“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 47

Tags

1965, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 47, Inhumans, jack Kirby, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 47
“Beware the Hidden Land!”
Published Nov. 1965
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Artie Simek
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

Synopsis

Fantastic Four 47 picks up where FF 46 left off (once very unusual, the cliff-hanger ending is becoming the rule in the Fantastic Four). Dragon Man has escaped the Seeker and is on a rampage but before the team can pursue him, they need to attend to Triton, the fish-like Inhuman who is dying without water. Mr. Fantastic orders the Thing and the Human Torch to pursue Dragon Man, then instructs the Invisible Girl to enclose Triton in a forcefield, which he fills with water. Ben and Johnny eventually subdue Dragon Man, but not before the creature almost destroys the studio of Alicia Masters, Ben’s girlfriend.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Inhumans teleport back to the Andes and their hidden city of Attilan (called only “the Great Refuge” here) where it is revealed that Maximus, Black Bolt’s brother, has usurped the throne and dispatched the Seeker to capture the Inhuman royal family. After Maximus orders the ape-like Alpha Primatives to attack the royal family, Black Bolt eventually wrests the crown back from Maximus.

The Fantastic Four arrive, having tracked the Seeker, and confront Black Bolt, who demands the team leave. As the groups debate, the issue ends with Maximus preparing to fire his “Atmo-Gun” which promises to destroy mankind, leaving the earth to the Inhumans.

What’s going on here?

Fantastic Four 47 is a frustrating issue. It features some of the most outstanding Kirby art to date (the influence of Joe Sinnott is really apparent), a story jammed with plot and sub-plots, but also some of the most egregiously sexist characterizations in the comic so far. The depiction of Sue is almost unreadable, and Reed’s treatment of her is equally painful.

Let’s start with Reed barking orders at a flummoxed Sue, who seems incapable of understanding her own powers:

Then, as Sue suggests the Inhumans can tend to their own affairs, Reed shuts her down.

Later, as the Fantastic Four flies to Attilan, Sue attends to … her hair.

Which leads to this excruciating sequence:

And finally, once again Reed needs to tell Sue how to use her powers:

And if there was any worry that it was just Sue who was written like this, here’s Alicia—allegedly an accomplished sculptor with a life of her own—pining away for Ben:

It’s hard to understand where the treatment of Sue is coming from, other than it being just a particularly sexist product of its era. Frustratingly, in the previous dozen or so issues, Stan and Jack had written her having more agency and mastery over her powers, but it all seems to revert back to idiotic stereotypes in FF 47.

Elsewhere …

Fantastic Four 47 further elaborates on the Inhumans and the dynamics within the royal family. We are introduced to Maximus, and he’s revealed to be the real villain. Confusingly, a flunky of his says it was Maximus who ordered Gorgon to capture Medusa in issue 44, when it seemed obvious that he was working on behalf of Black Bolt to reunite her with the royal family.

Also, Maximus refers to an “accident” that left Black Bolt speechless and left unable to rule, an explanation which is eventually retconned away when the power of Black Bolt’s voice becomes the reason for his silence (his voice’s power isn’t revealed until FF 54, and his silence is more fully explained in the Thor backup stories).

Crazy Credits

Subtle but clever.

Star-crossed lovers

Ben and Alicia’s relationship is also given some attention in Fantastic Four 47, as Ben is desperate to save her as Dragon Man threatens to destroy her building. They make their feelings for each other known thusly:

Leading to more anguish from Ben later in the story, as he return to a familiar theme- his lost humanity.

Those crazy kids

Meanwhile, Ben isn’t the only one with relationship issues, as Johnny and Crystal reunite (oddly, her nickname is written here as “Chris” and not “Crys”).

Oops

Why are the FF flying a commercial jet instead of their Fantasticar, their Pogo Plane or their ICBM? Stan supplies an explanation, but I’m guessing Jack just forgot.