My Best Moments in Comics
Fantastic Four #56 vol.3
Writer: Rafael Marin
Artist: Carlos Pacheco
Synopsis:
Ben Grimm goes to visit his old neighborhood in New York City, to
help a pawnbroker who's been threatened by an extortionist. Along
the way, we get a flashback to his childhood, how he'd been a member
of the Yancy Street Gang and had gotten on pawnbroker Sheckerburg's
nerves by stealing a Star of David necklace to qualify for gang
membership, before they later threw him out because they didn't like
the move he was making and careers he sought to excel in.
Ben arrives at Sheckerburg's shop, and while the proprietor still
harbors resentment at that point for the trouble Ben caused in the
past, he's fine with Ben wanting to help out by investigating
whether the Yancy Street Gang had anything to do with the blackmail
Sheckerburg received. The gang still despises Ben, and show their
contempt by throwing chemical bottles at him. It turns out, however,
they're not the ones guilty of blackmailing Sheckerburg, but rather,
a villain named Powderkeg, who assaults Ben, but then, the Yancy
Street Gang moves in to help stop him. Ben does a Judaist prayer for
Sheckerburg after the store manager suffers a concussion, and
Sheckerburg recovers in okay shape. The two reconcile as the police
arrive to capture Powderkeg.
Comment:
As a story coming towards the end of what I'd call a legitimate era
for Marvel as a whole, this was pretty good, focusing as it does
upon how Ben Grimm grew up in the New York City slum he did, before
climbing the ladder to a successful career as a pilot. And telling
how he'd run with a gang who rejected him for leaving, and all but
resent his departure, which they view as coming at their expense.
An interesting approach used by artist Pacheco is that the Yancy
gang, after a few pages, becomes an invisible entity, only seen
indirectly for the rest of the tale. It works pretty well in
demonstrating how they all but stick to the shadows with their
operations.
And, it was in this story where Grimm's Jewish ancestry is brought
up and canonized, and how, after leaving the Yancy gang, he tried to
honor it better. That's a great idea one can only wish earlier
generations had shown the courage to explore and emphasize.
So it's great the folks who penned this were able to establish what
can be considered a good sendoff for the FF's cast, and a terrible
shame Marvel had to be taken over by ideologues like Joe Quesada who
ruined everything, and made the MCU less palatable. Read this latter
day FF story to know of a time when some decent folks put together a
tale that honors original series creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
very admirably, and if this had served as an actual finale for the
FF at the time, it would've been really great.
Copyright 2023 Avi Green. All rights reserved.