“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 58

23 Saturday Apr 2022

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1966, Dr. Doom, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 58, jack Kirby, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 58
“The Dismal Dregs of Defeat!”
Published: Oct. 1966
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Artie Simek
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

Synopsis

For the second time in two issues, FF 58 opens in medias res, with an apparition of Dr. Doom appearing above the Baxter Building during a lightening storm. Mr. Fantastic dismisses is as a freak occurrence but the Things knows better, and has a premonition of something terrible happening. As soon as Reed and Sue depart for a weekend in the Hamptons, Ben is attacked by Dr. Doom, who has stolen the power of the Silver Surfer (as seen last issue). They battle, but Doom gets the better of Ben and leaves him frozen, statue-like, in Central Park.

Doom then attacks Reed and Sue in their Hampton’s cottage. They are soon joined by the Human Torch, who was teleported back to New York with Wyatt Wingfoot by Lockjaw. The Torch left Wyatt to rescue Ben while he takes on Doom. Soon Wyatt and Ben arrive as Johnny battles Doom but he too is beaten. As Doom gloats, Reed admits defeat, and Doom leaves them to suffer the humiliation of his victory.

What’s going on here?

This is an excellent comic, one of the best of the Lee/Kirby run to date (it’s also one I own, so we have letters and ads to check out!). It’s got a few things going for it: First, it’s the product of several issues of build-up, so we’ve been primed for something big. Second, as discussed in my last post, Doom stealing the Surfer’s powers really ratchets up the stakes, both in terms of Doom’s ruthlessness but also making him an even more formidable opponent. Third, the story is effectively paced, from the low-key opening and Ben’s ghost-story jitters, to the final, pitched fight in the Hamptons. Lastly, the FF is rarely beaten (more on that later), and Reed’s surrender signals a low point for the team. In all, it’s just a satisfying story that delivers a powerful punch.

The cover does a great job of summarizing the book’s mood, with the FF humbled and Doom triumphant. Structurally, it reminds me of images of Adam and Even being cast out of the Garden of Eden. I don’t know if that was Jack’s inspiration but it has a similarly mournful quality.

Byrne Baby Byrne

It wouldn’t be a Stan and Jack FF issue if it wasn’t referenced by John Byrne at some point. In this case, issue 268 from 1984.

Weird science

After Doom slows Ben’s metabolism to barely moving, he is freed by a “portable metabolism accelerator,” which Reed of course has just lying around. Doesn’t everybody?

Say what?

I knew Johnny’s super-nova blast was powerful but killing several billion people seems like a bit much.

It’s Clobberin’ Time

That’s two issues in a row now.

Say what? (part 2)

Doom says the FF have never been vanquished but he clearly missed Fantastic Four 38, when they got their asses kicked pretty thoroughly by the Frightful Four.

Oops

Speaking of goofs, here’s an odd panel where the Torch is entirely off-screen, as Stan apparently is trying to explain what happened to him in the previous panel.

We get letters

The issue features one from cultural critic and Vanity Fair writer James Wolcott. How do I know it’s the same James Wolcott? He writes about it here.

For sale

These binoculars can help you see up to 18 miles. It says so right here.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

No splash pages this month but plenty of cool stuff, like this sequence

And this panel

And this one

Also on the newsstand this month

Next issue: More Doom, plus the Inhumans!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 57

17 Sunday Apr 2022

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1966, Dr. Doom, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 57, jack Kirby, Sandman, Silver Surfer, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 57
“Enter Dr. Doom!”
Published: Sept. 1966
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Art Simek
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

Synopsis

The main story begins in the middle of the action (in medias res, if you want to be fancy), with the Fantastic Four (minus the Human Torch) fighting the Sandman and Wizard in a prison, as the Thing explains the team were summoned to the prison under a ruse. The Wizard is easily subdued but Sandman escapes. He eventually resurfaces at the Baxter Building, where Reed and Sue fight him (the Thing is off looking for him at this point) and eventually chase him away.

That plot line alternates with another, in which Dr. Doom lured the Silver Surfer to his castle in Latveria. After asking the Surfer to demonstrate his powers, Doom traps him in a devices that siphons his cosmic power to Doom.

Lastly, two other sub-plots are advanced: Johnny and Wyatt continue to teleport around the universe with Lockjaw—this time landing on a planet filled with monstrous creatures before escaping—and in the Inhuman’s city of Attilan, Black Bolt shows signs of life while Maximus the Mad reveals that he could speak the entire time (the powers of his voice has yet to be revealed).

What’s going on here?

Fantastic Four 57 is very much a transitional issue, as Stan and Jack continue to move their chess pieces around in advance of some bigger events. The only traditional story in this issue—one with a beginning, middle and end—concerns the fight with Sandman, and despite some nifty Kirby art, it feels like filler (and it can’t really be said to have a beginning, since it opens in the middle of the action). After seeing the FF fight Galactus, it’s hard to get too worked up about the Sandman.

The centerpiece is of FF 57 is the interaction between Doom and the Surfer. Doom is at his most duplicitous, lulling the Surfer into believing he is a benevolent monarch, then cruelly clamping him in a device that steals his power. It could be argued that this scene is where Doom really makes the leap from a generic bad guy into a truly fearsome villain. Certainly, nothing up to this point suggests he was capable of a plot as ambitious or nefarious as this.

It’s also an opportunity for Jack (and Joe Sinnott) to go absolutely nuts with the Kirby Krackle:

Years later John Byrne recreated this sequence in a flashback in 1983’s FF 258 when Doom once again tried to harness the power of a herald of Galactus, but in that case it was Terrax, not the Silver Surfer.

The sexist sixties

There’s some strange stuff going on with Sue in this issue. Early on, as the FF are recapturing the Wizard, she gives a very grim assessment of the FF’s status quo.

We then get a fairly typical sequence of Reed barking orders and Sue following them faithfully:

Followed by some more worrying and fretting. Every time Stan and Jack’s characterization of Sue seems to have turned a corner, she reverts back to the wingeing, cringing dish towel. Blech.

The incredible Mr. Fantastic

A fun sequence:

It’s Clobberin’ Time

It’s been a few issues since we got one of these.

Let’s talk about us

Ben is watching “The Marvel Super Heroes Show,” a short-lived animated series that ran in syndication in 1966. The stories were taken directly from comics, and the animators used the original art by Kirby, Steve Ditko and Don Heck. You can check it out here.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Lots of cool stuff in this issue, starting with this sandy sequence:

And this (there’s a bit of an oops in this panel, with Stan using the guard to explain what Reed’s doing):

And this amazing splash page:

Also on the newsstand this month

(courtesy of Mike’s Amazing World):

Next issue: The FF vs. Doom!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four Annual No. 4

10 Sunday Apr 2022

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1966, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four Annual 4, jack Kirby, Jim Hammond, Joe Sinnott, mad Thinker, Quasimodo, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four Annual 4
“The Torch That Was!”
Published: August 1966
Story: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

(Note: Fantastic Four Annual 4 came out a week before FF 56, but follows it chronologically, which is why I’m writing about after issue 56. The annual also included reprints of FF 25 and 26).

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four’s fourth annual opens like many issues, with the FF hanging around the Baxter Building reading fan mail. The Human Torch and Wyatt Wingfoot suddenly appear, teleported by Lockjaw from the Himalayas, where they had sought to rescue Crystal and the Inhumans. Johnny, despondent that his efforts to find Crystal failed, flies to the desert to experiment with his powers.

Meanwhile the Mad Thinker, last seen in issue 28, has a new scheme: reviving the original Human Torch, the android knows as Jim Hammond. Threatening him with destruction via Quasimodo, a sentient computer, the Thinker sends the original Torch to battle the Johnny Storm. The two fight to a standstill when the rest of the FF arrive, teleported by Lockjaw. Lockjaw then teleports them all to the Thinker’s lair, where the original Torch turns on the Thinker and is rendered inert by Quasimodo. The Thinker escapes and Lockjaw teleports Johnny and Wyatt back to find the Inhumans.

What’s going on here?

The story in FF Annual 4 isn’t particularly momentous—it’s not a wedding or birth issue, like many annuals—but it does feature the return of a Marvel golden age character. Similar to Stan and Jack’s revival of the Sub-Mariner, way back in FF 4, they retroactively insert Jim Hammond into the Marvel universe, tying the golden age to the present.

While Jim Hammond never plays as prominent a role as Namor, he occupies an interesting place in Marvel continuity.

He first appeared in Marvel Comics 1, in 1939, as one of the earliest super heroes. Stan and Jack recap his origin in the annual, and are fairly faithful to Carl Burgos’s original version. Here Burgos describes his invention by Prof. Phineas Horton:

Here it is as told by Stan and Jack:

As drawn by Kirby, Jim Hammond looks like a Greek god (and I guess why not, since he’s a robot, he can look like anything).

The Human Torch fought crime and Nazis in the 1940s and essentially disappears after the golden age. He was later ret-conned into the Invaders, a WWII era super hero team, along with his sidekick, Toro.

*Invaders 1 (1975, by Thomas,Robbins and Colletta).*

After his appearance and apparent destruction in FF Annual 4, it was generally established that the Human Torch’s body was used by the robot Ultron and transformed into the Vision.

*Avengers 135 (1975, by Englehart, Tuska and Chiarmonte)*

That chronology got muddled when John Byrne revived the Human Torch in West Coast Avengers 50, suggesting that he never became the Vision, but that the Vision was assembled from Horton’s spare parts.

*West Coast Avengers 50 (1989 Byrne/Machlan)*

It’s all cleared up (sort of) in Avengers Forever, a limited series that tried to untangle some continuity, albeit in a very confusing way. As described by Kurt Busiek, Immortus, the tame-manipulating villain, split the Human Torch into two timelines, one of which became the Vision, the other of which remained the Human Torch. Hopefully that clears everything up.

Avengers Forever 8 (1998, Busiek, Pacheco and Merino)

The Jim Hammond Torch has resurfaced over the years, but never as a major character.

Quasimodo

Avengers Annual 4 also marks the first appearance of Quasimodo, a third-tier villain who shares only a name with the Victor Hugo character. Apparently the name is derived from “Quasi-Motivational Destruct Organ,” whatever that means. He, too, reappears on occasion, but never as a major villain.

Everybody plays the fool

I get the story-telling purpose of Ben not knowing there was another Human Torch, but it’s a little hard to swallow. Ben did serve in World War II as well.

Frequent Flier

In between panels Johnny flies from the Baxter Building in midtown to … the desert? is that in New Jersey?

Crazy Credits

Weird Science

Of course, everyone knows the one infallible way to destroy a flaming android.

Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Sinnott!

Check out the inks on this page:

Dig that Kirby Krackle

This one is hot!

Also on the newsstand this month

(This is a new feature I am experimenting with. Thanks to Mike’s Amazing World for the info.

Next issue: Dr. Doom and the Silver Surfer!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 56

03 Sunday Apr 2022

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1966, Black Panther, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 56, jack Kirby, Klaw, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 56
“Klaw, the Murderous Master of Sound!”
Published: Nov. 1966
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script:Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Artie Simek
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

Synopsis

Like last issue, Fantastic Four 56 is split between the Human Torch and Wyatt Wingfoot’s quest to rescue the Inhumans, and the rest of the team in New York. In the second story, which makes up the bulk of the issue, Mr. Fantastic and the Thing are working a lab when Klaw, the villain from issue 53, reappears, now transformed into a creature of solid sound. After trapping Reed and Ben in the lab, he battles Sue, then Ben after he escapes the lab. Utilizing vibranium devices delivered from the Black Panther in Wakanda, Reed is able to absorb Klaw’s soil energy, rendering him unconscious.

In the other story line, Johnny and Wyatt try to coax Loackjaw into teleporting them back to Atillan and the Inhumans. In another arc, we check in with the Inhumans, last seen in issue 54, and learn that Black Bolt did not activate the absorb-bomb as intended because it would have destroyed the Inhumans. Medusa continues to despair. Issue 56 closes with a few panels of Dr. Doom spying on the Silver Surfer, teasing issue 57.

What’s going on here?

After a year of multiple-issue story arcs, FF 56 feels like a bit of a throwback to earlier, one-and-done issues. The story opens in the Baxter Building, with Reed and Ben kibitzing in a lab and Sue fretting about Reed’s inattentiveness. The fight with Klaw ends with the sort of deus-ex-machina reminiscent of earlier issues, too, with Reed cooking up some stratagem or device to defeat the bad guy. In this case, he calls on the Black Panther in Wakanda, signaling that he will be an ongoing part of the FF and Marvel universe into the future. In all, it’s a pretty satisfying story, and the Johnny/Wyatt/Medusa panels keeps that subplot moving as well.

FF 56 also reintroduces Klaw as a super villain in the form we are more familiar with. It’s a great Kirby character design, and could easily have been one of the New Gods Kirby created five years later. One question is whether Stan and Jack had this transformation, and his sonic cannon in mind, when they named him Klaw in issue 53, or if his name inspired the character design. If anyone has the answer, I’d love to know.

The sexist sixties

Sue is worried about her roast, and wonders why they can’t live like other people.

Sue does rise to the occasion later in the issue, taking on Klaw by herself.

Oops

Does Klaw have two hands here, instead of a sonic cannon where his right hand should be?

Medusa is back

She gets a melodramatic star turn in this subplot, a reminder of her status among the Inhumans, and that Stan and Jack created her long before the others.

Weird Science

Reed and Ben appeared armed with with a movie camera and reel-to-reel tape recorder.

Comanche Blood

Up to now Stan and Jack have done a pretty good job of steering clear of Native American stereotypes in their treatment of Wyatt Wingfoot. Not so much here.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Just an amazing page here. I am pretty sure that creature makes a subsequent appearance, probably in a John Byrne FF, but I can’t place it. Anyone out there know if it reappears?