“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four Annual 5

11 Monday Jul 2022

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1967, Annual 5, Fantastic Four, Frank Giacoia, jack Kirby, Psycho-Man, Quasimodo, Silver Surfer, Stan Lee

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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.

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“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.

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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?

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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:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is ff-283-psychoman-byrneordway-1985.png — 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:

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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:

Also on the newsstand

Other comics for sale in August 1967

Next issue: The Mad Thinker returns!

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four Annual No. 4

10 Sunday Apr 2022

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

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1966, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four Annual 4, jack Kirby, Jim Hammond, Joe Sinnott, mad Thinker, Quasimodo, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four Annual 4
“The Torch That Was!”
Published: August 1966
Story: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

(Note: Fantastic Four Annual 4 came out a week before FF 56, but follows it chronologically, which is why I’m writing about after issue 56. The annual also included reprints of FF 25 and 26).

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four’s fourth annual opens like many issues, with the FF hanging around the Baxter Building reading fan mail. The Human Torch and Wyatt Wingfoot suddenly appear, teleported by Lockjaw from the Himalayas, where they had sought to rescue Crystal and the Inhumans. Johnny, despondent that his efforts to find Crystal failed, flies to the desert to experiment with his powers.

Meanwhile the Mad Thinker, last seen in issue 28, has a new scheme: reviving the original Human Torch, the android knows as Jim Hammond. Threatening him with destruction via Quasimodo, a sentient computer, the Thinker sends the original Torch to battle the Johnny Storm. The two fight to a standstill when the rest of the FF arrive, teleported by Lockjaw. Lockjaw then teleports them all to the Thinker’s lair, where the original Torch turns on the Thinker and is rendered inert by Quasimodo. The Thinker escapes and Lockjaw teleports Johnny and Wyatt back to find the Inhumans.

What’s going on here?

The story in FF Annual 4 isn’t particularly momentous—it’s not a wedding or birth issue, like many annuals—but it does feature the return of a Marvel golden age character. Similar to Stan and Jack’s revival of the Sub-Mariner, way back in FF 4, they retroactively insert Jim Hammond into the Marvel universe, tying the golden age to the present.

While Jim Hammond never plays as prominent a role as Namor, he occupies an interesting place in Marvel continuity.

He first appeared in Marvel Comics 1, in 1939, as one of the earliest super heroes. Stan and Jack recap his origin in the annual, and are fairly faithful to Carl Burgos’s original version. Here Burgos describes his invention by Prof. Phineas Horton:

Here it is as told by Stan and Jack:

As drawn by Kirby, Jim Hammond looks like a Greek god (and I guess why not, since he’s a robot, he can look like anything).

The Human Torch fought crime and Nazis in the 1940s and essentially disappears after the golden age. He was later ret-conned into the Invaders, a WWII era super hero team, along with his sidekick, Toro.

*Invaders 1 (1975, by Thomas,Robbins and Colletta).*

After his appearance and apparent destruction in FF Annual 4, it was generally established that the Human Torch’s body was used by the robot Ultron and transformed into the Vision.

*Avengers 135 (1975, by Englehart, Tuska and Chiarmonte)*

That chronology got muddled when John Byrne revived the Human Torch in West Coast Avengers 50, suggesting that he never became the Vision, but that the Vision was assembled from Horton’s spare parts.

*West Coast Avengers 50 (1989 Byrne/Machlan)*

It’s all cleared up (sort of) in Avengers Forever, a limited series that tried to untangle some continuity, albeit in a very confusing way. As described by Kurt Busiek, Immortus, the tame-manipulating villain, split the Human Torch into two timelines, one of which became the Vision, the other of which remained the Human Torch. Hopefully that clears everything up.

Avengers Forever 8 (1998, Busiek, Pacheco and Merino)

The Jim Hammond Torch has resurfaced over the years, but never as a major character.

Quasimodo

Avengers Annual 4 also marks the first appearance of Quasimodo, a third-tier villain who shares only a name with the Victor Hugo character. Apparently the name is derived from “Quasi-Motivational Destruct Organ,” whatever that means. He, too, reappears on occasion, but never as a major villain.

Everybody plays the fool

I get the story-telling purpose of Ben not knowing there was another Human Torch, but it’s a little hard to swallow. Ben did serve in World War II as well.