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Essential Fantastic Four
Essential Fantastic Four, Vol. 7
The Horsemen are coming nearer! When the world nears its end, the Fantastic Four's day has just begun! The world's greatest super-team faces enemies from the future, the past, the Earth's four corners - and the Fifth Dimension!
Collects: FANTASTIC FOUR #138-159, GIANT-SIZE SUPER-STARS #1, GIANT-SIZE FANTASTIC FOUR #2-4 and AVENGERS #127.
Collects: FANTASTIC FOUR #138-159, GIANT-SIZE SUPER-STARS #1, GIANT-SIZE FANTASTIC FOUR #2-4 and AVENGERS #127.
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
560 pages, Paperback
First published June 10, 1975
About the author
Steve Englehart
1,399 books100 followersSee also John Harkness.
Steve Englehart went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After a stint in the Army, he moved to New York and began to write for Marvel Comics. That led to long runs on Captain America, The Hulk, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, and a dozen other titles. Midway through that period he moved to California (where he remains), and met and married his wife Terry.
He was finally hired away from Marvel by DC Comics, to be their lead writer and revamp their core characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern). He did, but he also wrote a solo Batman series (immediately dubbed the "definitive" version) that later became Warner Brothers' first Batman film (the good one).
After that he left comics for a time, traveled in Europe for a year, wrote a novel (The Point Man™), and came back to design video games for Atari (E.T., Garfield). But he still liked comics, so he created Coyote™, which within its first year was rated one of America's ten best series. Other projects he owned (Scorpio Rose™, The Djinn™) were mixed with company series (Green Lantern [with Joe Staton], Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four). Meanwhile, he continued his game design for Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Brøderbund.
And once he and Terry had their two sons, Alex and Eric, he naturally told them stories. Rustle's Christmas Adventure was first devised for them. He went on to add a run of mid-grade books to his bibliography, including the DNAgers™ adventure series, and Countdown to Flight, a biography of the Wright brothers selected by NASA as the basis for their school curriculum on the invention of the airplane.
In 1992 Steve was asked to co-create a comics pantheon called the Ultraverse. One of his contributions, The Night Man, became not only a successful comics series, but also a television show. That led to more Hollywood work, including animated series such as Street Fighter, GI Joe, and Team Atlantis for Disney.
Steve Englehart went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After a stint in the Army, he moved to New York and began to write for Marvel Comics. That led to long runs on Captain America, The Hulk, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, and a dozen other titles. Midway through that period he moved to California (where he remains), and met and married his wife Terry.
He was finally hired away from Marvel by DC Comics, to be their lead writer and revamp their core characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern). He did, but he also wrote a solo Batman series (immediately dubbed the "definitive" version) that later became Warner Brothers' first Batman film (the good one).
After that he left comics for a time, traveled in Europe for a year, wrote a novel (The Point Man™), and came back to design video games for Atari (E.T., Garfield). But he still liked comics, so he created Coyote™, which within its first year was rated one of America's ten best series. Other projects he owned (Scorpio Rose™, The Djinn™) were mixed with company series (Green Lantern [with Joe Staton], Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four). Meanwhile, he continued his game design for Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Brøderbund.
And once he and Terry had their two sons, Alex and Eric, he naturally told them stories. Rustle's Christmas Adventure was first devised for them. He went on to add a run of mid-grade books to his bibliography, including the DNAgers™ adventure series, and Countdown to Flight, a biography of the Wright brothers selected by NASA as the basis for their school curriculum on the invention of the airplane.
In 1992 Steve was asked to co-create a comics pantheon called the Ultraverse. One of his contributions, The Night Man, became not only a successful comics series, but also a television show. That led to more Hollywood work, including animated series such as Street Fighter, GI Joe, and Team Atlantis for Disney.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 21, 2021
For the first time since its launch the Fantastic Four has a new writer, Gerry Conway who fills in with some pretty weak stories from a poor Miracle man story, a weak Inhumans tale through to another dreary Thundra 3-parter! Stan Lee set such a high benchmark. Immediately after Stan's reign ended a short run by Len Wein and Roy Thomas was pretty banal. The only highlight . I read the Fantastic Four comic books and annuals, and Marvel King-Sized books covered by this volume. 4 out of 12 sees a a significant drop in quality from the previous volume.
May 4, 2022
Great book!
I’ve been lookin for a FF comic that wasn’t so wacko, like the more recent comics, this book is great! It brought back memories!!! Still a little wacko (but what comic isn’t?), but thankfully it didn’t have any of the new stuff.
I’ve been lookin for a FF comic that wasn’t so wacko, like the more recent comics, this book is great! It brought back memories!!! Still a little wacko (but what comic isn’t?), but thankfully it didn’t have any of the new stuff.
December 30, 2017
This took me back to my childhood, right before I started collecting Fantastic Four. During this time, Sue took Franklin, left Reed and served him divorce papers while Medusa took her place on the team. They fought battles against many minor foes, and also went to Atilan for the wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver.
I knew Reed and Sue had problems and patched them up, but I never saw the details unfold until now. It was a pleasure to walk back into FF history, when the team was in its heyday, problems and all.
I knew Reed and Sue had problems and patched them up, but I never saw the details unfold until now. It was a pleasure to walk back into FF history, when the team was in its heyday, problems and all.
Read
September 12, 2025Essential Fantastic Four Volume 7’ features stories from Fantastic Four # 138 through to Fantastic Four # 159 with a couple of ‘Giant-Size’ issues thrown in for good measure. Over 500 pages, as usual with ‘Essentials’, so good value at least so far as pages per pound/dollar/euro pint of yak milk or whatever currency you use goes.
Is it any good though? Well, it’s not brilliant but it’s interesting and certainly not bad. This is more seventies Marvel and, after the rapture of the sixties when it was all new and exciting, there was an inevitable feeling of anti-climax. I think the same thing happened in pop music. Even so, the new generation of writers had a slightly different take on things than Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and there were subtle changes happening in the stories even as old villains were being recycled for the umpteenth time.
The old villains are Miracle Man, Annihilus, the Hulk, the Sub-Mariner, the Frightful Four and Doctor Doom (twice). The Hulk and Sub-Mariner aren’t really villains but they fight our heroes so they are in this context. There are variations on the old themes to be fair. The Frightful Four are given a feminist twist with Thundra, a lady from another dimension with a mission of her own. There are other feminist issues raised between Reed and Sue which lead to conflict and Johny Storm has romantic troubles of his own. New villains include Mahkizmo the Nuclear Man, Darkoth the Death-Demon, Tempus, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Madrox the Multiple Menace and Xemu, Master of the Fifth Dimension. The Inhumans feature quite a lot, too.
Along with the old villains, old art is recycled by Rich Buckler who continues to ape Kirby layouts and poses quite a lot but does break out in his own stuff more often as time passes. The Kirby style is suited to super-heroes and Buckler is not a bad artist, though Joe Sinnott can make anyone look good. The first four issues here are by John Buscema, excellent as ever, and there’s even a guest shot by Ross Andru but most of it is Buckler. Most of the writing is by Gerry Conway with odd issues by Len Wein and Tony Isabella for seasoning. Roy Thomas takes up the scripting towards the end, which is good.
Reading this was an amiable way to pass the time. If one is collecting the complete adventures of the Fantastic Four it’s a must-have, obviously, and there are important developments in the private lives of the characters even if the super-villain fighting part of their existence continues as usual. Worth it for the money but don’t dive in with expectations too high. I’m looking forward to reading ‘Essential Fantastic Four Volume 8’ which is mostly by Roy Thomas and George Perez.
Is it any good though? Well, it’s not brilliant but it’s interesting and certainly not bad. This is more seventies Marvel and, after the rapture of the sixties when it was all new and exciting, there was an inevitable feeling of anti-climax. I think the same thing happened in pop music. Even so, the new generation of writers had a slightly different take on things than Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and there were subtle changes happening in the stories even as old villains were being recycled for the umpteenth time.
The old villains are Miracle Man, Annihilus, the Hulk, the Sub-Mariner, the Frightful Four and Doctor Doom (twice). The Hulk and Sub-Mariner aren’t really villains but they fight our heroes so they are in this context. There are variations on the old themes to be fair. The Frightful Four are given a feminist twist with Thundra, a lady from another dimension with a mission of her own. There are other feminist issues raised between Reed and Sue which lead to conflict and Johny Storm has romantic troubles of his own. New villains include Mahkizmo the Nuclear Man, Darkoth the Death-Demon, Tempus, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Madrox the Multiple Menace and Xemu, Master of the Fifth Dimension. The Inhumans feature quite a lot, too.
Along with the old villains, old art is recycled by Rich Buckler who continues to ape Kirby layouts and poses quite a lot but does break out in his own stuff more often as time passes. The Kirby style is suited to super-heroes and Buckler is not a bad artist, though Joe Sinnott can make anyone look good. The first four issues here are by John Buscema, excellent as ever, and there’s even a guest shot by Ross Andru but most of it is Buckler. Most of the writing is by Gerry Conway with odd issues by Len Wein and Tony Isabella for seasoning. Roy Thomas takes up the scripting towards the end, which is good.
Reading this was an amiable way to pass the time. If one is collecting the complete adventures of the Fantastic Four it’s a must-have, obviously, and there are important developments in the private lives of the characters even if the super-villain fighting part of their existence continues as usual. Worth it for the money but don’t dive in with expectations too high. I’m looking forward to reading ‘Essential Fantastic Four Volume 8’ which is mostly by Roy Thomas and George Perez.
July 25, 2014
This blends in quite similarly with previous volumes of the adventures of the FF, but that's not a bad thing for me, because I really like the FF.
In particular, Ben "The Thing" Grimm, constantly making jokes and being picked on for looking for a giant rock, makes the stories flow well, even with artificial banter.
The adventures themselves are maybe a little flat. The classics are all here. Slugfest with Dr. Doom, battling the Frightful Four, voyage into the land of the Inhumans, and other battles with menacing aliens and stuff. But the action could be more intense. As it is, the action tends to be one thing, like "Thing punches wall, is frustrated, eventually finds a way out", and the good guys win close to too quickly. As a fan, I liked that the FF, generally likable, was winning, but it could've used more exciting battles and more tension.
All that insults aside, it was a fun, breezy read. The artwork was spectacular. John Buscema replaced by Rich Buckler. If you're familiar with their skillful drawing, it's very sharp and fun to look at.
And the introduction of Jamie Madrox, the multiple man, here referred almost solely as "MADROX!", is ahead of its time. It's co-written by Len Wein/Chris Claremont, who rebooted X-Men. It's a like a proto-issue of the X-Men.
5/5
In particular, Ben "The Thing" Grimm, constantly making jokes and being picked on for looking for a giant rock, makes the stories flow well, even with artificial banter.
The adventures themselves are maybe a little flat. The classics are all here. Slugfest with Dr. Doom, battling the Frightful Four, voyage into the land of the Inhumans, and other battles with menacing aliens and stuff. But the action could be more intense. As it is, the action tends to be one thing, like "Thing punches wall, is frustrated, eventually finds a way out", and the good guys win close to too quickly. As a fan, I liked that the FF, generally likable, was winning, but it could've used more exciting battles and more tension.
All that insults aside, it was a fun, breezy read. The artwork was spectacular. John Buscema replaced by Rich Buckler. If you're familiar with their skillful drawing, it's very sharp and fun to look at.
And the introduction of Jamie Madrox, the multiple man, here referred almost solely as "MADROX!", is ahead of its time. It's co-written by Len Wein/Chris Claremont, who rebooted X-Men. It's a like a proto-issue of the X-Men.
5/5
August 4, 2016
A mio parere uno dei momenti più bassi della testata. Conway assolutamente non convince come scrittore, e anche John Buscema ai disegni è meno incisivo del solito.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews