Tag: shrinking gas

Fantastic Four #16

The Micro-World of Doctor Doom!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: April 9, 1963
Cover: July 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
22 pages

I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1.

Astute readers are noting that this comic is from April of 1963 and recall that we’ve been reading comics from May of 1963. So what gives? Why is this one here in the reading order? Am I even paying attention to what I’m doing?

Well, issue 17 will pick up right where 16 leaves off, and the battle with Dr. Doom basically continues from one issue to the next. So I thought it would be good to read the two stories together.

One other chronology note. This issue also came out a month before Ant-Man’s appearance in Tales to Astonish #46. Which would leave me inclined to put that story after this two-part adventure. However, Ant-Man rides a flying ant in this. He first meets a flying ant in his own comic in issue 46. Prior to that, he always catapulted places. That suggests to me this story fits best after Tales to Astonish #46, despite the publication dates.

He catapults to the flying ants, which he uses like skis.

Now you’re wondering how Dr. Doom can be in this story when you recall him shrinking to nothingness. I, too, was convinced we would never see him again. But it turns out he didn’t shrink to nothingness but ended up in a micro-world populated by micro-people.

Well, I guess I was wrong when I thought he was gone for good.

It turns out sentient life is all around us. We know now the stars are populated by many aliens, some as close as Saturn. We’ve encountered–let’s see, carry the one and… 10 alien races in these superhero tales.

Plus other races live in neighboring dimensions, under the sea, beyond the Rainbow Bridge… and there are at least four underground kingdoms.

So we now add a micro-world kingdom to the list.

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Fantastic Four #7

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.

It sounded incredible the first time, maybe even the second…

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.

Continue reading “Fantastic Four #7”