Arts
Award Winning Marvel and DC Comics artist Jon Bogdanove and Podcast Producer Tim Powers go issue-by-issue through the original 1961 run of Marvel's Fantastic Four. This episode: #2. "Meet the Skrulls." This issue is broken into 4 sections which delineate what happens pretty well. In section 1, The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space!, we are introduced the Skrull for the first time, but not before they are shown impersonating the fantastic team performing crimes. The reveal that these crimes were actually perpetrated by shape-shifting Skrull worked pretty well and I think they were clever in simulating the Fantastic Four's powers with various technology. The second section, Prisoner of the Skrulls, shows our heroes imprisoned by the army for the crimes, but not for long – there aren't many cells that can hold the super powered team, and soon The Human Torch has found the base of the Skrull. In part 3, The Fantastic Four Fight Back!, the team heads to the Skrull mothership and convinces the leadership that Earth's most powerful warriors – creatures depicted in Marvel's Strange Tales, and Journey into Mystery comic books – are too much for the Skrull to take over the planet. The final section, The Fantastic Four Captured, show how the team takes care of the remaining Skrull on Earth and convince the army they didn't commit the crimes.This issue takes off from the first and only briefly touches on the origin story, but it makes sure that readers who jump on at this point know how the team got their powers. But it is made pretty clear that the Fantastic Four are known to the world and to aliens from outer space. The Skrull know the team are powerful and try to make the authorities take them out before the invasion happens so I've got to give them credit, along with their ingenuity for how they pull off their impersonations. I'm still not too sure about the Thing's aggression towards everything, including his teammates, but he IS the only hero who's been turned into a rocky beast.