Fantastic Four 36
“The Frightful Four”
Published Dec. 1964
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Chic Stone
Letters:Art Simek
Cover: Kirby and Stone

Synopsis

As the engagement of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, seen last issue, is made public, the Baxter Building is swarmed with media. The couple also gets gifts including a gag from, of course, the Yancy Street Gang. Meanwhile, a trio of enemies of the Human Torch—Paste-Pot Pete, the Sandman and the Wizard—plot to team up to defeat the FF by recruiting a fourth, female member, Madam Medusa.

As the FF rests after an engagement party, the newly named Frightful Four launch an attack on the Baxter Building, and successfully subdue the Thing, Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl. Undetected, Alicia Masters uses Sue’s flare gun to summon the Human Torch. The Frightful Four then apprehend Alicia, and attach the Wizard’s anti-gravity disks to her and the unconscious captured trio, sending them up toward space.

The Human Torch forces the Wizard to fly them in his spacecraft to rescue the team and Alicia. Then, reunited the team confronts the rest of the Frightful Four back on earth. During a battle, the Wizard’s detonates his spacecraft, and the villains escape in the confusion.

What’s going on here?

This is a fun comic, and contains a lot of elements that make the Fantastic Four so successful. There’s character development as Reed and Sue progress toward marriage. There’s the slapstick elements of the Thing (again) falling for a Yancy Street gag. There’s the Marvel world-building, with the synthesis of the assorted Torch villains into the Frightful Four. Plus there’s a pretty good action story, featuring some heroics from the Torch. What’s not to like?

The issue’s notable introductions are the Frightful Four as a super-team capable of taking on the FF—and we’ll see much more of them in issues to come—and of course, the first appearance of Medusa. Medusa is later revealed as queen of the Inhumans, and becomes a significant character in the Marvel Universe, but it’s doubtful Stan and Jack had that future in mind for her in FF 36. At this point, she’s just an intriguing female villain with an unusual power.

The formation of the Frightful Four is an interesting concept, since none of them had previously appeared in the Fantastic Four. While Sandman was primarily a Spider-man villain, he fought the Human Torch in Strange Tales, and the Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete (who thankfully will become the Trapster) were both introduced in Strange Tales.

(As an aside, I debated whether to include the Torch’s appearances in Strange Tales in this blog. They are in-continuity, and the rest of the FF often appear, so it would make sense to fold in those issues. Ultimately, I’ve decided to just focus the blog on the FF’s main title. The FF appear in so many comics outside their main book over the years—particularly the Thing, in Marvel Two-in-One and his solo titles—that adding them all could add hundreds of comics to the project. And with more than 600 issues of the main title in its various volumes, I have more than enough to write about.)

Here’s the first appearance of the Wizard:

and of Paste-Pot Pete:

And here’s an odd battle between the Torch and Sandman, where Johnny claims his flame powers give him super strength, which I’ve never seen before or since (then again, the comic was called Strange Tales).

Eventually, in FF 36, the team gets together in snazzy new uniforms, and looks like a super team ought to:

Saying the quiet part out loud

Stan and Jack sort of tip their hand a bit here. It’s not obvious why the Frightful Four needs a female version, save for better story-telling possibilities.

Cameos!

The guests at the FF’s engagement party seems to be mostly the Avengers and X-Men (plus Rick Jones), and features some stilted dialogue from Jean Grey:

Also, a sort-of appearance from Spider-Man:

They don’t call him a genius for nothing

Reed can count to four.

Have we met?

The Sandman seems intent on getting his revenge on Reed, although this appears to be the first time they have fought each other:

The sexist sixties

Sue actually does quite a bit in this issue, but it’s sadly undermined by this sort of language.

Weird science

Like the rest of us, the Sandman is befuddled by the Wizard’s antigravity disks.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Jack leads off with a great splash page (incidentally, the credits are pretty subdued this issue):

I love this image of the FF floating off into space:

and this is a great panel:

For sale

A mint (9.8) copy of FF 36 is worth about $23,000. A fine (6.0) version is $325.

Next issue: The return of the Skrulls!