mr. fantastic – Page 10

Fantastic Four #4

The Coming of… Sub-Mariner
On the Trail of the Torch/Enter the Sub-Mariner/Let the World Beware!/Sub-Mariner’s Revenge!
Release: February 8, 1962
Cover: May 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inks: Sol Brodsky (uncredited)
23 pages

Famously, Human Torch meets a random amnesiac hobo and decides without permission to burn the hobo’s beard off his face. The hobo looks like a character Torch read about in a comic, which convinces him to toss the hobo into the ocean. I would argue this behavior on the part of the Torch is inappropriate. But nobody on the team is setting a better example.

Fantastic Four #3

The Menace of the Miracle Man/The Monster Lives!/The Flame that Died!/In the Shadow of defeat!/The Final Challenge!
Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: December 12, 1961
Cover: March, 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inks: Sol Brodsky (uncredited)
23 pages

I read this comic in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1. The issue has signatures for Stan and Jack. The Table of Contents for the Omnibus credits Sol with inks.

The price of the comic has jumped up from 10 to 12 cents. Not sure we’ll be able to afford to continue this series at this rate.

The Fantastic Four battle Miracle Man, a largely forgotten villain. We see he can: fly; become a giant; change into water, metal, or gas; control elements, storms, thunder, and lightning; slice a tree trunk in half with his finger; withstand the Thing’s strongest blow; etcetera. How can the FF defeat such a villain? Well, there’s a twist I’ll let you read for yourselves.

Fantastic Four #2

The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space/Prisoner of the Skrulls/The Fantastic Four Fight Back!/The Fantastic Four… Captured!
Release: September 28, 1961
Cover: January, 1962
10 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inks: George Klein (Uncredited)
24 pages

I read this in Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 1. The Table of Contents credits the issue to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; I don’t see any credits in the issue itself. Online sources cite George Klein as the inker.

Hey, it’s the Skrulls! They were just in that movie last month!

Fantastic Four #1

The Fantastic Four!/The Fantastic Four Meet the Mole Man!/The Mole Man’s Secret!
Release: August 8, 1961
Cover: November, 1961
Price: $0.10
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inks: George Klein (uncredited)
25 pages

	#1	Next
	PRELUDE	Marvel Comics #1
	Reading order	Fantastic Four #2
	Fantastic Four	Fantastic Four #2

And so was born “The Fantastic Four!!” And from that moment on, the world would never again be the same!!

I read this in Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 1. The Table of Contents credits the issue to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, whose signatures appear in the issue. It claims the inker is unknown. Online sources cite George Klein as the inker.

Fantastic Four #1. Page 9. Panels 1-3. — What is their mission?

It’s clear to me why modern reboots and films of the FF has always been hard. There is a lot not explained here. Reed built that spaceship. Was it his? The government’s? Why did he steal it? Beating the Commies to space is an outdated motivation for many reasons in 2019. We’ve been to space. Commies no longer a threat. And what was the goal of the mission? They don’t say. Just to get to space? Yuri Gagaran did that in April, 1961. So was there more to their mission? Was Stan just not up on the news? The comic was out-of-date before it was published.