FANTASTIC FOUR #1
"The Fantastic Four" created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, inked by George Klein, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek
A flare shoots out over a panicked crowd that forms the words "The Fantastic Four!" The man who shot it hopes he'll never have to use it again.
Susan Storm is visiting a socialite friend of hers, when her friend tells her she sees the word from the flare. Hearing this, Sue turns invisible and leaves. Sue rushes through a crowd while invisible, and reaches a taxi to driver her towards the signal.
In another part of the city, a large man is trying to purchase some clothes, but the shop clerk tells him they have nothing in his size. The clerk notices the flare alerting the large man, who immediately undresses to reveal his large, orange, plate-like skin. He bursts out of the doorway, breaking it, forcing the police to chase after him gun a-blazing. The orange skinned man drops down into the sewer to escape, and makes his way towards the flare as he re-emerges. People scattering out of his way.
Meanwhile in yet another part of the city, two teenage friends, one whose name is Johnny, are working on a car together at a service station. Johnny's friend witnesses a giant 4 in the sky, and tells him. Johnny suddenly bursts into flame, melting through the car, and flying off into the sky. As Johnny streaks across the sky, the government officials signal the army to attack it. Planes are sent up after Johnny, which he manages to melt out of the sky. One plane manages to loose a missile, with a nuclear warhead on it, right at Johnny, before it goes down. Johnny tries to out fly the missile, when two very long arms grab the missile and dunk it into the sea where it will explode harmlessly. The stretchy human then grabs Johnny, whose flame has gone out, and starts to plummet to the ground. The four figures are finally gathered together. The narrator informs us they are the Fantastic Four and proceeds to tell us their origin.
Ben Grimm refuses to fly Reed Richard's rocket out of fear of hitting cosmic rays, until Reed's fiance, Sue, calls Ben a coward. Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben race over to the rocket base and sneak on board Reed's lightly guarded rocket. All seems to be going smoothly until they leave the earth, reaching the cosmic rays Ben had warned them about. RAK-TAC-TAC-TAC-TAC The rays penetrate the rocketship. Everything starts going crazy. Either Reed or Sue has a headache, Johnny seems to be smoldering, and Ben feels an extreme increase in weight in his arms. Unable to control it anymore, the rocket crashes back down to earth, and they all die!!!
Well, that would be a pretty abrupt ending. Especially given how the whole thing begins. I just want to divert from our story for a moment to point out that this story is not very realistic. I am very dissatisfied with the ongoing "realism" in comics these days. If you don't care, just skip this font when it rears its ugly head. Now on with our story.
The rocketship crashes back onto earth. The group emerge relatively unscathed, or so they thought. Suddenly, Susan vanishes before everyone's sight. She quickly becomes visible again a Reed runs to comfort her. Ben angrily warns them that it might happen again, when he suddenly turns into the orange-skinned monster, and grabs a tree to belt Reed with. Reed instantly starts stretching around Ben in a hold to keep from getting hit by him. Johnny shouts that, "You've turned into monsters... both of you!!" when Johnny himself bursts into flame and flies around. After they've all calmed down, they agree that they will use their powers to help mankind as a group. Johnny decides to call himself The Human Torch. Sue, The Invisible Girl. Ben, The Thing. And Reed says he'll call himself Mr. Fantastic. The Fantastic Four is formed.
As we get back to where they are now, Reed has assembled them together to show them some pictures of giant, gaping holes, where nuclear power plants have been snatched across the world. Just then a machine tells them that one plant is being attacked right now in French Africa. A huge monster comes out of the hole whom the French military fails to defeat. Reed figures out, based of the various locations, that the most likely place the attacks are coming from is Monster Isle.
Off the Fantastic Four fly to Monster Isle. They park their plane on the sea and start wandering the isle when a giant three-headed monster with wings confronts them. Sue turns invisible and Reed makes a lasso out of his arm, tossing the monster into the sea. The floor abruptly gives way under Johnny and Reed, who manage to land safely underground where they find a trap wall. They are both blinded upon entering and rendered unconscious. Johnny and Reed awake in odd suits. A voice tells them that they are blind from the glare of diamonds, because they have entered The Valley of Diamonds. The voice belongs to their captor, The Mole Man.
Back on the surface of Monster Isle, a big blue creature approaches Sue from behind. Thing notices and rushes to her aid, hurling the blue creature into the sea.
In Mole Man's chamber, Mole Man explains to Johnny and Reed how he got here. He was such an ugly human that he was shunned by society. So, he decided to live alone, where he wouldn't be mocked by others. He found Monster Isle and fell deep within, eventually becoming master over the creatures that live down there. He tosses a stick to Johnny or Reed (can't tell which) and begins to duel him, nearly beating him, when Thing and Sue show up.
The Mole Man summons more subterranean monsters after the Fantastic Four. Johnny flames on, and burns the ground causing a cave-in as the rest of the Four escape. They all get back in the plane as Monster Isle seems to blow up behind them, sealing the Mole Man off from the surface.
Bearings
- First appearance of The Fantastic Four; we will see them again in Fantastic Four #2. First Appearance of Mole Man; we will see him again in Fantastic Four #22
- Next we will look at Fantastic Four #2
Notes/Observations/Thoughts
- Welcome to my first post aside from the introduction! My plan is to cover every Marvel Comic from this issue onwards. Not counting westerns, or romance, or "funny" books. I might dip into those at some point in the future, right now I'll concern myself with superhero comics. I do plan on covering Sgt. Fury, too.
- If the Fantastic Four had not turned into the family unit we know them to become, I think a lot of this story makes more sense. Reed is this rich inventor who happens to be engaged to a rich socialite whose big power now is to turn invisible. Her brother Johnny must also be a bit wealthy, while Ben is just a pilot. I wonder if some of that animosity, prior to developing their powers, is class based.
- Was it Johnny who decided they should have "superhero" names other than their normal ones? In later issues, we learn that Johnny reads comics, and knows about golden age heroes. So, did he select his naming knowing about the original Human Torch? It's my understanding (and I could be wrong) that eventually it gets explained that most of the golden age adventures took place in the comics published in the Marvel Universe itself, while The Invaders is what "really" happened.
- How does this stop the Mole Man exactly? Once he recovers, can't he just start grabbing power plants again by making his giant holes?
Favorite Quotes
- "And I'm taggin' along with sis-- So it's settled!"
- "And I'll call myself... Mister Fantastic!!"
The images, story, and all character names on this page are trademarked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.
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