence to realize that the grass is not always greener on the other side, a lesson that Crystal certainly learned the hard way. A nasty divorce from Quicksilver, a child by him, a marriage of state with Ronan the Accuser- all she had to do to avoid all of those terrible life-events was to remain true to her true, original “flame”, the Human Torch! Crystal’s miserable, ruined life should serve as a cautionary tale to everybody, male and female, who decides that they want to leave what they already have to reach out and grab something shiny and pretty, only to get hooked by something sharp and dangerous. Truer words!