Review of "Marvel Monsters Group: Fin Fang 4 Number 1," comic edited by John Barber

 Review of

Marvel Monsters Group: Fin Fang 4 Number 1, comic edited by John Barber

Five out of five stars

Parody piled on parody

 People familiar with the early issues of the Fantastic Four comic will quickly spot the cover of this one as being very similar to the cover of the initial Fantastic Four issue. The issue is packed with puns and other wordplay. For example, on the cover there is a reference to J. Edgar Goober and a female Asian attorney refers to the dragon Fin Fang Foom as anthropically challenged.

 There are four monsters in the first story, Elektro with his mighty(?) 32K brain, Gorgilla the gigantic ape-man, the dragon Fin Fang Foom and Googam, son of Goom. On the cover, each replaces one of the Fantastic Four in the now iconic image. In keeping with that theme, the four “monsters” take off in the Fantasti-car to go fight it out with the evil Tim Boo Ba. In a brilliant tactical move, the four use an amusing fundamental weakness Tim Boo Ba has to defeat him. The four are hailed as heroes for their actions.

 The second story has Fin Fang Foom featured in a story that is focused on the military standoff between the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan. A lone man from Taiwan makes the trek to the mainland to unleash Fin Fang Foom on the accursed reds so they will not be able to attack Taiwan. He succeeds in a story that is right out of the evil Red scare menace of the 1950’s and early 1960’s.

These stories are humorous to the reader experienced in the Marvel universe and that understands the American propaganda machine of the fifties and early sixties. There is even a love story subplot that has Ben Grimm as the Thing shedding tears. As long as you do not take it very seriously, this is a fun comic.