Reed Richards’ cure of Thing is making him literally go crazy. He runs amok in New York and then happens to bump into Hulk.
Here’s the weird thing: The title on the comic is “The Thing Runs Amok” but look at what Reed is doing inside the comic. He’s losing his mind and totally assaulting his landlord. This happens in the next issue, too. It’s one of the few ways the FF seem kinda…Batshit crazy.
Anyway…
It’s time for a fight.
The two destroy a lot of NYC until Reed accidentally shoots Ben.
And Ben is dead.
Except no of course he’s not. He’s back next issue, and so is Watcher, who warns the team about a new threat: Overmind.
Yes, this has nothing to do with the Hulk fight–the stories just flow together. Although Thing does toss in a reference.
The Overmind story is bonkers, and I’m not going into all of it because it’s also kind of boring. Very heavy exposition. He’s a castoff from The Eternals, basically, and he’s got the power to control minds. He possesses all of New York, and Reed, and all the other super heroes are too busy to help.
So Sue goes to Doom. Together with Johnny and Ben, they fight Overmind until Stranger shows up. He tells some cockammie story about another race or something and then shrinks Overmind down to nothing.
I told you this was bonkers.
And the story is over.
Buscema is now the regular artist. His run would last for about the next hundred issues. It wasn’t unbroken, so he didn’t come close to Jack Kirby’s amazingly consistent run, but it’s impressive nonetheless.
And it may be sacrilege to say this, but I like him more than Jack.
It would seem to me that if the Overmind truly possessed ” …the sum-total power of ALL the great Eternals” as he claims on page twelve up here, then, based on what we have seen of the power levels of the Eternals beginning around 1988 in the ‘Thor’ comic, then, if the Overmind truly wanted to destroy Ben and Johnny ( or do anything else ) all he would have to do is wish it into existence! No physical exertion required at all! The writers of the 1988 ‘Thor’ comics went to considerable lengths to establish that the Asgardians, Olympians, Egyptian gods, etc., were literally pissants in relation to the Eternals! So, if this Overmind fellow possesses the combined power of ALL the Eternals, then he is one seriously unstoppable cosmic-level butt-kicking Supergod! His actions across this four-issue storyarc simply do not suggest this level of omnipotence. He’s TRYING too hard, in certain sequences! And, of course, the Stranger finally shows up to show the Overmind that everything is relative, even cosmic omnipotence! So, if the Stranger is actually powerful enough to destroy the Overmind, then, it is safe to conclude that the Stranger is more powerful than all the Earth’s pagan deities all combined! That is a sobering thought! This means he could vaporize Galactus with a blink of his eye! I simply cannot imagine beings this powerful! But…….. I prefer Jumbo John Buscema’s artistic take over Jolly Jack Kirby’s, as well, but only barely. It’s close. Kirby had a way of drawing very powerful and dramatic close-up facial expressions, especially on Reed and Johnny. Check out the full-page facial close-up of Johnny from FF#95, for just one example. Very powerful. Buscema could never match that, although his overall take on the series was superior. I do agree with John Byrne that Buscema tended to draw the Thing to look like a big orange teddy-bear, which was extremely counterintuitive to the point of the character. Well, Byrne certainly fixed THAT problem when he took over the series in 1981, with issue#232. “Back to the Basics”, indeed! I wouldn’t mind seeing Byrne return to either the FF OR the X-Men ( either First or Second Class ) before he dies! And that’s beginning to become an “issue”, in itself! JB is 72 old ones, as of late 2022, I believe! But, all the Internet reports on Byrne’s status with Marvel all indicate that there is a much greater likelihood of Hell freezing over before Byrne will be welcomed back to the Marvel fold. That’s a shame, because the state of today’s Marvel/DC output is miserably bad, and a new series with John Byrne at the helm would be the badly-needed shot-in-the-arm! ( I just had a shot in the arm, myself- Covid-booster- less than 24 hours ago, so I know whereof I speak! ) Well, I’m off to reread some more old Early Seventies FF! Excelsior!