Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: March 11, 1965
Cover: June 1965
12 cents
Splendiforious story by: Stan Lee
Delectable drawings by: Jack Kirby
Deliciious Delineation by: Frank Ray
Laconic lettering by: Artie Simek
20 pages
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|---|---|---|
| Amazing Spider-Man #25 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #40 |
| Fantastic Four #38 | Fantastic Four | Fantastic Four #40 |
I don’t normally post things on Sundays, so I had planned this for Monday. But today is April 10, 2022. And it just seemed too fitting not to post this today, in honor of the introduction of Dr. Doom, April 10, 1962. Here’s the post we did on his introduction almost 3 years ago.
So, happy birthday to the greatest comic book villain of all time. Let’s celebrate by reading his first truly great battle against the Fantastic Four, still one of the greatest Dr. Doom stories ever.
Just don’t mention his age to him. He’ll probably kill you. He can be a bit vain.
After a battle with the Frightful Four, the Fantastic Four were caught in a Q-bomb explosion and left for dead in the middle of the ocean. When we last saw them, it appeared as though Ben was turning human again.
To me, that’s a good excuse to jump straight to the next issue where they are getting dragged out of the water.
But we didn’t do that. We read another 35 comics in between the two. Why? Well, a lot was happening all at once. While they were still at sea, the Frightful Four showed up in Thor’s comic during the Trial of the Gods. That’s a whole thing. That tied into this Daredevil/Sub-Mariner battle as well as to this milestone Avengers issue where a new team of Avengers formed. That spun out of an X-Men story which happened before Human Torch showed up in the pages of X-Men. It’s tightly connected.
Obviously, the FF couldn’t be at sea that many days without the submarine finding them. They need water at some point. But it could have taken a bit of time to get back to their headquarters. And all the other superhero adventures must have elapsed in that time.
Frank Giacoia is the credited inker (under the pen name Frank Ray), but Wally Wood was brought in to ink Daredevil specifically, to ensure consistency with Daredevil’s look across the books.
Jack demonstrates Reed’s work with another of his trademark photo collages, this one a bevy of scientific equipment.
Fearful their enemies will learn they are powerless, Reed works to artificially mimic their powers. It’s not going well.
Ben claims it’s been a few years since they got their powers. By my math, it’s been less than 2 years. Johnny started his senior year of high school in Strange Tales #101, circa Fantastic Four #7, and has not yet started college. There was a gap of time between getting their powers and their battle with the Mole Man and then a gap of time before the battle with the Skrulls. Hence the first 7 issues cover about a year, and so do the next 40. In publication time, it has been 3.5 years since the FF got their powers.
When last we saw Dr. Doom, Reed used a berry juice to create the illusion that Doom had won, and killed Reed. Dr. Doom persists in that belief to this day, until his local magician notices he is under a spell of hypnosis and removes it. This shows Stan’s recognition that continuity is important to his readers.
In another tight bit of continuity, the FF call upon their lawyer Matt Murdock, who took them on as clients in Daredevil #2.
When the FF are attacked, he changes to Daredevil. He’s a really good lawyer.
It’s kind of neat that Kirby went to all the trouble to design new suits and mechanical powers for them, only for all the suits to fail within a minute of battle.
As Reed realizes who the foe is, we get one of those pure-Kirby panels where all the characters look aghast toward the sky. Dr. Doom has control of their headquarters and all their weaponry. And they are powerless, their only ally a blind hero.
They struggle to survive against all the weaponry of the Baxter Building. Eventually they split up. Daredevil attempts to draw Doom’s fire while the others get into the Baxter Building.
The issue ends at the height of tension. Each of our powerless heroes approaches the Baxter Building, perhaps for their final battle.
Obviously, we won’t wait several months for the next issue. Be back tomorrow.
Rating: ★★★★½, 81/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
If the golden era of FF hadn’t started already, it certainly has now.
I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 2.
Characters:
- Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards
- Invisible Girl/Sue Storm
- Human Torch/Johnny Storm
- Thing/Ben Grimm
- Wizard
- Sandman
- Madam Medusa
- Trapster
- Dr. Doom
- Daredevil/Matt Murdock
Story notes:
- Picks up where #38 left off, a powerless FF at sea… now getting rescued by a submarine, the USS Seahawk.
- Mr. Fantastic’s dream recaps last issue.
- Reed’s plan is Operation Artificial Powers.
- Johnny given flaming suit that can fly; Ben given Thing robot to control; electro-vibra suit renders Sue invisible, almost, and includes a force field.
- Latveria is a tiny kingdom in the Bavarian Alps.
- Dr. Doom dismisses his meal and has it fed to pigs.
- Dr. Doom is unimpressed by a magician demonstrating levitation.
- In the event anything happens to the FF, Reed wants his scientific notes turned over the the government, and their charities to continue; Murdock is entrusted with this.
- Doom broadcasts message to the sky that he will kill the FF.
- Doom turns fantasti-car into weapon against them.
| Previous | #367 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Amazing Spider-Man #25 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #40 |
| Fantastic Four #38 | Fantastic Four | Fantastic Four #40 |
