[COPY] Fantastic Four #1
How a 10-cent comic built an empire
Fantastic Four #1 hit the stands in August, 1961. It has some of the awkwardness and wordiness of comics of its era, but you can already see an edge to it. Ben hates himself. The characters argue. Stan and Jack were reacting to the superheroes over at DC Comics, which were always straight arrows (and stiff).
Page 1: The first time we hear from Reed Richards (last panel), he’s expressing a wish that he never has to do this hero thing ever again. The reluctant, conflicted hero is a Marvel staple, and a significant differentiator from the comics published elsewhere.
Page 4: Central City PD: If in doubt, fire away! (The FF aren’t technically in NYC just yet).
Page 7: The freaking U.S. military is attacking our brand-new heroes.
Page 9: Sometimes it’s quicker to ask for forgiveness than permission, so Reed and the gang make the impulsive decision to fly into space before the Commies get there. NASA is none the wiser. The page opens with a particularly poignant moment: Ben, a seasoned pilot, says it’s a foolish thing to do, but they challenge his manhood and that’s enough to get him on board. This will be an ongoing source of guilt for Reed throughout the series.
Page 12: Ben indicates Sue “loves the wrong man”; in Stan Lee’s original synopsis, there was a Ben vs. Reed romantic rivalry, but that faded away and was later replaced by a Reed vs. Sub-Mariner competition that has basically hung around forever.
Page 14: A nice bit of storytelling. The first half of this issue gave us the origin of the team (cosmic rays don’t cause cancer, they give you cool powers!), and now the second half of the issue is their first outing to solve a problem. The last panel shows a hole in the ground where an atomic plant “behind the Iron Curtain” used to be. It’s like Jack Kirby was predicting Chernobyl.
Page 16: Giant monsters appear. Prior to this issue, gruesome monsters are a big part of Marvel’s creative output. You can look at this issue as a changing of the guard; the FF defeat the monsters, both in the story and on the newsstands. Soon the company will be all about heroes, and less about Fin Fang Foom.
Page 22: Another strong point of the issue, and something Marvel did often: the villain’s origin story pulls at your heartstrings. The Mole Man is a lonely, unattractive guy, and after being rejected by society he wanders the Earth and literally goes underground. Look at that dramatic final panel.
Page 25: Marvel’s first family concludes their first mission successfully, dispatching the monsters and launching a superhero publishing empire. In only a decade or so they will be the largest comics publisher.
Also on the stands:
Superman #148: “Mr. Mxyzptlk's Super-Mischief”
Justice League of America #7: “The Cosmic Fun-House”
Flash #123: “Flash of Two Worlds” (on sale July, 1961, but would have still been on the stands since there was no Flash book for August). One month before Marvel gave us FF, DC created the multiverse concept to explain the time gap between Golden Age heroes and their current (Silver Age) stories. DC spent the next six decades either expanding, or bulldozing, the multiverse, depending on editors’ whims.