Fantastic Four #2

The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space/Prisoner of the Skrulls/The Fantastic Four Fight Back!/The Fantastic Four… Captured!
Release: September 28, 1961
Cover: January, 1962
10 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inks: George Klein (Uncredited)
24 pages

I read this in Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 1. The Table of Contents credits the issue to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; I don’t see any credits in the issue itself. Online sources cite George Klein as the inker.

Hey, it’s the Skrulls! They were just in that movie last month!

For the second issue in a row, we see the FF attacked by the police and military. But the context is strange. In the first issue, nobody had heard of the FF and they were attacked out of fear. Now, they seem to be famous heroes. The police and military only go after them after they are framed for crimes.

We get a recap of the origin, which clarifies a question I had the previous issue. They don’t specify in issue 1 what the mission is. And we just see them fly to space. It seemed weird to try to beat the Commies into space when the issue was published after the first Soviet manned space flight. So in this issue they clarify they were trying to get to Mars. Where the Commies had not yet gone. (No human has, almost 60 years later)

This issue introduces the alien race known as the Skrulls. Like last issue, it’s a story that fits perfectly in with Marvel’s sci/fi adventures of the time, just with super-powered characters on hand to resolve issues. The Skrulls can change their shape to impersonate anybody. They can also shrink and stretch. They have an armada waiting in orbit to invade. They have done enough research on earth to conclude the Fantastic Four are the only threat to them, and so they seek to eliminate the Fantastic Four by turning the public against them.

The idea of an enemy who lives unseen among us is pretty standard Cold War era sci/fi, going back to films like “It Came From Outer Space” and prose like “Who goes there?”

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Like the first issue, everything seems to get resolved pretty easily. The specially designed army cells are barely an obstacle. The Skrulls cave immediately. And Mr. Fantastic’s hare-brained plan to disguise himself as a Skrull disguised as himself and show the Skrull general scary pictures from comic books actually works. Even though the Skrulls had clearly done a lot of earth research. And even though an advanced species should be able to recognize a picture. It’s also a little weird the Mr. Fantastic felt he needed to trick the Skrulls into thinking earth has monsters when earth in fact seems to be filled with monsters, such as those the Four fought last issue. The final resolution comes, of course, from hypnotizing the remaining Skrulls into thinking they are cows.

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What happened to that fourth Skrull? Four came to earth. We see four tied up, and we see only see four people (the FF) board the Skrull rocket. When the FF come back to earth, there are only three Skrulls in the apartment, and Mr. Fantastic says the fourth Skrull is on the way back to the homeworld with the armada. But how does that make sense? What stops him from telling the Skrulls about the ruse? He can’t be with the armada. So why did Mr. Fantastic say that? And where is he?

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The Thing remains an interesting character. And he gets an interesting moment, where exposure to space radiation seems to make him human again. Alas, it’s only temporary. It’s the best character moment in the comic. More often, he is characterized by throwing temper tantrums. Mr. Fantastic always has to calm him down by wrapping his arms around Thing. This happens three times in 2 issues.

Rating: ★★★☆☆, 57/100
Significance: ★★★★☆

The best moment in the comic is probably Ben turning human. The introduction of the Skrulls is significant. It’s a work by Stan and Jack, but with neither at their best.

Characters:

• Thing
• Mr. Fantastic
• Human Torch
• Invisible Girl
• Skrulls

Some notes:

• The fame the FF have accumulated since issue 1 suggests a large passage of time, perhaps months, since FF #1.
• Reed seems to own an isolated hunting lodge
• The other three discuss amongst themselves that one day the Thing will run amok and need to be stopped.
• Mr. Fantastic can shrink himself to squeeze through a tiny hole.
• The Thing claims he never tires
• It’s weird how they always call Ben “Thing”
• The Thing often wears shades
• They again use the flare gun from last issue that makes a “4” appear in the sky.
• The comics Mr. Fantastic brought were Strange Tales and Journey into Mystery
• Comic includes Thing pin-up
• Context: Released the same day, Tales to Astonish #27 introduces Henry Pym

#2 comic in reading order
Next : Tales to Astonish #27, Story A
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