Monthly Archives: August 2021

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 30

28 Saturday Aug 2021

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Fantastic Four 30
“The Dreaded Diablo”
Published: June 1964
Story: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Chic Stone
Letters: Art Simek
Cover: Kirby & Stone

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four, lost while vacationing in Transylvania (don’t ask), stumble upon the castle of a centuries-old alchemist, Diablo. Before they enter, a local Baron warns them away, and invites the team to stay with him. In the middle of the night, the Thing is entranced, and frees Diablo from his crypt. The next day, the rest of the team discover Ben has been transformed by Diablo to something closer to his human form, and he has pledged his service to Diablo for a year. After a scuffle, the rest of the team leaves to plot its next move.

Soon, news of Diablo’s powers have reached the outside world, and he performs amazing feats, such as making barren deserts fertile. Meanwhile, Reed analyzes the formula Diablo used to transform Ben and realizes he’s a fraud. Ben, too, has a change of heart once he has reverted back to his old rocky self, but Diablo subdues him.

The FF launches an attack on Diablo’s castle, and after a battle with Diablo and his henchmen, discover Ben trapped in a glass-like cylinder. Unable to free him, the team is then captured by Diablo and also sealed in cylinders. Ben, however, finally escapes and defeats Diablo, chasing him back into his crypt. As Ben brings the castle down, the vibrations shatter the glass holding the rest of the team, and the four escape back into the Transylvania wilderness.

What’s going on here?

Fantastic Four 30 is pretty much wall-to-wall action. Like last month’s issue, it opens in media res, with the team already lost in Transylvania, and the entire issue takes place there. There’s no Baxter Building, no Alicia, and none of the normal set pieces. To the extent there’s any character building, we see Sue become more accomplished at using her powers in combat, and Ben, although tempted by the offer to return to normal, quickly comes to his senses and regrets his disloyalty.

FF 30 also marks the debut of Diablo, a second or third-tied FF villain whose appearances are always fun. By making Diablo an alchemist, Jack and Stan are reaching back into the bag of quasi-historical tricks that sustained so many horror and mystery stories. Stuff like alchemy, fabled lost cities, mythic creatures, ancient heroes etc. consistently pop up over the years in the FF and elsewhere as creators hunt for stories. Diablo wasn’t the first villain to practice alchemy (here’s a list) but he’s one of the more prominent.

Interestingly, Diablo was the first villain John Byrne used in his landmark FF run of the 1980s, in FF 232, as a not-too-subtle signal that he was embracing the FF’s Lee/Kirby past (and if Diablo didn’t convince you Byrne was looking backward, the issue’s title should have).


Also interesting is the version of the Thing Ben is transformed into by Diablo: essentially human in appearance, but with orange, rocky skin. Of the many various forms Ben has taken over the years, I’m only aware of seeing that specific one once, in The Thing 8, when Ben is transformed into the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian warrior.

Thing 8 (1983) art by Ron Wilson and Hilary Barta

Krazy Kredits

They’re fighting again

At least this time there’s a reason for it.

Read all about it

Print definitely isn’t dead in 1964.

Great lines in villainy

Bah!

The incredible Mr. Fantastic

I like the way Reed sort of oozes out of the hole in the ceiling.

Weird science

This is bizarre sequence. Ben grabs a suit of armor Diablo says weighs more than a ton (who can wear armor that weighs more than a ton?) Then, after smushing into a sphere, Ben manages to bounce it like it’s a tennis ball.

The sexist sixties

After telling Sue to shut up so she doesn’t distract the Torch, Reed yammers on while mansplaining.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

This is pretty awesome:

And so is this sequence:

And this one:

For sale

A mint (9.8) condition FF 30 is worth $23,000. A copy in fine (6.0) condition is a more reasonable $170.

Next issue: Time for FF Annual No. 2 and return of Dr. Doom!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 29

24 Tuesday Aug 2021

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Fantastic Four 29
“It Started on Yancy Street”
Published: May 1964
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Chic Stone
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Stone

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four, visiting Yancy Street to investigate a rise in crime, are assaulted by the hidden Yancy Street Gang. The team escapes, pursued by a drone. Once back at the Baxter Building, Ben and Alicia come close to breaking up before reuniting. The team then turns to its fan mail, when Ben opens a package from the Yancy Street Gang, which explodes after he opens it. The package contains a note daring the team to return to Yancy Street.

But back on Yancy Street, the team is attacked not by the gang but by three apes with super powers, who are eventually revealed to the Red Ghosts’s super apes. The Red Ghost, last seen in FF 13, who vowed revenge, used a ruse to lure the FF to Yancy Street. After a battle, the apes take the Human Torch hostage—for once, it’s not the Invisible Girl—and the Red Ghost orders the FF onto a spaceship and they return to the moon.

He jettisons the team on the moon (surely there was a simpler way of killing them) but the Invisible Girl creates a force filed around the team containing enough air to save them until they reached the Blue Area and the home of the Watcher. Mr. Fantastic uses the Watcher’s technology to draw the Red Ghost’s ship back to the moon, where the team defeats him but his apes escape. The FF are then returned to Yancy Street by the Watcher.

What’s going on here

Fantastic Four 29 is a fun combination of old and new elements. There’s a lot that’s familiar: the Yancy Street schtick, the drama between Ben and Alicia, the hanging around the Baxter Building, the opening of fan mail. But there’s some new stuff as well. The issue opens in media res (fancy-talk for in the middle of things) rather than the slow build up to the action that’s customary. There’s the continued expansion of Sue’s powers, which prove indispensable in this issue. And there’s this amazing photo collage by Jack, the first (but certainly not last) that he will deploy in the Fantastic Four:

I was unable to find the source of the photo used by Kirby. It’s likely it was taken in 1959 by Luna 3, a Soviet satellite, since the first images of the moon from a US spacecraft didn’t appear until July of 1964, several months after the issue appeared.


It’s what’s inside that counts

FF 29 is one of the earliest issues I actually own, and so I was able to read it as Stan and Jack intended. That means I got to see awesome ads like this:

and letters like this:


Krazy Kredits

These are becoming a fixture.


Mid-century modern

The FF haven’t lost their decorating touch.

Those crazy kids

Ben and Alicia pour on the melodrama.

Oops

Looks like Stan is writing away a goof by Jack here

Weird science

The Watcher has some cool gizmos

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Some great stuff in this issue.

For sale

A mint (9.8) copy of FF 29 should sell for $46,000. A 9.6 copy sold for $11,000 in 2018.

Next issue: Diablo!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 28

07 Saturday Aug 2021

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Fantastic Four 28
“We Have to Fight the X-Men!”
Published April 1964
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Chic Stone
Letters: Art Simek

Synopsis

At the Baxter Building, the Fantastic Four discuss the exploits of the X-Men, whom they read about in the newspaper. Meanwhile, the Mad Thinker summons the Puppet Master, and enlists him in a plan to defeat the Fantastic Four. Following the Thinker’s instructions, the Puppet Master creates a replica of the X-men’s leader, Professor X with his “radioactive clay,” then uses it to control Prof. X, who orders the X-men to attack the FF.

The X-Men fly to the Baxter Building in their “jetcopter,” and are welcomed by the unsuspecting FF. They then launch an attack and the teams battle until Mr. Fantastic, unable to understand the X-Men’s motives, orders the FF to surrender. The X-Men take the Invisible Woman as a hostage (of course they do), and the FF pursue the X-Men to a desert mesa, where the Mad Thinker and Puppet Master reveal themselves.

Still under the sway of the Puppet Master, Prof. X orders the X-men to battle the FF until the Puppet Master’s clay figurine of Prof. X is destroyed. The two teams then join forces to fight the Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android until Prof. X, still in Westchester, uses his telepathic powers to shut down the android. The villains escape before they can be captured, and the two teams of heroes part as allies.

What’s going on here?

A fun issue! Yes, the fight between the X-Men and FF is contrived, and yes, it is clearly designed to promote Marvel’s new X-Men title—FF 28 is published between issues 4 and 5 of the X-Men—but it still delivers. The action is dynamic, the story moves along, and Kirby particularly is on his game. It might help that Chic Stone inked this issue, after a run by George Roussos, giving Kirby’s pencils a crisper look than what we’ve seen in the last few issues.

The big development is the appearance of the X-Men, marking the first of many meetings between the teams. The X-Men, of course, go on to become a global phenomenon, but in these early days, they were very much a work in progress (Cyclops fires “power beams” and not optic blasts, for instance, and Prof. X’s powers work on an android). However, as Austin Gorton notes, in his always X-cellent blog, X-amining the X-Men, the X-Men more than hold their own against the FF and it’s Prof. X, not Reed, who saves the day.

Tracking down all the joint appearances between the teams would be exhausting, but here the covers from some notable ones:

The teams interacted in less splashy ways over the years too. One of my favorites came in Uncanny X-Men 522, when the X-Men have relocated to San Francisco and are in one of their periodic us-against-the-world phases. Magneto is using his powers to pull an enormous, bullet-shaped rocket carrying Kitty Pryde from deep space, and Cyclops doesn’t want anyone on earth to know about it. Reed isn’t having it:

Read all about it

Once again, the FF use the strange and awesome technology of the newspaper to keep up with events. They are also surprisingly up to date on the activities of the X-Men.

Kooky Kredits

Stan is at it again

The sexist sixties

Would it be an issue of the FF if Sue wasn’t taken hostage?

Oops

Cyclops references the Mad Thinkers plan here, although at this point, he is unaware of the Thinker and Puppet Master’s control over Prof. X and thinks he’s merely following the professor’s inscrutable orders.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

There’s a ton of great Kirby art in this issue, but here are a few highlights:

For sale

A mint (9.8) issue of FF 28 will set you back around $22,000.

Next issue: The Red Ghost returns!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 27

01 Sunday Aug 2021

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Fantastic Four 27
“The Search for the Sub-Mariner”
Published: March 1964
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: George Roussos
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Chic Stone

Synopsis

At the Baxter Building, Reed experiments with a new thought projector, then tells Ben and Johnny of his intentions to propose to Sue. Meanwhile, under the ocean, the Sub-Mariner stews in loneliness, then declares his plan to wed Sue.

While Reed is out shopping for a ring, Namor uses new technology to subdue Ben and Johnny and abduct Sue. When Reed returns, he is overcome with rage and insists Ben and Johnny remain behind as he pursues Namor. Unsure of how to find Namor beneath the ocean, Johnny contacts Dr. Strange, who uses his mystic powers to locate Namor’s citadel, where he watches Reed fight Namor.

Dr. Strange then uses his to magic to transport Ben and Johnny to the fight, where Johnny frees Sue. After a battle with Namor and his henchmen, Sue ends it by telling Namor she loves Reed. Before Namor can react, Dr. Strange whisks the Fantastic Four away to Reed’s submarine, where Reed worries that Sue only pledged her love to save him from Namor.

What’s going on here?

FF 27 falls in the middle of a busy run of Marvel cross-promotion. Starting with a guest appearance by Ant-Man in FF 16, then with Nick Fury in FF 21, the Hulk and Avengers in FF 25-26, and with Dr. Strange in this issue, it’s clear Stan is leveraging the popularity of the Fantastic Four to introduce readers to other Marvel heroes. (The X-Men will also appear soon). But while those other appearances tended to have some internal logic to them, Dr. Strange doesn’t add much to this story. It’s not obvious why the Torch contacted him to find Namor, given the FF had just battled him in Atlantis in the first FF annual. He mostly serves as a teleportation device, moving the FF from place to place. He does, however, manage to unleash a full arsenal of Dr. Strange-y oaths, invoking the Vishanti, Hoggoth and Dorammu, as he does.

The more significant development is the further evolution of the relationship between Reed and Sue, which has sort of lurched along for the first few years of the FF. Now, finally, we’re on the verge of progress: a proposal! Reed is uncharacteristically exuberant about the idea and (understandably) distraught when she is adducted.

Stan and Jack really lean into the melodrama of the Reed-Sue-Namor love triangle in this issue, even though it feels like all of this was settled in the annual. As a result, none of it feels pareticularly suspenseful.

The denouement, however, does create a bit of uneasy tension, as Reed is agony about Sue’s true feelings.

The issue is really devoted to Reed, and features several pages of him in combat with Namor. Here’s a cool one”

Secret agent man


Namor, who previously appeared as a movie mogul to entangle the FF, is now dressed like a James Bond villain.

The sexist sixties

Sue is imprisoned for about the 12th time in the FF’s first 27 issues.

Weird science

Namor has all sorts of technology. Where does it come from? No idea.

Then there’s Reed’s underwater breathing pills.

The incredible Mr. Fantastic

Lots of creative stretching in this issue.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

This splash page is amazing

For sale

A mint condition Fantastic Four 27 (9.8) will cost about $21,000.

Next issue: The X-Men!