The World's Greatest (?) Comic Magazine ...?

You see, there was this old cardboard box, that was stored up in the loft of our house.  And every summer it would get taken down, and I would be allowed to get into it.  And what it was, was a treasure trove.  A box of silver age comics.

Now, for those of you who don't know, the "silver age" covers the years from the late 50's to early 70's or so.  Basically the second coming of superheroes, beginning with The Flash being reborn in Showcase comics in `56, the rise (and fall) of the "Batman" TV series, and the birth of Marvel comics as titan of the industry.

Most of these comics, and there might have been a hundred, maybe a couple hundred, dated c. 1966-1968 - the years of my brother's childhood, and zenith of his comic book-buying days, obviously.  The overwhelming majority were DC's - Superman, Batman, the Legion Of Superheroes, the Justice League, The Flash, Green Lantern.  A scattering of other, lesser lights (Metamorpho!).  There were a bunch of Gold Keys (Turok Son Of Stone!), some Dells and Charltons.

And these...

My god - just look at them!

To my tiny little mind (I must have been around 6 or 7), even then, it was obvious that these were something special.  Compared to the staid, dull, and often jokey covers of the DC titles, these nearly exploded with action, violence, and menace. The flaming figures flying around in the foreground (while that arm guy reaches out for them, intervening) ... and who's that orange, rocky-looking creature standing in the lower left, looking alarmed? That hairy beast blasting some kind of power at the poor sucker hanging onto the rock (with an arm that wraps around it, no less), and the mysterious figure emerging from the left..And #70 there - a cover I found both exhiairating and terrifying - that huge, green, semi-faceless figure, looking out of the night, over the bodies of three (unconscious? dead?) figures, and the terrified woman in the foreground... no, there was NOTHING like these.

The interiors delivered the goods, too.  The stories were confusing, exciting, and full of life.  I would soon find out that the fellow with the elastic arms was Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic; that the blonde was his wife, Sue, also known as The Invisible Girl.  The young guy who could turn into a flaming figure was her brother, Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch.  And the pile of orange rocks?  Well he was called The Thing, or to his friends (and that became just about everyone who read the mag) Ben.

The FF's story has been told (in various versions) many times before.  The truth may be lost to history, but this much we do know: c. 1959-1960, DC, then-reigning champeen of the comic book world, had hit paydirt by reviving several 1940's era superheroes, with newer, sprightlier costumes, backstories, origins, and identities, and then combining them with their existing successes - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, in a team book called The Justice League of America.  Marvel publisher Martin Goodman, sensing profit, gave the go-ahead, or green light, to a Marvel superhero team book.  This was a big step, since Marvel hadn't published any superhero books since the early 1950's, and was currently engaged in mostly cowboys and goody sci-fi comics full of absurd monsters.  Head writer Stan Lee and main artistic workhorse Jack Kirby, in some combination, cooked up The Fantastic Four.

Fantastic Four was probably the most ground-breaking comic book of the 1960's, at least till the undergrounds came along.  It's the foundation of Marvel's whole milieu and practically everything that Marvel is, was, or will be flows from there.   That being said, by today's standards, the stories are often ludicrous, the artwork, despite being from Jack Kirby, the Michelangelo of comics,  rushed and crude looking.  To anyone brought up on the slick, adult-aimed comics of the 90's on, it's probably hard to see what the fuss is all about.  To get the FF now, you have to have context. 

In those days, before they too got Marvel-ized, Superman and Batman and all of the Justice League were a bunch of square stiffs, painfully dull and boy-scoutish.  (The Flash did at least seem to have a sense of humor).  The FF, on the other hand, were a different story.  Reed Richards was a stuffed-shirt scientist, albeit from the beginning an effective leader who had the despicable virtue of being 100% right all the time.  Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch was an-all-too-typical teenager - obnoxious, self-centered, emotionally unstable and headstrong.  Sue Storm was your basic helpless female (they later powered her up, but she remained a background member through most of the 60's and 70's).  And then there was Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, a lumpy humanoid monster. In the earliest issues, Ben was morose and misanthropic, with a hard-on against the human race and especially Johnny, who pissed him off no end.  For a brief time, he was positively disturbing, full of the implied threat that he might one day turn on his teammates.  While he soon mellowed into a big-hearted wiseacre, he retained an element of tragedy and suppressed rage that stayed with the character from then on.  These were anything but typical superheroes.

They shattered every cliche and trope they could find.   They had no secret identities and initially eschewed even costumes (they adopted uniforms early on, but were still often seen in action in street clothes).  Their names and their headquarters were well known to the public at large.  After the first year or so, they rarely referred to each other by their superhero names.  Reed and Sue were an actual item, not an interminable coy flirtation - but, in the first few years, Sue would be torn between Reed and Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, a revived anti-hero from the 1940's who was, in the beginning, the FF's arch-foe.  Ben would soon be paired off with a delicate, blind sculptress named Alicia.

I should digress and mention the FF's rogue's gallery - in point of fact, it wasn't terribly impressive. Most of their recurring baddies were second-stringers.  However, the Skrulls, a race of green BEMs who appeared as early as issue 2, have remained a menace in the Marvel U ever since.  Initially merely a failed (and illogical) invading force, they were eventually revealed to be a warlike galactic empire.  More importantly, the Skrulls had the interesting ability of shape-changing, and could assume the appearance of any human or animal they chose.

Dr. Doom, arch-foe of the FF and foe in general of the entire Marvel scene

And then, most importantly, there was Doctor Doom, aka Victor von Doom, half mad scientist, half medieval sorcerer, with a touch of Josef Stalin thrown in for good measure. Doom, forever bent by his rivalry with Reed Richards, would return again and again in increasingly potent stories, becoming not only the FF's arch-foe, but soon tangling with every other hero in the Marvel pond.  He was eventually revealed to be the monarch of the Eastern European postage-stamp nation Latveria, and an ally of NATO (he kept the Soviets at bay, via his own nuclear arsenal PLUS armies of androids, and numerous other goodies). He lurks in the background of the entire Marvel line, a dark menacing shadow, to this day.

The theme of the FF, it has been said, was family.  And that's how they functioned - not as a team of professional heroes but as a family (which, technically, they were eventually) who incidentally had superpowers and saved the world.  They rubbed each others' nerves and bickered and fought constantly.  They were regularly depicted engaging in domestic activities (eating, shopping, going out on the town or on vacations, etc) and, in time, most of their adventures began with them going about mundane day-to-day business, interrupted when latest menace arrived.

Lee and Kirby tore up the superhero rulebook issue after issue.  Nonetheless, again, out of context, this may not mean much.  The stories remained entertaining but crude and absurd for most of the first two years.  Then something began to stir.  In issue 25, an epic battle between Ben and The Hulk ended with Ben beaten down to the ground, hauling himself up for another, likely futile, try.  The story spread into the next issue with a disastrous "collaboration" with the newly-minted Avengers.  The stories began to take on a more sophisticated emotional tone, and more complex characterization and storylines over the next year.

By late `65, Kirby, who had been gradually decreasing his workload (at one point he was drawing probably 90% of Marvel's titles) and increasing the detail and quality of his work, began to take over more and more of the plotting and stories (though Lee continued to hold the byline and take the credit).   Kirby's drawing, even at its roughest, had always resonated with energy and power, but now that ante would be upped more and more, and with the addition (finally) of a sympathetic inker in Joe Sinnott, it became a thing of beauty - vast expanses of cosmic vistas, outrageous technology, beautiful characters and action that seemed to practically explode off the page.

The stories, too, gained both in sophistication (Reed and Sue married, and eventually she became pregnant and gave birth to a son), and complexity. With Kirby at the helm and soon pared down to three titles (FF, Thor and Captain America), the book exploded with mind-blowing concepts: godlike alien beings; a secret race of super-powered mutations, and the advanced alien race who had created them in prehistoric times; s hidden African kingdom, on the surface a backwater, but, in fact, a repository of off-the-charts technology; an entire anti-matter universe.   In that period (roughly issue 39 til Kirby's departure after issue 102), it really was something special (and let it be noted here that Kirby was doing equally mind-blowing things with Thor, and that Captain America wasn't far behind). Storylines routinely stretched across 4 issues or more, while equally exciting subplots might carry through a dozen issues, as Kirby's imagination stretched the form to its limits.  The FF became less a superhero comic and more a science-fiction title, concerned with exploration and discovery.

As the decade came to a close, Kirby, fed up with Stan, Goodman, and Marvel in general, began keeping his best ideas to himself.  His artwork remained stunning, possibly even better than before, and the stories remained exciting and entertaining, but the edge was missing.  He stopped bringing in new characters and concepts, and largely worked in well-trod territory (though sometimes still quite successfully - even lesser Kirby packs a mighty punch).  With 102, Kirby left the company.  The FF would never really recover.  The title mostly tread water for a decade until John Byrne managed to breathe a little life into it (mostly by bringing back in Kirby-like elements that had fallen by the wayside), but even his (acclaimed, overrated, but still worthwhile) run never scaled the heights of the series heyday.  For me, the FF begins and ends with those 102 issues.  It would be unfair and wrong to say there was never another good FF story, post-Kirby.  But it would be fair and honest to say, Kirby's run on the FF is something the like of which we will never see again.

This being the internet and dorks love lists, here are my Top Ten FF stories from the One True Era.  Note these stories are based on their own merit and their ability to push my buttons, without regard for their "importance" to the Marvel milieu, and ranked in order of affection and perceived excellence...

"The Hulk vs The Thing"/"The Avengers Take Over" Issues 25-26, April-May 1964

Picking up a story from the then-fledgling Avengers title, an enraged Hulk makes his way to NYC in search of his old team-mates and sidekick Rick Jones, intent on tearing the town up until he finds them.  With the Avengers looking for the Hulk in the Southwest, the FF are left to intervene.  Problem: Reed's exposed himself to dangerous viruses in an experiment and is incapacitated.  After Greenskin makes short work of the Torch, its up to Ben to hold the fort.  The two beasts battle across page after page - maybe the most epic fight ever seen in comicsdom and that's saying a lot.  It finally ends with Ben beaten to the ground.  But, in a great moment, he forces himself to his feet, vowing to fight on till the end.  This was grand melodrama and the point where Stan's writing and Jack's plotting turned from mere comic-book stories to phenomenal comic-book stories.

In the second half, the Avengers show up.  Rather than a fruitful collaboration, things quickly disintegrate into a comedy of errors as the two teams dick-wave and step on each other at every turn.

Having managed to screw everything up, the FF and The Avengers bicker about placing the blame

"And A Blind Man Shall Lead Them"/"The Battle of the Baxter Building" Issues 39-40, June-July 1965

Having survived an atomic explosion set off by enemies The Frightful Four, the FF find themselves without their powers.  Bad timing. As they try to replicate their former abilities, a particularly-enraged Doctor Doom invades their HQ and begins attacking the now-powerless FF with their own weapons and equipment.  Aided by then-newcomer Daredevil, they play cat-and-mouse across NYC before returning to reclaim their powers and confront Doom.  Doom was never more unhinged, esp. in his brutal hand-to-hand with Daredevil, and Ben's unwanted transformation back to Thing-hood leads to the most punishing beat-down Doom would ever receive at the hands of his arch-enemies, not to mention melodrama even grander than in the Hulk story, and a downbeat ending that must have dropped kids' jaws back in the day.

"This Man, This Monster" Issue 51, June 1966

Coming down off watching the world get saved in the celebrated "Galactus" storyline, a morose Ben wanders the streets late at night, in the rain.  Taken in by a mysterious stranger, who turns out to be yet another mad inventor, who this time manages to transform himself into the Thing, at the expense of leaving Ben back as plain old Ben Grimm again.  Infiltrating the FF with the intent of bringing down Reed, whom he considers a rival, the nameless mad inventor learns something about his nemesis, and himself.  In a title known for its epic, multi-issue storylines, here's one single-issue tale that showed us comics could be not only exciting, but moving as well.






















"His Mission: Destroy the Fantastic Four"/"By Ben Betrayed"/"When Fall the Mighty"/"...And So it Ends"   November 1967-February 1968

The Mad Thinker turns up in disguise to assist Reed in a plan to turn Ben human again once and for all.  Instead, he sabotages the treatment, turning Ben into a raging maniac hellbent on killing Reed and the rest of the FF.  Ben is depicted as genuinely and scarily homicidal in these issues, with a penultimate climax which appears to leave 3/4 of the FF as corpses.  The wrap-up is a non-stop slugfest between the revived FF and The Thinker's truly frightening android.  This was scary, intense stuff as a kid, and even Ben's sudden return to normal in the last issue doesn't quite take the unsettling taste out one's mouth.

Ben moves in for the kill at the climax of issue 70

"The Black Panther!"/"The Way It Began!" July-August 1966

Now, I did say these stories were chosen and ranked for their merit, not their "importance", didn't I?  Well, here we have a case where the two happily go hand-in-hand.  Kirby and Lee may have created T'Challa, the Black Panther, for marketing reasons, but who cares?  Instead of producing a token black superhero, they gave us one of the coolest heroes in the whole Marvel galaxy who just happens to be black - but not incidentally so.  His African heritage is, in fact, a defining feature.  And while his origin may be loaded with pulp jungle adventure ("I read all the Bomba the Jungle Boy books awready" gripes Ben, growing bored with T'Challa's tale), it's still grand jungle adventure.  Throw in the hidden kingdom of Wakanda, a technological mecca hidden beneath the veneer of a poor, ultra-tradition-bound African kingdom, one of Kirby's greatest and most enduring creations.  The Panther's been one of my top favorite super-heroes since I was about 7 years old, and his intro vindicates that all the way.

"The Name is Doom"/"Within This Tortured Land"/"The Victims"/"The Power and the Pride" issues 84-87  March-June 1969

En route back from another encounter with The Inhumans (see next entry), the FF are press-ganged by S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel's super-CIA, to infiltrate Latveria, in order to investigate evidence of a sophisticated android army Doom is developing. They find themselves held captive in a storybook European hamelt, stripped of their powers via hypnosis and mind control, and ultimately made lab rats in an apocalyptic test of Doom's new toys.  the final issue of the story promises "the most off-beat ending of the year", and for once, Stan was as good as his word, delivering, instead of the expected action-packed blow-out, a long dying fall of a climax that ends on an ambiguous note.  Kirby was watching Patrick McGoohan's late 60's cult-favorite, The Prisoner, and drew on it both for plot and setting, but also a series of  references any Village devotee will pick up.  Doom is depicted at his most menacing, a murderous devil hiding (barely) behind the mask of a benevolent dictator.  

Doc Doom gives Sue and Crystal a real surprise.  Ya think George Lucas might've had this issue?

"The Gentleman's Name is Gorgon"/"Among Us Hide The Inhumans"/"Those Who Would Destroy Us"/ "Beware the Hidden Land"/"The Coming of Galactus"  Issues 44-48, November 1965-March 1966

Although the celebrated "Galactus" storyline, which picks up right where this one ends, gets all the attention, this run, which introduced The Inhumans, a super-powered hidden race that have lived among us in secret since prehistoric times (The Inhumans would remain a major part of the FF storyline for the rest of Kirby's run).  This was where Kirby's imagination went off the charts.  Its also the beginning of Joe Sinnott's run as inker, which caused a quantum leap in the artwork (Kirby had been burdened with inappropriate inkers through most of his run to this date).  Johnny meets his love interest Crystal, only to lose her when the Inhumans are sealed behind an impenetrable barrier, shutting them off from the world.  High melodrama and even higher sci-fi mind-fucking.  This is how I remember the FF best.

"The Origin of Doctor Doom" Annual #2, September 1964

Though Doom had been kicking around for a couple years by this time, and the basics of his origin (disfigured in an accident involving black magic and quantum physics, now with a hard-on for the world and Reed Richards in particular), this was the first time his backstory had been dealt with.  Stan once said he was aiming for the feel of some 1930's period classic film.  He got it.  Gypsies, sorcery, mad science - an origin tale worthy of Marvel's greatest baddie.

"The Sentry Sinister" issue 64, July 1967

Ben, Reed and Sue take off for a much-needed vacation, and choose a deserted South Pacific island. Their destination just happens to be the exact spot where an archaeologist and his guide have unearthed the hidden outpost of the Kree, an alien race who settled Earth in prehistoric times.  They've also unearthed a Kree sentry, a gigantic android guard determined to protect the outpost.  Here's a story that anticipates themes Kirby would explore throughout the next 15 years, in titles such as The Eternals, and the Kree would go on to form a bedrock of the Marvel Universe.  Meantime, it's top-notch Kirby-Sinnott thrills, with a surprising, odd, even poignant (?) ending.

"The Torch That Was", Annual #4, November 1966 

The Mad Thinker revives the android Human Torch of Marvel's 40's, and sends him off to take out Johnny Storm.  A sentimental fave to be sure, but it was my first favorite comic, introduced me to the FF in one fell swoop, and is loaded with stunning Kirby-Sinnott art.

"What Lurks Behind the Beehive?"/"When Opens the Cocoon" issues 66-67 September-October 1967

Ben's beloved Alicia is spirited away by a mysterious figure who can walk through walls.  While Reed tries to solve the mystery, Alicia finds herself a "guest" in a remote technological complex called "The Beehive", where a team of renegade scientists are attempting to create a new life form, one meant to dominate mankind and protect him from his worst instincts. Ben, Reed and Johnny (Sue was mostly sitting adventures out during this period, being as she was preggers) arrive to save the day, but the super-heroics are an afterthought compared to Kirby's flights of imagination, Alicia's quest to learn the nature of the Hive's offspring, and the final revelation of what they've created.  The FF as sci-fi comic.

"Enter ... Doctor Doom"/"The Dismal Dregs of Defeat"/"Doomsday"/"The Peril and the Power"  Issues 57-60 December 1966-March 1967

The most spectacular of the FF's run-ins with Dr. Doom.  This time, Doom has stolen the Silver Surfer's seemingly unlimited "cosmic power", and is flying around the world, laying waste to anything that takes his fancy, toying with the FF.  After managing to (barely) avoid being wiped out several times, Reed finally finds the trick to outwit Doom.  Barely.  Again, this is mostly a showcase for over-the-top action and glorious Kirby-Sinnott art.  Isn't that enough?  Anyhoo, for good measure Kirby throws in The Watcher, the Panther (again) and finally wraps up the Inhumans subplot that's been running since issue 49.

"Prisoners of Kuurgo, Master of Planet X" issue 7 October 1962

Okay, this isn't one of the best FF stories ever done by a long shot.  And if I'm dipping back to the series first few years, there's any number of other choices I could have made, all of them more "important" in the development of the Marvel milieu. But I wanted to cram at least one early issue on here, and it's my list.  "Kuurgo" was the first early FF I encountered, and while it was clearly cruder and rougher (and sillier) than the late-60's gems, it had and still has for me a raw power that practically leaps off the page.  Add to this a story that practically vibrates with the same mood as the 50's era sci-fi epics I watched religiously on Saturday afternoons throughout my youth.

The Torch flies out of control in issue 7