A movie made back then could have starred Larry Hagman as Mr. Fantastic, Ernest Borgnine as the Thing, Elizabeth Montgomery as Sue Storm and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver, I mean the Human Torch.
The first villain faced by the Fantastic Four -- THE UNDERMINER!!! "I may be beneath you, but nothing is beneath me!" "The Incredibles" the best Fantastic Four movie ever.
I find the candor of early comics such as these works to their advantage immensely. The idea of a shunned man retreating to the chthonic regions of the world and gaining strength through the taming of monsters has a charming mythological feel lurking behind the colorful pages. I'm reading the Absolute Power event DC is putting out right now, and although everything is more fleshed out and polished, it feels more like a soap opera with super heroes in it. Comic books lost their grit a little bit, which strikes me as bizarre since they're trying so hard to be geared towards adults, to the point of being ashamed to be called comics.
Yes, I think I would be miffed off as well as the shop owner who now had to repair his whole shop front (and how did he get in there in the first place ?)
Of the newer FF runs you might enjoy, a lot of people like Jonathan Hickman's run, but I am fond of Ryan North's recent run, which has a lot in common with these early issues.
The 102 issue run of Kirby and Lee is an awesome read. I read it epic collections. It spans the 60s. You get to see the way comics changed over the decade. Stan and Jack really were a magical team. And almost all the characters in the Marvel universe appear in the pages of FF at least once. Maybe hyberbolic, but It sure seems that way reading that run.
Earlier the same year that "The Fantastic Four" came out, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko created "Dr Droom/Druid", a proto marvel comic book that lasted for three issues. Clearly they were tired of doing anthology comics. Martin Goodman asked Stan Lee to come-up with a comic like DC's "Justice League of America", but it was his wife who inspired him to write the comics that he wanted to do, since he was seriously thinking of leaving the business anyway. The document proves that the first issue was largely Lee's idea, even though Jack Kirby was important in co-creating it. Lee was a visionary maverick who defied the rigorous Comic Book Code. Stan Lee admitted that the Mole man was the first supervillain in comics that could be sympathised with and I don't think that he was being self-aggrandising. He said it wasn't reaching the level of someone like Kafka, but I think it was innovative for the medium at the time.
I've recently ordered the first volume of Ryan North's version of the FF. For a year now I've felt that there's been a hole in my reading and this is it, I haven't read the FF for years but the desire to get back into the adventures of comics' first family has grown to the point where the stories collected in Epic and Essentials volumes are no longer enough. So let's see what's happening with Johnny, Sue, Reed and Ben these days.
Ahhhh, those sophisticated kids from the sixties.....dropping LSD, rolling around naked in the mud, not trusting anyone over 30, knocking over the Hell's Angels bikes!!😅😅
The story I heard was that when Stan Lee said he wanted to leave the comic book business, his wife advised him to do one comic book "his way," for a change, & if it didn't work, then, & only then, he should leave comic books. The Fantastic Four was the result of this advice.
I read this in elementary school in the 70swhen Marvel put out colorized collections of the 60s comics in paperback size. This were cheap and gave a reader the intro to what they were seeing on the spinner rack. Why the comic companies do not try to reach out using their back stock of stories I have no idea.
I want to know, did they ever recover that nuclear missile that was dumped in the water ? And wasn't that a bit over the top to bring down the human torch ? I loved that first issue, it is totally daft but you can definitely see the monster origins. I still love the cover with the 'together for the first time' as well as the order (the Thing being first) which always suggested to me that they had existed before in solo tales. Also, the first page 'I pray it will be the last (in bold)' - that would have been a short run of comics if it had. Even Mole Man and his monsters are so much of those comics such as Tales To Astonish etc. Great video as ever
It's great how all these superhero comics give absolutely no heed to any sense of reality, believability, consistency, relatability.... I feel bad for that poor shopkeeper - who paid to repair his storefront? I want the story were these selfish jerks are held accountable and sent to prison :D
One of the teams (non Marvel and non DC) that really worked for me over here in the UK in the mid-60s was the T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents as featured in Tower Comic. Wally Wood did the artwork if I remember rightly. Did you ever read those, Mr V?
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 Yukio Mishima once wrote, 'I still have no way to survive but to keep writing one line, one more line, one more line...' My mantra as a child was 'I still have no way to survive but to keep reading one comic, one more comic, one more comic...' 😄
"They acted like real people..." If those people are 14 years old. Which probably corresponded with the average age of most readers at the time, so Stan got that right. As the readers got older, the characters got more mature.
The Fantastic Four comic was SO important. Basically, you have ACTION COMICS #1 and then you have FANTASTIC FOUR #1. It was THAT revolutionary. BTW, Stan may talk about the JLA, but CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN (which Kirby had worked on) was the REAL template for the FF.
I believe the FF was created because of the success of the Justice League. But you are right, they are certainly a lot more like the Challengers. I guess that makes sense considering they were both done by Jack Kirby.
You haven't read T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents? I am shocked. How could you resist a comic that is a kind of, 'What if U.N.C.L.E had a super-hero department?' plus it had Wally Wood art, and some Ditko. Ignore the crappy version DC put out when they snagged the license, but you really need to read the originals, assuming they're in print in the year 2525, when you finally finish that 500 book challenge.
Now that you have completed your reading of Thor vol 1, are you now reading all of the Fantastic Four vol 1 issues via Marvel Epic Collections? Only forty years of vol 1 stories to read. No problem, right?
I have questions. Sue Storm can turn invisible but what about her clothes? And what about that dollar she hands to the cab driver? She has an invisible pocket or purse?🤔🤯
@@Creek54 her clothes and purse are specially made of unstable molecules ( invented by Reed Richards ) and the contents of the purse were invisible because the purse bent the light around it…..or something…
Loved the Fantastic Four, my first and favorite book series! It got me into Spiderman and later the X-factor thing. Corporate Hollywood couldn't make a decent version of the Fantastic Four for the same reason it flailed and floundered pretending to make 'Lost in Space' ... the point of American corporate media behind-the-scenes is now to instill attitudes of top-down domination and obedience to imperious command, not to portray an ensemble of flawed teamwork that might challenge same. Did the same to egalitarian Star Trek that morphed to "Captain on DECK!" militaristic bullsh*t. Did anyone else notice this? Just the facts. Anyway it largely worked too. Sorry if I'm offending, I'm just a dude who watched it all slide down the drain. Thanks for the video, Michael!
It was such an ugly duck of a comic back then, and the characters were borderline threatening and creepy. Even the funky logo was a contrast to DC's elegantly designed titles. I always felt that the comic was pasted together into a full-length story from what might've started as a 13 page lead story with a generic inventory back up story, which was how their other monster and western titles were formatted at the time. I get a similar feeling from the first issue of the Hulk, in that both comics have a really short final act in which an enemy is met and dispatched quickly in a self-destructive explosion. Like the Mole Man, the Gargoyle was an embittered outcast who felt alienated by his grotesque appearance. (And the Hulk continued the idea of having a member that was a danger to the team, when he ended up in the early issues of the Avengers.)
A movie made back then could have starred Larry Hagman as Mr. Fantastic, Ernest Borgnine as the Thing, Elizabeth Montgomery as Sue Storm and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver, I mean the Human Torch.
Larry Hagman? A younger Walter Pigeon, maybe.
I also considered Robert Ryan and Burt Lancaster but both were probably too old at the time.
Haaa!!.Borgnine is right on for the Thing!
The first villain faced by the Fantastic Four -- THE UNDERMINER!!! "I may be beneath you, but nothing is beneath me!"
"The Incredibles" the best Fantastic Four movie ever.
I find the candor of early comics such as these works to their advantage immensely. The idea of a shunned man retreating to the chthonic regions of the world and gaining strength through the taming of monsters has a charming mythological feel lurking behind the colorful pages. I'm reading the Absolute Power event DC is putting out right now, and although everything is more fleshed out and polished, it feels more like a soap opera with super heroes in it. Comic books lost their grit a little bit, which strikes me as bizarre since they're trying so hard to be geared towards adults, to the point of being ashamed to be called comics.
What happened to my car Johnny?!
Yes, I think I would be miffed off as well as the shop owner who now had to repair his whole shop front (and how did he get in there in the first place ?)
Always wondered if Toho took some 'inspiration' from this issue. The FF visit a Monster Island & encounter a three headed flying monster...hmmm...
It became something really special.... and very quickly.
Of the newer FF runs you might enjoy, a lot of people like Jonathan Hickman's run, but I am fond of Ryan North's recent run, which has a lot in common with these early issues.
The 102 issue run of Kirby and Lee is an awesome read. I read it epic collections.
It spans the 60s. You get to see the way comics changed over the decade. Stan and Jack really were a magical team. And almost all the characters in the Marvel universe appear in the pages of FF at least once. Maybe hyberbolic, but It sure seems that way reading that run.
The cover of Fantastic Four number 1 is my all time favourite piece of art. The whole issue, actually. Perfection!
Earlier the same year that "The Fantastic Four" came out, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko created "Dr Droom/Druid", a proto marvel comic book that lasted for three issues. Clearly they were tired of doing anthology comics. Martin Goodman asked Stan Lee to come-up with a comic like DC's "Justice League of America", but it was his wife who inspired him to write the comics that he wanted to do, since he was seriously thinking of leaving the business anyway. The document proves that the first issue was largely Lee's idea, even though Jack Kirby was important in co-creating it. Lee was a visionary maverick who defied the rigorous Comic Book Code. Stan Lee admitted that the Mole man was the first supervillain in comics that could be sympathised with and I don't think that he was being self-aggrandising. He said it wasn't reaching the level of someone like Kafka, but I think it was innovative for the medium at the time.
I've recently ordered the first volume of Ryan North's version of the FF. For a year now I've felt that there's been a hole in my reading and this is it, I haven't read the FF for years but the desire to get back into the adventures of comics' first family has grown to the point where the stories collected in Epic and Essentials volumes are no longer enough. So let's see what's happening with Johnny, Sue, Reed and Ben these days.
Ahhhh, those sophisticated kids from the sixties.....dropping LSD, rolling around naked in the mud, not trusting anyone over 30, knocking over the Hell's Angels bikes!!😅😅
So much better nowadays, the kids can stare at their phones finding out what to do by watching influencer videos!
The story I heard was that when Stan Lee said he wanted to leave the comic book business, his wife advised him to do one comic book "his way," for a change, & if it didn't work, then, & only then, he should leave comic books. The Fantastic Four was the result of this advice.
There is a new printing of this that will be released on October 8, 2024. I placed a pre-order!
Very enjoyable and very true review. My first favorite comic. My Dad read them aloud to me. ❤❤❤❤
I love the original look of the Fantastic Four, no costumes, lumpy thing, flaming human torch….totally not a super hero book
I read this in elementary school in the 70swhen Marvel put out colorized collections of the 60s comics in paperback size. This were cheap and gave a reader the intro to what they were seeing on the spinner rack. Why the comic companies do not try to reach out using their back stock of stories I have no idea.
I want to know, did they ever recover that nuclear missile that was dumped in the water ? And wasn't that a bit over the top to bring down the human torch ? I loved that first issue, it is totally daft but you can definitely see the monster origins. I still love the cover with the 'together for the first time' as well as the order (the Thing being first) which always suggested to me that they had existed before in solo tales. Also, the first page 'I pray it will be the last (in bold)' - that would have been a short run of comics if it had. Even Mole Man and his monsters are so much of those comics such as Tales To Astonish etc. Great video as ever
@@AndrewBuckleBookReviews thanks, Andrew!
It's great how all these superhero comics give absolutely no heed to any sense of reality, believability, consistency, relatability....
I feel bad for that poor shopkeeper - who paid to repair his storefront? I want the story were these selfish jerks are held accountable and sent to prison :D
It's still odd to see it in colour. I was brought up on the Marvel UK version in the early 70s.
One of the teams (non Marvel and non DC) that really worked for me over here in the UK in the mid-60s was the T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents as featured in Tower Comic. Wally Wood did the artwork if I remember rightly. Did you ever read those, Mr V?
@@markbraybrook8807 I never read it, unfortunately.
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 Yukio Mishima once wrote, 'I still have no way to survive but to keep writing one line, one more line, one more line...' My mantra as a child was 'I still have no way to survive but to keep reading one comic, one more comic, one more comic...' 😄
Great Fantastic Four review. 👏
You made a fantastic video review. The Marvel age and a great deal of history started here.
"They acted like real people..." If those people are 14 years old. Which probably corresponded with the average age of most readers at the time, so Stan got that right. As the readers got older, the characters got more mature.
@@RichardFay Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm are deeply offended by this comment.
The Fantastic Four comic was SO important. Basically, you have ACTION COMICS #1 and then you have FANTASTIC FOUR #1. It was THAT revolutionary.
BTW, Stan may talk about the JLA, but CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN (which Kirby had worked on) was the REAL template for the FF.
I believe the FF was created because of the success of the Justice League. But you are right, they are certainly a lot more like the Challengers. I guess that makes sense considering they were both done by Jack Kirby.
no. sea devils? maybe. but, kirby had nothing to do with seadevils.
You haven't read T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents? I am shocked. How could you resist a comic that is a kind of, 'What if U.N.C.L.E had a super-hero department?' plus it had Wally Wood art, and some Ditko. Ignore the crappy version DC put out when they snagged the license, but you really need to read the originals, assuming they're in print in the year 2525, when you finally finish that 500 book challenge.
@@davebrzeski I feel like I’ve been hearing about that comic forever but I’ve never come across a collection. It sounds great.
Now that you have completed your reading of Thor vol 1, are you now reading all of the Fantastic Four vol 1 issues via Marvel Epic Collections? Only forty years of vol 1 stories to read. No problem, right?
Right. Sadly not all of them are in Epics yet.
😊
I have questions. Sue Storm can turn invisible but what about her clothes? And what about that dollar she hands to the cab driver? She has an invisible pocket or purse?🤔🤯
@@Creek54 her clothes and purse are specially made of unstable molecules ( invented by Reed Richards ) and the contents of the purse were invisible because the purse bent the light around it…..or something…
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 Exactly! 😂👍
Yeh nah 🤭
Loved the Fantastic Four, my first and favorite book series!
It got me into Spiderman and later the X-factor thing. Corporate Hollywood couldn't make a decent version of the Fantastic Four for the same reason it flailed and floundered pretending to make 'Lost in Space' ... the point of American corporate media behind-the-scenes is now to instill attitudes of top-down domination and obedience to imperious command, not to portray an ensemble of flawed teamwork that might challenge same. Did the same to egalitarian Star Trek that morphed to "Captain on DECK!" militaristic bullsh*t. Did anyone else notice this?
Just the facts. Anyway it largely worked too. Sorry if I'm offending, I'm just a dude who watched it all slide down the drain. Thanks for the video, Michael!
It was such an ugly duck of a comic back then, and the characters were borderline threatening and creepy. Even the funky logo was a contrast to DC's elegantly designed titles.
I always felt that the comic was pasted together into a full-length story from what might've started as a 13 page lead story with a generic inventory back up story, which was how their other monster and western titles were formatted at the time. I get a similar feeling from the first issue of the Hulk, in that both comics have a really short final act in which an enemy is met and dispatched quickly in a self-destructive explosion. Like the Mole Man, the Gargoyle was an embittered outcast who felt alienated by his grotesque appearance. (And the Hulk continued the idea of having a member that was a danger to the team, when he ended up in the early issues of the Avengers.)
Crap front cover, though. I'll stick with the Marvel Masterworks series.
@@leematthews6812 because of the cover?
Are you mad?
ua-cam.com/video/ZUkIS2Otzgg/v-deo.html
'and I'll call myself...Mister Fantastic!!' Sounds like a rapper name. Did they have rappers in 1961?
No
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 They had wrappers.
You should monitise your videos, I lost count of how many ads UA-cam put in this one, around six I think.
World's greatest comic magazine? You have a funny way of spelling DC my dude. XD