Hogan Reviews

Our next look at big Marvel comic releases in rough order is the chunk of comics that most point to as the start of the Marvel comic universe as we know it, with “Marvel’s first family” the Fantastic Four due to it coming out first (not including the 40s Captain America stuff I looked at last time, which wasn’t released by Marvel just absorbed by them later) What are they like? Well, they’re full of 60s comic cheese and lots of inner-monologuing, as you tend to get with, well, 60s comics. Is it still fun to read though, or is it just worth it for the historical significance?

Due to basing this “Origin” review on the Marvel Masterworks release that means we have ten issues to look at, and that means if I were to look at each one in detail I’d be here forever, so let’s instead focus on the more interesting parts, starting with the first one! Yes, Issue 1 kicks off with Reed “Mr. Fantastic” Richards having to signal his three allies for the first time (and he prays it will be the last… yeah, not sure that’s how it works out…) leading to Sue “the Invisible Woman” Storm, Johnny “Human Torch” Storm and Ben “The Thing” Grimm to all have an amusing intro vignette where they show their powers, plus a quick actual origin of the team being zapped by cosmic rays in space despite Ben’s warning. They arrive on Earth, discover their powers and decide to be called “The Fantastic Four”, agreeing to meet back up should their powers be needed, which is odd given that Reed and Sue are an item, Johnny is Sue’s younger brother and Ben is Reed’s close friend so you’d assume they’d be meeting up all the time anyway, but whatever. This odd family dynamic is what stood the FF apart from other stories at the time and made them a hit, and it doesn’t take long for Johnny and The Thing to start teasing each other and for Reed and Sue to end up being the parental figures, it really is a fun dynamic.

Funny how Ben Grimm, the prototypical “dumb strong guy” is the one who knew of the dangers instead of the scientists like Reed…

Their first enemy is the Mole Man, complete with a trip to “Monster Isle” and a tragic backstory of Mole Man being ridiculed for how he looked so he went underground, lost most of his sight to a cave in but due to his heightened other senses managed to find a whole underground world of monsters that he soon tamed. … Righty-o. It’s where the big monster they all fight on the iconic cover comes from anyway. Mole Man and his creatures are soon defeated though, ending issue 1. Again by all accounts the Marvel comic universe that’s still going today and inspired the MCU all started with this one issue of the Fantastic Four beating up a man who was made fun of for looking a bit weird. Humble beginnings and all that… Issue 2 sees the Fantastic Four face off against the Skrulls, which is fun to see them established so early on, complete with shape-shifting hijinks and a scene where The Thing becomes human again briefly, only to curse his luck when he turns back, the first real hint at how Ben Grimm feels about his powers compared to the rest of his “family”, as they can get on with a normal life where he can’t due to obvious visual differences!

Wow… that didn’t take much effort.

Issue 3 isn’t up to much, focusing on an illusionist called “The Miracle Man” but it does give us the debut of the “Fansti-car” and a breakdown of the Baxter Building. Issue 4 has the team go up against Namor the Sub Mariner, brought across from old 40s Timely comics seemingly for the hell of it. The story isn’t up to much though, it does have the Mariner use his shell horn thingy to summon large sea beasts though, so that’s always fun. Issue 5 is the next big one as it introduces Doctor Doom himself… by having him drop a large net around the Baxter Building. Hmm… Reed immediately recognises the voice as Victor Von Doom, an old college alumni who was obsessed with trying to reach the nether realm via black magic and then ended up disfigured in an accident and expelled, causing Mr. Fantastic to claim this will be the “most dangerous adventure of their careers”. A big net? Oh sorry, a big net and then a little dome hanging from his Doom Copter or whatever. Still, being fair to him, he did capture all four of them with little effort, take them back to his castle and then send the three male members of the Four to the distant past as… a sort of execution, I guess? Oh no wait, he wants them to claim “the gems of Blackbeard”, sorry. That makes more sense. The FF battle a bunch of pirates for a while only to be brought back in front of Doom, escape, smash Doom only to find out it’s a robot duplicate (classic!), get caught again, saved by Sue and then the four of them together fight Doom until he escapes via a jetpack. It’s good fun, obviously at odds with the more serious portrayal of Doom in later comics but that’s the 60s for you, no point in letting that bother you!

The debut panel of Doctor Doom, complete with chess pieces of the Fantastic Four and a book of “Science and Sorcery”… yeah, that about sums his character up…

Speaking of weird 60s comic-ness the next issue sees Doctor Doom team up with the Sub Mariner to take on the Fantastic Four in a story that sees Doom grab the Baxter Building with a jet and drag it into space, where The Thing and the Sub Marine do battle in spacesuits before Mariner helps beat back Doom, who of course betrayed him, sending him flying off into space. The phrase “well that was a thing that happened” comes to mind… Issue 7 sees the team battle the “Master of Planet X”, which is just a short alien with a large head and goatee, so it’s not very exciting (though is definitely funny!). Issue 8 features the debut of the “Puppet Master”, complete with the story that his blind daughter Alicia falls for The Thing, who is going through a grumpy “hate the other FF members” phase as he periodically does, and he winds up under the power of the Master. It eventually ends when the Puppet Master’s daughter tries to stop his evil ways and during the scuffle he trips over his daughter’s arm and falls out of a window.

Did Doom really just describe himself and Namor as a “Diabolical Duo”?

Issue 9 has the Fantastic Four run out of money and lose the Baxter Building, allowing the Sub Mariner to lead them to a cursed island full of “hostile natives” but further implies that Namor is in love with Sue, who eventually stops her fellow teammates from attacking Mariner as “it would be three on one and you never gang up on someone like that” which I’m pretty sure isn’t true, but whatever. The Sub Mariner gives the FF the money they need to buy the Baxter Building back and heads off to sea. Finally Issue 10 sees the return of Doctor Doom and goes really weird and meta as Doom arrives in the office of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby who are lamenting the fact that they can’t come up with a villain as great as Doom, only for the man himself to arrive and demand they call Reed Richards, who of course is more than happy to come to the aid of “Lee and Kirby”. The hell is going on? Doom eventually does the old body swap with Reed and spends a good while manipulating the other FF members into torturing “Doctor Doom” while he creates a shrinking ray for the hell of it. Eventually the other members realise what’s going on, Reed and Doom switch back and Doom is shrank down to nothing. Surely the last time we’ll ever see the character, etc.

Overall Thoughts:

I do like the idea of Namor just hanging about under the sea watching the telly until this happened to come on, spurring him on to start his next scheme.

The Fantastic Four’s first ten issues are a good laugh with the odd bit of cheesy drama (Reed and Sue’s relationship troubles due to the Sub Mariner catching the latter’s eye, The Thing’s struggle with how he looks, that sort of thing) but mostly cackling villains monologuing about their evil schemes before being defeated. As long as you go into it with the right frame of mind these early FF issues are a fun time, though I’ll admit I imagine the fun would run short if I continued on, which is why it’s good I’m just looking at the first few issues of each major character before moving forward in time.