“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 61

Tags

1967, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 61, Inhumans, jack Kirby, Sandman, Silver Surfer, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 61
“Where Stalks the Sandman!”
Published: January 1967
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

Synopsis

With the conclusion of the Doom/Surfer story arc in the last issue, Fantastic Four 61 starts off with a bang, as Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman and the Thing are attacked by the equipment (the “atom igniter,” among other devices) in Reed’s lab. Eventually their antagonist is revealed to be the Sandman, who has turned the FF’s devices against them, although it’s never really explain how. The FF and the Sandman battle, and are eventually joined by the Human Torch.

Meanwhile, in a pair of digressions, the Silver Surfer’s board returns to him with his powers, allowing him to escape Latveria, and the Inhuman Crystal teleports with Lockjaw to a Metro College football game in search of Johnny.

During the FF’s fight with the Sandman, the villain generates poisonous gasses. To escape, Reed opens the portal to the Negative Zone, and while Johnny and the Sandman escape, Reed is sucked into the other dimension. The issue end on a cliffhanger with Reed’s fate unknown.

What’s going on here?

This is an interesting issue. It starts off as a fairly pedestrian story, and one that felt a lot like issue 57, when the FF also fought the Sandman in the Baxter Building. But the story takes a surprising and dramatic turn when Reed opens the door to the Negative Zone and tumbles through, leading to a genuinely suspenseful ending and compelling pathos as the rest of the team watches him float away. The issue also has some stand-out pages from Kirby and Sinnott.

There are, of course, a whole lot of implausibilities in this issue, starting with how the Sandman, up until now a lunkhead, managed to hijack Reed’s devices. Then there’s the question why Reed’s devices are so vulnerable—at one point Sandman leans against a lever and threatens New York (this also happens to be an excel Joe Sinnott panel):

FF 61 also continues the almost sadistic torture of the Silver Surfer that began in issue 57. Oddly, while we saw his baord begin its return to him in the last issue, it didn’t arrive until this issue (“at that very moment”). The FF were able to fly across the Atlantic in the time his board crossed Latveria.

Notably, when the board returns, it is without its keel, another datapoint in the keel vs. no-keel debate.

And like every issue for the last five or so, we have an obligatory Inhumans check-in. In this one, Crystal looks unusually curvy.

Who is that guy?

An unannounced (and unacknowledged) cameo from a certain Daily Bugle photographer.

Costume change

This issue also marks a new costume for the Sandman,a much more Kirby-esque getup than the striped shirt Steve Ditko gave him. You can almost sense Jack chafing at having to draw such a drab costume for some many issues up to now.