Fantastic Four #137 (Aug 1973)
I.
As regular readers will know, 1973 was a crucial year for me: the year that I was initiated into the world of glam rock, buying records by Gary Glitter, Sweet, and Slade.
It was also the year that I bought my first US edition of a Marvel Comic - Fantastic Four #137 ...
II.
Published in May of that year - though cover dated August, as was common practice at the time [1] - 'Rumble on Planet 3' (aka 'Where Walks Warhead!') [2] was written by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway. John Buscema and Joe Sinnott provided the artwork.
I still remember how excited the cover made me - so glossy and colourful and so unlike the feel of British comics. And Warhead's surreal embodiment of sci-fi horror thrilled my childish imagination [3].
That said, I still also remember reading it and not understanding anything of what was going on ...
III.
The story unfolds inside a '50s-themed pop-cultural universe or reality warp, created by a cosmic entity known as the Shaper of Worlds, who, like God, moves in mysterious ways and says things like: I am called the Shaper ... and it is my gift and my curse to make dreams live.
It features a Sputnik-headed monster with the body of King Kong battling the Fantastic Four who, at that time, included Medusa, one of the Inhumans, standing in for Sue Richards, the Invisible Girl, who was on family leave caring for her son, Franklin.
Eventually, the Thing dispatches Warhead with a single powerful punch smashing his satellite-skull and causing him to fall back into the drive-in movie screen from which he emerged.
Meanwhile, rival gangs - the Patriots and the Wild Ones - were fighting one another, until a third group - members of the black community (representing the civil rights movement) - comes to bring resolution. At this point, the Shaper of Worlds declares game over and restores '70s normality [4].
IV.
To be fair, reading this recap today of a barely-intelligible storyline, I think my confusion as a ten-year-old was perfectly understandable (the fact that I hadn't read part one in issue 136 obviously didn't help) [5].
The odd thing is it didn't dissuade me from going on to buy around 1,700 Marvel Comics over the next five or six years and even briefly becoming a member of FOOM [6].
I suppose, looking back, I have a lot to thank the Marvel Comics Group for - they even published one of my earliest pieces of work; a letter complaining about censorship in the British reprints of the original American editions [7].
This letter received an unusually lengthy (and slightly narked-sounding) reply about the responsibility of publishers to provide material suitable for a UK market in which the average age of readers was lower than the US.
What I didn't receive was a 'No-Prize' for my letter - unlike my friend Andy, who was awarded such for spotting some minor continuity error in an issue of The Incredible Hulk, much to my begrudgement at the time.
Notes
[1] Comic book publishers used a future cover date primarily to act as a withdrawal deadline for retailers, instructing them when to remove unsold issues from the shelves. It also meant of course that issues looked newer for longer.
Both Marvel and DC maintained a standard two-month gap between the actual on-sale date and the cover date until 1973, when competitive pressures and distribution adjustments sometimes caused the discrepancy to widen to three months. It wasn't until 1989 that the industry stabilised and things reverted to the traditional two-month gap.
[2] Fantastic Four #137 (1973) has two distinct titles because of a common publishing quirk in the world of comics at that time: the eye-catching title printed on the cover serving as a hook for casual readers browsing the magazine stand often differs from the more restrained official title printed on the interior splash page, where formal story credits are listed.
Often, this was due to the fact covers and interiors were worked on at different times and by different artists. But an editor might also decide that a title wasn't dramatic enough to drive sales, prompting them to invent a completely different, sexier tagline for the cover.
Among critics and comic-book historians, "Rumble on Planet 3!" is universally preferred and recognised as the definitive title for this issue, though, personally, I've always remembered it as 'Where Walks Warhead!' and still like that title as it also makes me think of a song by British punk band the UK Subs: click here.
[3] Warhead is based on the creature in the 1953 film Robot Monster (dir. Phil Tucker). His body is that of a giant gorilla, while his head is patterned after the first satellite launched into space, by the Soviets, in 1957. To watch the original trailer on YouTube, click here.
[4] For a more comprehensive (though not necessarily more intelligible) story synopsis, visit the Marvel Database on marvel.fandom.com
[5] Fantastic Four #137 is still picking up bad reviews: one critic recently writing:
"The story makes little sense, and ultimately feels like a silly and pointless exercise in clumsy cultural anthropology. Thomas and Conway compound their simplistic youths-vs-olds of the 50s dynamic by introducing the Civil Rights struggle of the 60s (which actually began in the 40s). No doubt it was well intentioned, but in the absence of a coherent story it feels preachy and naive."
See the post by Percival Henry on his blog Percival Henry: The Fantastic Four and more (6 July 2024): click here.
[6] FOOM (Friends of Ol' Marvel) was the official Marvel Comics fan club and members magazine, featuring behind-the-scenes news, artwork, and interviews. It ran for 22 quarterly issues between 1973-1978, which was basically when I collected the comics. The first issues were designed, written, and edited by Jim Steranko.
[7] The letter was published in an issue of The Mighty World of Marvel in early 1976 (unfortunately, I don't recall the exact number of the issue, but it was around #176). The response from the editorial team - led at that time by future Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant - tried to justify their censorship as a necessary measure to avoid upsetting strict British newsagent distribution networks and parental watchdogs.
My letter explicitly called out two instances of Marvel UK's modifications: firstly, in the black-and-white UK version of Incredible Hulk #168, someone prudishly covers a naked Betty Ross; secondly, the word 'wank' which appeared in Conan the Barbarian #24, was frantically scrubbed out for the UK reprint.
