Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner! Release: March 3, 1966 Cover: June 1966 12 cents Story by Smilin’ Stan Lee Pencils by Grinnin’ Gene Colan Inks by Dazzlin’ Dick Ayers Lettering by Snarlin’ Sam Rosen 12 pages
Where were we. Krang and Puppet Master have teamed up to control the Behemoth. Hank Pym and Janet were around at some point. We’ll catch up with them next time in the pages of Avengers.
We’re supposed to believe that because Krang is controlling the Behemoth through the clay puppet, the creature has better reflexes than it would otherwise. That makes little sense to me.
Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner Release: February 3, 1966 Cover: May 1966 12 cents Now this is a story! By: Stan Lee Now this is pencilling! By: Adam Austin Now this is delineation! By: Bill Everett Now this is lettering! By: Artie Simek 12 pages
Without much fanfare, we have Bill Everett inking Gene Colan. Bill Everett is the creator of the Sub-Mariner. Of course, for whatever reason, it’s the publisher and not he that controls the character. So Marvel gets to publish and profit off Sub-Mariner stories, and he only gets paid if he does more work. So here he is inking Colan’s pencils with Stan adding dialogue. Once Everett wrote and drew Namor’s adventures entirely on his own.
He’s slowly coming back to do more work for Marvel. The last thing he did for them was create Daredevil. But his Daredevil comic was drawn with immaculate detail and unfortunately not within deadline. So he got immediately removed from his own character, and only now 2 years later is starting to get regular work with Marvel again.
As of last issue, he’s the regular finisher on the Hulk stories within this title. He’s just filling in on this Namor story, but will be returning to Namor regularly soon.
I was down to two choices for the pull quote at the top of this quote. I went with one that best exhibited Namor’s personality. I could have gone with the more standard Stan Lee heroic purple prose: There is a time to flee– and a time to fight! While life endures–I shall ever choose the latter course!
I’m never quite clear on what the powers of all these characters are. Namor sometimes seems like Superman. But we see here he’s not bulletproof. He gets shot in the shoulder, and is wounded and losing blood.
Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner Release: January 4, 1966 Cover: April 1966 12 cents Blue ribbon story by: Stan Lee Prize winning pencilling by: Adam Austin Academy Award winning inking by: Vince Colletta Booby prize lettering by: Artie Simek 12 pages
Fire! The one element which is alien to me! The one element I fear!
Austin had unmasked as Gene Colan last issue. Not sure why were are back to the pseudonym.
We are into Namor’s second story arc in his new series. Though it will turn out to be less of an arc than a bunch of loose threads. Surface experimentation is threatening Atlantis; Namor resolves to go to the surface to stop it; the earthquakes created unleash the Behemoth; Namor finds Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne–formerly Giant-Man and Goliath–responsible for the testing.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: July 1, 1965 Cover: 1965 25 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Vince Colletta Lettered by: Artie Simek 23 pages
I now pronounce you man and wife! You may kiss your bride!
It’s the wedding of the century. Today’s the day. Half the Marvels have been invited! And the rest of them are turning up anyway!
This issue represents by far the largest gathering of heroes and villains yet, forever binding these disparate characters into a universe.
This issue represents the idea that there is no status quo, that these characters are at their best when they change and grow. Forward momentum is an essential ingredient to storytelling. Genuine, non-illusionary, change.
This is the most significant moment in the early Marvel Universe.
I think I’d have come up with a better title than “Bedlam at the Baxter Building”.
I wish Chic Stone or Joe Sinnott had been the inker. A few months too late to have Stone and one month too early to have Sinnott. Also, Colletta is uniquely suited to a long special issue with many characters because he’s famously expedient.
I appreciate that the headline takes for granted the public knows who Reed and Sue are without the need for surnames or superhero identities. The cover does the same for its audience.
Pretty cool this worked out to be the 400th story in our reading order. Currently on track to also have the 500th story be a particularly special issue of Fantastic Four as well. When we read Avengers #1, it was the 100th story, but then I went and retroactively mucked with the ordering.
Featuring: Human Torch and Thing Release: March 11, 1965 Cover: June 1965 12 cents Written in the magnificent Stan Lee tradition! Illustrated in the majestic Bob Powell manner! Inked in the magiloquent Mick Demeo style! Lettered in the mortgaged Sam Rosen home! 12 pages
Due to the tightness of forthcoming FF chronology, we are reading ahead a bit in these Human Torch stories. Since Dr. Strange is still involved in a big saga, we are still holding off on reading Dr. Strange stories.
Dr. Strange at last gets half of the cover, but Kirby’s work here doesn’t quite do justice to the tale Ditko is spinning inside.
Stan notes the story will start in the middle. That is unusual for one of these stories, but it’s a classical storytelling technique, en media res.
This issue promises a surprise twist, an old villain in a new guise. I don’t want to spoil the big surprise.
Featuring: Human Torch and Thing Release: August 11, 1964 Cover: November 1964 12 cents Stan Lee is our inspired writer Dick Ayers is our admired penciller Paul Reinman is our desired inker S. Rosen is our tired letterer 13 pages
Mad Thinker and Puppet Master team up to destroy the Fantastic Four; the plan is to use puppets to manipulate Thing and Human Torch into fighting.
I swear we’ve already read this story. Maybe I’m thinking of Strange Tales #116 where Puppet Master used puppets to manipulate Thing and Human Torch into fighting. Or Fantastic Four #28 where the Mad Thinker and Puppet Master teamed up to destroy the Fantastic Four.
Stan refers to the alliance of the Puppet Master and Mad Thinker as the “Deadly Duo”. That’s what Stan called the alliance of Dr. Doom and Namor in Fantastic Four #6. I guess there are so many alliterative appellations for abhorrent alliances.
The Human Torch In the Clutches of the Puppet Master!
Featuring: Human Torch Release: October 8, 1963 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Dick Ayers Inked by : Geo. Bell 13 pages
Can’t say I care much for the Ayers/Roussos team on art. Not sure what they’re doing in their rendering of the Thing.
Stan gives an acknowledgement this issue that the story is inspired by an idea from Tommy and Jimmy Goodkind. These were the children of a friend of Stan’s, who lived in his neighborhood.
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.
Is it the longest ever? Or might Stan be exaggerating?
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.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: February 12, 1963 Cover: May 1963 12 cents Script: Stan Lee Art: Jack Kirby Inking: Dick Ayers 22 pages
I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1.
Kirby got a fill-in for almost every book he draws in the last couple months… except for this one. This is clearly his baby in a way the others are not. That is also evident in the fact that Lee does all the scripts. That the Human Torch, Thor, Ant-Man, and Iron Man stories have rotating scripters and fill-in artists tells you where they fall on the totem pole compared to Fantastic Four.
I’ve struggled some (actually, for years going on decades) with the question of what order to read these stories in. I’m not alone. Marvel has published indices dedicated to chronology. The Marvel Chronology Project has painstakingly ordered the events of each characters’ lives to make sense. The Complete Marvel Reading Order is focused on what makes the “best” read, which includes keeping stories together.
So far, I’ve mostly focused on release date, catalogued in Mike’s Amazing World. Going in order by date has yielded several insights. I can see when Kirby suddenly had lots of fill-in artists take over. I can see cool facts, like that Thor, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man were all introduced the same day. It’s added a lot to my understanding of the context of these stories to go in time order.
Since most issues have been self-contained and there’s been minimal crossover, there’s been no reason to go in anything but date order. But the stories will become increasingly complex. And it might be nice to read single story-arcs together to appreciate them best.
I did some light fudging last time. Fantastic Four #13 was released January 3, yet I chose to read it after two comics released January 10. Similarly, this comic was released on February 12, but I am reading it before two comics released on February 5. That is because issue 14 picks up right where #13 ended, with the FF still not back from the moon. This will become more common, that the ending of one story will lead into the beginning of the next, and I won’t always be able to place such stories together. But this was easy enough to do.
It says “Part 1”, but there seem to be no other parts. Part 1 of 1?
As an example of something lost in the shuffle if I don’t go in strictly chronological order… this is the first issue we see something pretty cool. There’s a new logo added to the cover, with the word “Marvel” appearing for the first time. I’ve been calling this the “Marvel Age”, and now we see why. This line of titles is officially taking the name “Marvel”! But it didn’t actually begin here. It began last week with Strange Tales and Journey Into Mystery. We’ll read those next.
Prisoners of the Puppet Master!/The Hands of the Puppet Maker/The Lady and the Monster!/Face-to-face with the Puppet Master!/Death of a puppet! Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: August 9, 1962 Cover: November 1962 12 cents Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Inker: Dick Ayers 23 pages
I read this issue in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1. The comic has the signatures of Lee and Kirby. The collection lists Ayers as the inker.
We begin now the second year of adventures of the Fantastic Four.
Well, he did tell them to call him Thing…
I’ve found it weird the whole series that they always refer to him as ‘Thing’ instead of ‘Ben’. In later comics, they will mostly call him Ben. The writers seemed to have noticed it’s odd as they make a thing of it here. Sue calls him Ben, and he complains about how it’s only ‘Ben’ when they want something.
