A while ago I bought the last issue of Dan Slott's run because it purporeted to contain an explanation of the mis-characterization and the continuity problems which did and do plague today's MU. It did, but I didn't realize that part of my enjoyment of the explanation was predicated on having read Fantastic Four #160-163. As I mentioned in another thread last week, my FF collection is merely nigh complete, and those issues are four I'm missing. They're readily available on the backissue market, but priced out of my range. Besides, the next Essential FF with start with those four issues.
However, the alternate Earth featured in those stories (Earth-A, for "alternate") originally debuted in FF #118, which I recently re-read for the first time in many years. After that I thought I'd give She-Hulk #21 another read. The inhabitants of Earth-A (here come the SPOILERS) are entirely super-powerless, except for Reed Richards who transformed into the (or rather "a") Thing. What I remembered from that issue is that non-powered vacationers from Earth-A were travelling to "Earth-B" (i.e., Earth-616, the MU proper), and gaining the powers (if any) of their super-powered counterparts, thus ecplaining myriad discrepacies in characterization.
What I didn't rememeber (and am asking someone to confirm) is that the She-Hulk from Dan Slott's entire run (?) was apparently Jenifer Walter's Earth-A counterpart. Is that right?
Also, while I'm at it, in which series/issue did Tony stark inject She-Hulk with transformation-inhibiting nanites?
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Slott's solution has an elegance to it. This way, you can decide such and such didn't happen to the 'real' character and I can decide that something else 'did'. Slott didn't produce a great tome listing what was 'real' and what wasn't along with that issue of She-Hulk.
It's a little bit similar to that thing they did where Doctor Doom shows up and when someone laughs at him for being slapped around by the Dazzler in her first week as a superhero or something, he says he was travelling and he often leaves his Doombots to stand in for him while he's away.
Better if Marvel could keep track of who's dead and who's not. Or just send an internal memo not to use the same villain in two or more books at the same time!
It's not so much that, as one set of editors/writers thinking that something like Jenn sleeping with the Juggernaut was a valid way forward for the character, and another set of creators deciding ... maybe not.
In answer to your question, Figs, FF #117 was to have been one of those big format 25 cents comics Martin Goodman tried for a month (when comics went from 15 cents regular size, to 25 cents big size, to 20 cents regular size), but when it was reduced to regular size the contents didn't quite fill two issues, leaving #118 several pages short. Roy Thomas wrote a short "in between panels" story of Lockjaw accidently transporting the Thing to an alternate reality in which [SPOILER] the only super-hero is Reed Richards, but he's a rocky "thing", not stretchy Mr. Fantasic. [END SPOILER] It was intended to be a on-off character piece, but I can only assume (not having read #160-163), someone decided to revisit that universe.
Initial post corrected.