Posted - January 7, 2018

Previous: Fantastic Four 237 The Eyes Have It


Fantastic Four No. 238
The Lady is for Burning



Fantastic Four No. 238

The last time we saw Frankie Ray she stood in front of Johnny Storm and took off her bathrobe. This is what lies underneath.


frankie's strange costume

So what, right? But there's more to this than meets the eye: That yellow costume disappears when Frankie puts on anything else and reappears when she takes everything off. Now that's weird. Frankie tells her story.


frankie origin frankie origin

Then suddenly.


frankie burts into flame

So, a girl Human Torch. Quite a coincidence. I remember the golden age of comics when sidekicks were the norm. Remember the original Human Torch and Toro? For Bronze Age comics, well, heck, okay, let's go. it will be fun to have a female Torch. But more importantly she says she remembers something related to what is happening to her and I'm dying to find out. Anyway, the pair of them are wonderful to look at.


the human torches

It's easy to to take the Torches' ability to fly for granted but here he makes me realize that it is a skill that has to be learned


johnny helping frankie fly

I did just mention the original Human Torch didn't I? Oh, I love this, Frankie Ray's stepfather was Phineas Horton, the creator of the original Human Torch! One day she was helping her Dad out and she got doused by chemicals . . .


frankie doused by chemicals

. . . changing her into the fiery being we see before us.

If you're in the pages of the Fantastic Four and you develop this kind of power - or any other for that matter - it is inevitable that at one point you'll see Reed Richards' lab rat.


reed richards analyzing frankie

And here's the result.


read richards talking

Ha! Look at Ben's face.


surprised ben

Hey, want to see Aunt Petunia? Hahaha.


aunt petunia

Two weeks after Frankie Raye's revelation Reed Richards has a revelation of his own.


reed richards talking

For a moment we see Ben Grimm.


ben grim

But something goes wrong!


machine goes on the fritz

And the original Thing is back.


the original thing

I'm thinking about Reed right now. It can't be helped everytime somebody takes a risk to succeed they also take a risk to fail. I'm expecting Ben to be really mad at Reed next issue. Blast it Richards couldn't you have ensured that your machine wouldn't short out at such a critical juncture?

Next: Fantastic Four 239 Wendy's Friends