Fantastic Four #113
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFantastic Four #113 marks the first appearance of the Over-Mind, a cosmic-scale telepath conceived as one of the most powerful psionic threats the team had ever faced — a being carrying the synthesized consciousness of hundreds of millions of his alien race inside a single body. The issue also serves as a narrative hinge point in one of the early Bronze Age's most ambitious FF arcs, opening a four-part storyline that runs through issue #116 and that weaves together the consequences of the preceding Hulk-vs-Thing battle with an entirely new alien threat, demonstrating the Marvel serial formula at its most fluid. On a character level, this issue quietly resolves Ben Grimm's personality crisis while locking him permanently into Thing form — a meaningful status-quo shift — before pivoting to the Over-Mind's psychic siege of New York City. It is an early example of the Bronze Age FF broadening its threats beyond the purely physical into large-scale mental domination, with real-world texture supplied by the cameo of actual New York City Mayor John Lindsay as the Over-Mind's first puppet.
In "The Power of -- the Over-Mind!", the Fantastic Four face a mind-bending threat as the Watcher's mysterious intervention draws them into a battle against a vast, sentient intelligence. With the team fractured and the stakes higher than ever, Stan Lee's storytelling, brought to life by John Buscema’s dynamic art and Joe Sinnott’s sharp inks, pushes the heroes to their limits. The cover by John Buscema and John Verpoorten captures the eerie grandeur of the Over-Mind’s presence, setting the stage for a story that redefines what it means to be a hero.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue was produced by the core creative team of the era: writer-editor Stan Lee, penciller John Buscema, and inker Joe Sinnott, with the cover drawn by Buscema and John Verpoorten. It arrived at a transitional moment for the title — Jack Kirby had departed Marvel, leaving Lee to handle plotting alone, and contemporary observers have noted that the shift placed a heavier creative burden on Lee than he had carried during the Kirby years. Buscema's ability to channel Kirby's dynamism through his own visual idiom, bolstered by Sinnott's polished inks, kept the series visually consistent across this period. The Over-Mind storyline that begins here was apparently developed to launch a new cosmic-level threat capable of filling the narrative space previously occupied by Galactus and the Silver Surfer.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First appearance of the Over-Mind (originally hyphenated as 'Over-Mind'), whose civilian identity is Grom, an Eternal of the planet Eyung chosen to carry the psionic power of his entire dying civilization.
- Story title: 'The Power of the Over-Mind!' — Part 1 of a four-part arc concluding in Fantastic Four #116.
- Creative team: script by Stan Lee (also editor), pencils by John Buscema, inks by Joe Sinnott, cover by John Buscema and John Verpoorten.
- The issue resolves the preceding Hulk-vs-Thing plotline: Ben Grimm's personality is restored but he permanently loses the ability to revert to human form, and he destroys Reed's curative machine himself.
- The Watcher (Uatu) appears and breaks his vow of non-interference just enough to deliver a four-word warning — 'Beware the Over-Mind' — before departing.
- Mayor John Lindsay of New York City appears (labeled a 'topical reference') as the first victim of the Over-Mind's mental domination, used to order the Fantastic Four arrested and disbanded.
- Reprinted in Marvel's Greatest Comics #93 (October 1980, with one page removed), Essential Fantastic Four Vol. 6 (2007, black and white), and Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 4 (2021); the Over-Mind later received an entry in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II #9.
Cast · 13 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Hit Comics Die fantastischen Vier #238 (1972), I Fantastici Quattro #111 (1975), Captain Britain #7 (1976), Captain Britain #8 (1976), Une Aventure des Fantastiques #18 (1979), Atlantic-serien [Fantastiske Fire] #7/1979 (1979), Atlanticserien #7/1979 (1979), Marvel's Greatest Comics #93 (1980), Essential Fantastic Four #6 (2007), Fantastic Four Epic Collection #7 (2021), Fantastic Four Omnibus #4 (2021), De Vier Verdedigers Classics #59, Die Fantastischen Vier #109, Los 4 Fantásticos #140
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