Today, we look at your picks for #9-7 of the greatest Fantastic Four stories ever told!
As always, you voted, I counted the votes and now we count them down, four at a time. If I don't add a date for the series, it means it is the original volume of whatever series I'm talking about.
9. Fantastic Four #25-26 "The Avengers Take Over!"
Fantastic Four #12 was the first time that the Marvel Universe had a crossover (tied with Amazing Spider-Man #1 that came out the same week), but a year later, they really exploded with this team-up of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four as they each take on the Hulk. The story (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and George Roussos) opened up with the Fantastic Four first taking on the Hulk by themselves and getting beaten terribly.
One of the keys of the early Marvel Age, and something that really made Marvel stand out was that Jack Kirby and Stan Lee (and Wallace Wood and Steve Ditko) were not afraid to tell stories where the Marvel heroes were really just totally outclassed but just kept in the fight anyways. That was something that was sorely missing at DC. Everyone knew that Superman or Batman WOULD obviously fight to their deaths against bad guys, but it was never actually demonstrated in the comic books of the 1950s and early 1960s (later, in an attempt to get some of that Marvel cash, DC did attempt to do the same sort of thing).
Fantastic Four #25 is a notable example of that, as the Hulk DEMOLISHES the Fantastic Four, but despite practically passing out from his injuries, Mister Fantastic still wants to do whatever he can to stop the Hulk and obviously, this was ESPECIALLY evident with the Thing, who takes a phenomenal beating from the Hulk, but does his best to stick with it until backup arrives in the form of the Avengers. Even then, the Thing just joins up with the Avengers to go right back to fighting the destructive force of nature that is the Hulk.
The Avengers stepped in the next issue, but even the combined might of the heroes was not enough...
It is especially nice how they highlighted how the superheroes don't necessarily get along during their fight with the Hulk. This was, of course, another notable aspect of the Marvel Universe, that its heroes bickered and there was no straightforward team-ups, they all still had their various egos and stuff like that factoring into how they approached the battle with the Hulk.
The fight ends with a bit of a copout ending, but really, you couldn't have the Hulk be caught, right? So a copput ending is really all that you COULD get. It was still a heck of a team-up.
8. Fantastic Four #67-70 (1998), Fantastic Four #500 "Unthinkable"
This storyline by Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo and Karl Kesel opens with pretty much what the name of the story is - an unthinkable act of horror by Doctor Doom that makes it clear that this time around he is going to be going after the Fantastic Four in ways you could not even imagine (or, I suppose, "think"), as Doom gets the love of his life, Valeria, to admit that she still loves him, too, meaning that his sacrifice of her is powerful enough to strip her skin and turn it into a special magical suit of armor...
Daaaaaaaaaang!
That prologue issue is CHILLING, as Doom seems to be looking to try to turn over a new leaf with Valeria, but no, this is ultimately Doom we're talking about, so of course he had to be a truly evil guy.
Doom outright committing to using magic to torment the Fantastic Four comes down to Reed Richards, Mister Fantastic, having to try to master something he ALSO cannot really even "think" about - magic! Doom captures and tortures the other three members of the Fantastic Four, captured Doctor Strange so that he can not save the FF and, worst of all, literally sends Franklin Richards to HELL while holding Valeria Richards in his arms throughout this.
Reed eventually realizes that the only way that he can stop Doom is to make his own brain find a way to understand magic, something that is, again, basically "unthinkable" to the scientist, so it takes a lot of on-the-fly re-training to get Reed on the same page with magic as he needs to be (Waid really does a wonderful job showing Reed struggling with it all and Wieringo, Kesel and colorist Paul Mounts do such a marvelous job on the horrors that Doom inflicts on the Fantastic Four, including one scar that lasted beyond this storyline).
7. Fantastic Four #236 "Terror in a Tiny Town"
John Byrne celebrated the Fantastic Four's 20th anniversary with one of the great villain gambits in comic book history. The heroes awoke in a seemingly perfect world, only things were slightly off, including Reed Richards' academic pursuits as a researcher kept getting thwarted by his jerk boss. Meanwhile, the various characters kept being haunted by dreams where they were superheroes.
Finally, Reed Richards figures out the truth. This is all some elaborate plot and the reveal of who is behind it is one of the great villain reveals of all-time (doubly so because it is an homage to some of Jack Kirby's figurative work from the past, only here, Doom actually IS much bigger than the FF!), as they discover that their perfect world is literally a fake world and they are being treated like puppets because they ARE puppets, with Doom working alongside the Puppet Master's puppets to create this fake world that he can mess with the Fantastic Four as if they were literal playthings...
What a stunning splash page that is!
It is a rare treat for an anniversary issue to be this strong, but Byrne's run on the series frequently defied expectations with his work (this was less than six issues into Byrne's run, by the way, so this was a quick challenge through to Byrne, which he delivered on with flying colors).