Marvel’s Greatest Comics #79 [1978] – Mystery on the Moon

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An edited reprint of FANTASTIC FOUR #98 [1970] in this issue, wherein Reed intercepts a message from the Kree that indicates they have another Sentry on Earth, determined to foil the Apollo moon landing and humanity’s outreach into space. Nice of Reed not to rub it in that he beat them by almost half a decade. As the moon shot launches, Reed tracks the Sentry to a simulated moonscape island in the Pacific, where it’s started some mysterious device which links to something under the Sea of Tranquillity. The boys have to race against time to defeat the Sentry and disable the device before the lunar module lands. Fortunately they make it, and Neil Armstrong becomes the fifth first man on the Moon.

A nice simple done-in-one story with some spectacular visuals. I especially like that panel of Ben carrying Reed and Johnny away from the exploding Kree device.

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Two pages are edited out, one showing the Torch coming back from sulking over Crystal, and explaining why he’s brushing his teeth when we first see him here, and another showing the reactions around the world to the Apollo launch. Joe Sinnott inks the now 18-page story and cover, with the cover being flipped from the original.

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