Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: October 8, 1864 Cover: January 1965 12 cents Rapturously written by: Stan Lee Deliciously drawn by: Jack Kirby Impeccably inked by: Chic Stone Lavishly lettered by: Art Simek 20 pages
Then Ben trying on the Beatles wig he received from the Yancy Street Gang.
Mr. Gideon is a ruthless multi-billionaire financial wizard. By his reckoning, he is about 3 years away from buying out his top competitors and gaining financial control of the world. Impatient, he proposes they speed things up with a gamble. They propose the challenge. If he wins, they sell out now; if he loses, he stops trying to conquer the world. The challenge they propose: the defeat of the Fantastic Four.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: September 8, 1964 Cover: December 1964 12 cents Script: Smilin’ S. Lee Art: Jolly Jack Kirby Inks: Chucklin’ Chic Stone Lettering: Amiable Art Simek 20 pages
Kirby has used these photo collages a few times now, but this is the first cover that combines art with photographs in a cool collage.
This is the first time Stan’s name has ever been abbreviated in the credits: “S. Lee”. I’m guessing the letterer just ran out of room.
Namor is again the king of Atlantis (the exact same month Aquaman is first named king of Atlantis at the Distinguished Competition). Namor has the most fickle people. They moved the entire kingdom once so he couldn’t find them because of his affection for Sue. But I guess that’s all forgotten now.
Meet Attuma. We’ll be seeing him again.
The story is that Dorma betrayed Namor because he scorned her love, so she helped Attuma’s armies gain entry to Atlantis so Attuma could seize the throne. Women, eh?
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: August 11, 1964 Cover: November 1964 12 cents Story by: Stan Lee who has never been more dramatic! Illustrations by: Jack Kirby who has never been more thrilling! Inking by: Chic Stone who has never been more realistic! Lettering by: S. Rosen who has never been more than an hour late! 21 pages
Featuring: Human Torch and Thing Release: September 8, 1964 Cover: December 1964 12 cents Written by the Overlord of Originality… Stan Lee Illustrated by the Archduke of Action… Dick Ayers Inked by the High Priest of Highlights… Paul Reinman Lettered by the Lama of Lexicography… Art Simek 12 pages
Recall from Strange Tales #126 that Dr. Strange was about to battle the Dread Dormammu. And Human Torch and Thing had just defeated Puppet Master for the 7th time or so. Let’s follow up on Human Torch and Thing first. After all, they get most of the cover space, while one of Marvel’s single greatest stories ever is fit into a tiny little box on the cover.
This story is titled, “The Mystery Villain!” Mystery villains always give me a crisis of conscience. The format I use for these posts necessarily spoils such things. And I wouldn’t want to take away the joy of reading this “excellent” Human Torch adventure fresh.
Maybe this time, if I’m careful, I can avoid explicitly revealing the identity of the mystery villain. Mind you, I can’t actually avoid revealing the identity of the mystery villain (given that I want to stick to my standard format), but I can leave it a little bit subtle, make you have to think if you want the spoiler.
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.
Featuring: Spider-Man (for the moment) Release: August 11, 1964 Cover: November 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee, author of “The Fantastic Four” Illustrated by: Steve Ditko, illustrator of “Dr. Strange” Lettered by: Sam Rosen, letterer of… “Patsy Walker”??? 22 pages
Check out that cover. Quite the contrast with pretty much every other superhero cover. The superhero is usually portrayed as tough, dramatically standing against the odds. In the worst case, the cover might show the villain winning, but the superhero remains defiant. This one has Spider-Man cowering and hiding from the villain.
In this story, Peter decides to quit being Spider-Man. He’s thought about it before, but he’s about to actually quit for the first time. It won’t be the last time, or even necessarily the most famous time. A similar story will get told and retold across decades of Spider-Man stories and even make its way into Spider-Man 2. (More directly, the film borrowed from Amazing Spider-Man #50, which borrowed from this issue.)
Note we’re reading this and the last issue together because they make a strong arc when read together. In terms of continuity, it has been weeks since the conclusion of the last issue, so it’s likely several other heroes’ adventures we’ve read occurred in the interim.
The story begins with everybody reacting to Spider-Man’s retreat: heroes, villains, people on the street… guy can’t run away from a single fight without everybody having an opinion. Ditko is great at people reacting to things.
Wasp notes that wasps and spiders are natural enemies. Always found that a weird thing to say. But she’s said it before and she’ll say it again; it’s an obsession of hers whenever the topic of Spider-man comes up.
This is an excellent comic for helping shape the nature of the relationship between Human Torch and Spider-Man. They’ve had some banter and conflict before, but also teamed up. A friendly rivalry. We saw how friendly last issue when Johnny attended the Spider-Man Fan Club meeting and then was quick to help Spider-Man against the Goblin. Now, he seems uncertain. He witnessed Spider-Man’s cowardice firsthand, but still wants to think better of his friend.
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.
Featuring: Human Torch and Thing Release: July 9, 1964 Cover: October 1964 12 cents Written by: Word-slingin’ Stan Lee Drawn by: Picture-sketchin’ Dick Ayers Inked by: Ink-splatterin’ Paul Reinman Lettered by: Pen-pushin’ S. Rosen 13 pages
Dr. Strange gets a mention, but the cover real estate is again mostly devoted to Human Torch and Thing.
Thing and Human Torch battle Namor at sea, where they really are completely outmatched.
This turns out to be an issue of misunderstandings.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: July 2, 1964 Cover: 1964 25 cents A Stan Lee story spectacular! A Jack Kirby illustrative idyll! A Chic Stone delineation delight! A Sam Rosen lettering landmark! 25 pages
Never will this mass of teeming humanity ever forget that Doctor Doom once walked among them!
It’s interesting that this is the final story in this issue. It almost seems backwards. This is the full-length Fantastic Four story. That would usually go up front. The first story was a 12-page story which didn’t feature the Fantastic Four at all. That would usually be the back-up. But the 12 page story was better. So Stan put it first.
It’s still weird to me that this is the final thing in the comic, after the reprint and all the bonus material. This is the cover feature, after all.
How is it that we saw Dr. Doom alive in the previous story when clearly he was floating somewhere in space? Sure enough, a ship randomly rescued him… again. This time, it was Rama-Tut.
The story at least acknowledges that Fantastic Four #23 should have been the last we saw of Dr. Doom. It shows us what happened immediately afterwards. Dr. Doom was trapped in space, running out of oxygen reserves and falling toward Jupiter when his unlikely rescue occurred.
Rama-Tut notes this can’t have happened by chance. I’m inclined to agree.
Featuring: Dr. Doom Release: July 2, 1964 Cover: 1964 25 cents Earth-shaking script by: Stan Lee Breath-taking illustration by: Jack Kirby Epoch-making delineation by: Chic Stone No-faking lettering by: S. Rosen 12 pages
We get another 25 cent annual for 72 pages. The Amazing Spider-Man Annual we recently covered was a better deal. That was 72 pages of all new material, which is really quite the bargain for 25 cents. This issue reaches the page count by reprinting Fantastic Four #5. Now, if you’d never read the first appearance of Dr. Doom, and were having trouble finding it, that would make this just as good a deal.
The first page
Confusing opening. It seems to show Dr. Doom in a castle. Yet, we saw Dr. Doom get lost in space in Fantastic Four #23. Of course, he also got lost in space in issue 6 only to be miraculously rescued by the Ovoids. But the odds of something like that happening twice are too improbable to consider. After all, space is big. Perhaps this story is meant to be set before Doom fell into outer space. Because I was sure we’d seen the last of him.
This is the best drawing of Dr. Doom we’ve yet seen. At least, that’s my take. I’d like to see if I can break down what’s leading my instincts to that conclusion.
