Friday, August 26, 2016

Fantastic Four Vs. The Fatal Five



The Fatal Five was always one of the cooler and formidable villain teams of my youth.  Not only could they take on the Legion of Super-Heroes, they were all so creepy - The Emerald Empress had that big crazy floating eyeball that would follow her, Tharok was the first half man/half machine character that I had seen. Mano had the hidden face and The Persuader had his scary mask and giant axe.  Creepiest of all was Validus - a giant with no eyes and an exposed brain!  Great stuff!


20 comments:

Anonymous said...

As mentioned before, simply the "coolest" team of super- villains ever !

And by a thirteen year old boy , Jim Shooter !

He also created " Nemesis Kid " who would have worked as a member of the five in addition to Karate Kid, Ferro Lad and Princess Projector !

David Welsh said...

It was one of the coolest parts of The Great Darkness Saga when it was finally revealed that Validus was the son of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl from the future, twisted and sent back in time by Darkseid, who intended that parent or child should kill the other. Suddenly Validus' psi-bolts with lightning made sense, and a long twisted plot by Darkseid is always great. Too bad they retconned that history with Zero Hour. Some people just can't let a good story stand.

Unknown said...

Outstanding! I've always loved the five, especially Validus.

You could do a follow up on this. The Terrible Three, the Frightful Four, the Fatal Five, the Sinister Six and the Count from Sesame Street.

alxjhnsn said...

My favorite Legion villains - though followed closely by Mordru.

I have a battle to the death commission featuring them that should not be missed. :)

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1024807

Carycomic said...

FF vs. FF? Nice alliteration, Ross. :-)

I'm just wondering if the referee is Dev-Em (the Phantom Zone parolee who ultimately became an undercover agent for the Silver Age Science Police of 30th-century Metropolis).

Sonofjack said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sonofjack said...

I hate to say it but I think that the Fatal Five could take the Fantastic Four (unless the Fantastic Four got help from the Freedom Fighters)....

Jonathan Linneman said...

Bonus points for the wrestling theme!

Anonymous said...

@Sonofjack: FemForce could beat 'em all.

Bob Greenwade said...

I was also fascinated by the Fatal Five, though in my case it was Tharok who caught my imagination more than the others. I did consider the bunch of them to be pretty frightening, but Tharok's split-down-the-middle half-machine appearance was just creepy.

(And if I thought anyone would recognize it, I'd add him to my list of potential cosplay subjects. Or if I could get four friends to dress up as the rest of the Five.)

Four versus Five, though... I can't help but wonder if maybe Reed's up to something here.

And the chosen art, story, setting, and so forth all have that great Silver Age feel to it.

Oh, and regarding Matthew's suggestion, that list of villains would of course have to be pitted against the Dynamic Duo, possibly teamed up with Prime.

Wolfhammer said...

This is one of the covers I have been waiting for. Great job! The FATAL FIVE are awesome. Now on a similar theme a team-up of BLOK and The THING would be epic.

Ross said...

Click on "The Quarrymen" label to see The Thing and Blok together.

Paul Green said...

FF va FF is great! The wrestling theme and the art, characters, etc I think to be fair Fantastic Four should've had Spiderman or one of their other members to make five on five! Didn't know much of the Fatal Five, but Fantastic Four were rather creepy as well, stretchy guy, pile of rocks, fire guy, and invisible girl?! Good thing I saw the old cartoon version before reading the comic!
I do remember lots of these "heroes die" covers, where our favorites either die or lose to the villains! Sold alot of comics, even when the scenes were dreams or the hero tricking the villain!

Bob Buethe said...

@Bob G: Don't forget The One!

BERT said...

or The Seven Soldiers of Victory!

Carycomic said...

Or even the Final Five!!

Anonymous said...

These comments are starting to sound very Enid Blyton-ish. I'm just waiting for the Adventurous Four, Famous Five, Secret Seven, or even the Five Find Outers.

Simreeve said...

Bob Greenwade said...
"I was also fascinated by the Fatal Five, though in my case it was Tharok who caught my imagination more than the others. I did consider the bunch of them to be pretty frightening, but Tharok's split-down-the-middle half-machine appearance was just creepy."

Have you seen the issue of 'The Brave and the Bold', from the last series of that title before Flashpoint, in which Batman spent some time (mostly in the LSH's era) as what we might call "Bat-Tharok"?

Anonymous said...

@ Simreeve: Holy 31st Century Cyborg, Batman!

Anonymous said...

P.S. @ Carycomic: The ref looks more like Brin "Timber Wolf" Londo of the Silver Age LSH (before Mike Grell drew him to look like the love-child of Wolverine and Little Orphan Annie).

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