Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Proudly produced by: Smilin’ Stan Lee and Jolly Jack Kirby
Inked by: Chic Stone
Lettered by: Artie Simek
21 pages
| Previous | #312 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Avengers #14 | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #65 |
| Fantastic Four #35 | Fantastic Four | Fantastic Four #37 |
The main credits are shared between Stan and Jack without specifying who did what.
Fantastic Four has been one of the best of these Marvel superhero titles since the start, but it’s regarded as one of the best comic series ever, which hasn’t yet been obvious. The series gets better at some point. It can be hard to pinpoint the exact point of transition. We noted issue 29 when Kirby started using photo collages as a step toward greatness. The introduction of the Frightful Four in this issue also suggests we are well down the path. Particularly the mysterious Madam Medusa.
Sue and Reed announced their engagement last issue. They’ve now made a public announcement, and the press is excited, underscoring their celebrity status. There will be a big engagement party this issue.
Also, I think Sue’s gotten a haircut. Her hair definitely seems shorter.
We get a tender Sue/Reed moment from Kirby, reminding us he helped pioneer American romance comics.
Last we saw Wizard, he was floating off into the atmosphere, presumably to suffocate to death. That was about a dozen months back publication time in Strange Tales #118. We saw Paste-Pot-Pete about 6 months ago in Strange Tales #124; that was when he debuted his new armored look. Pete was sent to jail. We saw Sandman most recently in Amazing Spider-Man #19. He was also sent to jail.
They attempt to explain what happened to the Wizard with a flashback. Sandman and Pete escape from prison, steal a small jet, come across the floating Wizard, agree to team up, and are now meeting again a few weeks later. This is very hard to reconcile with the order those events happened in. Pete was last sent to jail after Wizard floated into space and some time passed between those incidents, indicated by Johnny’s many adventures. The Official Marvel Index to the Fantastic Four saw this problem and decided that the events depicted in Strange Tales #118 must have happened very recently, after the events of Strange Tales #128.
In-story references make that hard to manage, even if you accept the stories were published out of chronological sequence. Strange Tales #118 is referred to in Strange Tales #127, so it must have taken place before that story. But you’d also want it after Sandman being sent to jail in Amazing Spider-Man #19, which specifically refers to Strange Tales #127 as having just happened. So something has to give.
The only other option is to try to have more time between these events than is suggested. Like, they rescued him a while back, agreed to team up, but then took a while to get around to it, having solo adventures and getting arrested again in the meantime. That doesn’t quite fit the story being told.
I guess you could also argue that Wizard was just floating around for a month or two until being rescued and somehow didn’t die, but that isn’t quite right either. It’s pretty hard to explain away what happened here.
The Fantastic Four get their mirror team of enemies. The team will have 4 members, including one woman. Pretty much all the teams have exactly one woman. This time, they are explicit that’s what they need. They want to match the FF, but they are only three men. They need to recruit a fourth, and it needs to be a woman.
It’s interesting to note these are really Human Torch villains, not Fantastic Four villains, who team up. They all encountered Johnny in his solo adventures.
It’s hard to get a read on Madam Medusa. Who is she and what’s she about? What motivates her? She has very few lines. She brags about how tough she is and praises the villainy of the Wizard. Why does she agree to destroy the Fantastic Four? What’s in it for her? She had no qualms about letting them die, as they almost did. Not only did she almost let the FF die, but Alicia almost died as well. She is definitely callous. Perhaps Wizard has offered her something for her help, or perhaps she sees evil as its own reward.
Wizard seems to be trying to coin the Wingless Wizard as his name. In his original incarnation, his thing was his inventiveness and variety of gizmos and traps. Now they’ve doubled down on his anti-gravity invention being his main feature. He also gets a new look for himself. He’d originally been depicted with distinctive facial features but not a distinctive outfit. Now he has a costume design that will be pretty close to the lasting one.
This is the largest gathering of superheroes yet: the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers. Spider-Man swings by to steal a piece of cake, as he wasn’t invited. Rick Jones bemoans Hulk’s absence. Daredevil and Dr. Strange were perhaps not invited. Nobody is meeting anybody new here, I don’t think. The teams have all met each other, but this is their first time all together.
I wonder how Professor Xavier got himself an invite. They don’t know he’s the leader of the X-Men, and he’s obviously not close to the FF otherwise. I bet it just popped into Sue’s head one day to invite him. She didn’t know where the idea came from, nor did she question it.
I’m proud of them for respecting the occasion and not getting into any superhero fights.
The Frightful Four wisely wait until the other dozen superheroes have departed to make their move.
We get a decent battle between the two FFs, though the Fantastic Four are defeated a little easily for my tastes. These villains really don’t seem like they should be a match for the Fantastic Four. They do have the element of surprise on their side, though.
It will be left to Johnny to save the day.
Hey, the letters page has a letter from future superstar artist Dave Cockrum, age 22, now in Naval training. Let’s check it out.
Dear Stan and Jack,
Another month and you’ve done it again! I don’t know how you always manage to come up with better and better issues, but you do! F.F. #33 was great! I loved every minute of it– lots of action, fun and games for everyone. Jack has a fantastic imagination for depicting outlandish machinery and barbaric splendor in costumes. Reading the F.F. is almost like seeing one of the old Cecil B. DeMille films. The battle scenes between Namor and Attuma were classic, to say the least. I still say, though, that Namor could be put on the right path, perhaps with Lady Dorma’s aid. I’d like to see the Sub-Mariner as a friend of the F.F. Unusual twist– the F.F. aiding Namor without his knowing it! As for Sue and Reed getting married, I cast my vote “yes”! Odd attitude for a bachelor, but I appreciate that venerable, old institution. Congratulations on your best mag awards. I heartily agree. Also glad to see that good ol’ Ben Grimm finally got to be “the idol of millions”.
Dave Cockrum
Stan recognized Dave from many previous letters and offered his new Navy unit a complimentary subscription to one of their books.
At first, Dave had been writing a letter to every Marvel comic every month. When that became too much work, he started limiting himself to just one letter to Marvel per month. We read one of Dave’s letters in Fantastic Four #22 and there are plenty more out there.
A young woman named Andrea Kline read the letter, which included an address for the young sailor (and also alluded to his bachelor status), and began a correspondence with him which ended in marriage.
Many internet sites refer to the marriage story as regarding a letter in Fantastic Four #34, but they are mistaken.
Rating: 61/100, ★★★½
Significance: ★★★★☆
I read this story in Fantastic Four Epic Collection vol. 3: The Coming of Galactus. You can also find it on Kindle.
Characters:
- Thing/Benjamin Grimm
- Human Torch/Johnny Storm
- Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards
- Invisible Girl/Sue Storm
- Paste-Pot Pete
- Sandman
- (Wingless) Wizard
- Madam Medusa
- Beast
- Angel
- Marvel Girl
- Professor X/Professor Xavier
- Iceman
- Cyclops
- Alicia
- Wasp
- Giant-Man
- Thor
- Iron Man
- Captain America
- Rick Jones
- Spider-Man
Minor characters:
- Francois (police officer)
- Steve (Johnny’s car enthusiast friend)
Story notes:
- Reed and Sue announce engagement to the press.
- Yancy Street Gang sends bomb filled with roses as gag gift.
- Rumors of Madam Medusa had existed for years. Wizard tracked her down to a Mediterranean isle, just as some police did.
- Wizard declares himself leader of the Frightful Four; no objections.
- Johnny builds a chemical screen to color his flames for the wedding.
- Sandman’s costume matches the pinkish color scheme.
- Wizard now calls himself the Wingless Wizard and has a costume which will become his standard.
- X-Men, Avengers attend engagement party.
- Spider-Man’s hand visible as he swipes cake; he didn’t get an invite.
- Pete’s paste bounds Thing.
- Johnny at neighborhood garage looking at friend’s car.
- Wizard attaches anti-grav discs to Reed, Ben, Sue, Alicia, and they float away.
- Frightful Four have their own ship, but then commandeer the pogo plane.
| Previous | #312 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Avengers #14 | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #65 |
| Fantastic Four #35 | Fantastic Four | Fantastic Four #37 |
This is totally the issue where it gets kicked up a notch; gets more serious.
Chris – I could never understand why this issue is not ranked in the top 10 of all-time FF issues by the fans. I consider it a classic and one of Stan and Jack’s very best from the 1960’s. I especially enjoy the Wizard’s choice of Madam Medusa to be rival to the Invisible Girl. Medusa was thoroughly evil when she was a member of the evil FF and the Frightful Four were at their very best when she was their fourth member. Medusa should have stayed with the Frightful Four. She made a far better villainess than a heroine and proved herself quite capable against Susan Storm during their five issue battles in FF 36, 38 and 41-43.
By Ben Betrayed is where it gets real. But this ish to me is the start of the run of greatness.
I like Medusa as hero – although not so much Medusa as Fantastic Four member or Medusa as Inhuman, even – but I REALLY liked Medusa as villain.
I’d argue that the Fantastic Four was intermitently great – The best stuff got better but there was never a solid, long stretch of the Lee/Kirby FF without some huge flaws (IE the upcoming Inhumans story which is just a total clusterfuck, plot-wise) or Toomazooma-esque filler.
You know I guess it’s “By Ben Betrayed” where it changes. I could even tell as a kid that it wasn’t lighthearted anymore. But it became something greater.