Fantastic Four Annual 1

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 2, 1963
Cover: 1963
25 cents <– whoa!
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
37 pages

We just read no less than 5 Sub-Mariner stories from the ’40s and ’50s to have some context for this giant-sized Fantastic Four/Sub-Mariner epic we are about to read. At 37 pages, this is the longest story we have yet read. And at 25 cents, this and the Strange Tales annual are the most expensive comics we’ve come across by a factor of 2.

When Sub-Mariner returned in Fantastic Four #4, he learned that his kingdom had been destroyed and his people were missing. He’s been searching for them ever since. Until now.

Quite the opening couple pages. The bold imagination on display is Kirby at his best. But we haven’t seen that much of his true potential yet in these stories. He’s just been getting warmed up.

The Fantastic Four decide to take a vacation along with Alicia. Reed’s suggestion is to take a cruise to where some sea monsters have been sighted.

Ben and Johnny dismiss the idea of sea monsters as foolish. We’ve come across this weird skepticism before. Johnny has fought all kinds of monsters, including monsters from the sea! How can he just casually dismiss the notion. It’s time to wake up to the fact that there are a lot of weird creatures out there, from space, from the sea. Also, y’know, the Thing. How can the Thing not believe in monsters?

The sea monsters were a ruse to lure the Fantastic Four to Namor so he could give them a message. It seems like there are way easier ways for Namor to get in touch with the Fantastic Four. He informs them that the seas and skies above are his kingdom, and that human ships are no longer welcome to pass. Not a reasonable position to take, I think. War seems inevitable.

Reed addresses the United Nations concerning the Namor problem. One delegate, who is perhaps supposed to be Khrushcev himself, is banging his shoe. This caused me to search the internet and learn about the “shoe-banging incident“.

A scholar who turns out to be Namor in disguise gives us a detailed history of the Sub-Mariners. Homo Mermanus is about as old as humanity and evolved and developed civilization in parallel, just beneath the seas. He claims the first encounter between his people and the surface world was when his father met his mother.

The story of Namor’s birth is different than when we last read a version in Sub-Mariner Comics #32. In that telling, Captain McKenzie came to live amongst the Sub-Mariners for a time, before Fen helped him escape. We then saw he was even still alive when Namor began his first war on the surface world. In this telling, he dies soon after marrying and impregnating Fen, killed by the Sub-Mariners as they attack his ship and rescue their princess.

It’s July 2, 1963. Lots of key comics came out this day. Among them, X-Men #1, with Marvel’s most famous mutants. That very same day, Namor self-describes as a mutant. Almost 30 years later, Namor’s series will use the cover tag: “Marvel’s first and mightiest mutant!” I assumed that was something they came up with at the time to hop on the wave of X-Men popularity in 1990. But it turns out that Namor has been described as a mutant for as long as the X-Men have been around.

Namor declares war upon the human race. His forces seize major cities. We see New York taken over. They can’t breathe long out of water, so wear special water-filled helmets. As will often be the case, it’s not clear how New York fell so easily when there are so many superheroes around now. But it did.

Reed ends the Sub-Mariner invasion worldwide by inventing a device to blanket the world and make water evaporate. Similar to technology seen in the film Batman Begins. But I’d like to think that through for a moment. The point is, the water in the invaders’ helmets evaporates, so they need to return to the ocean. But what about all the rest of the water? The stuff that humans need to live. This seems like a very bad plan which could have disastrous consequences. But, no mention of disastrous consequences is made. So I guess the device really took out the water in the Sub-Mariner helmets, and not much else.

There is a possible explanation for the oddity that is blanketing the earth with a water evaporation ray. Kirby is drawing these stories and Lee is adding the dialogue after. And we’ve seen before that the art and story aren’t always quite in sync. The narration tells us the Sub-Mariners are invading many cities and dialogue tells us that Reed’s ray blanketed the earth. But if you just look at the art, we only actually see New York being invaded, and the art makes it appear like Reed is particular targeting the invaders in New York. An evaporation ray aimed directly at soldiers makes way more sense than one blanketing the world. So maybe Kirby drew a war in New York and Lee decided he’d describe it as a worldwide war.

There is drama within Atlantis. Warlord Krang does not favor Namor’s return. He had been planning to marry Lady Dorma to claim the throne for himself. Lady Dorma has cancelled those plans now that Namor has returned. She thinks she is meant to marry him. But she is upset to learn he seems to love a woman of the surface.

The love shape on display needs a diagram. I’ll try to convey it as best I can with simple text: Reed <-> Sue <-> Namor <- Dorma <- Krang. Now, does Krang truly care for Dorma or just crave power? Not sure.

The ending should carry some emotional punch, but I’m too distracted by how little sense it makes. Namor had finally found his people, only to lose them again because of his affection for a surface woman. With it so far. But how did he lose them? Every one of them abandoned their entire kingdom without a trace. If you’re mad at your king, then exile him, kill him, impeach him, somehow get rid of him… Instead of exiling Namor from their kingdom, they decided to move en masse. And they decided this very quickly. Because Namor took Sue to the hospital. The time it took to take Sue to the hospital was the amount of lead Dorma and Krang had on him. And that was enough time to convince all of the people to agree to overthrow their Emperor, agree to move, and actually pack up and move. Far enough gone, that Namor can find no clues where they went.

While they could have been going for emotional drama, I figure Stan Lee liked his status quo with Namor and wasn’t ready to upend it. This may be the first example of what would come to be known as the “illusion of change”. Somehow tell what seem to be stories that move the characters forward, but that really are stories which preserve the status quo. Namor finding and losing his people fits this description. I’ve never been a fan of the concept. I like forward motion.

So, the blue skin thing. In the old days, coloring seemed off and inconsistent, and no two reprints of older comics seem to agree what the coloring should look like. In this comic, they made the decision that all the Sub-Mariners are blue. Except Namor, because he’s half-human. Beyond their blue skin and hair, they look pretty human. Everett had drawn them a bit differently over the years. At the very least, they had larger eyes than humans, and some of them seemed to resemble giant shrimp. Dorma and Fen were often depicted with fair skin, but here Dorma and Fen are blue, like everyone else.

So, the Atlantis thing. I touched recently on my Atlantis confusion. I think of Namor as being from Atlantis. That’s how he was described in my childhood. But I can’t find that Everett ever described him as such. His people were called Sub-Mariners, and they had a kingdom hidden beneath Antarctica. And we have learned of Marvel’s version of Atlantis recently, the one that sunk. Iron Man went there. It’s the domain of Kala, not Namor. But, in this comic, they start referring to the home of Namor as Atlantis. They specifically refer to the new kingdom they’ve found as New Atlantis. So that is the name of Namor’s undersea kingdom. It would stand to reason that the people might be called Atlantean. They will be, but I don’t see that word used in this issue. And Everett always called them Sub-Mariners.

Along these lines, Namor claiming dominion over all the seas is, I believe, new. The Sub-Mariners always seemed to just want their little kingdom to be safe. Yet, now, the Emperor is proclaimed “Lord of the Seven Seas.” This seems to me like Marvel borrowing from Aquaman. Of course, Namor is the older character. So, 20 years earlier, Aquaman borrowed from him. But now I feel like Marvel is borrowing a little bit back.

So, the Emperor thing. The Emperor of the Sub-Mariners died in Sub-Mariner Comics #1 in 1941. By 1954 and Young Men #28, he was alive without any particular explanation. Now, in 1963, Namor is named Emperor. That implies to me the old Emperor, his grandfather, is again not alive. No mention here of what happened to his mother, the Princess Fen.

So, the Dorma thing. Dorma is his little cousin. Now she’s all grown up and they don’t mention that they’re cousins. Though she does mention royal blood, so maybe it’s implied. And now she wants to be his wife. This is not uncommon amongst royal families in history, or even in the current century amongst mayors of New York, so I won’t judge.

Some chronology notes. The omnibus in which I am reading this story actually places it after Fantastic Four #20. In terms of release date, it was released after Fantastic Four #18. This annual is even advertised as coming very soon in the letters pages of Fantastic Four #18. The letters page of #19 notes it’s already on sale. All the internet sites I reference agree this belongs after FF #18. So I’m going to overrule the omnibus ordering, despite how official it seems. The Epic Collection agrees with this ordering as well, so I’m going to call the omnibus ordering a mistake on their part.

Because this is a super-sized annual, 72 pages all told, there is more than this story. It includes a second story we’ll read in the next post. Also a reprint of Fantastic Four #1 and a gallery of villain bios. Seems to comprehensively cover their first 15 or so issues.

Oddly, they claim Sub-Mariner’s first appearance is Fantastic Four #4. This is obviously not his first appearance.

For Hulk’s entry, they put “From F.F. #12”. Which makes more sense. Indicating when the FF met Hulk, not implying that’s Hulk’s introduction. Please note that Hulk clearly has 5 toes on each foot.

We’ve seen a couple diagrams of the Baxter Building now, each adding to the last. This one acknowledges that Sue and Johnny live in the suburbs, but have rooms here for when they stay in the city. And notes that Reed and Ben do live full time in the Baxter Building.

We get a couple pages of Q&A to address all our burning questions. Like why Reed has some white in his hair. It doubles down on the idea that Reed invented unstable molecules, even though Ant-Man also claims that he did.

And apparently readers asked if Sue would leave the FF if she married. Ouch. I guess it was a different time.

Whew. This post took a really long time to prepare.

Rating: ★★★½, 62/100
Significance: ★★★★☆

I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1. You can also find it in Fantastic Four Epic Collection vol. 2: The Master Plan of Dr. Doom or Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four vol. 2. Or on Kindle.

Characters:

• Prince Namor/Sub-Mariner/ Dr. G.W. Falton
• Lady Dorma
• Warlord Krang
• Sue Storm/Invisible Girl
• Johnny Storm/Human Torch
• Ben Grimm/Thing
• Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic
• Alicia
• Nikita Khrushcev
• Leonard McKenzie
• Emperor of the Sub-Mariners
• Princess Fen

Minor characters:

• Mr. Barnes (Oracle crewman)

Story notes:

• Namor means “Avenging Son”. Not sure if we had that translation before this.
• Hints that the Sub-Mariners worship Neptune.
• Narrator refers to Namor as “Namor the First, Prince of Atlantis, Emperor of the Deep, Lord of the Seven Seas, and Supreme Commander of the Undersea Legions.”
• Johnny plays prank on Ben; Ben and Johnny fight; the fight ruined Sue’s Dior and Saks Fifth Avenue clothes; Reed traps Johnny with experimental asbestos netting.
• Ben writing letter to Yancy Street Gang.
• Johnny references his fight with Sub-Mariner (presumably Strange Tales #107).
• FF go on Atlantic Cruise ship “Holiday”.
• Archer fish blows bubble to trap Johnny; Reed captured by “oxygen-filled, giant-sized, magnetic sea shell”; squid-like fish ejects a large membrane which encases Ben and Sue; tele-fish used to spy; undersea sprocket fish shoot out gummy substance which smothers flame.
• Reed refers to Sue as the girl he loves.
• Fantastic Four have an amphibious U-car.
• Namor’s race: Homo Mermanus, “Man of the Sea”
• Namor notes 1920 is the first contact between species, when Fen visits the ice-breaker ship Oracle, commanded by Leonard McKenzie.
• Military leadership afraid to retaliate against invading army for fear of harming New York citizens.
• Villain profiles: Mole Man, Skrulls, Miracle Man, Namor, Dr. Doom, Kurrgo, Puppet Master, Impossible Man, Hulk, Red Ghost and Super Apes, Mad Thinker and Awesome Android. That’s everyone they fought through #15.
• Continuity note: the Q&A claims Johnny does not have a steady girlfriend, suggesting this definitely takes place before Strange Tales #113, released one week later.

#94 story in reading order
Next: Fantastic Four Annual 1, Story B
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