Fantastic Four 62
“And One Shall Save Him!”
Published: Feb. 1967
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Frank Giacoia

Synopsis

Fantastic Four 62 picks up where the last issue left off, with Mr. Fantastic tumbling through the Negative Zone toward the “exploding area” while the rest of the team watches helplessly through a scanner in the Baxter Building. The Inhuman Crystal and her teleporting dog Lockjaw then appear—Crystal has been looking for the Human Torch for about a dozen issues now—and she offers to help.

We then cut to a Mediterranean island where the rest of the Inhumans repel an invasion by a hostile army. Crystal arrives and explains the situation, and Black Bolt dispatches Triton to save Reed.

Back in the Negative Zone, a space craft drops off a menacing package near where Reed flounders, soon revealed to be the villain Blastaar. Triton then appears and rescues Reed, and as they return to our dimension, Blastaar sneaks in behind them. He is then confronted by the Sandman, who has been on the roof of the Baxter Building since the last issue, and they form an alliance. The issue concludes with the happy reunions of Reed and Sue and Johnny and Crystal.

What’s going on here?

A bit of an unsatisfying issue. For one, despite the promise of the cover, Blastaar —a major villain making his first appearance—doesn’t fight the FF in this issue. He appears, but there’s no confrontation—they don’t even intersect with each other. More significantly, the rescue of Reed is incredibly anticlimactic. Instead of Reed figuring out some scientific whammy, or Ben plunging into the Negative Zone after him, he’s rescued by Triton in a development that comes out of left field. And Triton just … goes and gets him. It’s explained that Triton’s ability to navigate the ocean depths makes him uniquely suited for this mission, but the rescue seems pretty straightforward. There’s no real drama or unusual heroics required.

The arrival of Crystal does serve to reunite her and Johnny, resolving their soap opera separation that began in issue 48. We also get a lot of Inhumans action, seemingly setting them up for their own series.

They didn’t get their own book until 1970, however, and even that they had to share with the Black Widow. As I recall, the mistreatment of the Inhumans was another factor that led to Jack leaving Marvel for DC.

Negative Zone

FF 62 also marks the first time the Negative Zone is really understood to be an alien dimension, complete with its own races and civilizations. Blastaar is he first villain to appear, but eventually we’ll be introduced to Annihillus, a first-tier bad guy.

The Negative Zone becomes a major part of the FF’s mythos, and Reed and the FF are often either exploring it or using it place to store undesirables, such as when Reed created a prison there during the Civil War.

Kirby Kollage

This is the first double-page splash in 62 issues of the Fantastic Four, and another amazing Kirby collage. Unfortunately I don’t have the tools to stitch the two pages together properly.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Lots of amazing cosmic stuff in this issue:

and more:

Also on the news stands this month:

Next issue: Blastaar! (really)