Fantastic Four Fascination: A Review of Fantastic Four #17

Story I Read: The Fabulous Fantastic Four "Defeated by Doctor Doom" (Fantastic Four #17 Aug 1963)

SUE STORM HAS JUDO!

Fantastic Four can be used as a kind of metronome for the Marvel universe. It was the first serialized superhero comic of the Marvel Silver Age and therefore most of what is invented, was later applied to the other heroes. In this issue there is not only firsts in story telling but also in the narrative. This issue is a direct sequel. That is not to say this is the first issue that is shaped by past events, many publications recall their individual histories and mythologies, but it is the first issue to continue an arc established by another directly preceding issue. Doom is still at large having broken out of Micro-Atomica and the Four are looking to end that threat.

The Four are different in this one. The group dynamic is much different then even in the last issue. That abusive tension that used to permeate the group, especially the relationship between Torch and Thing, is gone, replaced with a campy yet witty joshing. Torch is no longer punishing Thing for his looks. They now tease each other like brothers. How absolutely charming. 

Charm, however, doesn’t run through the group. With joviality and camaraderie flowing throughout the penthouse Reed looks all the more like a stick in the mud. He is cold, standoffish and unpleasant to the other members of the group. Fantastic is certainly no leader. The glimpse at this side of Reed serves to make his character quite compelling. To have such an unpleasant man forced to be the brains of a group of rag tag and juvenile superheroes is a fascinating choice. A counter to the unpleasant aloofness of DC’s Bruce Wayne. Marvel likes to tout its heroes as existing in the ‘real world.’ Reed parodies the unpleasant arrogance of that DC character and is in turn not afraid to be unlikable, whereas Bruce still has streak of desperation to be liked. It is wonderful to see the characters so raw like this and especially in the whitewashed Silver Age. 

This idiotic contraption!

When the dialogue is really good, it becomes extremely easy to buy the sometimes tough to swallow Silver Age science. Though not even wildly funny dialogue can save gross oversteps in logic. Reed attempts to find Dr. Doom by creating a detector that only looks for human flesh covered in steel. Clearly this is a problem as every welder would suddenly become a mortal enemy to the Fantastic Four. Something utterly campy like this could kill a well thought out plot if it weren’t for Torch’s self referentialism. He makes fun of Reed’s idea and even points out the fact that the detector would not be in anyway accurate. A brilliant moment that shows even Reed can be wrong sometimes. 

There are other moments of hasty writing. For instance, Dr. Doom’s flying automaton plot is not as well thought out as I’d like. Reed looses a degree because one of the elevated plush toys appears flying above him. Why would someone lose a degree because a flying robot appeared above him? This makes no sense. Perhaps, Stan couldn’t think up a better way the robot might interfere with Richards’ life. 

The plot, however hokey and incomplete, manages to spin a new angle on Doom. It isn’t just enough for Doom to execute the Four, he also wants to destroy their reputation. A fascinating motivation. There is a compelling glimpse into the tortured mind of Victor. Doom turns to a mirror and bemoans his deformity, exclaiming “he wishes he understood humanity.” This is where the meat of the story really is. 

Dr. Doom’s plot to destroy the Fantastic Four stems from his feeling of being outsider. Doom’s a metal bound man who is wildly intelligent and equal to Mr. Fantastic in his cleverness but is also marginalized because of his looks. Although this is derivative of deformed vice stock character, a character that is prevalent right on back to Shakespeare’s Richard III, it adds a long lasting dimension to a character who until now had been painted with the broad evil brush. There is also a parallel with the Thing. These two are in the same position. Ben feels marginalized as well because of his stony facade. Yet he has Alicia who loves him just for being him. Alicia is the catalyst of the whole revenge plot and it is out of Dr. Doom’s jealousy that he kidnaps her. Would Ben be Dr. Doom without Alicia? He certainly becomes irrational when she is captured and has to be reigned in by Torch. 

On top of all this detailed expansion on the Doom, Thing dynamic: Sue Storm does something! She saves the day in the final act though her powers still seem largely pointless. Let’s recognize a stride when their is one and this one is a stride. There’s even a point being made about the role of women. Thing’s irrationality nearly is the downfall of the Four. His love for Alicia leaves the Four vulnerable and infighting starts when Thing’s sorrow and worry over the kidnap get the better of him. Irrational love, as a weakness, has often been a theme in Fantastic Four. Sue constantly brings the team to danger when she allows her feelings for Namor over come her. The triangle with Reed has often been a moment of contention within the Four. Men can also can be irrational and the irrationality of Thing is far more dangerous and violent then any moment with Sue. Is love impossible for a superhero? Another theme that will rear its head many times in later Marvels.  

There’s many fascinating and great things about this story but it is not without it’s faults. Jack Kirby’s art is still really simplistic and vague, but why moan about it yet again? Torch’s powers are still totally out of control. Now he not only has the power to create fire doubles but also exact doubles of other people and objects that are not built of fire. He can make perfect copies of Sue Storm or Thing. How does this make sense? Leaving all these things aside this story is a solid 4 out of 5. A really great early Fantastic Four story. No bones about it.  

Micro-strides and Micro-worlds: A Review of Fantastic Four #16

Story I Read:  "The Micro-World Of Doctor Doom" (Fantastic Four #16 July 1963)

Those of you who have read my past reviews will have noticed the amount of poor writing I have encountered recently. As it is still quite early in the construction of the Marvel universe and it has still not been fully decided if these characters are all going to exist in the same universe some characters, naturally, are all over the place. The Fantastic Four on the other hand are usually the most structured and canonically sound. It’s obvious Stan and others seem to want to create a structured mythology for the quartet. By this time Sub-Mariner had made many appearances and Doctor Doom was well established as the archenemy. There had been three crossovers as well: two with Spider-man and one with the Hulk. The campy quartet of heroes can usually be depended on to have passable, detailed and sometimes enlightening writing. This story in the spectrum of FF is somewhere in the middle. Not too astounding but not Incredible Hulk level ineptitude either.   

Until now in the stories of FF, the narrative had largely been linear, meaning beginning at the beginning. In this issue however epic structure is employed and thus the action begins in  the middle. Torch enters the penthouse to find his partners “shrunken to the size of toys.” After some shock and awe by the Storm boy they all regain their normal size. The story hits the ground running and immediately wets my appetite for mystery. 

Shrinking seems to be a favourite mechanism of the early Four having been used at least three other times in prior tales. Otherwise, in Marveldom up to now, changing size had also been the favourite theme of Hank Pym, so naturally this lends for a perfect opportunity for a cameo. Sadly his cameo feels empty. He shows up to give Reed an enlargement serum and this makes no sense as Reed has already used his own version of shrinking juice. Somehow Richards is bowled over by the idea of a chemical that can play with mass. Perhaps it is still too much to ask for canonicity in a world that paints every character with a broad brush. That brush’s work is most obvious in the female characters. 

To find broad strokes look no farther then the women. Princess Pearla of the Micro-Atomicans is a vacuous piece of property traded between Doom and Torch. Sue Storm not only refers to the three other members of the Fantastic Four as “her children,” she doesn’t even consider herself part of the team just an invisible tag along. She too has a moment of vacuous writing when upon seeing Ant-Man for the first time, promptly falls in love with him. I look forward to the moment my Marvel journey takes me out of the socially inept early 60s. 

Excitingly not all social and sexual mores are backward in this one. The relationship between Alicia and Thing is really blooming. Ben exclaims that she “loves him for him.” It is heartwarming to see an attempt at writing a compelling woman, though I am sure it’s more a crass joke about the ugliness of Ben Grimm. Only a blind girl could love Thing. The weird abuse hurled at Thing from his three partners may explain some of his sour mood. The Four can be really dysfunctional. 

Look at all that BLUE and also black fog.

Also dysfunctional in this comic is the art. In contemporary Marvel publications, some drawn by Jack Kirby himself, detailed backgrounds have begun to appear. In this one, however, the bland blue background is back whether in New York or Micro-Atomica. Perhaps Jack’s hand doesn’t have the stamina to detail a 22 page issue. Maybe Marvel doesn’t have the cash for all the ink. Whatever the reason, in Stan’s stories, there always seems to be a thick fog beyond the action.

Whatever fogginess is present in the art there are great strides in the style of action presented. Clearly Stan is attempting to experiment in story structure, however at times narrative seems to get in the way of the whole issue’s arc. The amount of flashbacks really hamper the progression of the tale from the barn burning beginning to the petering retreat and disappearance of Doom. When the Micro-Atomicans make their debut not enough time is given to explaining how their existence really works. I spent most of the story wondering if they were still in the same plain of existence being really small or in some parallel universe. The hampering quandary in my mind was negotiating clear locations of two planets within the sparse floor of Reed’s lab. Is there a full universe on the floor of Reed’s laboratory? I’m still confused. I’d except that idea if only someone had have made it clear. 

Dr. Doom, luckily, is extremely clear in his motivations for tyrannizing these small people. All the hate stems out the events in Fantastic Four #10. Not only is Victor clear and well fleshed out. The idea that a former events have a bearing on the present is astounding and harkens for great things to come!

For experimentation, Alicia and Thing, and a story that feels more like a tale and not just a series of obstacles for heroes to overcome, I award this story with a 3 out of 5. I won’t give it a higher score because of the sloppiness in structure, sexism and shoddy art.  

A Review of The Human Torch’s Story in Strange Tales #111- “Fighting To The Death With Asbestos Man.”

When looking at the solo adventures of The Human Torch in Strange Tales I am always struck by the haste in their construction. It is obvious in the early days of the establishment of the Marvel Universe Stan Lee wanted to capitalize on the possibilities of having a teenage hero and cranked out countless unfocused stories. The speed in the development is obvious in the disregard in canon. It would be ideal way look at Torch as a rough draft for Spider-Man but it cannot really be done. In the early period there was triple the development on Storm, who had both the Fantastic Four issues and the solo adventures, and there was little examples for Pete who only had his own solo adventures.

Accepting that Torch doesn’t work on his own, as evidenced by the more and more prevalent cameos of the other 3 Fantastic members in the solo stories, let’s dive into the story at hand offered in Strange Tales # 111. 

Today's Story. 

The first thing that strikes me about this story is the brilliance of the villain. Up until around this point, in the Silver Age comics, little focus had been given to the villain’s motives. Often they had been reduced to a simple melodramatic thought process of:  “let’s kill the hero because he is good and I am not.” Orson Kasloff, on the other hand, is one of the first truly human villains. A good third of the story is devoted to the sad thoughts of a scientist who feels disrespected by his employer and this makes his need to destroy Torch that more believable. When he attempts to rob said employer it predictably blows up in his face as he does not expect the alarm to go off. I will admit I chuckled at this. 

Long story short Kasloff becomes Asbestos Man and all the time spent on establishing Kasloff; the man, goes up in flames in the nauseating arrogance of Torch’s snap vendetta. When the villain challenges the flaming teenager Johnny haphazardly flies to battle and is easily defeated. Again, Torch’s powers are wildly pliable, suddenly he’s too weak to combat a man in an asbestos suit when in an earlier publication he burnt so hot that he melted through an asbestos lined wall. Perhaps this is Stan Lee’s way of equalizing the earlier wild creativity of the Marvel heroes.

This disregard or fluidity in character development is also present in Sue Storm who makes yet again another aimless cameo. This time playing John’s spirit guide. Sue is looking more and more matronly in every issue. Perhaps Stan is wishing he actually made her into Johnny’s mother rather then sister. The wild sexism and disrespectful way the creatives treat Sue is better suited to full other article but I just need to mention banality of her in this issue. 

One of the greatest aspects of this story is it’s art. Inked by Dick Ayers this story is beautiful. No longer are there the empty blue backgrounds of the Jack Kirby drawn  comics thus far. Background detail is present. The contouring on Kasloff’s face or the fire veins (for what else do we call those dark lines on Torch) are fluid and ably move when Torch does. The New York presented here is gritty and even evokes the detail neo-Noireish renderings of Gotham in DC’s Batman. Marvel is truly coming into its own over the DC behemoth.

When looking at this story as whole it is easily a 3 out of 5 story mainly for the time spent on the detail of a new villain and the environment he exists in. The negatives exist in the rather shoddy writing that peaks its head on many occasions. Ably obvious in this rather cheap redundant piece of dialogue spouted by Kasloff early on ““What is all the excitement about? Why is everyone so excited??” 

Changes are afoot but there are still many obstacles. 

P.S. Think of all the cancer Kasloff will suffer because of his alter-ego. 

Kasloff, the man who will most likely die of cancer.