All the same, the individual adventures the FF had during that time were still entertaining and imaginative. In this issue, for instance, writer Gerry Conway and artist John Buscema give us a pretty nifty origin of the villain Annihilus.
Annihilus himself recounts his origin to a captive Wyatt Wingfoot during the last third of the issue. Boiled down to its basics, Annihilus was the one creature on his planet who had developed intelligence and was shunned by every one else because of this. He explores the remains of an ancient space ship and finds a helmet that mentally feeds him advanced scientific knowledge. This inspires him to take up his career as immortal ruler of the Negative Zone.
There's actually a lot more to it than that--the origin story is filled with unique detail and wonderfully imaginative visual imagery. It's worth reading.
As for the main plot of this issue, we begin in the Negative Zone, with Annihilus apparently monologing about his imminent plans to take revenge on Reed Richards. Except we soon learn that he's actually speaking to someone just off-panel--someone from Earth who is essential to his plans. Who this person is will be revealed in the next issue.
Anyway, back on Earth, Reed gets a video call from Sue, who tells him something is wrong with Franklin. The call cuts out and Reed briefly panics.
Medusa calms him down by slugging him with a monkey wrench. Gee whiz, if you ever visit with the Inhumans, don't ask any of them for emotional counseling.
In the meantime, Sue has started driving back to New York from the upstate farm at which she's beens staying. But her trip is interrupted by the appearance of Agatha Harkness. Agatha explains that she knows what's up with Franklin and teleports herself, Sue and Franklin to another location.
Reed, by now, has calmed down and the FF is in the Fantasti-Car, homing in on a tracker placed in Sue's car. All FF vehicles have trackers in them. I think Gerry Conway introduces us to that idea here to move the story along quickly, but it makes perfect sense for a family that's always being attacked/kidnapped by supervillains to do this. So it doesn't come across as a plot contrivance.
They find the car, but Sue has already been teleported away. Reed scans the area and finds a residue of anti-matter radiation.
I actually remember reading this issue as a kid and thinking that the writer had made a mistake. Agatha Harkness had used magic to teleport them all away. I thought "Hey, the silly writer forgot that this part of the story doesn't involve the Negative Zone and made a mistake!" I might have even been thinking about writing a letter and claiming a No-Prize, though I never did.
Which is just as well. We won't find out why until the next issue, but it makes sense that there was anti-matter present and the event is a solid clue to whom Annihilus' prisoner would turn out to be. Silly me for not trusting the writer.
The FF rush back to the Baxter Building, but discover the portal to the Negative Zone has already been blasted open. Annihilus attacks and easily overpowers everyone. Wyatt Wingfoot, who has been hanging out with the FF recently, is also made a prisoner.
This is where Annihilus recounts his origin to Wyatt. After that, he tosses the FF and Wyatt into the Negative Zone,
We have yet to find out exactly what Annihilus' endgame is, but the set-up is effective and the story fun. Well, except for the Reed/Sue seperation stuff, which was definitely tiresome by this time.
We'll return to look at FF #141 in two weeks. Next week, we'll rejoin Travelin' Toughie for the little guy's second adventure.
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