FANTASTIC FOUR #1: So! Have You Heard the One About the Scientist, the Test-Pilot, the Socialite and Her Kid Brother?

Published: November, 1961

So!  Let’s start at the beginning.  Fantastic Four #1.  The origin story.  I love origin stories.  They give a brief glimpse into the characters’ past, a chance to see what they were like before they became who they are.

In the case of the Fantastic Four, though, it starts out as kind of a cheat.  We spend the first nine pages of the origin story meeting each member of the team in their superhero status, then Stan says “Let us go back to that momentous day …” And finally we get to the actual origin story.

Well, this is a storytelling device that works, right?  Big bang, right up front, this is who we’re dealing with. No kidding around here —this story is going to be about some very interesting characters. And it’s amusing, as well, to see each of our heroes displaying their superpowers in their everyday lives. Wow!  Look at these guys (and girl)!  What’s up with them?  How did they get this way?  Okay, Stan says, sit back, relax, and let me tell you…

I’m not going to rehash the plot.  (Not much, anyway.) If you’ve seen the movie, you know.  And if you haven’t seen the movie, suffice it to say they all go up in a rocket ship and get bombarded with cosmic rays, which changes their molecular structure.

WHY??
But now, here’s a question.  A good question.  One might ask…why did each one of them get the particular power that they did?  You know…Well, let’s see.  If I think about it just a moment,  I’ve got a few ideas.  Let’s see if they fly.

Johnny is a teenager, so he’s…hot.  Right?  He’s got hormones, he’s got energy.  Fire is a good element for him.

Ben, in my estimation, even before this all starts, is a “tough guy.”  Broad shouldered, big hands, confrontational.  (“A coward!!  Nobody calls ME a coward!”)  So it kind of makes sense that he would become a super-strong rock-guy.

Reed, the scientist, the brainiac of the group…super-stretchy?  Can’t really figure that one out, unless to say that he is now able to physically extend his body in all directions, even as he already extends his mind and his imagination into realms most people don’t even know exist?  Yeah, I guess that kind of makes sense.

Sue becomes invisible?  No-brainer.  It’s the early sixties, before women’s lib.  Good girls were supposed to blend in, be quiet, not make a fuss.  Being invisible is the perfect metaphor.  Sue’s “power” is very passive, not pro-active, like the powers the guys have been given.   What she brings to the group is a defensive capability, not offensive.  She is not meant to fight, only to protect.   And mostly that is the case, at least in these early comics.  I think that’s bound to change somewhat, though, as time goes on.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves!

OUR FIRST VILLAIN!
So here we are, four people suddenly bequeathed these super-powers, just learning what they can do, and now enters in their first foe…the Mole Man!

Okay, I have to stop here a moment to say that as I go through this blog, it is my intention to look at each villain and compare him/her to the villains that have come before, and try to figure out which villain is actually the most dangerous, the most fearsome.  I do this for two reasons.

One, because I want to know.  And two, because to tell the truth (and this might be something odd about me) in general the villains don’t generally interest me as much as the heroes.  I guess it’s because…I can’t relate to them?  I’m not saying I’m some kind of heroic wonderful person, but in general, I think I would have a lot more in common with Sue Storm than I would with the Mole Man!  I don’t spend my spare moments thinking about how to achieve world domination.  But I might, like Sue, wonder about the latest fashions.  I hate to say it, but as I’ve been reading Marvel Comics, I often find that I tend to forget a lot of stuff about the villains.  (This might be more a commentary on my age and my memory, though, than it is on Marvel Comics.)  So I think if I spend a few moments writing about them, it will help me to get a better sense of who they are and what they are all about.

But mostly, I think it would be fun to figure out who’s the worst (or best) of the bunch.

So, as I say…the Mole Man!  He lives underground.  He has huge scary monsters at his beck and call.  One is described as “a living three-headed nightmare” that resembles something out of Harry Potter.   The Mole Man himself?  He looks like Howard Cosell in a pair of 3-D glasses.   Not really very scary, in my estimation.  Kind of comical, actually.

Then he starts to tell his story, all about how when he lived “on the surface” the people of that world would spurn and reject him, because he’s so… damn… ugly!    So he separates himself from society, and eventually stumbles into this subterranean world, where he sets himself up as the leader of all the subterranean creatures.

As far as I can tell, his “superpower” is that he can sense things in the dark, “like a mole.”  At one point he says he “learned” how to do that, and a couple of panels later he says, “I possess a natural radar sense.”  So I’m not sure if it’s learned or natural, but that’s his superpower.    (“Compared to The Mole Man, you are slow..clumsy!!”)  Equally important, I think, is that all the monsters obey him.  They are much scarier than he is.

Very quickly, at the end of the story, the FF use their powers to defeat the Mole Man, and seal off his domain with a giant rockslide.  They fly away in their spaceship, hoping they have seen the last of him.  But as Russ has explained to me many times, if you don’t see a BODY, they  aren’t really dead.  So somehow, I think we may be seeing more of the Mole Man.

OUR HEROES…BEFORE THEY WERE HEROES
That’s the story, the first adventure. But now let’s go back for a moment to this issue of who the Fantastic Four characters were BEFORE they become fantastic.   I want to say they are “ordinary people, just like you and me,” but really…they’re not.  I’ve already mentioned that Reed is a super brainiac, and he’s invented a spaceship.  (Actually, he’s invented a lot more things, but at the moment this is all we know.   What???  Inventing a spaceship…not good enough for you??)

Ben is a pilot…or is he an astronaut?  Sue is apparently a “socialite,” and also Reed’s fiancée.  And Johnny is simply her brother, a high school kid.   In fact, that’s the only reason why Sue and Johnny even get involved in all this in the first place.

It kind of boggles the mind that the US government would allow the inventor, his fiancée, and her brother to commandeer a rocket.  Well…actually, the government doesn’t allow it.  We are shown that they sneak on to the launch pad because there is “no time to wait for official clearance! Conditions are right tonight!  Let’s go!”  and “before the guard can stop them” they are soaring into outer space.  So.  One guard.  Only one guard.  And they have plenty of time to blast off before anyone else can get there and stop them.

With a government like this…no wonder we need superheroes!

Now, one more thing of note in this first story:  the “colorful quartet” has not yet established their identifying look with their blue jumpsuits.  So they don’t yet really LOOK like superheroes.  But we’ll get there, in just a couple more issues. But one thing for certain, they certainly did behave like superheroes in this opening story.