“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 9

26 Friday Feb 2021

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1962, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 9, jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Sub-mariner

Fantastic Four 9
“The End of the Fantastic Four”
Published: Sept. 1962
Plot: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Dick Ayers
Lettering: Artie Simek
Cover: Kirby & Ayers

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four are broke, a result of Reed’s poor stock market investments, and are selling their (not-yet-named) headquarters and equipment. The Sub-Mariner gets wind of their plight and launches a plan. The team is offered $1 million to appear in a movie, which they eagerly accept only to later discover is being bankrolled by Namor.

After dining with the Invisible Girl, Namor escorts the team’s male members to their “scenes” which are actually ambushes. Mr. Fantastic fights the mythical Cyclops, the Human Torch must escape a fire-proof African tribe (really) and the Thing battles Namor himself. Finally, after Sue rejects Namor’s marriage proposal, they fight before the rest of the team arrives to save her. She brokers a peace that lets the Sub-Mariner leave unharmed in exchange for the team receiving their money and appearing in the movie.

This is the first issue with proper credits (previous issues were signed by Stan and Jack), so inker Dick Ayers and letterer Artie Simek finally get their names in print.

What’s going on here?

This bizarre story strains credulity at every turn. From Reed losing everything in the stock market to Namor financing a movie studio (“SM Studios”) to the ridiculous traps he sets for the team, the comic feels more like an absurdist Julie Schwartz-era Superman that the science-fiction infused Fantastic Four. There’s very little here that advances the characters and their story, save for a brief reappearance of Alicia Masters and her deepening friendship with Ben. The issue is otherwise a madcap lark, or a waste of time, depending on your appetite for this sort of thing.

Without any indication of irony, the issue ends with the FF as movie stars and Stan boasting about the FF’s “down-to-earth realism.”

About the Fantastic Four’s money troubles

This is the first time a FF story hinges on the Fantastic Four’s financial woes or business dealings, but it won’t be the last. Over the years the FF have either owned their building and had trouble with their tenants, or been tenants and had issues with their landlord. They are also evicted again, the plot device in 2004’s Marvel Knights 4 (an FF book aimed at older readers). In that story, the City of New York refuses to indemnify the team for damages caused by their battles, and demands the Baxter Building as compensation. The FF then find “real” jobs: Sue teaches high school english, Reed performs IT support at a law firm, Johnny tries to become a firefighter and Ben works construction. The premise was as far-fetched in 2004 as it was in 1962.

To move the plot of FF 9 along, Stan and Jack suggest that Reed is both a terrible and reckless investor, but also that he has no capacity to imagine jobs for the FF outside of freak shows and crime. Again, none of this makes much sense if we are to accept Reed is one of the world’s smartest men.

Hooray for Hollywood

Jack includes some movie stars cameos as the FF go show biz.

I recognized Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Alfred Hitchcock. The internet tells me John Wayne, Amanda Blake, Charles Bronson and Jack Benny are also there. Dean Martin appears in another panel.

The Sub-Mariner goes all-in as a movie mogul, which includes dressing like Noel Coward. Namor hangs on to his movie studio and it shows up years later, renamed Imperial Pictures.

That escalated quickly

After her introduction last issue, Alicia Masters is now established as Ben’s “dear friend.” Expect to see a lot more panels like this one:

Speaking of Ben

Ben has trouble catching a cab, not because he’s an orange monster but because the cabbie thinks he’ll stiff him on the fare.

Which is as a good an excuse as any to drop in this panel of Ben taking a cab by John Byrne, one of my favorite drawings of the Thing (and which also echoes the Ben’s concern about getting a job in the real world).

Also in issue 9, Ben also transforms to human form after being struck by lightning while fighting Namor (it’s a sign of how bananas this issue is that it’s the first time I’ve mentioned this totally random event). This marks at least the third time the Thing has reverted to human form in the first nine issues.

And now for my next trick

The Human Torch creates flame duplicates, I think for the first time

Call my decorator

Another interesting interior design choice for the FF.

Meanwhile, Namor enjoys the latest in underwater TV technology. Note the photo of Sue.

Namor’s Hollywood office is pretty groovy, too

They’re fighting again

The sexist sixties

Sue needs to be rescued, because of course she does.

Kirby Krackle

More good stuff from the King as the Thing fights some beach bullies, a la Charles Atlas

Let’s talk about us

Reed is reading comics, and takes a meta-swipe at the lack of such prosaic concerns as money in (presumably) DC’s comics

For sale

A mint (9.8) copy of FF 9 is worth $14,000, quite a bit less than the previous issue.

Pin up

Part 2 of the Human Torch’s explainer pin ups. He seems lot more level headed here than in actual stories.

Next issue: The return of Dr. Doom!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 8

20 Saturday Feb 2021

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1962, Alicia Masters, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 8, jack Kirby, Puppet Master, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 8
“Prisoners of the Puppet Master”
Published: August 1962
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Dick Ayers (uncredited)
Cover: Kirby and Ayers

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four squabble after the rest of the team keeps the Thing from learning what Reed is working in in his lab (eventually revealed to be a cure for his condition). Later, the team rescues a man, under the thrall of the Puppet Master, who attempts suicide by jumping from a bridge. Thwarted, the Puppet Master takes control of the Thing, and later captures the Invisible Girl. He sends Alicia Masters, his blind step-daughter, disguised as Sue back with the Thing to capture the rest of the team, but Ben stumbles into Reed’s chemicals, reverting him back to human form and breaking the Puppet Master’s mind control.

Meanwhile, the Puppet Masters is using his puppets to engineer a jailbreak (apparently as a test of his abilities although it’s never really made clear). The FF rescue Sue and foil the jailbreak, although the Puppet Master evades capture. Reunited with Alicia, he reveals his plan to use his puppets to make him ruler of the world. Horrified, she grabs at his puppet and as he trips, he plummets out a window, seemingly to his death

What’s going on here?

Fantastic Four 8 introduces Phillip Masters, who as the Puppet Master will be a recurring villain, and more significantly, his step daughter, Alicia. Alicia Masters becomes one of the team’s most consistent supporting characters, first as the Thing’s girlfriend and much later, his wife. She develops into a renown sculptor (although her works are invariably shown as fairly uninteresting depictions of Marvel heroes) and often served as a babysitter to young Franklin Richards when the team went on a mission. She also, unfortunately, filled in for Sue as the requisite hostage of the super villains after the Invisible Woman evolved past that role.

After many twists and turns in their relationship—including a period where she left Ben for Johnny in the 1980s, a betrayal later retconned as the actions of Lyja, a Skrull in disguise (the less said about that the better)—the two finally got hitched in 2018’s FF No. 5:

It’s clear Stan and Jack had long-term plans for Alicia as early as issue 8, as she and the Thing quickly develop feelings for each other:

The Thing/Ben/Alicia dynamic becomes fraught over the years. It begins with the Beauty-and-the-Beast cliche, and the story-telling crutch of her blindness, because of course only a blind woman could love the Thing. Later writers, notably John Byrne, investigate whether Ben’s psychological need for Alicia’s love has prevented him from reverting back to human form. The seeds of that storyline were introduced here in issue 8, as Ben reverts back to the Thing after temporarily turning human

Byrne runs with that idea in issue 245, while giving Reed a convenient explanation for why all his attempts to return Ben to human form failed:

About that clay

Phillip Master’s puppet powers derive from radioactive clay (another reminder of how in the ’60s, radioactivity was an all-purpose bestower of super powers), but it’s a little unclear how it actually works. Usually, he needs to mold a clay form of a living person to manipulate them, sort of like a voodoo doll.

But here he has sculpted a flying, jet-propelled horse, which seems to work just fine without him using a small version of it.

And then he plans to rule the world by sculpting himself as its king. Would he manipulate himself?

They’re fighting again

After skipping last issue, Ben and Johnny pick right up where they left off:

The sexist sixties

Sue is, of course, captured by the bad guy, for the fourth time in the first eight issues.

What year is it?

For the first time, the year is mentioned, which will become a problem for continuity hounds as Marvel’s sliding time scale means these issues no longer take place in the ’60s.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Some great stuff from Jack in this issue.

The Incredible Mr. Fantastic

Reed finds a new use for his powers.

Pin up

Johnny gets another pin up, this one offering scientific explanations for his powers and costume (I love the image of the unstable molecules).

For sale

A mint copy of FF 8 will cost you about $130,000.

Next issue: The return of the Sub-Mariner!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 7

14 Sunday Feb 2021

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1962, Fantastic Four, fantastic Four 7, jack Kirby, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 7
“Prisoners of Kurrgo, Master of Planet X”
Published: July 1962
Plot: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Dick Ayers (uncredited)
Cover: Kirby

Synopsis

On Planet X, Kurrgo sends a spaceship piloted by a robot to capture the Fantastic Four to help him prevent the destruction of his people from a collision with a runaway asteroid, Meanwhile, on Earth, the Fantastic Four are feted at a dinner held by Congress when Kurrgo’s robot, now on Earth, unleashes an energy ray that turns the people against them. After escaping the police and military, the FF accept the ultimatum offered by the robot: perish at the hands of your countrymen or come to Planet X. Once on Planet X, Reed invents a gas that shrinks the planet’s population to tiny size, enabling them to fit on its spaceship. Kurrgo, however, plots to keep the enlarging gas for himself, planning to rule his countrymen as a giant, but encumbered by the gas canister he fails to reach the ship before it takes off. As the FF return to earth, Reed reveals there never was an enlarging gas, but he made it up so the citizens of Planet X would accept shrinking.

This is the first issue to appear on its new monthly schedule, a mark of the comic’s growing popularity.

What’s going on here?

After encounters with the Sub-Mariner and Dr. Doom in the last three issues, the FF return to the Silver Age, in this silly science fiction-flavored story. It’s part of a series of comics where the FF are forced do a villain’s bidding (as they did in FF 5 with Doom), although in this case Reed admits they didn’t really need to go to Planet X, but he was curious and wanted to check it out.

The story is pretty unremarkable. Kirby gets to draw some cool outer-space stuff, we get some character building moments as the FF fret about attending a fussy dinner, and once again Reed’s genius saves the day (although he was kind of a dick about it). Kurrgo makes one more appearance, in 1973’s Marvel Feature 11, but he’s as forgettable a villain as the FF ever fight. The Marvel wikipedia identifies Planet X as Xanth, and extrapolates some details about Xanthians, but they too only appear once more.

Really, the only event of significance is it marks the first time the Human Torch goes “super nova,” a manifestation of his powers where he can “attain the greatest heat in the universe.”

Johnny’s nova power becomes part of his arsenal of tricks and is used repeatedly over the years, although perhap never with as much spectacular impact as in Fantastic Four 600, where he uses it to incinerate Annihilus’s army as it prepares to invade Earth from the Negative Zone.

The Sexist Sixties

The FF’s invitation to a dinner in their honor gives Stan and Jack ample opportunity to trot out some stereotypes:

Talk to my decorator

At the dinner in their honor, Reed is presented with an odd trophy from an official in a bolo tie. Apparently the FF don’t yet merit medals of honor.

Red Menace

The Cold War is still very much a thing

Kirby Krackle

It seems Jack is never happier than when he gets to draw alien machinery

For sale

A mint (9.8) copy of FF 7 should run you about $80,000

Next issue: The first appearances of Alicia Masters and the Puppet Master!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 6

06 Saturday Feb 2021

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1962, Dr. Dom, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 6, jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Sub-mariner

Fantastic Four 6
“Captives of the Deadly Duo!”
Published June 1962
Plot: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Script: Stan Lee
Inks: Dick Ayers (uncredited)
Cover: Kirby and Ayers

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four are unsuccessful at finding Dr. Doom, who escaped in the last issue. Meanwhile, Doom recruits the Sub Mariner to help him attack the FF, appealing to Namor’s desire for revenge. Namor plants a magnetic “grabber” in the the FF’s headquarters, which lifts the entire building into space. Doom, however, has double-crossed Namor, who is in the building as it leaves Earth and intends to send him into the sun with the FF. While the members of the FF are unable to reach Doom’s spaceship, Namor—revived by the FF’s water tank—successfully disables Doom’s ship, and returns the building to Earth. Doom, clinging to a meteor, is lost in space.

What’s going on here?

This is the best issue to date. The story is suspenseful, the plot is straightforward, and the villains have plausible motivations (revenge!). And Kirby delivers some gorgeous art.

Fantastic Four 6 establishes Dr. Doom as a recurring villain (oh, how he reoccurs!) and the Sub-Mariner as a more complex character, as he eventually joins forces with the FF to defeat Doom. The story also layers in more world-building, as we are introduced to various elements of the FF mythos that serve as touchstones over the years, such as the unstable molecules in their uniforms and the Yancy Street gang.

The main plot device— Dr. Doom lifts the team’s still-unnamed headquarters building into space—is delightfully absurd and Doom-ish. So delightful that John Byrne recreates the basic plot in FF 278:

What’s up with Sue?

Sue is revealed to have a crush on the Sub-Mariner, hiding away a photo of him in a book shelf. Where, exactly, she got an 8×10 glossy of Subby is unclear, but the plot device reveals that Stan and Jack view Sue as little more than a silly teenage girl, despite being engaged to Reed. (She also refers to her brother as “Torch” which seems a bit weird, while Johnny calls Namor the team’s “arch-enemy,” despite only facing him once).

Inside the (not yet) Baxter Building

For the second time in three issues, we are treated to a cutaway illustration of the FF’s headquarters. This one is a bit more in depth and shows four floors, not just three.

In this issue we are introduced to unstable molecules …

Want to know how Reed’s clothes stretch with him? So did a kid in a nearby hospital, whom Reed is more than happy to lecture while visiting.

… and elevator belt buckles …

FF 6 introduces another gee-whiz aspect of the team’s gear.

… and the Yancy Street Gang …

They don’t appear (well, they never really do) but they are first introduced here as Ben’s antagonists from his old neighborhood. “Yancy Street” is derived from Delancey Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, near where Kirby grew up.

and footnotes!

Long a staple of Marvel comics, Stan started using footnotes to remind readers about what happened in past issues. Even though there have been only six issues so far.

Mid-century modern

It’s never clear who decorated the FF’s headquarters, but they certainly had an eye for interesting objet d’art.

Kirby Krackle

Kirby drew some wonderful street scenes for this issue. I wonder who he used as models for the faces.

He also drew this amazing sequence of Namor leaping into space to attack Doom

The sexist sixties

In the thin air of our space, Sue is the only member to succumb from the last oxygen because of course she is. (The Sub-Mariner also wears red trunks in this issue, insead of his standard green).

Oops!

Jack draws the headquarters returning safely to its block in New York, while Stan is left to explain in a word balloon that it was Namor who somehow used Doom’s spaceship to maneuver it in place, all off-camera. It seems Stan may have had of explain just exactly how the building returned to Earth.