Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 7, 1966
Cover: October 1966
12 cents
Scripted with a smile by: Stan (The Man) Lee
Pencilled with a passion by: Jack (King) Kirby
Delineated with a dignity by: Jovial Joe Sinnott
Lettered with a lilt by: Swingin’ Sammy Rosen
Applauded with Aplomb by: Honest Irving Forbush
20 pages
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| Sgt. Fury #35 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #56 |
| Fantastic Four #54 | Fantastic Four | Fantastic Four #56 |
I have seen men build… and destroy! I have seen this world, which could be paradise, reduced to a planet of greed, and fear, and hatred! I have seen humanity with its heritage betrayed!
When Galactus came to devour Earth, Silver Surfer was his herald. But Silver Surfer met Alicia Masters, and she convinced him that humanity was worth saving. So Silver Surfer betrayed his master. As punishment, Galactus took Silver Surfer’s space-time powers from him. This presumably means he cannot fly faster than light speed, so is practically confined to within a lightyear or so of Earth.
Thing hadn’t been happy that Alicia seemed so impressed by the Silver Surfer, and spent some time moping in the rain about it.
Johnny and Wyatt have been on their way to the Great Refuge of the Inhumans since they left Wakanda. Along the way, they came across Prester John and the Evil Eye, which Johnny thought might break the Negative Zone barrier around the Great Refuge. But that didn’t work out.
Shouldn’t Johnny and Wyatt be in school?
Reed still owes Sue a proper honeymoon. Though he has taken her to the Great Refuge and Wakanda. But I guess she wants somewhere just the two of them where they don’t battle evil. Women, eh.
Thing’s insecurities about Alicia continue.
“You’re just being obdurate!”
“My religion’s got nothin’ to do with it!”
Ben does note it’s hot outside. Maybe it’s summer time, and that’s why it’s okay for Johnny and Wyatt to not be at school. Could they have already completed their first year of college? If so, has it been a year since Reed and Sue’s wedding? Then they really should have had a honeymoon by now.
In an amusing scene, mountain climbers expect to be the first people to reach the top of a high mountain peak. Only to find Silver Surfer has beaten them to it. They can still claim to be the first humans. Silver Surfer is a being made from cosmic energy.
Some good speechifying by the Surfer. Stan is in his element writing prose for the Silver Surfer, though not everybody appreciates it.
I, who have crested the currents of space… who have dodged the meteor swarms, and out-distanced the fastest comets… I must resign myself to this prison which men call Earth… because I dared give up the freedom of the universe to aid the hapless humans! But, I must have no regrets! Whatever destiny awaits me… I shall be true to my trust, though I am a stranger in a world I never made!
That last phrase, “a world I never made”, will become associated with the Silver Surfer (and with Howard the Duck). Stan is channeling AE Housman, and his poem, The Laws of God, the Laws of Man.
The laws of God, the laws of man,
He may keep that will and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did I make laws for them?
Please yourselves, say I, and they
Need only look the other way.
But no, they will not; they must still
Wrest their neighbor to their will,
And make me dance as they desire
With jail and gallows and hell-fire.
And how am I to face the odds
Of man’s bedevilment and God’s?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
They will be master, right or wrong;
Though both are foolish, both are strong.
And since, my soul, we cannot fly
To Saturn nor to Mercury,
Keep we must, if keep we can,
These foreign laws of God and man.
Silver Surfer claims he is trapped on this planet. Does that refer to more than his inability to navigate subspace anymore?
The Surfer visits Alicia. I expect the Thing to be totally cool about it.
Alicia sings and plays the guitar. The Surfer compares her music to “the distant sighing of a cosmic breeze.”
I think Stan is earning his paycheck with the dialogue this issue. He’ll develop a real affinity for writing the Silver Surfer, though the Surfer he will come to write isn’t the Surfer that Kirby created.
“You sound so discouraged… so disappointed! But you mustn’t be! There is so much beauty… so much goodness here on Earth…”
“Somehow, I can believe that… when I gaze at you… when I hear your voice… so gentle… so filled with kindness…”
Ben comes into this scene. Again, I expect him to be totally cool that his lady is chilling with the Silver Surfer.
Yup. Totally cool.
And, what purpose did he hope to serve by striking me? I, who am nourished by the energy of the infinite! I, who possess power enough to divert the course of a falling star!
Alicia tries to explain that the Surfer doesn’t understand because he isn’t human.
Indeed, she’d had to explain all kinds of concepts to him. What it meant to eat. She taught him of humanity, of love, of courage, of beauty. All concepts foreign to this creature of the cosmos. So of course he has no understanding of jealousy.
Never shall I truly understand the human race! What do they seek to prove by their eternal battling? What glory do they find in harming a fellow human being? Or, as I sometimes suspect, have I been condemned to a world where madness reigns!
I bet he’s thought more than once of late that he should have let Galactus eat us.
This is one of those outmatched hero fights I often like. Thing vs. Hulk, Daredevil vs. Namor. When one combatant just is in another power class than the other. This is a bit different because this time the supposed hero is just being a jerk. Which is less compelling than when they are standing for something noble.
Also, we’ll see that the fight is continuing only because the Silver Surfer is going easy on the Thing. He really is a whole other power class. But has no wish to harm the Thing.
We check in on Johnny and Wyatt in the Himalayas.
We get a cool photo collage introducing the Himalayas.
Why are we in the Himalayas? The Great Refuge was in the Andes. They were coming from Africa. I can think of no sensible path from Africa to South America that would take them through the Himalayas.
We see refugees fleeing a monster.
The monster looks like a dog to me. A familiar dog, in fact.
Realizing how powerful the Surfer is and how dangerous their fight is, Ben decides to lure him… to the city?
How about toward sea or to the country? Why would you want to continue this fight in Manhattan if you’re afraid the Silver Surfer might explode?
The monster in the Himalayas turns out to be Lockjaw.
Lockjaw doesn’t seem more frightening than the average dog. He’s a big dog, but no bigger than a Tibetan Mastiff, a breed people in the Himalayas are surely familiar with.
Wyatt notes the beast has his “gun in his jaws”, and that it has an “iron grip”. He’s getting close to saying the gun is locked in the jaws.
If Lockjaw has escaped the Great Refuge with his teleportation powers, then there must be a way out. In fact, since Lockjaw can teleport people with him and seems good about taking direction on where to teleport… this actually seems like a pretty easy solution.
Maybe Lockjaw can transport the Human Torch and Wyatt inside the Negative Zone barrier. Or else he can at least take them to South America. Since they seem to be lost.
Reed and Sue talk Ben down. Is the honeymoon already finished?
The Surfer admits he was partially at fault. Although he wasn’t.
We’ll go on to the next Fantastic Four issue. Not because there’s any need of urgent resolution on any threads. Just because we are finally done with July. And ready for August. And our August reading happens to begin with the next issue of the FF.
Rating: ★★★½, 65/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Mixed bag, but the complaints are minor compared to the positives. Good battle, lots of good dialogue. Thing having a temper tantrum not that compelling. And Johnny and Wyatt being in the Himalayas doesn’t make sense.
I read this story in Fantastic Four Epic Collection vol. 4: The Mystery of the Black Panther.
The Best We’ve Read is getting tight, so a score of 65 barely makes the cut anymore. I gave the same score to the last issue off FF, and that now sits at the #100 spot. I prefer this issue to the previous one and could swap them out, but both will fall off soon enough. One of my favorite FF stories is coming up soon.
Thanks to Richard for the cover!
Characters:
- Mr. Fantastic
- Invisible Girl
- Thing
- Silver Surfer
- Alicia Masters
- Mrs. Binns
- Human Torch
- Wyatt Wingfoot
- Lockjaw
Story notes:
- Wyatt and Johnny remain on the way to the Great Refuge in the “Near East”. But the destruction of the Evil Eye may have destroyed Johnny’s only hope of destroying the Negative Zone barrier.
- Reed and Sue plan to continue honeymoon; Thing plans a date with Alicia.
- Thing worried when Alicia doesn’t answer phone.
- Mountain climbers planned to be first humans to reach top of inaccessible peak in Europe. But Silver Surfer was already there.
- Silver Surfer notes Galactus has trapped him on this planet.
- Alicia on a shorefront retreat along the Atlantic. Silver Surfer’s tracking powers find her easily.
- Ben is on Alicia’s mind. She doesn’t know he’s been off in Wakanda or that he’s returned.
- Alicia is good at singing and guitar playing, and Ben likes to hear her sing. So does the Surfer.
- Alicia’s landlady directed Ben to her retreat.
- Thing jealous of Surfer, and punches him through wall, destroying it.
- Alicia notes the Surfer isn’t human, so doesn’t understand relationships or jealousy.
- Surfer fires cosmic blast at Ben.
- Johnny and Wyatt see refugees evacuating a valley in the Himalayas.
- Apparently their craft can fly; that hadn’t been obvious.
- Refugees escaping what they call the “Valley of the Monster”
- Silver Surfer builds up energy to make strength a match for Thing’s. Surfer then builds stronger, to atomic strength. Thing fears Silver Surfer will create an explosion.
- Thing cannot bend or dent Surfer’s board.
- Things gives a good pummeling to the Surfer.
- Silver Surfer accepts he was partially at fault. Also, Surfer only used a fraction of his power against Ben.
- Surfer repairs the energizer bolt.
- Surfer creates flowers for Thing to give to apologize to Alicia.
| Previous | #609 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Sgt. Fury #35 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #56 |
| Fantastic Four #54 | Fantastic Four | Fantastic Four #56 |
