She-Thing Death with Sharon Ventura
By Jef Willemsen
(clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)
Steve Englehart gave the Fantastic Four a make
over by replacing Reed and Sue with Crystal and Sharon ‘Ms. Marvel’ Ventura.
Even after their first adventure, it was obvious the team dynamics were
somewhat… strained. And that was even before the appearance of… Fasaud.
When Fasaud was
introduced in # 310, fans mocked this new super villain for his goofy looks and
rather silly backstory. Granted, having Saudi oil sheikh Farouk Al-Fasaud turn into a living
digital signal after he accidentally struck a television camera with a knife is
an origin straight from the silver age… but his powers of intangibility,
electrostatic shocks and the ability to instantly appear anywhere in the world
made him a formidable opponent.
Yet, (un)fortunately for her… nothing in the jungle seemed quite powerful enough to end her existence. That is, until they ran into a robotic warrior that absorbed kinetic energy and used it to become stronger. Quickly realizing the possibilities, Ms. Marvel kept hitting the construct, in hopes of sufficiently powering it to kill her. But just as the contraption hit critical mass, the Black Panther showed up and shut it down.
Ignoring his
admittedly gaudy appearance, Fasaud is somewhat of an avatar of things to come.
Nowadays, in a post 9/11 world, Englehart seems like a borderline visionary
when he had the FF square off against an intangible Arab enemy capable of
terrorizing anyone in the world in the blink of an eye.
Fasaud almost managed
to beat the FF during their first confrontation, if it wasn’t for the Thing
short circuiting his signal, causing the villain to explode. Ben decided their
new foe warranted further investigation and the trail soon led to the Arab
nation of Aqiria.
He ordered the Human
Torch and Crystal to stay in New York in case Fasaud would return there looking
for revenge, while he and Ms. Marvel travelled to the Middle East on a fact
finding mission. Ben’s reasoning for picking M.M. was sound: he wanted to keep
an eye on Sharon because during their initial battle with Fasaud, she’d been
dropping the ball … quite literally.
Johnny was knocked out
after facing Fasaud and fell to his death. Sharon jumped to rescue him, but
froze in mid-air when she realized the Torch was in fact a man, just like all
the men that had raped her during her imprisonment. She had an anxiety attack
and Crystal was forced to save Johnny at the last minute. Ben chewed her out
over that, but decided to give Sharon one last chance in Aqiria.
Poor Sharon… Forced to
relive the most traumatic event of her life again, chained up and helpless
before a horde of men. The anxiety in her eyes was striking, especially when
the American ambassador touched her and she lost it completely. Shary lunged at
him and while her restraints held, everyone was sufficiently impressed to leave
the two heroes alone.
This gave Ben the
opportunity to go all out and, in a supreme effort, break free. Ms. Marvel tried to follow his lead, but
failed … Fortunately, a little team work goes a long way and soon they were
tearing through the complex looking for trouble.
It is an interesting
yet saddening situation. On the surface, Ms. Marvel appears to be a capable and
quick witted heroine who is ready to throw down with anybody and their uncle…
Yet she completely shuts down the second a man tries to show her any kind of
affection. This is especially heartbreaking for Ben, who had slowly been
developing feelings for her. See how she handled that…
Despite the obvious
tensions, Shary and Ben never lost sight of the mission at hand. Aqiria is
about to launch a space shuttle that will drop a satellite into orbit allowing
Fasaud to dominate the entire world. They managed to board the shuttle just
before launch and soon found themselves in outer space where they faced yet
another Fasaud avatar.
After destroying both
the communications satellite and Fasaud himself, Sharon was so overjoyed they
actually shared a quick kiss… But their moment of joy didn’t last long: the
shuttle’s controls were damaged during the fight and the vessel was plummeting
towards Earth without sufficient shielding… And we all know what thát means…
Yeah, that’s what I
asked too.
In a move that
stretched all laws of common sense, Sharon had undergone the exact same
mutation as Ben Grimm… Just how this gazillion-to-one freak occurrence came
about is never explained, but nevertheless... She turned into a Thing and,
as # 311 proved, that proved to be kind
of a thing for her.
“I WANT
TO DIE!”
Seldom was an entire
issue so concisely summarized. After realizing she had become a She-Thing,
Sharon spent the better part of # 311 trying to off herself. As shocking and
off putting as this might sound, it actually feels like something a sane person
would do when he or she discovered they’d transformed into a pile of rocks with
legs.
In retrospect, when
Ben changed in Fantastic Four # 1, he
uprooted a tree and angrily swung it around a couple of times before calming
down and suggesting that being turned into a mound of super strong orange
pebbles was, naturally, a sign he had to become a superhero. Sharon, warped as
she was, had a more human and dare I say it, rational response. She wanted to
die. Now.
Ben frantically tried
to calm her down, but the suicidal Ms. Marvel didn’t want to listen to reason
and grasped any available opportunity to end her suffering.
Yet, (un)fortunately for her… nothing in the jungle seemed quite powerful enough to end her existence. That is, until they ran into a robotic warrior that absorbed kinetic energy and used it to become stronger. Quickly realizing the possibilities, Ms. Marvel kept hitting the construct, in hopes of sufficiently powering it to kill her. But just as the contraption hit critical mass, the Black Panther showed up and shut it down.
As it turned out, the
shuttle had crashed in Wakanda. T’Challa the Black Panther was delighted to see
Ben and Sharon, despite their accident. And then, T’Challa’s other house guest
showed up to say hello.
In a plot thread set
up by John Byrne, Doom had only recently been forced from his homeland Latveria
by Kristoff Vernard, a child that had a back up of Von Doom’s own memories and
personality forcibly downloaded into his own head. The prepubescent lad became
convinced he was the one true Doom and the actual Victor von Doom was nothing
more than a vile impostor, or maybe even a Doombot that had gone haywire.
Before he decided to
leave the book, Byrne had planned a year long ‘Doom War’ storyline in which the
two Dooms would duke it out. Englehart picked up on this with the outed Doom
busy establishing a power base of his own, first requesting support from other
royal rulers. Despite their obvious differences, Black Panther couldn’t help
but recognize Doom as a fellow king and provided him sanctuary. But it goes without saying that Von Doom
seized an opportunity when he saw one.
Doom actually gave the
shell shocked Sharon a bit of an unexpected pep talk. If anything, he was the
first to get through to her after all of Ben’s well intentioned platitudes fell
on deaf ears. By calling her a weakling and comparing her to Hank Pym who had
only recently tried to commit suicide in the Englehart penned West Coast Avengers # 17, he gave her the
proverbial splash of cold water she needed. If only he’d quit while he was
ahead…
Much like the leopard
that can’t change its spots, Doom
couldn’t help but try and turn this to his advantages. His offer to cure Ms.
Marvel if she’d only help him destroy the FF actually re-affirmed her loyalty
to the team and this is where Ben and the Black Panther stepped in to put Doom
in his place.
And with the end of #
311, there also came an end of sorts to the Englehart era of the Fantastic Four. While Steve would be
largely responsible for the direction of the book through # 321, it was nowhere
near where he had planned to go.
On his website,
Englehart stated his uncompromised, initial vision for the Fantastic Four was limited to # 304 through # 311, # 313 and # 320
& 321. But even in those issues, Marvel editorial demanded Englehart
incorporated whatever crossover event or character that was in need of a plug
that month… This meant guest stars
galore, as we’ll see in part 3 of Englehart’s
New But Not Too Improved Fantastic Four: Cross-eyed Crossover Country.
I have always liked Crystal. Crys should return to the Fantastic Four as soon as possible. As for Ms. Thing, it was kind of interesting having two Things on the team and watching the interplay between Ben and his female counterpart.
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