Fantastic Four 322 - Inferno

A battle breaks out between two fundamental forces.

Fantastic Four #322

Story: Steve Englehart
Pencils: Keith Pollard
Finishes: Joe Sinnott
Letters: John Workman
Colors: George Roussos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Chief: Tom DeFalco

Graviton is flying the chunk of Earth that had been his base back towards the planet as he reflects on how he survived an encounter with the West Coast Avengers. In New York the remaining three members of the Fantastic Four - the Thing (Ben Grimm), the Human Torch (Johnny Storm) and Ms Marvel (Sharon Ventura) - tackle mailboxes, bins and bikes that have all come to life. A rogue Watcher observes from high up in the Empire State Building as Graviton arrives in the city, encounters the demons and reflects on how his power could prevent the merger of two separate dimensions. But before he can decide to do it or not Ben and Sharon attack with Johnny soon joining. Graviton quickly overcomes them and is crushing them with his power when the Torch tries again and challenges the fundamental force of gravity with the equally fundamental force of fire using temperature changes to keep Graviton off balance until Ben knocks him out. The observing Watcher notes how Ben did what he thought was right but stopped Graviton from dealing with the wider threat. Meanwhile Johnny finds it a little harder to turn off his flame.

This issue is an interesting staging post. As has been discussed in some of the other reviews and elsewhere on the web it was around this time that Steve Englehart had big disputes with his editors that resulted in him leaving West Coast Avengers, Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer one by one, and also trying to transfer key plots and ideas from one title to another. Here this only manifests with the use of Graviton, a hitherto Avengers foe who was seemingly being built up to be one of the main recurring enemies for the West Coast team, with the bigger transfer coming in the next issue. What's a more notable sign of editorial disputes at this stage is that the Fantastic Four have been numerically inaccurate for several issues now since the departure of Crystal in the annual and no fourth member has yet come forward.

Also notable is the way that Inferno is only used as a small backdrop at this stage with a few demons and animated objects running around and Graviton's consideration of trying to stop the dimensions merging is more theoretical than a driving plot point. Instead this is a character and action issue as the Three try to take down Graviton upon seeing him and considering their current situation. There's a scene where Sharon and Ben reflect on how her appearance is changing from leathery skin to a rockier form much as Ben's did in the past. Although this follows the pattern with the Thing it must also have been a relief for the artists to make Sharon a little easier to draw - especially as Ben's current "pineapple" look must have been a nightmare and probably wasn't designed or agreed with long-term use in mind. Ben tells Sharon that there may be a way for her to change back as there was once for him but a mental block was in the way. However although it's not explicitly said it seems Sharon has come to terms with her current form making Ben's comments feel crass.

This was Joe Sinnott's final issue of the series. His first was as early as #5 and he'd been the series's regular inker for most of the period since #44 bar the John Byrne years (when Byrne did his own inking). He would switch to Thor for a few years before retiring (although he continued to do the Spider-Man newspaper strip until it ended in 2019) so it's a pity that he left on such a flat issue that doesn't feature the traditional line-up when there was editorial pressure to go back to it. This is unfortunately just an example of how crossovers often mandate an excessive number of issues with some such as these forgettable.