Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 9, 1963
Cover: October 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
22 pages
This bears some resemblance to the Iron Man story where he traveled to Ancient Egypt to battle a time-traveling Pharaoh (Pharoah?). Of course, this is much better.
Mr. Fantastic deduces from some museum hieroglyphs that blindness had once been cured in Ancient Egypt. So the Fantastic Four return to the castle where they first met Dr. Doom, where we find his time machine has just been sitting there this whole time. They use the machine to travel to a time when Egypt was ruled by Rama-Tut, who came from the future. Similar to Zarrko, Rama-Tut has been bored with the peace of his time and craved adventure.
Attempting to reflect on what future comics will do with this story hurts my brain. There will be contradictions and explanations. Rama-Tut will be connected to several other time-traveling characters. And they’ll further explore this moment in history to learn Apocalypse, Dr. Strange, and the Avengers are lurking around behind the scenes. We’ll spend no more time on such reflections until we need to.
What is strongly implied in this comic is that Rama-Tut is a descendent of Dr. Doom. What we know is that he had a notable ancestor who built a time machine and left it in a ruined fortress.
Thing’s choice of cigar seems like a very timely reference as I write this post from self-isolation in March 2020.
The letters page features a letter from none other than Howard the Duck creator Steve Gerber!
Dear Stan and Jack,
Steve Gerber
While the F.F. is undoubtedly one of the best comic magazines on the market, it has its failings. The worst part of that is that when you do a lemon it’s a doozy! I’m speaking specifically of issues #13 and #15. Both of these were really poor, especially when contrasted with your masterpieces (like #s 4, 6, and 9). Let me take #13. In the last panel of p. 12, we are informed that in the next issue the FF will meet “one of the most powerful super-villains of all.” This turns out to be “The Red Ghost.” Never in my wildest flights of fancy did I dream “red” would refer to the communists!! Nor did I imagine the tale would take place on the moon. Both of these were disappointing. Also, the cover was horrible, cluttered up with all sorts of vital announcements. (Ha!) One more thing: I’ve never seen a worse artist combination than Kirby and Ditko. Both are great alone, but please, let’s not team them up again. Between two lemons there was a peach — #14. Though the letter pages were pretty awful, the story was great. But may I say your courage is to be admired. You’re not afraid to try new ideas, and if a new idea DOES fail, you simply change it in a later ish. You can’t lose. By the way, now that the Ant-Man (formerly your worst effort) has gained the Wasp for a partner, he’s great. I also think highly of the Torch and Iron Man. But, undoubtedly, aside from the FF your best hero is Thor. You broke the mold and came up with a truly unique hero. In the future I hope to see: Thor guest-star with the FF, Sub-Mariner turn hero, more F.F. adventures on earth, less of Dr. Doom. Finally, thanks again for a great magazine.
Stan responds: “Steve would be a great letter writer if he wasn’t so shy about giving opinions!”
For the record, I think #13 is one of the best issues of the FF yet. What does Mr. Gerber have against it taking place on the moon? And who doesn’t like the Kirby/Ditko pairing? Madness. I also prefer lemons to peaches. And the Ant-Man and Wasp stories are not great; neither are the Torch, Iron Man, or Thor stories. Mr. Gerber and I are just not on the same page here. In fairness, he was in high school at the time.
I almost ended the post without this, but I decided I couldn’t resist.
Q: How did Rama-Tut convince Invisible Girl to become his queen?
A: He used his pharaoh-mones!
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 55/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
The scans above are taken from a reprint of the story in Giant-Size Avengers #2.
I read this story in Fantastic Four Epic Collection vol. 2: The Master Plan of Dr. Doom. You can also find it in Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four vol. 2. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Rama-Tut
- Invisible Girl
- Human Torch
- Thing
- Mr. Fantastic
- Alicia
Story notes:
- Reference to Yancy Street Gang by Alicia.
- Thing smokes a Corona cigar.
- A few years of Egyptian history have no records.
- VTOL “vertical take off and landing” pogo plane.
- They visit Egypt when the Sphinx is new and not yet chipped. The Sphinx was built circa 2500 BC.
- Pharaoh Rama-Tut described as “King of Kings, Master of Men, Lord of the Seven Suns”.
- Ultra-diode ray from year 3000 able to sap the FF powers and make them mental slaves.
- Implication that Rama-Tut is a descendent of Dr. Doom.
- Sphinx in time machine that was damaged when Rama-Tut arrived, but he had repaired it by the time the Fantastic Four came.
- Crash blinded Rama-Tut. Radiation from his time machine combined with a rare herb to cure him.
- Ben references Reed’s army days.
- Optic nerve restorative found in Sphinx, but the time machine doesn’t allow for transport of radioactive substances.
- Next issue blurb describes coming of Molecule Man.
#105 story in reading order
Next: Journey Into Mystery #97
Previous: Strange Tales #113
