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Fantastic Four #22

The Return of the Mole Man!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: October 8, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: G. Bell
22 pages

Happy birthday, Mom!

Lee and Kirby put their heads together to solve a problem that’s plagued this series since the beginning: Sue.

Readers have written in to complain. Lee and Kirby even had Reed and Ben respond in-story to their complaints. They listed everything Sue had accomplished with her powers, but also compared her importance to that of Lincoln’s mother and claimed her place was to help morale. Stan even had a poll as to whether she should even stay on the team. Readers voted overwhelmingly in her favor.

But there are genuine problems with her, at least 3. The first is that Lee is very bad at writing female characters. Not sure how to fix that. Maybe hire a single female writer or artist? Perhaps you could lure Ramona Fradon away from DC. There’s a woman named Marie Severin who I think is presently working on the production end of your comics. Perhaps she could help.

The second is that all the female characters feel like tokens. They have 3 superhero teams, each with precisely one female character. The Avengers are four extremely powerful males and a woman the size of a wasp. They will soon introduce the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, again with one female. When we get an all-new team of Avengers in a dozen issues, it will again consist of exactly one female. This is a clear problem with their titles.

The final problem is her powers. Invisibility can be handy, but its uses in a fight are limited. It’s just not a very offensive power.

It’s this final problem they tackle this issue. They will expand the limits of her invisibility powers to actually make her a formidable fighter. This is a good step in the right direction.

Fantastic Four #21

The Hate-Monger!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: September 10, 1963
Cover: December 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: George Bell
22 pages

The cover tells me not to dare reveal Hate-Monger’s identity. I fear that I am going to have to do just that. Spoilers ahead.

This is George Roussos’ first time on Fantastic Four and the effects are noticeable. He makes less effort than the other inkers to smooth out Kirby, and if anything only emphasizes the sharp angles of the faces, creating a more exaggerated style. The first page is meant to show the FF looking angry and hate-filled, so perhaps is not the ideal introduction to his take on the characters.

The first page lets me know this will be the most unusual, thought-provoking tale I will read this season. Often, Stan uses hyperbole in these opening pages. But I think the ending (yes, the one I plan to spoil; you are warned) more than lives up to Stan’s promises.

Fantastic Four #18

A Skrull Walks Among Us!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: June 11, 1963
Cover: September 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
21 pages

It’s perhaps cheating that I’ve seen so many later renderings of Super-Skrull, but hindsight being the new year, that’s not a great image of Super-Skrull on the cover. It suggests only that he has Human Torch powers. No hint that he has the powers of the entire Fantastic Four (well, no visual hint. I guess the text tells you). He should be rocky and flaming and stretching and invisible. My two cents. Though he’s also never rocky in the issue, just strong. But he should be rocky.

At this point, the earth has been invaded by about a dozen alien races this year. All of whom have given up and withdrawn entire fleets at the slightest hint of possible resistance. The Skrulls are the first to return, to try again after their ignoble defeat.

Their plan is to make an agent powerful enough to stop the Fantastic Four, reasoning it was the FF who defeated them before. But the Fantastic Four did not defeat the Skrulls, at least not with their powers. The Skrulls were scared off by pictures of monsters in comic books. So really, they should make an agent powerful enough to fight all the monsters that scared them away.