Fantastic Four #1- The issue that started it all!

Time for the first of many review/analysis/general thoughts sections on the classic Fantastic Four- in a format I freely admit I borrowed from the ever-excellent Fourth World Fridays, starting from the issue that revolutionised comics and began the Marvel Age of comics- Fantastic Four #1.

Ah, that cover. Okay, let's be honest- so much about it is hokey and nonsensical. Why on Earth is Sue claiming she can't turn invisible fast enough? Isn't it instant? And more pertinently, what possible good would that do now that the monster has her in it's claw? It's not like she can phase through it or anything, so how could this help? And most worryingly of all, why in the name of all that is holy is Mister Fantastic trussed up in ropes? What happened!? Did the monster catch him unawares with a clever trap? Was he attempting to tie something up and tripped!? And as for the caption- well, of course they're together here for the first time, they never existed before. It's not like the Avengers where you're putting established characters together!

So much about this cover makes no sense, but you know what?It's still one of the best covers in FF- heck, in comic history. It's an exciting cover, that introduces the FF with a bang, throwing them into the fight against a giant, terrifying foe. And it's drawn by Jack Kirby, which really means it was guaranteed to be great. Hokey, cheesy, not-making-a-whole-lot-of-sense but incredibly fun and well done- it's pretty much a microcosm of the entirety of early FF!

Our story begins on a subtle note as the words "The Fantastic Four" explode into the Manhattan skyline in a giant cloud of smoke, much to the shock and confusion of pretty much the entire population. It's bombastic, it's a little ridiculous, it's somewhat flawed in its thinking (What if they're indoors!?) and it's still attention grabbing. We then meet our intrepid heroes. The Invisible Woman,- excuse me, Girl-  upon being apprised of the words, makes her way to the Baxter Building. Except first, she decides to turn invisible, which doesn't really seem to accomplish anything since she could easily have done all this visibly, except that it causes mayhem on the road and she manages to terrify a taxi driver. She then reflects that this proves she must be really invisible, which... seems a poor excuse, to be honest.

We then meet the Thing, who is attempting to buy a suit for himself while in a giant waistcoat, glasses and a hat- note them, by the way, you'll be seeing a lot more of them. When he discovers the smoke signal, he makes the questionable decision to shed his clothes and smash through the door (How did he get into the building!?), spouting dialogue like "Why must they build doorways so narrow?"  and "Bah! I cannot delay!" which sound more the forté of a super-villain than the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Benjamin J. Grimm. He also luckily avoids a bullet, because Lord knows the Thing is vulnerable to standard pistols. As he escapes, we cut to Johnny working on a car. As subtle as his companions, he turns into the Human Torch and instigates a giant aerial dogfight with a terrified air force. Still, he at least has the excuse of actually needing to do this to get there on time. The air force's reaction may seem a little out of proportion at first, but then-

...they decide to launch a nuclear missile at him.

...Okay, I'm not an expert, but I'm reasonably sure that this might be just a slight overreaction. A mysterious flaming object is certainly something to be concerned about, but scrambling half the US Air Force and then, when the threat avoids them and goes out of its way not to cause too much damage, reaching for the nuclear missile seems a bit much. Given the whole fact that they're in the skies over Manhattan and such a blast would incinerate everything within a God-knows-how-many-miles radius. Perceptive as ever, the Torch does indeed realise that if it hits him, the nuclear missile will probably kill him, but fortunately he's saved when Mister Fantastic... drops it into the sea. Mm-hmm. Well, I'm going to assume Mister Fantastic initially had the ability to stretch his arms a few dozen miles, and that no-one noticed the colossal eruption of a nuclear bomb in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  

Anyway, Reed saves Johnny and the whole group are assembled- notably, the Thing has managed to somehow get back his hat, glasses and waistcoat, making me further question the wisdom of his earlier rampage through the streets of Manhattan. Assuming it is him, that is. To be honest, he bears more resemblance to Darth Vader in a fedora than anything else right now, and the colours don't help.

Rather bizarrely, Stan Lee chooses now to take us back in time to the formation of the Four. Notice how I resisted the temptation to say 'Fourmation'? That took effort, I assure you. Essentially, they debate the merits of going into space. When I say 'debate', I mean that Ben makes the rather good point that if they go into space, they will probably die, to which Sue makes the not-quite-as-good point that they don't want the Commies to beat them to it, a reference which has thankfully been eliminated from modern retellings of the story. She then unsubtly calls him a coward, which leads Ben, who is apparantly as difficult to manipulate as the average four year old, to abandon all logic and swear that he will fly them to space no matter what. Also? To break the table, presumably to emphasise his point. 

This is followed by the four heading for the- and I quote- "spaceport on the edge of town", as Sue and Johnny justify their presence. Basically, Sue's Reed's fiancé, so obviously it's out of the question that he go to space without her, and Johnny's her brother, so obviously he has to go as well. This causes me to wonder what NASA would be like if real life operated like this and every astronaut was allowed to bring their entire extended family with them. And indeed, if they decided this on the way to the space shuttle. What happens when they arrive?

...Yes, the entire Spaceport is defended by one guard, as is confirmed in the next panel. And they leave the gate open. And the guard.... does not appear to be looking at the only entrance. And the entire shuttle is sitting there, prepped for launch at all times- apparantly, we are told, so quickly that the guard can't stop them. And Reed apparantly decided on the timing of his launch based on the weather. And it only takes ONE trained individual to operate a space shuttle. But you know what? However ludicrous and ridiculous and implausible this entire panel is, part of me loves it anyway. Because really, how awesome is it that Reed decided he wanted to go into space so he just stole a space ship on a whim? Granted, it wasn't that hard, but even so. No way this Reed was just a boring bookworm.   

Then of course, comes the event which will change everything- the cosmic rays.  This scene really stands out as wonderful. The sheer energy of Kirby's art, the red colouring and the overblown but still engaging dialogue of Lee- "My head! It- it's pounding as though it's about to burst!" really come together brilliantly here.  In fact, this continues the whole way through the origin scene- after they land, each of the Four display their new powers one by one, and it's all enhanced so much by both the art and the dialogue- you can tell they really enjoyed creating this. There's not much I can say about this sequence, because it speaks for itself. Other than the slight odd point of Ben's early desire for Sue (Which I'll talk about in a future post), the early voices for the characters really come together as they develop their powers.

The final sequence where the team decide to work together is probably the best part of the issue. Even though Ben is the most different and the most angry in the early issues, it's a great touch that he's the one who ultimately says that they need to "use their powers to help mankind"- and that's an early sign of the Ben we knopw and love. Cheesy and cliché it may be, but when the Four put their hands together, it feels like the start of something special. Though it is slightly spoiled-

...by Reed's insensitivity. This panel actually reads quite hilariously now- the name Mister Fantastic can sound quite arrogant in any case, but saying it just after your now monstrously transformed best friend has declared himself to be a Thing is probably not the most sensitive thing in the world. He's basically saying "Don't worry, Ben, you may be an abomination but I'm WONDERFUL!" Maybe Ben was right to try and punch him...

Meanwhile, back in the present day with the Fantastic Three and Darth Grimm PI, Reed is telling the others of cave-ins at atomic plants worldwide. With typical comic book timing- and comic book science- Reed's radar machine suddenly warns him that another one is about to take place. (How it can do this, I have NO idea, but to be fair, Reed Richards is much smarter than I am.)  We then cut to 'French Africa', where some cliché Frenchmen run afoul of the cover monster. We also get the first of many quirkily excellent- if overblown- Stan Lee descriptions of a foe- "It is unbelievable... mind staggering... but real!" After easily crushing some tanks in Godzilla fashion, the monster is recalled- by a mysterious master we are told is known as the MOLEMAN! 

Back in the Baxter Building, Reed tells the others, much to Darth Grimm's scorn, that he has pin-pointed the centre of these disturbances as Monster Isle. In another example of his both baffling and somewhat awesome adventurism, Reed has decided that the FF should head out there alone without bothering to tell anyone, which they do- aboard their private jet. (It's worth noting that the FF seem to have no shortage of transport means in the early issues, between this, the Fantasticar, the Pogo Plane and... the passenger ICBM. I kid you not.)  Barely do they land when they are attacked by a monster, causing Reed to once again demonstrate a fundamental fact of classic FF- Reed Richards is awesome. Rather than being phased by a giant, three-headed dragon, he turns his arm into a giant lasso and...

...grabs it by the neck and throws it into the sea. That is a feat of SERIOUS badassery right there. Reed Richards threw a three-headed dragon into the sea! And people say he's BORING?  Sadly, this success is undermined, quite literally, as the FF fall victim to a cave-in. Johnny apparantly forgets he has the power of flight and has to be saved by Reed turning himself into a parachute. (It's probably worth noting that in classic FF, Reed's power is used so much more inventively than ever since. I'll probably devote a future blog entry to it.) Reed and Johnny, seperated from the others, are blinded by a sudden glow, and when they wake up they....  have been dressed... in ugly blue adhesives suits!? Okay, I msut confess to being baffled. Did the Mole Man do this? Did he have his monsters do it? And WHY, if he just planned to kill them anyway? Come to think of it, where did the suits come from? Did he make them? But it doesn't matter because now they meet the first villain of the Fantastic Four! The awe inspiring! The terrifying! The incredible first super-villain of the modern age of Marvel! The-

...Mole Man. Yes. Well. Ahem....

Moving swiftly on, Sue is waking up with a giant monster right behind her. Fortunately though, she's with Darth Grimm who rather bizarrely chooses now to remove the fedora, overcoat and glasses and, in about two seconds, picks up the monster and throws him into the sea, while saying "I'm the Thing, ain't I?" which, it must be said, is not quite Reed Richards level but still pretty cool. Ben grumbles about Reed on the way, and Sue laments that he shouldn't hate Reed. Well, I agree, Sue, considering you're the one who called him a coward and basically caused him to go on what was, after all, a spectacularly ill-advised voyage. Meanwhile, the Mole Man is expositing his rather hilarious origin story, which is basically that everyone shunned him because he was ugly, so he, logically, decidied to find the land at the centre of the Earth where he could be king, only to get caught in a rockfall.

He then 'mastered the creatures' somehow (It's never actually explained) and demonstrates his astonishing power to.... fight with a stick. You see, his senses are slightly enhanced, which apparantly enables him to master the world. Also? He's Spider-Man. 

...Yes, it seems he has a prototype version of the Spider Sense, which is a funny little sign of things to come from Lee, I guess.  After explaining his entire plan to them (He even has a map, causing me both to wonder who drew it, as it's a map of the underground world, and why it's useful since he's basically blind.) the Mole Man is interrupted by the arrival of Sue and Ben. Ben tears off his waistcoat, fedora and glasses and- ....hang on, what?  Yes, it seems that after defeating the earlier monster, he put them back on again. Because, you know, clearly going incognito on Monster Island is a priority and necessitates a ludicrous hat, coat and pair of glasses. The cover monster then shows up, but is rather lamely defeated when the Human Torch.... flies around him. Meanwhile, the Mole Man's astonishing powers of stick fighting prove fruitless when Mister Fantastic.... picks him up. The four rapidly flee the island as the Mole Man's monsters close in, and Johnny causes a rock slide. As they escape in their plane, having somehow stopped the mole Man's plan (It's never really explained), Reed demonstrates the second cardinal rule of early Fantastic Four-

...Reed Richards is a dick.

...While he claims that it's because the Mole Man would never fit in our world, I have to say, it's still a pretty douchey thing to do, particularly as the island then explodes in what they assume to be the work of the Mole Man but could just as easily be due to Johnny's rockslide and the hordes of rampaging monsters. I mean, isn't that just a little short of cold blooded murder? And what's to stop the Mole Man from just continuing with his plan exactly? But he doesn't, and our intrepid heroes fly into the sunset, their mission apparantly complete, in their minds at least.

In all seriousness, for all that I mocked this issue constantly, it's one of my favourites. Yes, there are logical gaffes and bizarre decisions and inconsistencies and craziness, but you know what? It's so much fun. You can tell the creators had a blast on the issue, and it's so crazy and zany that  it really does work. Not to mention how revolutionary it was at the time to have four heroes who bickered, squabbled and didn't even get along. The characterisations are noticeably different- particularly Ben, who hasn't found his appearance or his voice yet- but you can see the foundations for what's to come, and a few more writers could take a look at these early issues for how to write Reed Richards and not make him a bore. It's not as good as a lot of what's to come and hasn't found it's voice yet, but it's also a classic by it's very existence. Still, knowing some of the brilliance to come here, I can't give it full marks. 

3 Out of 4.