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Jan 14, 2012

Secret Invasion Tie-In

No, really. Fantastic Four #2 was included in the Secret Invasion: The Infiltration trade paperback. So it counts.

Hello, and welcome to the special edition of episode 2 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

This week, we're taking the tentative second steps on our journey through the lives and times of The Fantastic Four by taking a look at the second and third issues of the comic. In Fantastic Four #2, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby start flexing their cosmic muscles, introducing one of the mainstay alien races of the Marvel Universe, the Skrulls. In Fantastic Four #3, we get The Miracle Man. Well, not every one can be a winner...

We also take the time to reveal of your (and our) favourite podcasters lent their voices to our original trailer. And then, once all the original fun is done, Steve takes a few minutes to reflect on the second episode, the successes and the regrettable mistakes. Oh, and if you've been wondering where the outtakes from this episode were? They've been found. Finally, you can find out why Andy was laughing a little bit at one point. It's good when a mystery gets solved...

Send in your feedback to fantastic4podcast@gmail.com, leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at www.TheFantasticast.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

The Fantasticast is Patreon supported. Visit www.patreon.com/fantasticast to donate and support us.

The Fantasticast is part of the Flickering Myth Podcast network.

Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.


Eric Goebelbecker
over ten years ago

Weren't the three cow Skrulls around for the Kree/Skrull war, well before the Kill Krew?

Jim
over twelve years ago

Steve and Andrew,

I really enjoy the podcasts. I'm a long time FF fan that always likes to go back to the early days and relive the classic adventures of the team.

A few thoughts in regards to the issue #2:

I love the “fear the thing” audio and your running tallies. However, at the end of the podcast you state that you haven’t gotten the first official “flame on” yet. That is incorrect. The first official “flame on” occurs in issue #2.

This is a fun issue but, as mentioned, really falls apart logically if you scrutinize it too much. Everything from Reed’s silly solution to the Skrull problem (so the Skrulls have studied Earth long enough to know about the Fantastic Four but in that time didn’t learn that the planet isn’t overrun with monster warriors?) to the stupidity of the guards forgetting that the Invisible Girl can turn….invisible.

The “Mission to mars” tweak to the origin, as far as I know, was never mentioned again.

Sometimes plot holes pay dividends in the long run as the missing Skrull, who allegedly went home with the fleet, played a part in the Kree-Skrull War later on, and this story setup the very good Byrne Annual #17, as well as the Skrull Kill Crew as you pointed out.

Ben’s transformation is the first of many in the early issues and apparently the Skrull ship had proper shielding despite Ben’s panic. I believe Ben’s transformations in the early issues were psychological based, as none of the others onboard suffered any ill-effects. The short-lived change does garner sympathy for the big lug, despite the fact that, for the most part, in those early issues he’s simply a dick.

Finally, the initial impression of the Skrulls is not a great one. Here they are simply little green men, rather gullible and stupid, and filled with self-loathing. They even award Reed a medal! I wonder what Reed did with it? Their best days are ahead of them.

I agree with your comments that you have to cut these early issues some slack. The first two issues were one-and-done issues, with not a lot of regard to continuity. It’s not until next issue that you start to see that develop.

Yeah, the FF, somewhere between issue #1 and issue #2 became not just world famous but garnered a reputation that spread to other worlds. I suppose Marvel could reveal some “untold tales of the FF” book but I don’t think there’d be a big demand for it.

Great stuff guys. I’ll post some thoughts on issue #3 in the near future.