Appearing in "The Menace of the Mega-Men!"
Featured Characters:
- Fantastic Four (First appearance)
- Mister Fantastic (First appearance)
- Invisible Girl (First appearance)
- Thing (First appearance)
- Human Torch (First appearance)
- Crystal (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Franklin Richards (First appearance)
- Corwin Janus (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Janus the Mega-Man (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Doctor Claymore
Locations:
- Earth-8466 (First appearance)
Items:
- Mega-Blaster
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Menace of the Mega-Men!"
Reed and Sue Richards are entertaining a colleague by the name of Doctor Claymore. When Claymore comments on their two-headed status of Janus, prompting Richards to tell the tale of when the battled a foe named Janus, the Mega-Man....
On day a strange ship crashed landed in New York city, and emerging from it was Janus the Mega-Man. With his molecule controlling Mega-Blaster he forced his way into a bank. However he made the mistake of robbing the one where the Thing and the Human Torch were in the safety deposit room. When the two members of the Fantastic Four attempted to attack Janus, he used his Mega-Power to increase his strength, beating the Thing into unconsciousness, while using an electrical blast to incapacitate Johnny.
Johnny awakes in a hospital bed with Crystal, Reed and Sue watching over him. The Thing tells Johnny that while he was out, the Mega-Man has been striking various targets, his most recent being a yacht out at sea. Reed has a lead on the situation and has Ben and Johnny stay behind while he and Sue go check it out.
Using the Fantasti-Car, the couple fly to the home of Corwin Janus in Kansas, a former classmate of Reed Richards whom he was reminded of when hearing the news of the Mega-Man's attacks. Reed recounts how Janus was involved in an accident that crippled him and forced him to use crutches. Before he lands he instructs Sue to turn invisible and plant a hidden camera in Corwin's home. As Reed talks to Janus, he professes his innocence. After Sue secretly plants the camera, Reed acts as though he is satisfied with Corwin's claims and leaves.
After the heroes go, the Mega-Man -- Corwin's brother -- emerges from behind a tree. Corwin asks his brother to stop, but the Mega-Man refuses, as he is reveling in the power. He then reminds Corwin that his robberies are all to gather enough funds to cure Corwin of his disability. The Mega-Man then goes into his secret bunker below the property to count his money, but soon detects the camera that Sue had planted there.
Back at the Baxter Building, Reed activates their camera, but it is destroyed by energy feedback from Janus before they can learn anything. When Reed and Sue begin planning on what to do next, Johnny and Ben decide to take a leave, but Ben is convinced that Reed isn't telling them everything. Ben and Johnny decide to go after the Mega-Man alone, and take the Pogo Plane to fly out to Kansas. As they fly over the city they notice debris flying into the air and spot the Mega-Man rampaging through the city in an attempt to draw out the Fantastic Four. Spotting the Pogo-Plane the Mega-Man uses his powers to freeze it solid, but Ben prevents it from being a fatal crash. In the meantime Janus has escaped, leaving a note demanding the entire city treasury or he will destroy New York.
When Janus returns to the home he shares with his brother Corwin, he is ambushed by Mister Fantastic who takes his Mega-Blaster and wraps his foe up in his arms. When Janus begs his brother to help him, Corwin grabs a gun from the night table and is about to shoot either Reed or Janus, Sue knocks the gun out of his hands. Reed then uses the Mega-Power in Janus' device to restore Corwin's ability to walk. Reed explains that the Mega-Man was merely exploiting the technology to gain wealth while stringing Corwin along with false promises to pay for a cure when it was right there the whole time. With the Mega-Man defeated, Reed tells Corwin that he will explain his involvement to the authorities.
Appearing in "Fantastic Four #108: Kirby's Way"
- Appearances not yet listed
Synopsis for "Fantastic Four #108: Kirby's Way"
Written by John Morrow this essay explains the long history of this lost story. It includes all of the remaining original pencils by Jack Kirby, and notes on the reconstruction of this story.
Appearing in "The Monstrous Mystery of the Nega-Man!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Monstrous Mystery of the Nega-Man!"
Story reprinted from Fantastic Four #108
With Janus the Nega-Man in the Negative Zone, Reed has Ben and Johnny recall back to the time they battled a bank robber named the Nega-Man who used Nega-energy as a weapon. In the flashback we learn that the Nega-Man is named Janus, a former colleague of Reed Richards from State U. who used the Nega-Energy to try and heal his damaged legs, however it created an evil doppelganger instead, which the good Janus eventually killed.
In the present, Sue returns from her visit to see Franklin, and as the Four begin to figure out what to do about the Nega-Man, they are shocked to see the portal to the Negative Zone open up, and Annihilus cross over into the positive matter universe.
Notes
The The Menace of the Mega-Men! is a long lost unused Jack Kirby story that was intended for Fantastic Four #103. Shortly there after Jack went on to work for DC Comics. This issue was released (likely intentionally) on the same month as Kirby's first issue of the New Gods over at DC. As the story goes, the story was initially rejected as not being exciting enough. When Stan decided to use the story anyway in order to capitalize on Kirby's work over at DC, he massively re-wrote the story and had both Buscema and Romita add the new story pages. The story became a bit of lore as much of the original tale was lost. However by 2008 much of the unused pages were recovered. Stan Lee and Ron Frenz were hired by Marvel to complete the missing elements of the story and it was released as close to its original form as possible in Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure #1. That version of the story has since been delegated to Earth-8466 according to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3
See Also
- Write your own review of this comic!
- Discuss Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure Vol 1 1 on the forums
- Images from Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure Vol 1 1
Footnotes
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