Fantastic Four #44

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: August 10, 1965
Cover: November 1965
12 cents
Dreamed up by: Stan Lee
Sketched down by: Jack Kirby
Inked in by: Joe Sinnott
Lettered around by: S. Rosen
20 pages

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I’ve had enough of this domestic bliss bit! Hanging around here is like being on the set of Ozzie and Harriet!

“The world’s greatest comic magazine!” That’s what is says on the cover. Despite being a comic not as good as the company’s own Dr. Strange or Spider-Man stories. But it’s always been one of Marvel’s best comics and has gotten continually better. We’ve noted assorted leaps forward in quality, such as in issues 13, 29, 35, 36, 38, 39… At some point, we enter into the great era of Fantastic Four. And if we weren’t there already, we’re definitely there now.

One missing ingredient was Joe Sinnott on inks. Often cited as Kirby’s best inker. He’s not entirely new, as he inked the introduction of Dr. Doom back in issue 5. He’d also been the regular artist on Thor for a bit, but did a pretty terrible job. He later recalled in interviews that he hadn’t realized at the time anybody expected these comics to be good. He took the Thor assignment as a job to churn out some disposable work. He seems to take this Fantastic Four assignment more seriously.

Why are Joe’s inks special?

I’ll note I actually really liked the work of Chic Stone as an inker on Kirby. To see a great example of Kirby/Stone, look to the aforementioned Fantastic Four #35. What Joe brings to the table is almost the opposite. Stone leans into and heightens the exaggerated melodrama of Kirby’s art, giving it a real pop art feel that feels emblematic of the era. Sinnott softens Kirby, bringing a more classical sensibility to the characters.

Sinnott and Kirby will be the art team on Fantastic Four for the next 5 years, until Kirby leaves Marvel.

The combined dynamic of their artwork is legendary.

Joe Sinnott would continue to work for Marvel until finally retiring in 2019 at the age of 92. By that time, his only work for Marvel was the Sunday edition of the Spider-Man newspaper strip. He passed away the following year at the age of 93. An impressive run for one of the comic industry’s greatest artists.

After Joe Sinnott’s passing, Brian Cronin wrote this great article about his work.

…for a lot of readers out there, all they really know about Kirby and Sinnott is that the end result looked amazing. So I thought it would be nice to explain specifically what was so special about this specific combination of these two legendary artists.

Brian Cronin

I certainly fall into the camp of just knowing it looks good, so I appreciate his detailed take. I highly recommend the article, which does much better than I could at explaining what Sinnott brought to the book.

Sinnott coming on board isn’t the only thing changing about this title.

Another new ingredient is that we’re throwing away the defined story arcs of the past. We just finished a 3-part story on the heels of a 2-part story, after almost 40 issues of 1-part stories. There will be less clarity about story arcs going forward. They’ll all just seem to blend into each other. And they’ll slowly begin to feature subplots with a larger cast of characters.

These next 10 issues in particular represent a burst of creativity never since reproduced in Marvel. The issues loosely cover 4 great stories, including the introductions of 3 great character concepts that will become a permanent part of Marvel’s landscape and its cinematic landscape, and including 2 of the best stories Marvel has ever told. It blows my mind that these 4 stories are all adjacent to each other.

What we’ll see is that Kirby is back to creating new character concepts for Marvel, but using this title as a vehicle for them, rather than creating new series for the characters. As Marvel continues to have distribution problems.

Beyond how impressive the next 10 issues of FF are, Marvel is just on fire right now. As Kirby delivers his best work here, Ditko’s at his best with Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. So many of Marvel’s very best stories all come out right at once.

This very same day, Dr. Strange meets Eternity. And next month begins the greatest Spider-Man story arc ever.

I would argue the greatest 9-month stretch across the line in the history of Marvel Comics begins right now.

That’s too much hype. Let’s read the comic.

And after all that build-up, I have to begin with a critique. Do we detect any of that subtle sexism in the nicknames? “Sweetums”?

Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl are now married and living, at least temporarily, in the Baxter Building.

Reed is turning his genius to automating domestic tasks, like with his invention of the first fully-automated dish-washer mechanism.

Not quite sure what Stan is getting at there, and I’m no expert on the history of dish-washers, but as far as I can tell from reading Wikipedia, mechanical dish-washers date back to at least 1850, and something close to the modern form was available in the 1950s.

Here’s an interesting bit, and one we’ll be referring back to. Johnny is not starting college this year. Because too much has been going on. Peter is starting college, as we’ll see very soon.

Stan adds a piece of dialogue to note that Johnny’s stingray has been modified to include a jump seat in the back. This is because Kirby drew Medusa in the back seat. And I guess Stan had a rare moment of concern about accuracy, and felt the need to explain Jack’s goof.

The plot of the issue is that Medusa is being pursued by Gorgon and needs the help of the Human Torch. Who is Medusa and why should the Human Torch help her? Let’s recap.

Madam Medusa was introduced to us by the Wizard, who tells of his first meeting with her. He’d followed rumors that led him to a small Mediterranean island, and found her hiding in caves, pursued by authorities. He was impressed with her, and said she had heard of the Wizard, and was eager to follow him. Note this is Wizard’s telling of the story, perhaps filtered through his ego.

Wizard designs her a costume and she joins the Frightful Four. She helps them try to kill the Fantastic Four. She says very little in the issue, and no hint of her motive for wanting to destroy the FF is given.

Defeated, they try again two issues later. Her three partners have schemes of evil the FF might stand in the way of, and all had previously been defeated and humiliated by the Human Torch. So their motivations make some sort of sense. She again says little. She flirts with Trapster, and notes she is afraid of Wizard’s aura of evil. And shows no qualms when they leave the Fantastic Four to die in a nuclear explosion.

When the team returns in Fantastic Four #41, she seemed more confident and assertive, bragging about her power and suggesting it might be better if she led the Frightful Four; she and Wizard struggle for dominance of the group. She induced conflict between Trapster and Sandman, both jealous for her affection. She wants to see all the Fantastic Four dead, but has qualms about killing Reed, since he’s so handsome. But she reminds herself that none of them are safe until the Fantastic Four are destroyed. Of course, the FF had no beef with her until she started trying to murder them regularly. Her teammates are captured, but she manages to escape. That was last issue.

Now she’s being chased by Gorgon and has attacked Human Torch to force her to help him flee.

They end up near the university Reed had attended, and where Johnny apparently won’t be going. Last time they were here, they battled Dragon Man, and Reed proposed to Sue. Dragon Man had been brought to life by Diablo’s alchemy, but turned on Diablo because he developed affection for Sue. In the end, Dragon Man apparently drowned in an icy lake.

Turned out, Dragon Man was all right, and has been living in a nearby cave. He develops affection for Medusa, and also remembers his affection for Sue. Now he’ll battle Gorgon to defend Medusa.

We get to the main point of this issue, the introduction of Gorgon. At some point, some readers may start to puzzle over why I so highly touted the introduction of Gorgon as a seminal comic earlier. Other readers understand. Bear with me for a couple issues on this one.

He’s pursuing Medusa. Interestingly, their names come from the same myth. The mythical Medusa was one of the Gorgons. In hindsight, and as we come to learn about their connection in the issue to come, that connection makes less and less sense.

Medusa’s connection to the namesake makes some sense. She was an evil woman, like Medusa. And had weird things going on with her hair, like Medusa. Gorgon will have no connection to the traditional Gorgons; his hoofed feet remind more of a satyr. I think I’d like to leave the observation there and reflect on it more in the future. I have a hypothesis.

Gorgon’s hoofed feet are powerful and can create seismic shockwaves with his kick, strong enough to level a block’s worth buildings.

Do you think Madam Medusa would accept help from any member of the Fantastic Four? Your presumption borders on sheer insolence?

Medusa, page 6

No! No! He must not get me! Keep Gorgon from me…!

Medusa, page 14

Now the Fantastic Four need to defend Medusa from Gorgon. Why? All Medusa has ever done is try to kill you. “I don’t blame her for distrusting us,” says Johnny. Why not? You’ve done her literally no wrong. She had no expressed motive for leaving her Mediterranean isle to try to murder you all.

The story ends with Sue a prisoner of Dragon Man. Really, Sue is more of a beloved pet. Compare Dragon Man to King Kong.

And Gorgon does capture Medusa and collapse a building on top of the rest of the FF. We’ll pick up here next time.

Maybe this doesn’t seem quite worth all the hype I gave to it. Maybe Gorgon doesn’t seem like the most exciting new villain concept. Maybe it’s not even obvious that Joe Sinnott is a great addition to the crew. But let’s see where this goes.

Letter from Dave Cockrum, age 22. Dave Cockrum would go on to be a famous artist, for example co-creating the New X-Men, including characters such as Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler.

Dear Stan and Jack,
I just finished reading F.F. #40 for the umpte-umpth time, and it’s still a good story. The art was excellent- perhaps not as good as was in #39, but nonetheless, excellent. Perhaps the best part of the whole mag was the epic fight between the Thing and Doc Doom. Shows what a little guts and determination (not to mention rage) on The Thing’s part can do. Doc Doom is beginning to sound like an apprentice Auric J. Goldfinger. I quote from the last panel of page 9: “I trust you enjoyed that witticism– for it is the last you shall ever utter!” Now, this sounds suspiciously like “Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Bond–it may be your last!” (With apologies to the late Ian Fleming.) C’mon, ‘fess up now. You guys are James Bond fans, aren’t you? Glad to see that The Thing isn’t losing as a character– but I hate to see him so angry and resentful at the end (although I can see why). I still think that it would be possible for Reed to develop a device to duplicate the rays of the primitive sun over Egypt; ir you remember, those rays once changed The Thing to Ben Grimm, back when the F.F. used Doom’s time machine to go into the past. And why do you keep putting commas after the words “but” and “and”? It bothers me!

Dave Cockrum

Stan claims he’s been writing dialogue just like that decades before James Bond.

Rating: ★★★★☆, 71/100
Significance: ★★★★★

Struggling more than usual with assigning an arbitrarily precise score out of 100. Medusa’s character and motivations made no sense prior to this issue; this issue confuses them even more; and coming issues even further. To the extent we understand Gorgon’s character and motivation here, it will also be confused in coming issues. The 4-star rating is for stories that are both great and memorable. It’s certainly the latter. Are the flaws in the character arcs sufficiently outweighed by my enthusiasm for the new art team and the concepts being introduced to call this great? I think so.

We similarly had rated Fantastic Four #1 a 72. It’s a comic with no shortage of flaws, but it introduced the friggin’ Fantastic Four.

I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 2.

This will displace X-Men #11–the introduction of the Stranger–from the Best We’ve Read list.

Characters:

• Gorgon
• Madam (or Madame) Medusa
• Dragon Man
• Mr. Fantastic/Stretch/Mr. Reed Richards
• Invisible Girl/Sweetums/Mrs. Reed Richards
• Thing/Blue Eyes
• Human Torch/Match-Head

Story notes:

• Full title: “The Gentleman’s Name is Gorgon!” Or “What a Way to Spend a Honeymoon!”
• Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl are now married and living in the Baxter Building.
• Johnny notes he didn’t enroll in college this year because so much was happening.
• Johnny unhappy Reed and Sue are living in the HQ; implies it’s temporary. Not clear if he is still in Long Island.
• Johnny notes Dorrie was at the wedding.
• Johnny on way to visit Dorrie.
• Johnny will take stingray; finds door unlocked; Stingray customized to include a jump seat.
• Gorgon steals FF whirlybird to purse Torch and Medusa.
• Torch and Medusa find spot near State U, Reed’s old college.
• Dragon Man fond of Medusa; she reminds him of Sue; he defends her from Gorgon.
• Gorgon injures Reed’s arm.
• Gorgon has powerful feet, creates seismic shockwaves.
• Reed notes Ben wishes he were married to Alicia.
• Medusa from same race as Gorgon; forbidden for her to mingle with outsiders.
• Gorgon’s shockwaves level a block with a kick.
• Gorgon insists he will destroy city if Medusa not surrendered.
• Dragon Man captures Sue; Gorgon, Medusa.

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