I’m pretty sure that in 1993 there was no real reason to keep letting Roy Thomas write comics. I mean, maybe the Invaders revival made sense, but overall he’s a very “old school” writer.
Marvel’s “Unlimited” line were 80-page quarterly books. But other than the size of FF Unlimited #1, there’s absolutely nothing here that’s special. Panther and the FF fight Klaw again.
The art by Herb Trimpe is obviously an attempt to “modernize” Trimpe by having him draw feet as poorly as Rob Liefeld.
Again, no reason for this book to exist.
I suppose the back-up story has a little substance to it, in that it expands Panther’s origin.
It also introduces the idea that the “Panther God” passes power to T’Challa via eating special roots–an idea that made it into the Black Panther movie. So I guess that’s kinda significant.
Art by Herb Trimpe (main story) and Dave Hoover (backup). Main story: D-. Backup: C
You’re right-there HAS to be a better reason for Marvel to expect us to support these oversized quarterly “Unlimited” editions than just simple greed. This story is quite unmemorable, and even it’s so-called “saving grace”- the introduction of the heart-shaped herb which gives the Panther his extra-edge- ( I don’t consider the Black Panther to be either super-powerful, or super-strong- the herb just makes him faster, more agile, and slightly-greater-than-normal strength ) actually occurred in ‘Avengers’#87, ( 1970 ) not here. Trimpe does definitely have trouble drawing human feet, “butt”, as seen above, apparently really enjoys drawing the Human Torch’s butt! ( hmmmmm ) These stories need to be special events, if they’re going to be published on a regular basis. “Giant-Size X-Men”#1, “Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up”#1, “Giant-Size Defenders”#2, and “Giant-Size Super-Stars”#1 ( also known as “Giant-Size Fantastic Four”#1 ) are all good examples. “X-Men Unlimited”#1 was a good example, too, but I suspect my appreciation of this particular issue stems from the attractiveness of the idea of being marooned somewhere with Storm. Every red-blooded man’s dream, right-?? Either Storm, Psylocke, or Jenna Ortega! Mmmm-hmmmm! I am not opposed to the idea of some kind of a return to the ‘Giant-Sized’/’Unlimited’ formats, but, as noted, a lot more thought and effort into making these issues truly special-events needs to be invested into them. Only top-notch creators need to be assigned to them. No “junk”-issues. The first six ‘Fantastic Four’ Annuals from the 1960’s were all awesome examples of how to make these oversized editions truly special events. 1) “Sub-Mariner Conquers the Human Race” 2) “The Final Victory of Dr. Doom”- or so he THOUGHT! 3) The Wedding of Reed and Sue-also known as “Bedlam at the Baxter Building” 4) The Return of the Original Human Torch, also known as “The Torch That Was!!” 5) First pregnant superheroine, first appearance of the Pyscho-Man, first solo appearance of the Silver Surfer 6) Birth of Franklin Richards. So- there’s the point- Marvel CAN make these oversized, quarterly/annual editions something special and to actually look forward to, IF they TRY!!!! Word!!