Ff/Iron Man: Big in Japan 4 page 19

In his notes to the editors on this page, Seth writes, "Kinda wish I had drawn this page sooner... I wanted to do more kung-fu angle with the moloids... but this works pretty slick and I gotta move on. I know it looks fine, but I had all these great ideas and they all came out pretty simple."

The action on this page is happening inside the Beast, where Sue and Iron Man have been exploring. Now that the syringe has gone off and injected the Beast in the eye, the moloids seem to be erupting through a giant chimney into the atmosphere inside the Beast. The chimney--we realize if we are following carefully--is the point of the syringe. Seth has effectively shown that the moloids are coming up out of the tube and free-floating in the cavity, which does have the look of the inside of a living organism, with its waving papillae, masses of cell-like structures, and folded intestine-looking parts. In the top panel the moloids float about helplessly, in the center panel they seem to be threatened by the slug creatures with large teeth, and in the bottom panel the threatened have become the threat, as the moloids show their own large teeth and attack one of the slugs.

The showdown in the middle panel is expressed entirely in sounds. The separate R R R's on the left seem come across like a low growl from the slugs, while the separate W W W's on the right are an undercurrent of questing, "Now what is it that we are here for?"

In the bottom panel where they attack the slug, the WWW's turn into a ferociously shrill "WE WE WE", which is not only a sound, but maybe also expresses their communal nature. WE, not I is their essence. The attack on the slug by the group of moloids would seem far less threatening if it were not for the three large close-up faces grimacing with their very large teeth and wrinkled foreheads, which indicate the extremity of their facial expressions. This is clearly war to the death.