#ultimate nullifier

written by Deniz Camp art by Juan Frigeri & Federico Blee

Art by Ryan Stegman and Frank Martin

(Inspired by Fantastic Four Vol 1 50, by Stan Lee and Jack kirby)

Johnny’s odyssey from Fantastic Four issues 49 and 50. It’s just so fucking awesome! I’ve been enthralled by it for like the past week. The spaceship on the second page is cool, undeniably so, but its really the entire rest of the comic that draws me in. Johnny’s willingness to risk everything for his friends, the incredible cosmic journey he goes on which is just so fucking interesting! Like, okay. Me and a friend talked a bit about how cool the “barriers known as un-life” are. Like, first of all, they’re just shaped cool, I love the concentric, connecting circles and bands of energy cascading all around the torch in the center. I love that they’re called “un-life”, which makes me think that was definitely a name Kirby came up with (thinking of “armaghetto” and “anti-life” from The Fourth World). And, I love how it’s just something that exists, and it doesn’t need an explanation! It’s just un-life. You don’t need to know what it does, Marvel doesn’t have to spend two paragraphs explaining the science behind un-life in some big guide to the Marvel universe, you just know that it’s powerful and that you can’t, cannot touch it. The name is just powerful. There’s also that incredible, just in-fucking-credible panel of Johnny getting blasted by the Watcher’s cosmic energies! I love that the Kirby Krackle isn’t so uniform. Everyone is always making perfect dots when they draw Kirby Krackle, or incorporating it in places where it’s unnecessary. Everyone makes it look fake, but here, Kirby makes it raw. It’s not a rule to follow, just a guideline. Jack Kirby fucking kills! No, eviscerates Johnny Storm right in front of our eyes! We see his silent screams of agony ripple across the panel in blood red and jet black! Before he is reborn in a faraway, foreign place which we cannot understand. And neither can Johnny! His mind has been completely rewired, and as he lies limp and in shock, he finally understands Galactus, just for a moment. “We’re like ants.. just ants.. ants!!” I posted these panels on Twitter but I didn’t have the space to say why I liked them. Now I do! And it’s awesome.

Marvel Tales #38 (1972). Cover art by Sal Buscema. Reprint of The Amazing Spider-Man #53. First appearance of the ultimate nullifier.

That’s where we’re at? The Ultimate Nullifer stage?

- Young Avengers v2 #11, 2013 (2nd, 3rd and 4th pics)