Marvel Compass #7

Fantastic Four #5

 “One flip of a switch and they will be mine!" -Doctor Doom 

Prisoners of Doctor Doom 

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Inks by Joe Sinnott, Colors by Stan Goldberg, Letters by Artie Simek
                         
Inside his fortress, a man encased in metal with a green robe around him places figurines of the Fantastic Four on a board. Next to him are books on demons and sorcery. The man’s name is Doctor Doom, and he claims that the Fantastic Four are nothing more than his pawns. He leaves his castle and flies off in a helicopter.

In the Fantastic Four’s skyscraper headquarters, Johnny is reading The Incredible Hulk comic book. He proclaims that the Hulk reminds him of the Thing, who is sitting right next to him. Thing snatches the comic, and Johnny responds by igniting his hand and burning the comic while Thing is holding it. They start rough housing, until Reed and Sue stop them. All of the lights suddenly go out in the building.

Above their building, Doctor Doom’s helicopter drops a giant net over the entire skyscraper. Johnny tries to burn out of it, surmising that it must be made of asbestos after he fails. Doctor Doom calls out from his shark-faced helicopter, “Fantastic Four!! Heed my words! This is Doctor Doom!!” Reed recognizes the voice as a student he went to college with named Victor Von Doom. He was into magic and tried to contact the nether world using a machine he had made, but it blew up in his face. The last Reed had heard, he was in Tibet. Doctor Doom wants to take Susan as a hostage, so the the rest of the Fantastic Four will do as he says. Sue complies, and joins Doom in his cockpit.

The rest of the Four are gathered up in a cell and pulled up into the back of Doom’s helicopter. Doctor Doom flies them all over to his castle, and releases the Four except for Sue, who he leaves bound. Placing Reed, Johnny and Thing on a metal platform in the middle of his throne room, Doom tells them he has created a time machine. He wants them to go back in time to retrieve Blackbeard’s treasure. He presses a button, sending Reed, Johnny and Thing back in time, before telling Sue that with the gems of Blackbeard’s treasure, he plans to rule the world.

“It worked!! Look! Look where we are!” shouts Johnny as they gather their surroundings. Worried about blending in, Reed spies two pirates arguing over a bundle of clothing they've stolen. The Thing bursts out, making the pirates run in fear of him being a demon. Fitted in the stolen garb, including a fake beard the the Thing wears, the team go to a nearby tavern where they are spotted by some other pirates. The pirates drug the three of them, knocking them all out.

Waking up, Reed, Johnny and the Thing find themselves on a ship. The pirates above plan to make them swab the decks. The Thing break up out of the hull of the ship and starts fighting the men. Johnny and Reed quickly join in, when suddenly their ship is attacked by another. Johnny leaps off of the ship with a shout “Flame on!”

The Human Torch attacks the second ship, burning it’s sails and creating much chaos among its denizens. He flies down into the sea, creating a large smoke screen of steam like he did when they were battling Namor. Mr. Fantastic stretches himself from ship to ship, creating a bridge out of his body for the Thing and the pirates of their ship to run across. The successfully beat the other pirates, and proclaim the Thing as Blackbeard, due to his (fake) beard. The three realize that the legend of Blackbeard must be about him.

Believing Doctor Doom’s intentions for the gems to be dangerous, Reed dumps the gems out and replaces them with chains from the ship. The Thing decides he will remain here in the past where pirates revere him, instead of coming back to the present where he is seen as nothing but a monster “In the twentieth century I’m nothin’ but a monster... a freak!” Suddenly, the Thing gets the pirates, now under his command, to tie up Johnny and Reed into a boat where they can’t interfere with him staying. Just then a twister approaches the ship, destroying the vessel, and sending the group spilling into the sea. After the ensuing chaos subsides, Reed, Johnny and the Thing gather one an island, chest intact, as in the present Doctor Doom presses a button.

An intangible square of light falls over the FF, minus Sue, sending them to the present. After revealing that the gems once belonged to Merlin and have magic properties to them, Doctor Doom opens Blackbeard’s chest to find the waiting chains. While enraged at the group’s con, the Thing rushes and clobbers him sending Doom’s body to split apart. It turns out he’s a robot. From the ceiling, a globe with Doom’s face descends telling them “I am in a hidden room above you!” He locks them in the room that the group is in and starts to drain out all of the oxygen.

As Doom is too busy watching three of the Fantastic Four suffer, he’s forgotten all about Sue. She turns invisible, and finds a switch to short-circuit the machine Doom is using. This opens the room to where the others are, and the Invisible Girl rushes in to rescue them. In order to avoid any booby traps, Mr. Fantastic stretches himself out a barred window to a nearby rock. The Thing uses the leverage to pull the wall out of the side of the building. The come across a moat full of crocodiles. The Human Torch does a trick, by burning to the intensity of atomic heat, to solidify the water so they can all get across. He then surrounds the entire castle in flame, trying to smoke Doom out of his castle. Doctor Doom uses a jet pack to fly out of his castle, with Johnny in pursuit. The Human Torch nearly catches him, but his flame starts to grow too weak making him fall. With Doctor Doom escaped, the rest of the FF race over to find Johnny hanging from a tree branch. Reed promises of both Doom and Namor, “We’ll devote our lives to tracking them down!”

Bearings

• The Fantastic Four will appear again next issue in Fantastic Four #6

• As will Doctor Doom appear again in Fantastic Four #6

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• First appearance of Doctor Doom, the Fantastic Four’s archenemy.

• Second meta reference in the Marvel Universe, Johnny is reading Incredible Hulk #1.

• Reed plays leader here well, knowing how to tick Doom off in just the right way by giving him false hope in the form of a treasure chest full of chains.

• Each member of the Fantastic Four all get their own moments in this story. Mr. Fantastic cons Doom with the chains, The Human Torch leads the through the moat by using his powers (I don’t know how what he did worked, but if you start trying to bring logic and our reality into the Marvel Universe it starts becoming a much less fun place.) The Invisible Girl rescued them from Doom’s prison, and the Thing clobbered that robot, and smashed their way out of the prison.

• Still much tension between Human Torch and the Thing. It starts getting less serious in a few issues between them. Especially once Alicia shows up.

• Doctor Doom’s plan seems a bit odd, since the Blackbeard’s Merlin’s gems thing doesn't turn into a plot later, despite how much Johnny wants it to when he mentions Namor possibly getting ahold of them. My theory is that Doom just wanted to try out his time machine, and wanted to use somebody else to test it. 

• Next we'll check back in with the Incredible Hulk!

Quotes

“For of all the humans on earth, only I have the power to defeat them!" -Doctor Doom

“I’ll teach ya to compare me to a comic book monster!" -Thing

“Bah!" -Doctor Doom

The images, story, and all character names on this page are trademarked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.

Marvel Compass #5

Fantastic Four #4

 “I thought he had died long ago!" -Mr. Fantastic

The Coming of Sub-Mariner

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, inks by Sol Brodsky, Colors by Stan Goldberg, Letters by Artie Simek
                         
Reed, Sue and Ben are in their tower hideout, lamenting the still missing Johnny. Reed points out that it’s Ben’s fault that Johnny quit the team, forcing him to listen to his recap of last issue. Ben flips a table over, before they all depart in the Fantasticar in their separate sections in search of the Human Torch.

On the ground, Sue goes invisible while searching for her brother. She becomes a bit parched, stopping at a soda shop for something to drink. Which she does while invisible, freaking out a nearby youth.

Reed takes a more dramatic approach to finding Johnny. He waits by the side of the road, plucking a teen-ager off of his motorbike. Reed asks if he’s seen Johnny, then puts him down and starts heading towards a field where some youths are playing baseball.

It turns out Johnny is at a garage with some of his friends, working on a car. The Thing successfully finds him there, prepared to fight him Johnny flames on. Knowing Johnny can’t fight with all the gas around, Thing lifts up the car they were working on, and smashes it into the side of a wall. They start going at it, when Thing starts turning back into his human form of Ben Grimm. Human Torch runs off, just as Ben reverts back to his monstrous Thing form.

Johnny reaches the outskirts of The Bowery in Manhattan. He decides he’ll blend in with the rest of the human derelicts that inhabit the area. Hiding in a cheap hotel, where people are sleeping right next to each other in cots, Johnny finds a comic from the 1940‘s featuring Sub-Mariner. Johnny recalls his sister talking about him, “Yeah, just like sis said, he could live underwater, and was as strong as ten men!” Johnny is interrupted by a man who claims there’s a bum around there who is just as strong as Sub-Mariner was supposed to be. He tries to get the bum to show Johnny how strong he is, but the bum is having none of it. Annoyed, the bum bats the man off his feet with his fist. He’s rushed by more men, who he succinctly knocks to the floor. More men come after him with boards and other weaponry, when Johnny ignites his own hand to get them all to stop. Giving the bum a shave with his hot finger, Johnny reveals that the bum is, in fact, Sub-Mariner.

Meanwhile, Reed is still out looking for Johnny. He looks in helicopters and trains with no luck. Invisible Girl searches The Bowery while invisible, but fails to find him, and Johnny fails to see Sue just as he leads Sub-Mariner out of the cheap hotel. Johnny flames on and carries Sub-Mariner over the ocean, where he dunks him down into the sea. Feeling the water all about him, he finally remembers that he is indeed, Namor, the Sub-Mariner. He also remember that he has an undersea kingdom, which swiftly returns to. He finds that it has all been destroyed by radioactivity “The humans did it, unthinkingly, with their accursed atomic tests!” He knows that his people could not have perished due to radioactivity however, and promises to find them one day. Re-emerging from the ocean, Namor sees Johnny waiting at a dock, and declares revenge on the human race for destroying his undersea kingdom.

Back at their headquarters, the rest of The Fantastic Four see Johnny’s flare shooting up from the docks. They race over in the Fantasticar, where Johnny explains to them the situation. Under the sea, Namor finds a giant whale-like creature with legs he calls Giganto, and awakens him using a horn. He leads Giganto towards the coast of New York. New York is quickly evacuated, and the military set up perimeters in preparation for the attack.

The Military fire artillery at Giganto to no avail. Reed encircles the creature with a smoke screen to slow it down. Johnny tries to do anything, but Giganto spouts water out of its blowhole, dowsing Johnny’s flame. Mr. Fantastic stretches his arm out to save him. Namor continues to blow his horn, guiding the monster into many buildings, destroying them all. Thing gets an idea, and goes to a military depot where they strap a nuclear bomb to his back. Thing carries it deep into the opened mouth of Giganto.

Inside Gianto, Thing finds the debris of many eaten vessels over centuries. Thing sets the bomb down and triggers it, when a creature with pincerse that Giganto must have eaten whole, starts attacking Thing. Thing manages to clobber it, and race out of Giganto’s mouth, just in time for the bomb to go off. The blast kills Giganto. Johnny and Reed collect the Thing.

Namor boasts above the three of them that they have still not defeated him, “You haven’t beaten me yet! As long as I have this horn, I can summon countless other sea monsters to attack you!” when using her invisibility, Sue grabs the horn out of Namor’s hand. Namor runs after what to him is his horn floating away and stumbles right into Sue “Well! Here is a prize worth catching!” Namor tells her that he’ll show the humans mercy if she promises to be his bride. Before Sue can decide what to do, the rest of the Fantastic Four show up, to which Namor tells them he’ll have both. He promises to unleash more sea creatures, until the humans are rendered back to living in caves.

Sue says she’ll agree to be his bride if he’ll call off his attack. Namor is appalled at this being some sort of sacrifice, and lashes out at the FF. Johnny flames on and starts encircling the sky faster and faster until he’s whipped up a tornado to suck up Namor and the corpse of Giganto into it. He shifts the tornado over to the deepest part of the sea. Namor loses his horn from the chaos, and is deposited in the ocean’s depths. Down there he vows to return one day, stronger than ever.

Bearings

• The Fantastic Four will appear again next issue in Fantastic Four #5

• First appearance of Namor, the Sub-Mariner since the golden age. He will appear again in Fantastic Four #6

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• This issue brings my favorite character back into the Marvel Universe, Namor, the Sub-Mariner. The most sure thing about Namor is that he is arrogant and angry. But somewhere in that arrogance and rage is a well defined character, who is not after just world conquest, or riches. There is reason behind his rage. In this story, he has just woken up from about a decade of thinking he was nothing more than a street bum, into realizing that he is a prince of an undersea kingdom that has seemed to have been destroyed by humans in his absence.

• Reed plays leader here when he guilts Ben into searching for Johnny, which ultimately pays off. Reed’s method searching is pretty peculiar, pulling teenagers off their motorbikes, and just sort of wandering around aimlessly for Johnny.

• Sue isn’t much better, after what seems like maybe 10 minutes of searching, she decides to stop and get a soda. She’s much more effective later when she grabs Namor’s mighty horn.

• Points for Thing actually finding Johnny in a logical place, and his near sacrifice to stop Giganto. Points off for his “One-side, woman!” and scaring Johnny off when he first finds him.

• Human Torch saves the day again, although the ending seems a bit rushed with his tornado thing.

• Really love the panels in The Bowery when Johnny is hiding out there. You can feel the dinginess, and almost smell the cheap alcohol.

• Poor Giganto. While Namor has been “asleep” for nearly a decade, Giganto has probably been asleep for centuries, only to be woken up by Namor’s horn and attack the city by his guidance. All to die by a bomb going off inside of it.

Quotes

“You young fool!! Do not feel proud of what you have done!!” 
-Namor

The images, story, and all character names on this page are trademarked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.

Marvel Compass #4

Fantastic Four #3

 “If we're a team, we should look like a team" -Invisible Girl 

The Menace of the Miracle Man 

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Inks by Sol Brodsky, Colors by Stan Goldberg, Letters by Artie Simek  

The latest sensation in the New York of the Marvel Universe is capturing the citizenry’s attention. He is called the Miracle Man, and at this particular show, the Fantastic Four are in attendance. Miracle Man spots them, and calls them out. He proclaims “Next to my power, they are nothing!” At which point, he grows to a huge size, turns his body to a gas form, and then unleashes bolts of lightning. He then challenges the Thing to a test of strength, revealing two large tree stumps, one for Ben to cut through with his hand, and one for himself. It takes Ben all of three hits to smash the stump in two. When it’s the Miracle Man’s turn, he cleaves his stump with only one swipe of his finger through it. Angered, the Thing tries to attack Miracle Man, but his fist bounces right off. The rest of the Fantastic Four hold Ben back, and leave the show. On their way home, Reed contemplates what would happen if Miracle Man turned out to be a criminal. After the success of his show, the Miracle Man is now plotting to strike fear in humanity using the display of a statue outside a movie theatre.

The Fantastic Four reach their headquarters, a large tower in the middle of New York. At home, Johnny decides he’ll see what’s on TV and finds that they’ll be premiering the movie at the theatre. Sue reveals that she has made costumes for them all to wear the cement their roles as crime fighters. On the TV, Johnny notices that the Miracle Man is at the movie premiere, he makes some odd gesture and suddenly the monster display comes to life. It starts attacking everyone. The Fantastic Four call the commissioner, who has received a note from Miracle Man declaring war on the human race, for him to conquer.

The Fantastic Four split up in the Fantasticar in search of Miracle Man. Reed finds the monster, just as it is destroying and robbing a jewelry store. He stretches his body into a net to stop it, but is knocked out when the Miracle Man throws a brick at his head. At the police headquarters the commissioner tells Reed how disappointed he is in him.The Human Torch finds the monster as it is battling the army, trying to destroy their new atomic tank.

Sue and Ben see Johnny’s flame in the sky. They follow it to where he is battling the monster. Before they reach him, the Human Torch manages to burn the monster down to cinders, since it is just made of wood and plaster. The Miracle Man shoots a chemical foam at Johnny, snuffing out his flame. The Thing prepares to retaliate, but the Miracle Man causes the ground beneath Ben’s feet to tremble and swallow him up to his shoulders. The Invisible Girl tells Johnny and Ben that she’ll capture Miracle Man on her own. She sneaks into the back of a truck he has stolen, that carries the atomic tank.

Back at their headquarters, Ben, Johnny and Reed argue over Sue trying to take action by herself. Ben recounts their origin if you’re new. Johnny and Ben get into it for a bit, with the Human Torch storming off. Meanwhile, Sue has followed the Miracle Man to a junkyard full of cars. He plans to hide the atomic tank there. Suddenly, Susan is alerted by a dog who has caught her scent while she’s invisible. The Miracle Man figures out she must be there, and hypnotizes her into revealing herself. Under his spell, the Invisible Girl fires her Fantastic Four flare to summon the others, so that Miracle Man can dispose of them. Ben and Reed see it from the roof, and take off in a helicopter.

Meanwhile, Johnny is at a soda fountain where his friends are annoying him, asking if they can join the Fantastic Four. He sees the flare in the sky, and takes off as his friends beg him to join the group “Where the Human Torch goes, he goes alone!”

Reed and Ben reach the junkyard first, where Miracle Man is pointing a giant key at them. The key transforms into a machine gun that he starts firing and Mr. Fantastic and Thing. Mr. Fantastic rolls up into a rubber ball to bounce fast enough to avoid the bullets. Thing lunges between Reed and the bullets, taking the full brunt of them on his rocky exterior until the gun runs out of ammo. The Miracle Man tries to flee, with Sue in tow, using the atomic tank, when Human Torch finally arrives.

They grab an antique car that happens to be lying around, and chase after the atomic tank. The tank fires back at them, hitting a tire. Mr. Fantastic stretches into a tire to replace it, fitting himself to the spokes. Johnny leaps out of the car, flaming on after the tank. Human Torch burns so brightly that it blinds the Miracle Man, forcing him to stop and get out of the tank. Thing nearly clobbers Miracle Man, when he is stopped by Reed and Johnny. Reed makes Miracle Man take Sue out of her trance or he will sic Thing on him.

Reed has figured out that all off Miracle Man’s “miracles” were actually acts of hypnotism that he used to fool everyone into seeing his tricks. Human Torch’s brightness canceled his powers out by nearly blinding him. Thing can’t get over the fact that the Human Torch was the one who saved them all. This causes Johnny to leave the team. Reed worries about what would happen, should the Human Torch decide to fight against them.

Bearings

• The Fantastic Four will appear again in Fantastic Four #4

• The Miracle Man will appear again in Fantastic Four #138

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• Impact on the world: Since there are people like the Fantastic Four in the world now, people are ready to see even more impossible things, whether they are real or not.

• It’s funny that Sue, the one who turns invisible, is concerned with their appearances. Maybe she is over-compensating with how tenuous the group seems to be holding. Especially as we see at the end where Johnny, her own brother, leaves. 

• Sue finally does something useful. She trails the Miracle Man to the junkyard, unfortunately she’s caught, but without her the rest of the Fantastic Four would not have shown up. It’s a shame how the rest of the group react to her going after him by herself.

• Thing shows both sides of himself in this issue, he risks his life blocking the bullets from Miracle Man’s machine gun for Reed. However, he also annoys Johnny to such an extent that Johnny leaves the team.

• Reed doesn’t do a whole lot in this issue except getting hit a lot. His leadership does show up at the beginning where he’s already thinking what would happen if the Miracle Man turns against humanity, which he does.

• Human Torch saves the day! And then quits. What an angsty teen-ager.

• The Fantastic Four are now officially superheroes! In the last two issues they were on the run from the military and wearing civilian clothing. With this issue they get their costumes and live in the Baxter Building.

• It’s ironic that the Miracle Man was trying to launch his plan by becoming celebrity, that when he is beaten, it launches the Fantastic Four even more, into their superstardom.

• Next issue brings back one of my favorite characters to the Marvel Universe: Namor, the Sub-Mariner: Marvel’s First Mut... No, Marvel’s first anti-hero.

Quotes

“I ain’t gonna wear this fool outfit!” -Thing

“One Invisible Girl can sometimes accomplish more than a battalion!” -Invisible Girl

“Do as I say, or I’ll turn you over to the Thing!” -Mr. Fantastic

The images, story, and all character names on this page are trademarked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.

Marvel Compass #2

Fantastic Four #2

 “Well, maybe they're right! Maybe I am a monster! I look like one-- and sometimes I feel like one!" -Thing

"Skrulls From Outer Space" by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Inks by George Klein, Colors by Stan Goldberg, Letters by Artie Simek

                         

The Thing is swimming toward an oil platform in the ocean. When he reaches it he destroys it, bringing the whole structure down. At a jewelry store, the Invisible Girl is looking at a diamond worth nearly ten million dollars. She vanishes with the gem, causing the shopkeep and guards to panic. They are both simply gone. In the midwest, a priceless, marble statue is being presented to a crowd, when the Human Torch flies through it, melting the marble down. I don’t know how it melts, I thought marble cracked. In the middle of a large city, Mr. Fantastic’s arm reaches through the window of a power plant. He pulls a switch, and the entire city is powerless. The four meet up to reveal that they are shapeshifting aliens named Skrulls who have taken on the appearance of the Fantastic Four in preparation for an alien invasion.
The earth, or at least the United States, are now set even more against the Fantastic Four who have been vacationing in a cabin. They hear the news on the radio, and after a recount of their origin, the military arrive. They surround the cabin, forcing the Fantastic Four to come out, who then become their prisoners. The army isolates them in separate cells designed to counteract each of their powers. However, when two guards come to feed Invisible Girl they don’t count on her going invisible, and she slips right by them, leaving them confused. Human Torch manages to burn his way out of the air duct of his asbestos coated cell. The Thing smashes the steel wall of his cell enough that it all shatters. Mr. Fantastic finds a loose rivet in the door to his cell, and uses his stretching powers to squeeze his body through it. The Fantastic Four escape the army base and hide in one of their many safe houses.
In order to draw the Skrulls out, the Human Torch decides he will sabotage a rocket launch. His plan works, and the Skrulls whisk him away to their lair, thinking he is their false Human Torch. When they reach the building the Skrulls are hiding out in, they see that they have taken the real Human Torch. He fires a flare out the window to signal the rest of his team, before the Skrulls can attack him. As their battle commences, Thing smashes through a wall and Mr. Fantastic appears through a window, saving Johnny from getting shot by one of the Skrulls. Reed grabs the gun, and holds the Skrulls at bay with it, while Thing wants to simply smash them all for making them outcasts. They calm Thing down, and make the Skrulls reveal their plan.
Mr. Fantastic decides that they will pose as the Skrulls and board their ship waiting in space to make the fleet leave. They enter a ship concealed as a water tower and blast off to the mother ship. Aboard the ship, posed as the Skrulls still on earth, Reed convinces the Skrull general that earth is too dangerous for them to invade. He shows the Skrull clippings from Journey Into Mystery and Strange Tales of giant monsters and ants “I pray he doesn’t suspect that they’re actually clipped from “Strange Tales” and “Journey Into Mystery”!” Reed tells him that they will remain behind to remove all evidence of the Skrulls invasion from earth. The Skrull general gives him a medal for his supposed sacrifice.
They fly water tower ship back down to earth. As they do, they pass through the cosmic rays that gave them their powers. This forces Thing to change back into Ben. When they land, the police have caught up with them. Ben happily notices his change back into his human form, but it doesn’t last long, and he quickly changes back into the rocky monster. The police chief  tells them that they are all under arrest, but Reed promises he can clear their names if they follow his group.
The Fantastic Four have the officers follow them to the building that they fought the Skrulls in. The 3 remaining Skrulls burst out and have another big fight with the cops and the Fantastic Four. Reed decides that the only thing they can do with the Skrulls his hypnotize them, which the Skrulls agree to “We hate being Skrulls! We’d rather be anything else!” Reed hypnotizes them into cows, to live rest of their lives as cattle on a farm.

Bearings

• The Fantastic Four will appear again in Fantastic Four #3

• The Skrulls will appear again in Fantastic Four #18

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• We understand in this issue a bit more why Reed is the leader of the team. Where Johnny and Ben's plans to beat the Skrulls involve just beating on the ones that have landed, his is much more strategic to make all of the Skrulls fear earth with their giant ants and mining satellites and whatnot.

• Johnny shouts "Flame on!" for the first time in this issue during the team's second battle with the Skrulls.

• Thing's first transformation into Ben Grimm starts here, a situation we will see many, many times.

• Sue doesn't do very much this issue except tripping a Skrull, and just trying to keep everyone, mainly Thing, calm while they are hunted by the army.

• Johnny and Thing have their first petty argument, setting up the foundation of their relationship.

• We see the impact of having such super powered beings on the planet. The army has made special prisons just for the Fantastic Four. They don't work very well, but they are adapting to the change.

• For some reason, Reed thought they were going to Mars when he retells their origin.

Quotes

• "No wonder our leaders dare not invade earth until the Fantastic Four are stopped!" -Skrull Invader

• "Never in our history has there been so noble a deed! Take this highest award of your bravery" -Skrull General

• "Mooo!!" -Skrull Invader

The images, story, and all character names on this page are trademarked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.

Marvel Compass #1

FANTASTIC FOUR #1

 WELL, THIS IS IT!! -The Human Torch

"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.