subterraneans – Coke & Comics

Fantastic Four Annual 3

Bedlam at the Baxter Building!

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

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	POSTLUDE	Marvel: Heroes & Legends #1
Journey Into Mystery #123, Story B	Reading order	X-Men #14
Fantastic Four Annual 2, Story C	Fantastic Four Annual	Fantastic Four Annual 4

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.

Avengers #17

Four Against the Minotaur!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: April 8, 1965
Cover: June 1965
12 cents
Story by: Stan Lee (Who else?)
Art by: Don Heck (Why not?)
Inked by: Dick Ayers
Lettered by: S. Rosen
20 pages

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Tales to Astonish #69, Story B	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #18
Avengers #16	Avengers	Avengers #18

Here it is, the first outing of the New Avengers. How will they measure up to the old team? Lots of differences. In terms of power level, we’ve traded in a god and a man in a powerful suit of iron armor for a guy with a bow and arrows and a guy who runs fast. In terms of character strength, we’ve traded in four people who sustained their own features for 3 years now for three who have only been side characters. In terms of ethics, we’ve traded in four superheroes for three characters who were super-villains a month ago. Two members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and one lovesick Soviet stooge.

The opening tag refers to the team as the New Avengers, which is what I have always called them. Similarly if you hear me refer to the New X-Men, I probably mean the 1975 team.

It also lets us know the Avengers have begun the search for the Hulk. I’m not convinced they look very hard at all.

Avengers #12

This Hostage Earth!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: November 10, 1964
Cover: January 1965
12 cents
Written in the Marvel manner by smilin’ Stan Lee
Illustrated in the Marvel tradition by dazzlin’ Don Heck
Delineated in the Marvel style by darlin’ Dick Ayers
Lettered in the nick of time by swingin’ Sam Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#294	Next
Journey Into Mystery #112, Story B	Reading order	X-Men #9
Avengers #11	Avengers	Avengers #13

Avengers. Mole Man. Let’s check it out.

Mole Man is plotting to conquer the world. Ants are the first to notice his schemes, and they warn Giant-Man who warns the Avengers who… don’t take the ants seriously.

Iron Man is rocking those roller skates!

The moral of the story is to take warnings from ants seriously.

Fantastic Four #31

The Mad Menace of the Macabre Mole Man!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
Written by: Stan Lee, the man with the talented typewriter!
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby, the man with the power-packed pencil!
Inked by: Chic Stone, the man with the panoramic paint-brush!
Lettered by: S. Rosen, the man with the leaky lettering pen!
21 pages

I’d like to reflect back to Fantastic Four #11. Things were revealed there which are contrary to my general impression of these characters. Some key facts were that Reed and Ben had served in World War II. Prior to the war, they had both finished college. Further, he and Sue were sweethearts prior to the war.

We did a lot of math about what that meant, math I’m sure Stan Lee never did. But he must have had some sense of what he was saying. He had been a sergeant himself in World War II. He must have known that claiming Reed and Ben served in the same war he did made them about his age. He similarly knew that it was quite odd to have a sweetheart for 20 years and still not be married. He must have known these things.

The one thing I suspect he didn’t think about was that Johnny was in high school. This necessarily put a gap of almost twenty years in age between brother and sister. I have a friend whose brother is 30 years older than he, so I know this is possible. But I really don’t think Stan intended it.

Stan certainly gives the impression in the stories that Reed has let Sue stay single too long, but I assume he intends to mean she should have been married by 23 and she’s now like 26 or something. But that’s inconsistent with the World War II facts, which suggests she’s pushing 40 and still unmarried, but with at least two suitors.

Either way, Johnny is in high school. And whether his sister is ten or twenty years older than he, she is definitely much older and seems to be his guardian. There has been no mention of parents.

Until now.

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.