“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 66

26 Sunday Jun 2022

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1967, Alicia Masters, Enclave, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 66, jack Kirby, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 66
“What Lurks Behind the Beehive?”
Published: June 1967
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Artie Simek
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

Synopsis

Fantastic Four 66 opens with the Thing, Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman in the apartment of Alicia Masters, the girlfriend of the Thing who, unbeknowst to the FF, disappeared with a stranger in the last issue. A paranoid Ben suspects she might be with another man because he is so monstrous, and when Reed tries to console him, Ben lashes out and flees to Central Park, only to be cheered up by adoring fans.

Meanwhile, Alicia has been summoned by a group of scientists in exile (later called the Enclave) whose headquarters resembles a beehive (sort of), giving the issue its title. They ask her to demonstrate her sculpting ability, then explain they been working to perfect humanity and have created a specimen in a “life-cell” tank. Their creation has now reached adulthood, but has escaped his container and now emits blinding light. The scientists want Alicia—who, being blind, is impervious to the light—to capture his image in clay for them.

Back in New York, Reed uses his “heat image tracer” to capture Alicia last movements in her apartment, and its revealed she left with one of the Beehive scientists. The issue ends with Alicia and one of the scientists entering the chamber to confront the creation, while Reed and the rest of the FF vow to track her down.

What’s going on here?

FF 66 is a slightly unusual issue, but an enjoyable one. It’s almost entirely a place-setter for the issue to come, with very little that is resolved in this issue. There’s no real conflict, save the squabble between Reed and Ben, and it violates one of the cardinal rules of superhero comics in that there isn’t at least one fight. Nonetheless, the issue is pretty effective. The Enclave scientists are mysterious, their project is audacious and creepy, and the suspense—what have they created?—is genuine. The story reads like a classic work of adventure science fiction (which it is).

The story also centers Alicia, who shows more agency that normal. She’s still at the mercy of other directing her actions, but here she at least she’s able to demonstrate her sculpting abilities and her blindness doesn’t prevent her from venturing into the vault to confront the creature.

Who are these guys?

Helpfully, the bad guys tell us their names. Then, in the next panel, they do it again!

The Enclave reappear as manipulative villains over the years. A bunch of unimpressive looking white guys, they benefit significantly from the snazzy uniforms Kirby gives them. Here they are again in 1995:

Spider-Man Team-Up 7 (1995, Kurt Busiek, Sal Buscema and Dick Giordano)

The agony of Ben Grimm

It’s been a while since we had Ben in full-on torment over his appearance. As is often the case, it’s his relationship with Alicia that pushes him over the edge.

Unusually, in this issue he is comforted by strangers:

They’re fighting again

As discussed, the provocation this time is Ben’s frustrations and insecurity regarding Alicia

Weird science

The heat-image tracer!

Mid-century modern

I love how Alicia decorates her apartment.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Joe Sinnott

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Scientist bad guys gives Jack a lot of opportunity to draw the high-tech gizmos he loves.

Here’s some other cool panels:

Also on the newsstands

In June 1967

Next issue: The debut of Him!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 65

20 Monday Jun 2022

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1967, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 65, jack Kirby, Kree, Ronan the Accuer, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 65
“..From Beyond This Planet Earth!”
Published: May 1967
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Artie Simek
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

Synopsis

Fantastic Four 65 begins in the midst of a dream, with the team held captive by the Kree’s Supreme Intelligence as punishment for destroying the Kree Sentry last issue. As the FF wakes up in the Baxter Building, they realize they’ve all had the same nightmare. After some hijinks, the team separates: Johnny goes joy-rising in a new hot rod with Crystal while Reed and Sue go out on a date. And in a subplot teasing the next issue, Alicia Masters is led away by a mysterious stranger with the power to travel through walls.

Meanwhile, Ronan the Accuser, dispatched by the Supreme Intelligence, arrives on Earth to exact revenge. The members of the FF disappear from their activities and are reassembled by Ronan under his “cone of inpenatrability” (sic) where he attempts to pronounce his sentence. The team fights back but he proves their equal using his club-like weapon. Eventually the team triumphs when Ronan disappears, after his weapon discharges while he was on top of it.

What’s going on here

This is a bit of an odd comic. For the first time in what seems like many issues, the FF are at home and relaxing as civilians, and those pages flow easily. But when the FF is engaged with Ronan, the storytelling becomes cramped and off-key. Both the art and storytelling seem rushed and a bit sloppy. Take, for example, this splash page:

Normally a splash page is an opportunity for Kirby to cut loose, but here it’s just another panel. And Ronan’s dialogue—explaining what Reed is doing with his arms—seems oddly expository (also note the spelling of “thru”).

Another strange element that suggests Kirby was rushing: A number of panels, spread over several pages, are drawn from the same perspective, looking down from above Ronan’s right shoulder.

Another oddity: Reed directing Ben with a code for a maneuver. It’s something Cyclops used to do with the X-Men, but I don’t believe we’ve seen it in the Fantastic Four.

Who is this guy?

FF 65 marks the first appearance of Ronan the Accuser, who goes on to appear in dozens of of comics over the years. Notably, he is pink-skinned here, before later becoming blue skinned like most of the Kree. He spends his first decades as a bad guy before his story becomes more interesting with his arranged marriage to Crystal in the War of Kings miniseries. In a coincidence, Crystal is in this issue, although they didn’t encounter each other.

War of Kings 1 (2009, art by Paul Pelletier and Rick Magyar)

Despite the arranged nature of the wedding, the two fall in love, before they are separated in a deal struck between Black Bolt and the Supreme Intelligence. Eventually Ronan is captured and tortured by Kree fanatics before he is put out of his misery and killed by Black Bolt. Will he stay dead? Seems unlikely, but who knows.

Death of the Inhumans 3 (2018, Donny Cates and Ariel Olivetti)

The sexist sixties

This sequence is really excruciating.

Word Power

Ronan really likes his adverbs.

They’re fighting again

It’s been a long time since we’ve had one these.

What year is it?

A couple of topical references in this issue, to Bobby Kennedy and Simon & Garfunkel (and check out Johnny’s vanity plate).

New York’s finest

Of course the cops have an “all-purpose blaster.” I’m sure they would never abuse it.

Weird Science

Ronan projects an “aura of negativism,” something my wife accuses me of doing on occasion.

Young Love

Panels like this are good reminder that Jack drew about a million issues of romance comics in the 1950s

Dig that Kirby Krackle

A pretty cool sequence of Ronan approaching Earth.

Also cool:

Also on Newsstands

In May 1967

Next issue: Alicia and the mystery of the Beehive!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” Fantastic Four No. 64

12 Sunday Jun 2022

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1967, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 64, jack Kirby, Kree, Sentry, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 64
“The Sentry Sinister”
Published: April 1967
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Artie Simek
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

Synopsis

After their recent battle with Blastaar, the Fantastic Four decide to go on a vacation (minus the Human Torch, who wants to stay behind with Crystal). The Thing randomly selects an island in the South Pacific where, unbeknowst to the FF, an archaeologist has awakened a slumbering alien robot, a Sentry left by the Kree. As the FF approach the island in their pogo plane, they enter a “vibration field” and only the Invisible Girl’s force field protects the team.

On the island, the three members battle the Sentry, which maintains it’s only following its orders to destroy the team, when Sue manages to send an emergency message to Johnny. Lockjaw teleports him to the island just in time to save the other members from a crushing tidal wave created by the robot. Johnny’s flame ignites a Kree power source and the team, along with the archeologist and his guide, teleport away from the island and the Sentry just as the island threatens to explode.

What’s going on here?

Aside from the creaky plot device of the Fantastic Four encountering trouble while on vacation (previously deployed in FF Annual 1), this is a brisk, well-told comic that balances some of the playful characterizations we have become familiar with compelling action and a villain the FF really are no match for.

Most notably, of course, FF 64 introduces the Kree, one of the three major alien empires in the Marvel Universe (along with the Skrull and Shi’ar) and maybe *the* most significant alien race in Marvel (I would even expand it to say in all of comics, except for the progeny of a little planet called Krypton).

The Kree-Skrull war is one of the most notable events in early Marvel history, the Kree created the Inhumans, Marvel’s original Captain Marvel was a renegade Kree, and Carol Danvers—first Ms. Marvel, then Binary, Warbird and now Captain Marvel—got her powers via the Kree. The new Ms. Marvel, Kamal Khan, became a hero indirectly via the Kree, since she was exposed to the Inhuman’s Terrigen Mists.

In fact, the significance of the Kree is making me re-evaluate my unofficial designation of FF 44-60 as the highpoint of the Lee-Kirby creative partnership and extend it to FF 67, which would include not only the creation of the Kree but the realization of the Negative Zone as an alien dimension, and the introduction of Blastaar, Ronan the Accuser, the Supreme Intelligence and Him, later to become Adam Warlock (much more on all of that to come). It’s both evidence of Stan and Jack’s creative energies, and Marvel’s ability to take hold of good ideas and nourish them over the years, giving them new life again and again.

Interestingly, the antagonist in this issue, the Kree Sentry robot, sort of fades in importance as the actual Kree take shape. He’s sort of a stalking horse for the much bigger empire to come. But you wouldn’t know that from this issue, and this amazing Kirby splash page. And, it should be noted, he pretty much wipes the floor with the FF, who only escape by teleporting off the island.

At one point the Sentry declares it is “no mere robot” and calls itself a living Sentry. Certainly, it’s vocabulary suggests it’s not from the robot-school of speaking. What mere robot uses so many adjectives?

The sexist sixties

This is a pretty egregious issue for ’60s-style sexism, starting with Sue huffing over being ignored while Reed and Ben are working.

It gets worse when Reed barks orders at her during a battle (note: this could have been filed under the “Reed Richards is a Jerk” heading).

Further, Reed is engaged in some revisionist history when he claims it was headline writers that pinned the name “Mr. Fantastic” on him. Because if you’ve read FF No. 1, you’ll recall it was Reed who gave himself that moniker.

Clobberin’ Time

A pretty good one here, with the wind-up in one panel, and the pitch in the next:

More Marvel Masterpieces

Interestingly, this house ad is plugging reprints, not new issues.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Some cool stuff in this issue, starting with the awesome splash page:

For sale

Someone tell Joe Biden we’ve found a way to cut the price of fuel

Also on the Newsstands

In April 1967

Next issue: Ronan the Accuser!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 63

05 Sunday Jun 2022

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1967, Blastaar, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 63, jack Kirby, Sandman, Stan Lee

**Fantastic Four 63**
“Blastaar, the Living Bomb-Burst!”
Published: March 1963
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

**Synopsis**

Fantastic Four 63 picks up where the previous issue left off, after the Inhuman Triton rescued Mr. Fantastic from the Negative Zone, allowing Blastaar to enter their dimension. Blastaar, now allied with the Sandman, uses his power to create an explosion on the roof to the Baxter Building, leading Triton to confront him.

Blastaar defeats the Inhuman, and he and the Sandman then battle the Human Torch, who had been canoodling in a restaurant with his love interest Crystal, on the streets of Manhattan. The Thing soon joins the battle, but the Sandman traps him and dumps him into the river. Finally, Mr. Fantastic enters the fray with a helmet designed to negate Blastaar’s power. After further struggle, they eventually neutralize Blastaar while Ben disperses the Sandman in the river.

What’s going on here?

This is a fun, action-packed comic that’s pretty much one rollicking battle from the first page to the last. Unlike the last dozen or so issues, there’s no interludes updating us on the progress of the Inhumans or Johnny and Wyatt — those plot lines were effectively wrapped up last issue, and the team (plus Crystal) is intact. There are also no subplots or quiet moments, no family scenes in the Baxter Building or with Ben and Alicia, just a lot of fighting. The action is magnified with bigger-than-usual panels — many pages divided into just four panels, instead of the normal six. The FF would be a much-diminished comic if every issue was like this one, but every now and then it’s satisfying to seem them just cut loose for 22 pages.

Starting with this issue, and in virtually every subsequent appearance, Blastaar is called “the living bomb-burst.” I had assumed a “bomb-burst” would be a thing readers were familiar with, but I never knew quite what it meant, and searching the internet reveals it’s actually not a common phrase. There’s the “bombs bursting in air” lyric from the Star-Spangled Banner, of course, and there’s an aerobatic maneuver called a bomb-burst, but otherwise it seems to be something Stan just invented.

Perhaps intentionally, Blastaar is also highly bombastic, and rants and raves about his power in the best Marvel villain tradition. Maybe it has something to do with being from the Negative Zone, because Annihilus is also a very strong ranter-and-raver.

(Also, and there’s no delicate way to phrase this, it’s possible Blastaar is compensating for what appears to be his missing male genitalia. Or maybe his species just reproduces some other way).

Weird science

Naturally, the New York Police Department has a cement gun on hand.