Prisoners of Kurrgo, Master of Planet X
It Came From the Skies!/Outlawed!/Bound for Planet X!/Twenty Four Hours Till Zero!
Release: July 3, 1962
Cover: October 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inker: Dick Ayers
24 pages
I read this comic in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1. Dick Ayers is credited within the omnibus, but not the issue itself.
This is at least the fourth time aliens have come to earth in recent months, if you accept that all the stories we’ve been reading take place in the same continuity. The government may have covered up some of them, but the Toad Men broadcast their demands for surrender globally. There is no reason for a US military commander to be shocked by the appearance of a spaceship. Even if the Hulk and Thor stories were their own thing, the military guy should at least know the Skrulls attacked earth.
In general, I would prefer we move toward less scenes of characters being shocked by fantastic things. I prefer Betty’s observation from Incredible Hulk #1, recognizing that the world has fundamentally changed: “…with the strange and supernatural forces all around us, I feel as though we’re on the brink of some fantastic unimaginable adventure!” Or the phrasing from Marvels #0: “…the world would know the presence of the unnatural and extraordinary as part of reality.”
This issue concerns the Fantastic Four being summoned to Planet X to help prevent the world’s destruction.
Kurrgo is weirdly condescending toward the people whose scientific expertise he needs the help of.
Mr. Fantastic’s plan to save the planet involves inventing shrinking gas. He did this in hours. Dr. Pym seemed to have spent years on something similar.
The aliens seem to get help the day of the planet’s destruction. In that time, the FF fly to another planet, invent shrinking gas, convince the planetary populace to be shrunk, shrink the entire planet of billions, overcome the logistic hurdle of herding a planet of billions of shrunken people into a single spaceship, and get them offworld in the nick of time. Did this advanced species have no earlier warning? They at least had weeks, as Kurrgo has spent weeks monitoring the Fantastic Four to consider asking for their help.
It seems to me that under time pressure, buckling down on known solutions is the thing to do. For example, spaceships. Yes, they only had two. But that means they could build them. This was a good time to mobilize the populace in the rapid production of more.
Also, if Kurrgo was sending a spaceship to earth, wouldn’t it have made sense to send at least a few people with it. Then the species at least would continue.
The look of the saucer and the robot are reminiscent of the film Day the Earth Stood Still, while the plot is more reminiscent of This Island Earth.
Wow, the inhabitants of Planet X have a portable television set. Very advanced!
Kurrgo’s plan to convince the Fantastic Four to join him involves using a ‘hostility ray’ to turn people against each other and in particular against the Fantastic Four. Unnecessarily elaborate, and it didn’t really motivate Reed to come anyway. He agreed to come out of simple curiosity.
The FF have a complicated relationship with the government and the public. In their first adventure, they were looked at suspiciously: police went after the Thing; military jets were deployed against Human Torch. By issue 2, they were widely regarded as heroes, until the Skrulls framed them for crimes, turning the government against them. By the end, they were recognized as heroes again. That recognition continued through this issue, which opens with Congress giving them an award for bravery. The hostility ray turned the tables again, as now the US government was out to destroy the Fantastic Four yet gain.
We see new limits for the Torch’s powers. Here, he increases his flame to a fever pitch to attain the greatest heat in the universe, that of a super nova. (Not an expert, but a quick glance at the internet suggests they actually have their science correct here; at the time, a super nova may well have been the hottest thing yet observed in the universe; we’ve since exceeded that heat here on earth with the Large Hadron Collider)
This is the first issue that had some moments which felt truly Kirbyesque to me. I associate him with this dramatic posing, where the characters almost seem to be leaning out of the panel, and also with his distinctive fancy tech. Putting the two together on a splash page is very Kirby.
Kurrgo didn’t come off as the nicest or most competent ruler throughout the comic, but the plot until the very end had him trying to save his world. Stan Lee seems to think stories should have villains, so he throws in Kurrgo crossing that villain boundary pretty blatantly in the end, with plans to withhold the enlarging gas for himself, so he can be a giant amongst his people. The joke is on him as there is no enlarging gas and he dies trying to save the fake enlarging gas Reed had given him.
I want to emphasize something that has seemed pretty clear to me in the series so far: the FF do not have secret identities. None of them wear masks; people refer to Mr. Fantastic as Dr. Richards. And here they are in civilian clothes appearing before Congress and getting pictures taken by the press. There is no attempt whatsoever to hide their identities. I have certainly taken that as implicit up to this point.
The letters page has a fan suggest the Fantastic Five, a name the team will repeatedly adopt in the future when they make space for another member. I wonder if those future comics remember to credit the idea to Sal Anzaldi of Pompton Plains, New Jersey.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 52/100
Significance: ★☆☆☆☆
High rating mostly for Kirby’s artwork in the issue, not the pretty wonky story.
Characters:
- Kurrgo
- Kurrgo’s personal robot
- Mr. Fantastic
- Human Torch
- Invisible Girl
- Thing
Story notes:
- Alien invasion #4, but who’s counting
- No real fight, but Thing plays shower prank on Johnny
- The issue shows Reed experimenting on new space fuel
- Johnny photographed in FF uniform
- Public turns on FF; as in 1,2. Very hot/cold
- Planet X hours away (If the ships can cross great distances in hours, they could be ferrying a lot of their people)
- Planet X tech: anti-gravity; star travel
- Reed at the end claims there is no reducing gas; he meant enlarging gas. A fan will note this mistake in a coming letter column.
#20 story in reading order
Next: Strange Tales #101
Previous: Incredible Hulk #3
