Set Description:
Published in April of 1976 through August of 1976 and
June of 1977 through October of 1977.
Two group of 5 books each.
I didn't focus on high grade with these ten books as much as just obtaining them as they proved very difficult to obtain in any condition
My regular additions of these books are one 9.6 and nine 9.8's.
Nuff said!!!
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| Slot: |
Fantastic Four 169 30 Cent Price Variant |
| Item: |
Fantastic Four 169 |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1139171002
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Owner Comments
Universal Grade 9.0
WHITE Pages
Published, April, 1976
30 Cent Price Variant
Roy Thomas story Rich Buckler & Joe Sinnott cover & art
The 1st of 5 -- 30 cent price variants
It's NON-STOP ACTION!!
"BEDLAM in the BAXTER BUILDING!"
Title: "Five Characters in Search of a Madman!"
Now that he has lost his powers, Ben Grimm feels nearly useless and decides to drown his sorrows by drinking. Before he can even start on his first drink he is hassled by a woman looking for a "date" for the evening. When her advances on Ben are rejected, he friend Wilbur gets into Ben's face and tries to pick a fight with him. At first Ben wants nothing to do with it, but Wilbur pushes his button and Ben gives him a good punch in the face. Not used to being human again, Ben hesitates for a moment like he would when he was the Thing to make sure he won't seriously injure anyone. This gives some of the patrons an opener to grab hold of him and toss him out into the street. Thinking back to how he would clash with the likes of Dr. Doom, Ben becomes furious and jumps back into the bar with fists flying. Ben is able to hold his own against the entire bar until some of the guys grab pieces of wood and club Ben from behind. Before they can harm him any further Mr. Fantastic and the Human Torch enter the bar and send everyone packing. With the fight broken up, they pick Ben up off the floor. When the woman who bothered him earlier realizes he used to be the Thing, Ben crushes a beer can and gives it to her as a sarcastic momento that she can show off to her other boyfriends.
At the Baxter Building, Luke Cage is with Sue, Alicia and young Franklin. Luke confides in Sue that if he has to put up with Ben's constant resentment he may lash out. Talking about their private lives, Luke is surprised to learn that Franklin once had super-powers but they were shut down, a fact that was kept from the public, and that Sue isn't ready to change her name from Invisible Girl to Invisible Woman, because her current name has stuck with her after all these years. When Luke is entertaining Franklin by lifting the couch off the floor with one hand, Luke suddenly comes under some sort of spell and attempts to kill Sue.
Sue is able to hold Luke at bay until Ben, Reed and Johnny arrive and join the fight. While Ben is easily swatted aside, Reed and Johnny put up a good fight and send Power Man fleeing. Power Man goes from room to room trashing Reed' various inventions. During his rampage, unknown to all, a seemingly inoculation looking cylinder is knocked into Dr. Doom's time machine and disappears. Much to the FF dismay, Power Man makes his way to the hanger and steals the Fantasticar and flies off, knowing how to pilot it thanks to being trained to do so by Reed earlier.
With Luke Cage escaping, Reed explains to Ben that he was only a temporary replacement for Ben until he could find a more suitable replacement. Pointing him to a door marked "Project X", they enter the room and Ben is shocked to find another Thing waiting in there for them.
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| Slot: |
Fantastic Four 170 30 Cent Price Variant |
| Item: |
Fantastic Four 170 |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0229077001
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Owner Comments
Universal Grade 9.2
OFF-WHITE TO WHITE Pages
Published, May, 1976
30 Cent Price Variant
Power Man (Luke Cage) &
Puppet Master appearance.
Letter from Bill Mantlo.
Roy Thomas story
George Perez & Joe Sinnott art
John Buscema & Joe Sinnott cover
This is the one!
The Rampaging THING is back To Battle a devil-driven POWER MAN--
--while the woman he loves falls to her DEATH!
Title: "A Sky Full of Fear!"
Continued from last issue...
With Power Man having gone on a rampage and stolen the Fantasticar, Reed takes Ben into a room where Reed has been working on another project, apparently another Thing. Ben is furious that Reed has gone to the trouble of turning someone else into the Thing, but soon realizes that it is in reality an exo-suit designed to look like Ben's former monstrous form for Ben to wear in combat so that he can rejoin the Fantastic Four. With Alicia gone after Luke's rampage and the Torch out of commission due to injuries sustained fighting Power Man, Ben tries on the new exo-suit and tests it out.
To his surprise, it's almost as strong as his old self, however Ben isn't sure if he has what it takes. This puts Reed into a false rage intending to make Ben lash out and realizes that he is still just as valuable to the team as he used to be. With the test a success, Reed takes Ben down to one of the storage rooms where he finds that Reed has stored a duplicate of their original model Fantasticar. They take it to chase after Luke, and along the way Ben enquires why Reed was paying the Hero for Hire to be one of the Fantastic Four -- Reed informs him that everything Luke was paid went to charity.
Meanwhile, at a nearby maximum security prison, Alicia Masters brought onto the property be helicopter. She has requested a special audience from the warden to check on her step-father Phillip Masters, aka the Puppet Master, because she suspects that he is responsible for making Power Man go on his rampage through the Baxter Building. Assuring her that they have taken every precaution to make sure her step-father cannot escape or make any of his special puppets the warden takers her to Phillip's cell. There the Puppet Master swears that he doesn't have one of his puppets, however Alicia searches his room and finds a false brick with a Power Man puppet inside. The Puppet Master lashes out and grabs hold of the special puppet, that uses a new blend of clay that allows him to control his victims making them involuntarily do things under their own personality instead of being mindless drones. When Power Man smashes through the wall to Phillip's cell to spring him, Alicia realizes that the Puppet Master was behind the recent strange happenings that the Fantastic Four experienced the past few days.
Grabbing Alicia as a hostage, Power Man escorts the Puppet Master onto the Fantasticar and make their escape. Upon leaving the prison they are attacked by the Thing and Mr. Fantastic, much to everyone's shock and surprise. As the Thing and Power Man fight, Power Man tries to fight off the effects of the puppet but cannot. Their battle however causes the Fantasticar to pitch around enough for Phillip to drop his puppet and send Alicia overboard. After a split second decision, Phillip jumps after his step-daughter and both are saved from a fatal fall from Mr. Fantastic. As the puppet dissolves in the water below, Power Man is freed from it's control and the battle is ended.
With Phillip turned back over to the authorities, he flies back with Alicia aboard the original Fantasticar. As Ben comforts her he thinks to himself that now he finally has the best of both worlds: He can become the Thing and Ben Grimm whenever he wants and can live a normal life and that of a super-hero. He then begins to consider the idea of finally proposing to Alicia.
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| Slot: |
Fantastic Four 171 30 Cent Price Variant |
| Item: |
Fantastic Four 171 |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1216494005
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Owner Comments
Universal Grade 9.4
OFF-WHITE TO WHITE Pages
Published, June, 1976
30 Cent Price Variant
Roy Thomas story
George Perez & Rich Buckler art
The 3rd of 5 -- 30 cent price variants
Mightier than KONG!
Deadlier than GODZILLA!
This is--GORR!
NOT just another GIANT GORILLA story!
you'll GASP at the starling SECRET of GORR!!
Title: "Death is a Golden Gorilla!"
In order to find out the limits of Ben's new Thing exo-suit, by having him beat up a specially prepared Life Model Decoy. Ben knocks the creature out surprising Reed who only figured that the suit would make Ben as strong as Power Man but it turns out that the suit is just as strong as his old form. Ben however can do nothing but complain before taking the suit off and going to take a shower. After his shower, Ben realizes that he is growing insecure as he used to be the strongest man on Earth until Thor, and other super-strong heroes began turning up. Walking through the Baxter Building, Ben happens upon Sue in the middle of a training session and finds that even Sue's powers are getting stronger. Talking about the benefits of being human again, Sue points out that Alicia is really enjoying taking care of Franklin and suggests that perhaps Alicia is becoming interested in being a mother.
Meanwhile, Johnny Storm has managed to convince his new love interest Frankie Raye to go out on another date to the Central Park Zoo. When asking her why she fled when he fought the Crusader as the Human Torch, however Frankie can't explain her fear. They are interrupted by the sound of an alien craft that suddenly passes overhead. When the ship lands the police arrive and surround it. From inside the ship emerges a golden gorilla, and once exiting the ship the ape begins to grow in size. Instinctively, Johnny flames on to go into action at the Torch until he realizes that Frankie is horrified and goes back to her. The police cannot stop the ape and it goes a rampage across the city, ending up at the Baxter Building, where it smashes it's fist through the wall and grabbing Sue before climbing up to the roof of the building.
Reed and Ben rush to the Fantsticar to fly up to the roof and attack the golden ape that has nabbed Sue. Their attacks are ineffective and the beast easily fights them off. At Frankie's apartment, Johnny hears a radio report about the golden gorilla's attack on the Baxter Building and cannot stay on the side lines any long and rushes off to rescue his family, leaving Frankie behind in tears. When Johnny arrives, his flame powers frighten the creature, however he throws Ben at him, knocking both out of the sky, prompting Reed to break off his attack and save them.
Sue manages to break free by putting an invisible force field between her and the ape's grip freeing herself from it's grasp and getting to safety. On Reeds orders, Sue puts an invisible force field around the giant ape cutting off it's air until it passes out. As the ape falls off the roof of the Baxter Building it begins to reduce in size, and is saved from a fatal fall by the Human Torch. Taking the creature inside and restraining it, Reed and the others are shocked to find that the ape can talk. Introducing itself as Gorr, the ape tells them that he has travelled 200,000 miles to Earth to seek out the Fantastic Four's aid in stopping Galactus.
This story is continued next issue...
Notes:
Letters page 'Baxter Building Bulletins' with letters from Geralyn Cieply, Elizabeth Holden, Ray Landis, Dan Anderson.
This month Marvel starts putting UPC boxes on the cover. Stan Lee describes what it is and why they are on the cover in the Bullpen Bulletins page.
Trivia:
The cover here with the giant gorilla Gorr holding Susan Storm with the Manhattan skyline in the background, seems to be loosely based upon the classic "King Kong" film where Kong held Ann Darrow atop the Empire State Building.
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| Slot: |
Fantastic Four 172 30 Cent Price Variant |
| Item: |
Fantastic Four 172 |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1139172009
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Owner Comments
Universal Grade 9.4
OFF-WHITE TO WHITE Pages
Published, July, 1976
Destroyer & Galactus appearance.
30 Cent Price Variant
Roy Thomas & Bill Mantlo story George Perez & Joe Sinnott art Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott cover
The 4th of 5 -- 30 cent price variants
Title: "CRY, THE BEDEVILED PLANET!"
They traveled 200 million miles to do battle with-- The DESTROYER -- but will they LIVE to walk the earth AGAIN??
Following their battle against a golden gorilla that grew to gigantic size, the Fantastic Four are surprised that once restored to it's original height and taken into their custody it can talk[1]. Introducing itself as Gorr, it explains to the FF that it has come from a distant world to seek out the Fantastic Four's help in stopping Galactus. When the Fantastic Four deliberating the situation, Gorr finds that time is running out and breaks free from his bonds. This incites another battle with the Fantastic Four, but this time with his full intelligence and his natural size restore the golden ape known as Gorr easily batters the Fantastic Four and escapes in their Fantasticar.
Chasing after the intelligent ape in their original Fantasticar, the Fantastic Four find that Gorr has return to his ship. Entering it, they soon realize that the whole battle was an attempt to trick the Four into entering his ship so that he could bring them to his world. While travelling through space, Gorr reveals that he comes from Counter-Earth, a world created by the High Evolutionary[2], a world that was tainted by the evil Man-Beast until he was defeated by the combined efforts of Adam Warlock and the Hulk[3]. He explains that recently Counter-Earth had been discovered by the new Herald of Galactus, the Asgardian Destroyer amour. With Galactus posing a threat to his world, the High Evolutionary sped up Gorr's evolution turning him into a New-Man and sending him to Earth to recruit the Fantastic Four, the only beings that the Evolutionary knew to have defeated Galactus on more than one occasion.
Arriving just out of Counter-Earth's orbit, Gorr and the Fantastic Four arrive to see that the Destroyer is attempting to approach the High Evolutionary's artificial asteroid base. Despite the High Evolutionary's mental powers trying to keep the Herald at bay, he fails to stop the sentient armour from landing on his base. With no time to lose the FF begin putting on space suits, but they send out Ben first since his exo-suit maintains a temporary atmosphere and send him out to battle the Destroyer. Ben clashes with the Destroyer and at first it seems as though the Destroy is actually going to defeat him in combat when Ben is suddenly able to seemingly defeat the creature. Before he can celebrate however, he is telepathically by Galactus that in order to continue his existence he must feed and as such Counter-Earth must die.
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| Slot: |
Fantastic Four 173 30 Cent Price Variant |
| Item: |
Fantastic Four 173 Modern |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0337854005
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Owner Comments
Universal Grade 6.0
OFF-WHITE TO WHITE Pages
Published, August, 1976
30 Cent Price Variant
Galactus, High Evolutionary, Torgo, Gorr & Destroyer appearance.
Roy Thomas story
John Buscema & Joe Sinnott
cover
An Earth in peril--at the hands of GALACTUS!
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| Slot: |
Fantastic Four 183 35 Cent Price Variant |
| Item: |
Fantastic Four 183 Modern |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0244810017
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Owner Comments
Universal Grade 8.5
WHITE Pages
Published, June, 1977
.35 Cent Price Variant
Bill Mantlo story
Sal Buscema & Joe Sinnott art
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| Slot: |
Fantastic Four 184 35 Cent Price Variant |
| Item: |
Fantastic Four 184 Modern |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
1461280003
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Owner Comments
Universal Grade 8.0
OFF-WHITE TO WHITE Pages
Published, July, 1977
35 Cent Price Variant
Impossible Man, Tigra & Thundra appearance.
Len Wein story
George Perez & Joe Sinnott cover & art
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| Slot: |
Fantastic Four 185 35 Cent Price Variant |
| Item: |
Fantastic Four 185 Modern |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0634236014
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Owner Comments
Universal Grade 8.5
OFF_WHITE TO WHITE Pages
Published, August, 1977
35 Cent Price Variant
Len Wein story
George Perez & Joe Sinnott art
HERE THERE BE WITCHES!
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| Slot: |
Fantastic Four 186 35 Cent Price Variant |
| Item: |
Fantastic Four 186 Modern |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
3920039001
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Owner Comments
Universal Grade 6.5
CREAM TO OFF-WHITE Pages
Published, September, 1977
35 Cent Price Variant
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| Slot: |
Fantastic Four 187 35 Cent Price Variant |
| Item: |
Fantastic Four 187 Modern |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
3942523003
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Owner Comments
Universal Grade 8.0
OFF-WHITE TO WHITE Pages
Published, October, 1977
35 Cent Price Variant
Molecule Man, Impossible Man & Klaw appearance.
Letter from Kurt Busiek.
Len Wein story
George Perez & Joe Sinnott art
George Perez & Dave Cockrum cover
TROUBLE TIMES TWO!
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