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We’re back for another volume of Fantastic Four! This collects FF #’s 21-30, spanning December 1963 to September 1964. It is a Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Collaboration and Stan writes the intro as only he can. It’s just a very simple hyped up quick recaps of each story. There’s not much else to say to preface this collection so it’s time to see how this third volume of Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four pans out.
Spoilers Ahead
-Fantastic Four #21- I read this in one of the Nick Fury Masterworks collections because Nick is featured prominently here. He warns the FF of an impending danger of the Hate-Monger and his hate-ray. However, the Hate-Monger has already hit the FF with the hate ray and now they hate each other! Fury is able to play them against each other and they are able to defeat the Hate-Monger and free themselves of his ray’s effect. The Hate-Monger is killed by his own men and the FF and Fury are shocked to find that it was really Hitler (or one of his stand-in’s) that was behind it all! The villain was a bit forced but it dealt with issues of hate and how it isn’t acceptable.
-Fantastic Four #22- The FF deal with complaints of their tenants and so they go to an island in Jersey that they got a brochure on and an offer to buy. It turns out to be the Mole Man’s island and this was a big trap to get the FF captured! He succeeds and he plans on stealing cities of Moscow and New York to start World War III and wipe out life up above. The FF escape and beat the tar out of him and it turns out being his island that is swallowed up by the Earth. The really cool thing about this issue was that it first featured Sue using her invisibility powers to make force-fields, to make something else invisible and really, she’s starting to be a force here.
-Fantastic Four #23- The FF continue bickering at the start of the issue about who should be leader. Meanwhile, Doom has gathered three criminals and empowered them and that enables the three of them to capture Ben, Sue and Johnny. Reed is captured by Doom. Doom plans on swallowing them in some sort of Solar Wave (which is about as ridiculous as it sounds) but Sue uses her newfound abilities to get their escape. Doom falls into the Solar Wave and ends up trapped in space. I’m sure he’ll get out. So far this has been an underwhelming collection of issues.
-Fantastic Four #24- This doesn’t add to the legend of Lee and Kirby at all, as they totally phone in this story. It’s an alien infant that is terrorizing the planet because it doesn’t know any better. So Reed has to call his mommy and daddy to take him back before he destroys the world! This was just a rehash of the Impossible Man story, except instead of a bored adult you have a baby who doesn’t know any better. If I were giving points here, it wouldn’t be pretty right now.
-Fantastic Four #25- Things really start picking up right here. Reed is hit by a bad virus (thanks to his experiments) and that is only compounded by the fact that the Hulk has arrived in NYC looking for the Avengers! He wants revenge for what happened in Avengers #3 (which makes this a VERY early Cap Silver Age appearance). The Torch tries going after the Hulk but he’s injured in the process, and Sue is weakened trying to help him. So it is up to the Thing to stop the Hulk and round one (which was in this issue) goes to the Hulk.
-Fantastic Four #26- Hulk and Thing continue fighting it out (done in only the manner that Kirby can) and this time the Avengers are back on the scene. They try teaming up but just get in each other’s way. I liked how that was done. So Hulk kidnaps Rick Jones and heads to a construction site where the final battle takes place. The timely use of a Gamma pill that Banner had given Rick is what finally defeats the Hulk, but not before getting away. I found it interesting that Banner was going by Bob here instead of Bruce. I guess they could never really agree on what name to use. This was a great two-part battle and it was the start of the FF starting to continue threads from one book to the next that would really jumpstart the greatness of books that would come.
-Fantastic Four #27- Namor shows up and kidnaps Sue to try and win her heart (that may not be the best way to do it) right as Reed as bought her a ring to propose! Reed is incredibly angered and heads out alone to find her so the Torch and Thing ask for Dr. Strange’s help to get to Namor’s undersea kingdom to help. It ends up with the three of them fighting to save Sue and Strange’s timely intervention sways the odds in the Four’s favor and they return home. Reed decides not to propose to Sue after all for some strange reason.
-Fantastic Four #28- The guest appearances continue! The Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker team-up and their plan is to take control of Professor Charles Xavier and send his X-Men to battle the FF. So the X-Men follow blindly, they all fight, until both sides discover who the real villains are. So with the X-Men and the FF against the Puppet Master, The Mad Thinker and the Awesome Android, it’s all elementary. Xavier defeats the Android himself and the two villains escape.
-Fantastic Four #29- This may be one of my favorite FF stories of all time. It has a fantastic (no pun intended) cover with a title of, “It Started on Yancy Street.” The FF are on Yancy Street and deal with the goons around them. They return home and get a package calling them back to Yancy Street. It turns out that was a plot by the Red Ghost to bring the FF back to the moon to destroy them. The FF manage to hide-out in the Blue Area of the Moon (home of the Watcher) where they again defeat the Red Ghost. It was just a great, off-beat issue that to me defines what the whole Lee/Kirby saga was about – taking these characters and pushing the limits of what you could do in a comic book.
-Fantastic Four #30- We end the volume with the first appearance of Diablo. He’s a character that deal with alchemy and was imprisoned for a hundred years before the Thing frees him. The Thing works with him in the prospects of getting a cure and he even shoos away the rest of the Four but soon everyone realizes that Diablo is just an evil fraud and they come together to stop him and Thing puts him right back in the hole from whence he came.
-The Bottom Line- This was an odd collection for me to read. I’ll be honest; the first four weren’t all that great. We started with a lame character (Hate-Monger) that really only brought Fury into the current Marvel Universe, went to another lame villain (Mole Man), brought back Doom for another one and done issue and rounded up the mediocrity with the Infant Terrible – which in and of itself was just a rehashing of the Impossible Man story. Thankfully things picked up with the Hulk and the Avenger in #25 and the guest appearances really added to the stories. We had the Avengers, Doctor Strange and the X-Men all appear here (probably to give those titles an extra boost by appearing in the flagship) and that revitalized the FF themselves. By #29 Lee and Kirby were back on their game and were headed towards some legendary stories.
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