R: Marvel's Greatest Comics #35 (June 1972), reprinting FF #48, art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott
(Click picture to Uatu-size)
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Same Story, Different Cover: Gotta get outta here and I got no time to lose, hey, here he comes
R: Marvel's Greatest Comics #35 (June 1972), reprinting FF #48, art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott
(Click picture to Uatu-size)
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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQenrY-T9_-EUVG2XBTW-ZiSnvw_V3JFU-8tiFlhrdgKCUBaE56ekbiILucymY9gA-xa4zdGy_z1Njojw78Z-YnlUiN4PIRRurK7GzqoEg3B-PmXl2RJaS1ZaVKVCEHP-m-WVr2xjqailLu1jlzylysiBGc3sVXLXNMFDzAURyrHhKBfcqyO4/s1600/button-libertybellmarch.jpg" "It's...")
3 comments:
Is this to replace/supplement Separated at Birth?
Not entirely/yes!
No contest here. I've spoken frequently of how Fantastic Four #48 is one of my favorite Marvel covers of all time, if not one of the best comics cover period.
Back in that day, covers were littered with speech balloons and lines of text to make sure that the premise of the book was completely spelled out to the reader. I'm not against speech balloons on the cover, but I'm of the opinion that they should be used sparingly to sell the concept.
Here, all we get is the title of the story, and that title is a foreboding sign "The coming of GALACTUS!" We don't know who Galactus is, but we can see the terror it produces in our heroes. The FF who had always been ready to jump in and save the day step back in shock.
One detail I especially like is how Reed and Sue hold each other in this time of crisis. Many writers have cast Reed as a cold or aloof man of science, when in fact his love for Susan and his surrogate family is his anchor. When confronted by a mystery of the universe he cannot solve, they are all he has to fall back on.
The giant Uatu gestures at the unseen Leviathan who grows larger and more frightful in our imagination, and everyone in the city, no more than black specs against the red sky is transfixed by the terror.
Contrast with Greatest Comics #35. The story is stuck in a claustrophobic box. The once frightened and transfixed citizens of New York now watch the events unfold, unaffected within the safety of their own homes.
The Silver Surfer takes up half the cover but doesn't look anywhere close to threatening.
The speech balloons are unnecessary. The FF engages in an attack, all except for Sue, who not only doesn't do anything, but is cut off by the edge of the cover. Uatu also does nothing, just standing there and looking like the genie from those old Jiffy Pop commercials. Ugh!
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