This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog will look at 6 issues in a row from a memorable Fantastic 4 run.
FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #158 (May 1975)
Title: Invasion from the Fifth Dimension
Villain: Xemu
Synopsis: Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) and his wife Invisible Woman (Susan Storm-Richards) are debating the pluses and minuses of her rejoining the team full-time. Medusa from the Inhumans has been substituting for Sue during her and Reed’s son Franklin’s problems with his mutant powers. With Franklin now cured, Invisible Woman wants to come back.
The former Avenger Quicksilver, now a member of the Inhuman Royal Family through his marriage to Crystal (who had replaced Invisible Woman during her pregnancy with Franklin), uses his speed powers to break into the Baxter Building headquarters of the Fantastic Four. The Human Torch (Johnny Storm), annoyed after striking out at a singles bar, arrives home and, encountering Quicksilver, attacks him.
The pair fight it out, fueled largely by their former romantic rivalry for Crystal. The Thing (Ben Grimm) and his girlfriend – the blind sculptress Alicia Masters – arrive back from a night at the Metropolitan Opera and the Thing joins the Human Torch in attacking Quicksilver. Mr. Fantastic calls a halt to the fighting and asks Quicksilver why he invaded the Baxter Building.
Pietro (Quicksilver) explains to the Fantastic Four, including Medusa and Invisible Woman (which makes 5) why he came. The Human Torch’s old foe Xemu, the ruler of the Fifth Dimension, led an interdimensional army in an invasion of Attilan, the Inhumans’ high-tech hidden city in the Himalayas. Continue reading
Some readers have been asking what I mean by my frequently used term “Psychotronic movies”. It’s a nice reminder that not everyone is as immersed as people like me are in Bad and Weird Movie Culture. 
A TRIP TO THE MOON BY MR. MURTAGH MCDERMOT, CONTAINING OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE BY HIM (1728) – The real author of this is unknown, since it was published using the pen name Murtagh McDermot. Unless, of course, the writer used their real name for the main character. 
IT’S A BIRD … IT’S A PLANE … IT’S SUPERMAN! (1975) – It’s the bomb that asks the musical question “How many Lembecks can you handle?” Even the most die-hard Superman fans would have a hard time forcing themselves to watch all of this made for tv movie version of the 1966 stage musical. 
Despite music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams and script by David Newman & Robert Benton this Superman musical was Broadway’s biggest flop in history as of the 1960s. It’s no great shakes in its televised form, either. 
For some prep as I at last get back into reviewing the surviving fragments of ancient Greek comedy every now and then, here’s my 2011 review of Demoi by Eupolis. Along with Aristophanes and Cratinus, Eupolis was one of the Big Three of Attic Old Comedy. Background info is 
THE PRISON ON DEVIL’S ISLAND – Near the mouth of the Orinoco River in French Guyana a huge deposit of diamonds has been discovered. Inmates of the notoriously hellish prison on nearby Devil’s Island have been making frenzied attempts at escape to go diamond hunting. 
TOGETHER WE STAND (1986-1987) – With the new attention being paid to Ke Huy Quan/ Short Round in recent years, I decided to take a look at the sitcom he co-starred in with Elliott Gould, Dee Wallace Stone and others. 
The first episode unrealistically dealt with a social worker leaning on the Randalls to adopt two more children, Sam (Quan) and an African American girl named Sally (Natasha Bobo). But hey, My Mother the Car and The Flying Nun proved long ago that realism isn’t necessary. 
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