Fantastic Four Annual #26
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFantastic Four Annual #26 is the debut vehicle for Wildstreak (Tamika Bowden), one of Marvel's comparatively rare early-1990s heroes whose powers stem entirely from assistive technology — a father-built exoskeleton that restored mobility to a wheelchair-using Black woman and then amplified it to superhuman levels. That premise, marrying disability representation with engineering-based empowerment, gave the character a distinct social texture uncommon in the speculator-era market. The issue is also a concrete artifact of Marvel's line-wide 1993 annual initiative, which — unlike DC's contemporaneous Bloodlines crossover — seeded brand-new characters into standalone annual stories written, by design, by the regular creative teams of their host titles. The backup story, 'Riddle of the Celestials,' meanwhile serves as a dense continuity thread tying together the post-Secret Wars cosmology of Kosmos, Kubik, and the Celestials, making the issue a two-feature package with something for cosmic-lore collectors as well.
ComicBooks.com Value
This exact issue on ebay
Raw — MINT ▾ $3.99–$4.7 2 listings
Raw — VF/NM ▾ $2.94–$12.98 5 listings
Raw — VF ▾ $2.95–$4.98 4 listings
Raw / ungraded ▾ $2–$24.99 27 listings
More listings for this title
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The primary 'Dreadface Lives!' story was written by Tom DeFalco — then the regular writer on the main Fantastic Four series — with pencils by Herb Trimpe and inks by Bud LaRosa, under editor Ralph Macchio. The backup 'Riddle of the Celestials' was scripted by Len Kaminski with pencils by Brian Pelletier. Marvel's editorial directive for the 1993 annuals was that each issue should introduce a new character created by the series' own regular staff, giving those characters an organic chance to migrate into the ongoing books — a strategy deliberately distinct from DC's Bloodlines event, which used a shared alien threat to tie all its annuals together. The issue was published with a cover date of July 1993 and, in keeping with the program-wide production standard, was polybagged at the newsstand and direct markets.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Wildstreak (Tamika Bowden), an African-American woman paralyzed from the waist down who operates as a vigilante using an exoskeleton designed by her MIT-trained mechanical-engineer father, Dennis Bowden.
- Created by writer Tom DeFalco and penciler Herb Trimpe, with inks by Bud LaRosa and editorial oversight by Ralph Macchio.
- Part of Marvel's 1993 annual initiative, in which every annual introduced a new character created by the host title's regular creative team — the stories were standalone and not tied together by any crossover device, unlike DC's contemporary Bloodlines annuals event.
- The issue was polybagged and included trading card #8 of the 1993 Marvel Annuals set, featuring Wildstreak on the front with her statistics (real name, height, first appearance, profile) on the reverse.
- The backup story, 'Riddle of the Celestials' (script: Len Kaminski, pencils: Brian Pelletier), features Kosmos, Kubik, and cameo appearances by the Beyonder and Galactus, and is a direct sequel to cosmic continuity threads running from Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars through Fantastic Four #319.
- The main story also advances the concurrent Fantastic Four ongoing subplot of teenaged Psi-Lord — a future version of Franklin Richards who had replaced his infant self after being taken to the future by his grandfather Nathaniel Richards in Fantastic Four #376.
- Wildstreak made a follow-up appearance in Thunderstrike #11 (August 1994) and later appeared during the Civil War era in Civil War: Front Line #5 and Fantastic Four (vol. 1) #540, where she opposed the Superhuman Registration Act.
- The main story was reprinted in the German anthology Die Fantastischen Vier (Condor) #42; the backup 'Riddle of the Celestials' was reprinted in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: Battleworld #[8] (2015).
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: Battleworld #[8] (2015), Fantastic Four Epic Collection #22 (2021), Die Fantastischen Vier #42
Key issues in Fantastic Four Annual
Variants (1)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.