There must have been a water-cooler discussion after describing all the technical details of the FF headquarters that led to the story in Fantastic Four #9 (Sep 1962). Reed Richards, leader of the Fantastic Four, level 12 intellect, the smartest man on Earth, decided to invest all the profits from his inventions into the stock […]
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The Fantastic Four #8 (Aug 1962) introduces another classic FF villain: the creepy-looking Puppet Master, who moulds radioactive clay into the likeness of a person which then gives him the ability to control that person. He first tests his ability with a “nameless nobody”, commanding him to climb up to the top of a bridge […]
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As DC did before with its teen heroes Superboy and Robin in the 1940s, Marvel attempted to spin the Human Torch out into solo adventures in Strange Tales #101 (July 1962). The story itself is pretty forgettable, but they do establish a few facts: Johnny Storm is still in high school and is (somehow) still […]
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In Fantastic Four #6 (June 1962), while we get some light-hearted ribbing of the Thing by Johnny Storm about his Yancy Street Gang hate mail, we also get a nice cross-section view of the finally-named Baxter Building, the Fantastic Four headquarters. This headquarters “cutout” far out-classes the old cross-section view of the Bat-Cave from 1942. […]
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In Incredible Hulk #2 (May 1962), we get a quick re-telling of the Hulk’s origin… saves Rick Jones, dose of gamma radiation, upon nightfall turns in Mr. Hyde… with the never-explained change from grey-skinned to green-skinned. Bruce and Rick proceed to build an underground bunker for the Hulk to spend his quiet evenings, with 10-ft […]
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The Fantastic Four finally get a worthy nemesis with Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four #5 (April 1962). The tale starts with the now-familiar inter-team jabs and squabbles, with Johnny Storm reading the The Incredible Hulk comic and suggesting the Hulk reminds him of The Thing. So it’s cross-promotion within a Marvel comic book, but no […]
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Last ish, our fledgling Fantastic Four foursome had went splitsville as that hot-head Johnny stormed off because The Thing kept picking on him. Johnny hides out with some roadsters working on hot-rod engines and uses his famous “Flame On!” catchphrase for the first time. We get several pages of the other team members looking throughout […]
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Fantastic Four #3 (Dec 1961) comes with some more world-building with Marvel’s new set of super-heroes given some snazzy uniforms (reminiscent of the Challengers of the Unknown), a Fantasticar, and an official headquarters (though the building is not yet named). This issue, the FF are up against “The Miracle Man”, who (spoiler alert) turns out […]
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In Fantastic Four #2 (Sept 1961), Marvel starts to gradually expand its mythos by introducing a shape-shifting alien race about to conquer Earth: The Skrulls! Four Skrulls establish a beach-head of tarnishing the FF’s reputation by masquerading as the superheroes and stealing jewelry or destroying property. The plan is to discredit the superheroes and then […]
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Well, I talked about it for a long time, but we are finally here: the birth of the true Marvel Universe with The Fantastic Four #1 (Aug 1961). Stan Lee and Jack Kirby bring us a full book-length story here that introduces their first true super-heroes of the Silver Age named, of course, The Fantastic […]
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