Fantastic Four 74
“When Calls Galactus!”
Published Feb. 1968
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Artie Simek
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott


Synopsis

The Thing enters the apartment of his girlfriend, Alicia Masters, only to find the Silver Surfer there in a state of distress. When Ben, jealous, moves to confront the Surfer (in an echo of issue 55), he and Alicia explain the Surfer has been recalled by Galactus, indicating the planet-devourer must be desperate and that earth is in danger.

Galactus has sent the Punisher, the cyborg he used to attack the FF when he last visited earth, to bring back the Surfer. After blasting it with his cosmic power, the Surfer collapses and Ben and the Human Torch take on the Punisher, without much success

After again shunting the pregnant Invisible Girl aside, Mr. Fantastic joins the fight. The Punisher, however, vanishes, returning to its master in space, leaving the team to ponder Galactus’s next move.

What’s going on here?

Fantastic Four 74 is a place-setting issue, putting the pieces in place for a multi-issue arc, but it’s a pretty effective one. It reintroduces Galactus as an earth-destroying threat, and by once again using the Punisher as a foil, Stan and Jack emphasize Galactus’s power (if his minion can throttle the FF, what is Galactus capable of?)

After his appearance in a flashback in Daredevil 37 (discussed last week), in Thor 134, and now here, Galactus is by now pretty thoroughly integrated into the the Marvel Universe. Stan and Jack apparently hadn’t planned that—they wanted him to appear sparingly, to maintain his grandeur—but Stan, listening to fan requests, decided to bring him back. As a result, we got epic splash pages like this:

Incidentally, Jack liked that image so much he re-used it the next year, in Thor 160 (this time with inks by Vince Coletta):

About that name

The Punisher is a pretty cool concept.

Unfortunately it shared a name with a lot more important Marvel character, which probably is one reason it appears so infrequently. Here it is Thanos 4, from 2003, by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom.

The sexist sixties

For the last few issues, Sue has been deliberately kept away from the action, ostensibly to protect her and her unborn baby. Her exclusion is taken to more ridiculous levels, when Reed won’t even tell her what’s going on and instead treats her like an invalid (and enlisting the similarly wasted Crystal to help him do his dirty work).

Follow that car!

Ben needs to take a cab to rejoin the action.

It reminded me of this dramatic scene when Ben was again in a cab, from Fantastic Four 259 (1883) by John Byrne.

Clobberin’ Time

Speaking of Ben, it’s been a few issues since we had one of these

He’s all grown up

Nice character developing scene here with the Torch, who is shown taking on more responsibilities despite still being a teenager. He too often gets written as a yahoo, and he has more maturity than that.

Dig that Kirby Krackle

Some cool cosmic stuff in this issue.

Next issue: The return of Galactus!