“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 24

28 Monday Jun 2021

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1963, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 24, jack Kirby

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 23

19 Saturday Jun 2021

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1963, Dr. Doom, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 23, jack Kirby, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 23
“The Master Plan of Dr. Doom”
Published: November 1963
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Pencils: Kirby
Script: Lee
Inks: George Roussos
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Roussos

Synopsis

A small dinosaur escapes into the Baxter Building from Dr. Doom’s time machine, leading Mr Fantastic to berate the rest of the team for their inattentiveness. Frustrated with Reed’s brusque leadership, the Human Torch, the Thing, and the Invisible Girl decide to vote on a new leader, and when all three vote for themselves, a fight breaks out which ends only when Reed asserts his command over the team.

Meanwhile, three criminals are bailed out of jail by a bald man revealed to be a robot controlled by Dr. Doom. The three have been assembled because of their special talents—strength, superior hearing, and resistance to flame—which are augmented by Doom, and they become the Terrible Trio. The trio use their new powers to capture the Human Torch, Thing, and Invisible Girl, while Doom uses a Thing robot to lure and attract Reed.

The four heroes free themselves from their shackles, then battle Doom only to find he has imprisoned them in a warehouse coated in ionic dust particles, making it vulnerable to a “solar wave” that is transporting the room into outer space. The team is able to escape the room, but Doom plunges into the void.

What’s going on here?

Honestly? Not much, particularly after all the big developments in the last issue. This is fairly inconsequential issue, both for having very little impact on future stories, and for a fairly banal plot, even one involving Doom. If anything, while FF 23 further cements Doom as the team’s primary antagonist, it weakens his impact by dragging him into such an uneventful story. There is a some character building, mostly involving Reed being a jerk and then getting a bit of comeuppance, but it’s not a subplot that is really developed. We do get almost two full pages of Ben and Johnny fighting, though.

The Terrible Trio

The only new characters introduced are the Terrible Trio, a bunch of D-listers who make a handful of appearances over the years. Here they are in Marvel Two-in-One 60, where they crash Alicia’s art opening:

Marvel Two-in-One 60 (1980), art by George Perez and Gene Day

They don’t appear again for almost 40 years, when they show up in Fantastic Four: 4 Yancy Street

4 Yancy Street (2019) Art by Mark Bagley (I think)

Reed Richards is a jerk

He is extra-unpleasant in this issue

He kinda, sorta apologizes after Johnny rescues him after Doom’s freezes him solid.

They’re fighting again

Are they ever

The sexist sixties

Weird science

The ionic dust/ solar wave business is completely perplexing. I have no idea what Stan and Jack were doing here

The incredible Mr. Fantastic

Some cool stretching action.

You call that a trap?

After several issues where Doom builds individual cells to counter the FF’s powers, here he just chains them to a wall (and puts Reed in a box, which Ben smashes. Not even Doom can bother to try very hard in this issue.

He’s a bad man

Doom flexes his bad-guy muscles in disposing of his henchmen

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Jack does get to draw some outer space stuff, so that’s a plus.

For sale

A mint issue (9.8) of FF 23 will run you about $21,000. At least that’s what it says here.

Next issue: The FF confront the Infant Terrible!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 22

13 Sunday Jun 2021

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1963, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 22, jack Kirby, Mole Man, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 22
“The Return of the Mole Man”
Published: October 1963
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Pencils: Kirby
Script: Lee
Inks: George Roussos
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Dick Ayers

Synopsis

As Mr. Fantastic experiments on the Invisible Girl, she reveals two new powers: the ability to summon force fields, and to make other objects invisible. Meanwhile, the FF are besieged by complaints from neighbors about the noise and disruption they cause, so the team flies to investigate an island off the coast of New Jersey where Reed can conduct experiments and launch the team’s ICBM.

Once on the island, the team is trapped by the Mole Man, who lured them by instigating the complaints. To get his revenge on the FF from their first meeting in issue 1, he announces a plan to sink the earth’s major cities, provoking a nuclear war. The team is surrounded by a radioactive wall, but they surmount it with Sue’s new force field. The team is then trapped individually in cells designed to counter their powers (much like with Dr. Doom) but through ingenuity they each escape. Reed then hustles them off the island, and when the Mole Man initiates his plan to skink the cities, it’s revealed that Reed rewired the circuits, so only his island sinks.

What’s going on here

The story is a pretty conventional one: Hijinks in the Baxter Building, confronting a foe who traps them, then a frenzied finish. The issue, however, is notable for a few reasons: A big one is Sue’s new powers. Eventually, it appears, Stan and Jack realized the story-telling limitations of invisibility—there was only so many times Sue could use it to sneak up on a bad guy—so they added a few new wrinkles.

Initially Sue’s force fields were entirely a defensive power and it wasn’t until decades later that she began to wield them offensively, and use them to travel. They’ve effectively become a powerful form of telekineses, leading many to consider her the most powerful member of the FF.

While John Byrne traditionally receives credit for her transformation from weakest to strongest—which culminates with the symbolic adoption of the name Invisible Woman in issue 284—“The Great American Novel” blog makes a compelling case that lots of earlier writers had Sue deploy her force fields in creative, non-defensive ways. That said, I believe it’s fair to note the Byrne made it a project to expand Sue’s arsenal and was deliberate about powering her up.

He was, for instance, the first to have her “fly” on her force fields, an idea which may have come from reader (and author) Carol Strickland:

And Byrne has her consistently use her power as a battering ram, something rarely depicted before:

FF 22 also debuts Sue’s power to make other things invisible

While not as potent as her force fields, it has come in handy over the years, and maybe is best used here, when she shows the Wizard what his heart looks like:

FF 549 (2007), Written by Dwayne McDuffie, art by Paul Pelletier and Rick Magyar

It’s Clobberin’ Time!

The other big debut in FF 22 was the Thing’s signature phrase (“Yay Bo!” didnt seem to catch on in the same way). “It’s clobberin’ time” quickly becomes as much part of Ben’s identity as his orange rocky appearance. It would be absurd to try to find every use of it, since he says it in virtually every issue, but here are some memorable covers:

Not only does it to become closely associated with Ben, but it becomes one the handful of comic book phrases that have escaped the genre and become part of pop culture. (“It’s a bird, it’s a plane…” “Up, up and away!” and “Hulk Smash!” are maybe the others). There’s no shortage of clobberin’ time merchandise available:

And it’s apparently been adopted / stolen by pro wrestler CM Punk:

Aunt Petunia

Lastly, FF 22 marks the first reference to Ben’s Aunt Petunia, another recurring catch phrase.

For more than 200 issues readers heard about, but never met, Ben’s Aunt Petunia, and it was assumed she was a prim older lady, not unlike Peter Parker’s Aunt May. So Byrne naturally subverted expectations by make her a young-ish country doctor.

What year is it?

Topical references abound in FF 22, with children’s comedian Pinky Lee and folk artist Grandma Moses among those getting name-dropped.

Oops

Looks like Stan is covering for Jack here to explain how this stranger wandered past the FF’s vaunted security system

Red menace

The Cold War is again evoked

This is the end?

Even by Stan and Jack’s standards, the ending of FF 22 feels awfully abrupt. The story could have used another page at a minimum instead of cramming all that exposition into the last panel.

They’re fighting again

Aren’t they always?

Dig that Kirby Krackle

This is just a great splash page that captures the personalities of all the members, plus shows off some cool gee-whiz science stuff. George Roussos returned to ink this issue, giving it a different look than most of what came before.

Here’s some other fun stuff from The King (note Reed’s face, and that he’s talking to Mrs. Frobush, a possible precursor to Marvel mascot Irving Forbush):

For Sale

FF 22 in mint condition (9.8) should cost you around $18,000

Next issue: The return of Dr. Doom!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 21

06 Sunday Jun 2021

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1963, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 21, Hate Monger, jack Kirby, Nick Fury, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 21
“The Hate Monger
Published: Sept. 1963
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: George Roussos (credited as George Bell)
Letters: Art Simek
Cover: Kirby and Paul Reinman

Synopsis

The Thing startles the rest of the Fantastic Four by lashing out at a punching bag; the cause of his frustration is newspaper articles about the Hate-Monger, a rabble rouser peaching hatred. Taking a walk, the team quickly stumbles across a Hate-Monger rally on a New York Street. When they confront him, he turns his “H-Ray” against them, causing them to fight amongst each other.

Mr. Fantastic, under the Hate-Monger’s influence, declares himself free of the rest of the FF, and, on returning to the Baxter Building, is greeted by Nick Fury, a former colleague from WWII and now a spy and CIA agent. Fury has come to recruit the FF to confront the Hate-Monger in the South American country of San Gusto, a US client state where he is whipping up a rebellion. Reed decides to go himself, and leaves in the FF’s Pogo Plane. The rest of the team, still under the effects of the H-Ray, are goaded by Fury into pursuing him in their ICBM.

Once in San Gusto, Reed takes on the rebel army before he is captured by the Hate-Monger. He is rescued by Fury, who forces the Hate Monger to administer the antidote. The two then capture the rest of the team and restore them to normal, before confronting the Hate Monger. After his H-Ray is turned on his henchmen, the Hate-Monger is unmasked and revealed to be Adolf Hitler (or a clone there of).

What’s going on here?

Fantastic Four 21 marks the first issue where Stan and Jack get anywhere near contemporary social issues. Wearing what looks like a purple Klan hood, surrounded by henchmen dressed like Nazi brown shirts, the Hate-Monger is as close to a real-world villain as exists in early 1960s Marvel. His presence also gives the FF an opportunity to call out the evils of prejudice and “unamerican sentiments” (with a gratuitous swipe at Sue).

The story, unfortunately, doesn’t got much farther in exploring the issues of hatred and bigotry. There is an opportunity there for Stan and Jack to examine why the Hate-Monger’s message is able to find purchase in the American psyche, but instead the story rumbles on in classic FF fashion. The Hate-Monger becomes just another FF villain, with a secret headquarters and zany gadgets. The twist at the end, that he is actually Adolf Hitler, is essentially shrugged off. Future stories reveal him to have been a clone created by Arnim Zola, and he pops up over the decades, but never as a major FF villain.

The story is also notable for the first appearance of Nick Fury as a modern spy. Fury, who debuted in his own World War II comic a few months earlier, is brought up to the present here as a CIA agent and soon goes on to star in his own stories as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Strange Tales (and later his own book). Notably, he still has two eyes, since he doesn’t begin to wear his eye patch until Strange Tales 135.

He becomes a central figure in the Marvel universe (and Marvel cinematic universe) often serving as a mastermind moving chess pieces, but in this early appearance in the FF, Fury is still more of the WWII brawler. On the cover, he’s dressed as Sgt. Fury, complete with torn Army fatigues.

The issue also establishes a shared history between Nick and Reed in World War II, with an editor’s note plugging Sgt. Fury 3, conveniently on sale, and an early example of marvel using guest stars to promote new books. Here’s their encounter at Massacre Mountain:

Sgt. Fury 3, 1963 (art by Kirby and Dick Ayers)

Fury’s appearance also launches a long tradition of him showing up early in Marvel comics books to set the story in motion. It’s an exceptionally convenient way to drop heroes into stories without a lot of build up: Fury just sends them on a mission and off they go. Often, he summons the heroes to the SHIELD helicarrier, where they confer around a big table that lights up, like here with the Avengers:

Avengers 199, 1980 (art by George Perez and Dan Green)

Or here with the FF:

Sometimes he just appears on a monitor, like here with the X-Men :

(X-Men 1, 1991, art by Jim Lee and Scott Williams)

And to prove the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Nick Fury Jr. is up to the same plot-speeding-up tricks decades later:

(Invisible Woman 1, 2019, art by Mattia De Iulis

About those inks

FF 21 was inked by George Roussos, who is credited in the comic as George Bell. Roussos had a remarkably long career at Marvel, with credits stretching from 1941 to 1995, spending his last three decades as a colorist. His style is very distinctive here, and Kirby’s FF take on a very different appearance, looking more like they did in their first issues.

They’re fighting again

This time, at least, it’s with good reason.

Going underground

Instead of flying to San Gusto, the Hate-Monger burrows his way there, using a device that Stan assures us in an editor’s note is *very* plausible.

Speaking of San Gusto

This is the first and only appearance of San Gusto (future Marvel writers tend to use the imaginary country of San Marcos when they need a banana republic) but it does show up in the Marvel Atlas between Colombia and Venezuela.