My Fantastic Four-ay: Part Nine.

Listen, this is one humdinger of a cover. Drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith, it effectively depicts the state of the Thing as it had been at this time…alienated and alone, separated from the rest of the Fantastic Four. You would think the moodiness of the piece might be slightly diminished by Marvel’s 25th anniversary framing border, which appeared on all the Marvel comics, showing a parade of celebratory heroes. If anything, it enhances the Thing’s isolation, his somber demeanor separating him from the party literally surrounds him. Yes, the Thing is also in the border: …which maybe undermines my point a little, but that is the Heroic Part-of-the-Team Thing, not the put-upon, feeling-his-inhumanity Thing. In short, what I’m saying is this is a good cover, one that even leans into the forced company-wide cover layout to give it additional meaning. Was that Windsor-Smith’s intent? Probably not, but that’s how it works. Anyway, this is an extra-sized issue, 64 pages or thereabouts, marking…