Fantastic Four 68 “His Mission: Destroy the Fantastic Four!” Published: Aug. 1967 Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Script: Lee Pencils: Kirby Inks: Joe Sinnott Letters: Art Simek Cover: Kirby and Sinnott
Synopsis
Fantastic Four 68 opens with the team visiting Alicia in her hospital room where she is recovering after ordeal of the previous issue (chronologically this story follows FF 67 , not FF Annual 5). The Thing has a moment of anguish about his appearance, and after some horseplay with the Invisible Girl and Mr. Fantastic in the Baxter Building, Reed renews his efforts to restore Ben’s human form.
Meanwhile, Dr. Santini, a chemist summoned by Reed to help with Ben’s case, is abducted by a mysterious villain who impersonates him to destroy the Fantastic Four. The villain is unnamed and shrouded in shadow but various hints suggest it’s the Mad Thinker.
We also check in with the Human Torch, who introduces Crystal to his grease-monkey friends. When Johnny gets jealous when one hits on Crystal, she uses her elemental powers to chill them out.
Back at the Baxter Building, Dr. Santini’s imposter arrives and begins to work with Reed to revert Ben to human form. When Ben is finally bombarded with “mesa rays,” his form is unchanged but because of the villain’s sabotages, his mind is altered. The story ends with an angry Ben menacing Reed.
What’s going on here?
After the events of the last two issues (and the annual), most of this issue feels a like a time out that allows the team and fans to catch their breath. Much of the story is devoted to the interplay between Reed, Sue and Ben, a reminder of their friendship, and that Reed and Sue are still newlyweds. We also get a reminder that Johnny is still a car-crazy teenager.
The story’s focus on Ben underscores that his transformation into the Thing—at the hands of his best friend—remains the core tension of the book. Stan and Jack arguably return to the theme too often, but his torment is what helps make him one of the most sympathetic, and beloved, characters in comics.
The sexist sixties
This sequence is actually sort of charming, and is a rare instance of Reed’s playfulness, but it does feel rooted in the sexist characterization of Sue as obsessed with her clothes and appearance.
They’re fighting again
More from the same sequence as above:
Weird science
I got to get me some of those mesa rays
Dig that Kirby Krackle
There’s no big splash pages or collages in this issue but still lots of nice panels:
Fantastic Four Annual 5 Published Aug. 1967 Cover by Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia
Story 1 “Divide .. And Conquer!” Story: Stan Lee and Kirby Inks: Joe Sinnott Letters: Sam Rosen
Story 2 “This is a Plot?” Story and Pencils: Kirby Inks: Giacoia Letters: Gaspar Saladino (credited to L.P. Gregory)
Story 3 “The Peerless Power of the Silver Surfer” Story: Lee and Kirby Inks: Giacoia Letters: Art Simek
There’s a lot to cover in this annual, which is jam-packed with three original stories and a bunch of great pinups. We’ll tackle them one at a time
I should note I’m calling it an annual, although it’s called a King-Size Special on the cover, because it’s numbered according to the FF annuals and because it’s generally listed as an annual. It gets confusing down the road, when a separate run of Giant-Size Specials were printed in the 1970s, most (but not all) reprinting material from earlier annuals.
“Divide .. And Conquer!” synopsis
This story opens in media res, with the Invisible Girl in Mr. Fantastic’s arms, surrounded by the rest of the team, Alicia Masters and Crystal. She’s fallen ill, and it’s soon revealed to be morning sickness: She’s pregnant, and the rest of the team rejoices.
Meanwhile, a new villain soon unveiled as Psycho-Man is terrorizing a henchman who delivered “component five” to the wrong address. The package has been mistaken delivered to the home of Alicia Masters, and as she and the Thing try to make sense of it, he is attacked by Psycho-Man and his remaining henchmen. Psycho-Man uses his emotion-controlling powers to conjure a monster Ben fears, defeating him. The villains leave with the package.
The story then jumps to a tropical island, which the Black Panther has just purchased. The Inhumans Black Bolt, Medusa and Karnak are also on the island, and after a brief fight between T’Challa and Karnak, they team up to investigate a source of danger sensed by Black Bolt. It is the lair of Psycho-Man, where he is building the Mind Ray, and the Inhumans and Black Panther start fighting his henchmen.
The Thing, the Human Torch and Triton the Inhuman then appear, teleported by Lockjaw (Reed and the pregnant Sue stay behind), and the heroes are confronted with various manifestations of fear and doubt created by Psycho-Man. Eventually, Gorgon, who had been scouting the island, arrives and uses his hoof-striking power to shatter the illusions. Black Bolt destroys the Mind Ray and as Psycho-Man explains his origin—he is from sub-atomica, a tiny realm within our own—and his plans to destroy the heroes, the Black Panther, who had been hidden in a tunnel, pounces. He defeats Psycho-Man, who disappears into the armor he no longer can animate.
What’s going on here?
A lot! This is a fun story with a paper-thin plot that hangs on a couple of implausible coincidences. First, Psycho-Man only comes to the attention of the Fantastic Four because his package was delivered to the home of Alicia (yet another time she has been a victim of real estate — first the Dragon Man crashed into her apartment in issue 47, and then in issue 49, the Silver Surfer collapses on her roof).
Secondly, the Inhumans just happen to stumble on to the island just bought by the Black Panther—it’s not ever really explained what they are doing there, but Gorgon later suggests they might be scouting for a new refuge—and together they just happen to stumble on the Psycho-Man’s lair.
Despite the improbabilities, it’s a fun story that feels a bit like a reunion, drawing together a bunch of heroes introduced over the last few years. And it continues a recent tradition of stuffing annuals with guest stars.
Who is this guy?
This is the introduction of Psycho-Man, a second-tier villain who shows up every 10 years or so, mostly in the Fantastic Four but also (appropriately enough) in the Micronauts, as well as Captain Marvel, the Silver Surfer and Spider-Man. One interesting aspect of Psycho-Man is that he’s from sub-atomica, the micro-dimension accessible only by shrinking. It’s not really obvious why he needs to be from there—he could have just as easily been from another planet or dimension—but it’s an interesting twist.
My first encounter with Psycho-Man was in a chilling (perhaps even sadistic) story arc involving the mental manipulation of the Invisible Woman from John Byrne:
Fantastic Four 283 (1985, Byrne/Ordway)
Big news!
Annual 5 also marks the announcement that Sue is pregnant. It’s a fun scene when the rest of the team find out:
The baby turns out to be Franklin Richards, of course, who becomes a integral part of the Fantastic Four family, and later the team. He’s currently a mopey teenager in the current FF comic, but we occasionally get glimpses of his future as one of the most powerful characters in the universe.
Here he is single handedly punching out a bunch of insane Celestials and resurrecting a dead Galactus in the climax of Jonathan Hickman brilliant arc (all from 2012’s Fantastic Four 604, with art by Steve Epting and Rick Magyar):
We’ll have much more to say about Franklin later —the kid ain’t even born yet.
“This is a plot?”
The second story is a goof: a madcap romp through the Marvel offices with Stan and Jack as they are pursued by fans. It’s full of gags and in-jokes designed to delight the ardent Marvel fan.
I hesitate to read too much into it, given how slight and silly it is, but it does suggest that Jack considered he and Stan to be equals and co-collaborators and that, at least to some degree, he enjoyed taking part in the myth-making engaged in by Stan.
This sort of behind-the scenes story shows up occasionally, such as in Uncanny X-Men Annual 7, when the Impossible Man leads the X-Men on a scavenger hunt that includes the Marvel offices:
“The Peerless Power of the Silver Surfer”
Story three’s plot is also thin: The Silver Surfer hears the sentient computer Quasimodo, last seen in Annual 4, crying out in anguish as he is trapped in a machine. Using the power cosmic, the Surfer creates a new body for him, only for Quasimodo to lash out and attack him. The two battle before the Surfer imprisons Quasimodo as a statue on a clock tower.
The story is notable for two reasons. One, it’s an early Surfer story co-plotted by Kirby, and sort of hints at what Jack had in mind for the character. Two, the art is just stunning. Inked by Frank Giacoia, he really brings out the Surfer’s iridescence, and the effect is impressive.
In this story, Kirby also delivers what may be the ultimate Kirby Krackle panel as well. That’s a lot of dots!
But wait! There’s more!
FF Annual 5 also included an array of pinups, including one for every member of the Inhumans. Here are some of the best:
There’s also a great double-page splash of the FF:
Dig that Kirby Krackle
As if that wasn’t enough, Jack dropped gems all over this comic. Here are a few more:
Fantastic Four 67 “When Opens the Cocoon!” Published: July 1967 Script: Stan Lee Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Joe Sinnott Letters: Artie Simek Cover: Kirby and Sinnott
Synopsis
Picking up where last issue left off, Fantastic Four 67 begins with Mr. Fantastic building a replica of the wrist-band teleportation device used by the Beehive scientist who abducted Alicia Masters, as the Thing looks on and frets.
Meanwhile, in the caves beneath the Beehive, Alicia approaches the cocoon containing the life form created by the Beehive scientists (later called the Enclave) as Hamilton, one of the scientists, is trapped by tentacles. As she did with the Silver Surfer, Alicia senses the humanity within the creature and is drawn to it even while the other scientists scheme to launch it into space.
Back at the Baxter Building, a haggard Reed has finished his device, and (inexplicably) orders Sue and Crystal to remain behind while he, Ben and Johnny rescue Alicia. The three activate the device and step through the portal it creates. They fight their way through the Beehive, while Alicia and Hamilton confront the cocoon. As Hamilton confesses that he and the others planned to create a new race of human to rule over humanity, the creature in the cocoon lashes out with a burst of energy, killing him. Finally, the three members of the FF scoop up and Alicia and escape through the portal while the creature, later called Him, emerges and confronts the scientists that created him.
What’s going on here?
FF 67 is notable as the first appearance of Him—although he is never called that in the comic, just on the cover—who later is transformed into Adam Warlock by the High Evolutionary. According to Brian Cronin, in CBR, Kirby originally intended the scientists to be virtuous, and killed when their creation turned against them. Apparently it was Lee who made the scientists evil and their creation virtuous.
Since it’s hard to imagine the heroic Adam Warlock starting off as an evil monster, it was probably just as well.
I confess Warlock is a character I have rarely encountered as a reader or collector. By the early 1980s, when I first began reading comics, he had for several years essentially been retired, living inside the “soul gem,” one of the infinity stones. By the time he emerged for the Infinity Gauntlet and other subsequent stories, I had more or less moves on from comics. There’s no doubting, however, that he occupies a major role as one of Marvel’s cosmic heroes—maybe its most cosmic—and he’s expected to play a role in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
Marvel Premiere 1 (Gil Kane/ Dan Adkins)Warlock 4 (Kane/Tom Suttton)
About that cocoon
It’s hard not to notice the similarity between the cocoon in FF 67 and those in the 1985 movie Cocoon.
The sexist sixties
Reed’s behavior here seems particularly egregious. There’s no reason Sue shouldn’t accompany the rest of the team, and there’s even less reason for Crystal to stay behind to look after her.
Clobberin’ time
Ben, worried sick about Alicia, is particularly motivated to clobber.
Stan the Man
Some goofiness from Stan, here:
and with an Irving Forbush reference here:
buried in this splash page image here:.
Five o’clock shadow
Reed is look pretty rough here (although it foreshadows the beard he’ll grow in about 600 issues from now)
Dig that Kirby Krackle
I love this schematic diagram:
and the evil scientists’ secret lair:
This whole page is pretty incredible:
Also on newsstands
In July 1967
Next issue: Fantastic Four Annual 5 and the Psycho-Man!
Percival Henry: The Fantastic Four and more 