Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: March 10, 1964
Cover: June 1964
12 cents
Author and illustrator extraordinary: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inked by: Geo. Bell
Lettered by: S. Rosen
23 pages
The opening of this story is somewhat different from the norm. A little… sexier.
To make the opening image more amusing, we learn it’s not an actual projection of Sue, but rather a projection of what happens to be on Reed’s mind at the moment. Sexy Sue, apparently.
We then get the issue’s big news. Reed is planning to go buy a ring in order to ask Sue to marry him. Giant-Man recently bought a ring for the same reason, but chickened out. Let’s see if Reed can do any better.
Johnny notes she’s been waiting two years. At this point, it’s probably been close to two years since they got their powers, recalling there was a large time gap between getting their powers and their first mission against the Mole Man, and then another large time gap before their second mission against the Skrulls. However, we learned that Reed and Sue have actually been sweethearts for at least 20 years, that Reed had a crush on her when they were children and neighbors. A fact that is hard to reconcile with everything else we see about them, so it may eventually have to be explained away.
At this point, there is only one major obstacle to Reed and Sue’s marriage. His name is Namor.
We last saw Namor in Avengers #4, which I’m going to guess took place around a week before this story. Namor has been reunited with a small subset of his people, warriors who remained loyal to him. Most of his people had abandoned him because of his affection for Sue. In this issue, his last remaining warriors will abandon him because of his affection for Sue. The Avengers had been desperately searching for Namor since their previous battle, but Namor found them instead. They again battled to an indecisive conclusion. And the Avengers seem to have given up the chase. Sometime around now, they’re responding to the threat of Lava Men.
We saw in Avengers #4 that Namor had an impossibly powerful undersea scanner that lets him see a live feed of pretty much anything. He is now using the scanner to look in on Sue in her home. Creepy.
Namor insists he will marry Sue, which drives his final subjects away. Since she won’t be marrying him, this is lose-lose. He should have proposed first, then informed his subjects if she accepted. He seems to sort of realize this after it’s too late, noting he may have sacrificed everything else in vain.
Namor’s plan is this. He will kidnap Sue, then give himself 24 hours to woo her. If she still refuses after a day, he will return her home.
While Namor was kidnapping Sue, Reed was out buying that ring. He comes home, ready to propose, when he learns the news.
Reed insists on tracking Namor alone. Ben and Johnny can’t talk him out of it, but they secretly follow with the help of Dr. Strange. Calling Dr. Strange seems like overkill when the goal is to follow Reed, but okay. Human Torch and Dr. Strange share a comic, but have never actually met before now.
I’m not sure what happened with the first Dr. Strange panel. The rendition does not look like Kirby.
I don’t know a lot about what women want, but I suspect locking her in a glass prison and then attempting to kill her boyfriend is not the secret to a woman’s heart.
“I’ll see to it that Namor the First becomes Namor the Last!” Good zinger, Reed. Somehow what it’s gotten stuck in my head is a line from a Roger Miller song for the Disney animated Robin Hood film. “Too late to be known as John the First/ He’s sure to be known as John the worst…”
Sue refers to Johnny as hot-headed. Get it?
Reed says he will fight to the death for the girl he loves. Indeed, he’s been rather passionate and irrational this issue. This really is bringing the love triangle which has dominated the series to a head.
In fact, it almost seems settled. Sue gives Namor her final answer. She admits she felt sympathy and even affection for him, and says she’s sorry he mistook that for love. She confirms it’s Reed that she loves.
It would seem settled, except Ben opens his big mouth at the end, asking if she meant what she said to Namor or just made it up to end the fight. These doubts seem to reignite Reed’s insecurities.
Sue says she doesn’t want to talk about this now. After these traumatic events, that’s fair. But they should talk about this all soon. Honestly and like adults.
Anyways, Reed doesn’t propose this issue. But he still has the ring…
Enough mushy stuff. Let’s talk about terminology.
Namor refers to Atlantis several times this issue, clarifying that was the name of his kingdom. This was first briefly mentioned in Fantastic Four Annual 1. This is confusing as Atlantis is the name of Kala’s kingdom which had sunk beneath the sea, and then sunk even deeper to the center of the Earth. There is a 1940s comic, Sub-Mariner Comics #31, which we haven’t covered, where Namor relates the legend of Atlantis as the mythical origins of his people. It has some similarity to the origins of Kala’s people in that both involve a kingdom sinking beneath the ocean. However, as far as I can tell, Namor’s people have still never been referred to as “Atlanteans”, though that’s a natural thing to call people from Atlantis. They have always referred to themselves as Sub-Mariners and continue to do so in this issue.
Dr. Strange’s invocations:
- …visionary vapors of the dread Dormammu
- Hosts of Hoggoth
- Power of Vishanti
Stan pulls from the Dr. Strange comics well, keeping the same invocations and linguistic ticks (“from whence”). However, the artists don’t get the gloves right. They’re missing the cool spotted design.
Rating: ★★★½, 67/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
I read this story in Fantastic Four Epic Collection vol. 2: The Master Plan of Dr. Doom. The scans are taken from a reprint in Marvel Collector’s Item Classics #19.
You can also find this story in Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four vol. 3. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Invisible Girl
- Human Torch
- Thing
- Mr. Fantastic
- Namor
- Dr. Strange
Story notes:
- Namor has pellet gun; gas pellet knocks out Thing; vacuum pellet takes out Torch’s flame.
- Namor notes Reed has had years to court Sue.
- Namor has personal two-seater air-sea speedster.
- Dr. Strange referred to as Master of Black Magic.
- Mr. Fantastic has pill that allows him to survive underwater without oxygen for one hour.
#195 story in reading order
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