Customer Reviews

Essential Fantastic Four, Vol. 5 (Marvel Essentials)

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It would be hard to overestimate the effect that Fantastic Four #1 had on the entire medium of comic books. It arrived on newsstands in late 1961, not long after a federal censorship crackdown had nearly destroyed the industry, and it came to life mostly because the publisher wanted to ape the success of DC's Justice League series by having some other team of superheroes. But the FF made their own unique mark by flaunting the staid conventions of the genre (It had a team that didn't always perfectly cooperate with each other, had no secret identities, and a superhero that didn't really want to be a superhero) and in fact started to overturn the stigma that comic books were exclusively "children's stories". The series' daring image was defined by its two iconic authors: Stan Lee, who gave his characters and his readers more respect than anyone at the time would have anticipated, and Jack Kirby, whose artwork conveyed an action-packed science fiction fantasy world that seemed to jump off the page. During the mid-60's, Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben were the stars of the most vivacious, imaginative tales that you could find at your grocery stores spinner rack for twelve cents; the Fantastic Four truly were "the World's Greatest Comic Magazine", as it so modestly called itself. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and Kirby left the series and Marvel in 1970 after a long-souring relationship with Lee. The Essential Fantastic Four #5 is thus a very effective time capsule of the decline and dissolution of the most revered creative collaboration in the history of comics.

First, let me start with the issues that I liked. Reed and Sue hire the mystic Agatha Harkness as governess for their son, who was recently given the name Franklin, after Sue's late father. Agatha proves her worthiness to protect the potentially imperiled young boy by single-handedly routing the original Frightful Four. Then the team must defend a UN delegation from the Monocle, an eyepiece-sporting European assassin with a laser-spewing camera. Ah, 60's spy chic. There's nothing quite like it. In a topical but still enjoyable adventure, the FF oppose a Kree Sentry's plot to avert the Apollo 11 moon landing. I give it extra points for properly depicting Neil Armstrong's oft-confused axiom (That's one small step for A man...). There's the landmark 100th issue where our gang beats back wave after wave of the Mad Thinker's androids, which are in the shapes of most of their old foes (An original idea? No, but still satisfying). Immediately after that, a criminal syndicate attempts through quasi-legal means to buy the FF's building and equipment. This story is above all an example that the Four can seem at home no matter what comic book genre they're in. So, basically, I can count the number of tales in this volume that I liked on one hand (Brace yourselves, people. It's all downhill from here).

While reading this book, my concentration was marred by an unreasonable number of plot holes and gaffs. The first story in the compilation is a hopelessly convoluted four-part saga with the quartet (and Johnny's gal friend Crystal) trapped in Dr. Doom's kingdom of Latveria. The team is exposed to a gas that's meant to neutralize their powers ... until they actually try to use their powers and the gas wears off. Doom then dispatches his unstoppable robot army to destroy them, but Mr. Fantastic finds just what he needs to survive ... a huge exhaust fan that blows the robots into a really deep lake. Then Doom interrupts his dinner party with Sue and Crystal (I have no recollection of how that began) and brings out his really unstoppable weapon, a "hyper-sonic" piano that can strike down the male FF-ers wherever they stand ... but then Doom instead smites his own flamethrower-flashing lieutenant for threatening to burn his beloved art gallery. Apparently, the Piano of Death is one of those one-shot dealies, so Doom just lets the FF leave. I have two words for all of this: Oi and Vey. One issue ends with an attack on Reed and Sue's new Quonset hut-like domicile while the Thing is miles away at Alicia's home. Then the next issue starts and the ever-lovin' idol o' millions is right there being buffeted around in the melee. When Crystal returns home to live with her fellow Inhumans for some undefined reason, a heartsick Johnny actually threatens to reduce their Great Refuge to ash in a raging holocaust (I think at some point ol' Matchstick crossed the line from "being a rash hotheaded youth" to "should be in a federal prison"). Crystal still forgives him but insists that she must stay with her people for a while longer. You get three guesses as to who's sitting in the Torch's window seat in the saucer ride home on the next page. In a three-part saga, the Sub-Mariner rescues a stranger named Magneto and joins forces with him, only to later be betrayed. Prince Namor must have an oddly selective memory because a). he met the Mutant Master of Magnetism in X-Men #6 and b). Mags stabbed him in the back that time too. Speaking of the X-Men, the Human Torch pulls an "Iceman" on us by using his mastery of flame to suck all of the heat out of a room, leaving everything covered in a thick layer of frost (Gee, I wonder how many times he'll bring that trick out again). But arguably the worst offender is the one where the team comes into the service of Dr. Phillip Zolten Rambow (Sue first called him Zolten, then Reed addressed him as Phillip, so I'm forced to use the "Robert Bruce Banner" naming convention). A souped-up energy monster borne from Rambow's lab is on a rampage through Manhattan and the situation is looking increasingly bleak when Reed (I do hope you are all sitting down for this) reminds Rambow that he himself had created a failsafe device for just such an occasion and PZ runs back to his house to fetch it. Problem solved! I defy anyone to read that little number without either laughing or sobbing.

I would have been able to forgive nitpicks like these (OK, maybe not all of them) if the stories were at least fresh and original, but most of the issues in this book are largely, transparently cribbed from other movies and television shows of the times. Here's a list of every (ahem) "homage" that I could find:

- The team is trapped in a pleasant idyllic little town from which they can nonetheless never depart (the Prisoner).
- Our heroes are captured and replaced by soulless identical simulacra (Invasion of the Body Snatchers).
- The Thing is abducted by Skrulls who mimic the culture of Prohibition era Chicago, except that they gather slaves from distant planets to fight in a gladiatorial arena for their own amusement (The Gamesters of Triskelion and A Piece of the Action, two chronologically consecutive episodes of Star Trek).
- The FF fight the Creature from the Lost Lagoon (Creature from the Black Lagoon).

It's very obvious that the Fantastic Four, once the premiere trendsetting comic series, was around this time meekly following trends.

And so it was during this very inauspicious run that Kirby parted ways with Lee and Marvel to work for DC. There is a gaggle of rumors and hearsay as to the cause; the one that I have most often heard was that Kirby was uncomfortable with the "Marvel method" of comic making, which put some responsibility on the pencillers to write the story in addition to drawing it. I understand that the method was abolished in most series by the time of the Lee-Kirby split. The writing style of the series did seem to differ a bit from #103 on, as if Lee started to resume the role of full-time author. Although that's not to say that the stories became substantially better (the Dr. Rambow debacle happened here, after all) but they did become less episodic and more focused on long-term plots and consequences. First, Crystal is removed from the group when she falls grievously ill from exposure to modern industrial pollutants (OK, at least there is an explanation for her disappearing act this time). Then Janus the Nega-Man, a disturbed scientist obsessed with harnessing anti-matter energy, crosses over to the Negative Zone and enters unholy alliance with the native Annihilus (Oh, yes. I'd want to be pals with a psychotic paranoid alien gargoyle who aims to kill every living thing in all realities. Sign me up for that). Around this time, the Thing has just come out of the Attempt-to-Turn-Him-Back-to-Normal-that-Eventually-Goes-Awry #8, which has the added perk of allowing Ben to assume the Thing's form at will (Thing On!), although it does make him act like kind of a wad around his friends. The compilation sadly ends before he inevitably turns against the team, which I believe occurred with attempts 6 and 7, as well.

For quality comic book yarns, the fifth Essential FF misses the mark by a good margin. But for pure historical significance in the comic medium, this is perhaps a one-of-a-kind example. To many fans in the 70's, the Lee-Kirby break-up must have been as tragic as the break-up of the Beatles. Artists John Romita Sr. and John Buscema kept the series running, but it would clearly be a while longer before it could stand out on its own merits again (some would say not until John Byrne took over in the early 80's). The Essential FF #5 is thus a very poor read on its own, but with the previous four volumes it becomes a complete endearing portrait of the World's Greatest Comic Creators.

P.S. One neat extra that I nearly forgot to mention is a circa 1969 photo gallery of "about everybody in the whole blamed bullpen". I have to say it was fun to see what all those guys in the credits of Silver Age classics really looked like back then. Stan himself is almost unrecognizable with that full beard, Roy and Jean Thomas definitely match their cameo appearances in those Avengers stories set in Rutland, VT, and Dan Turpin from the Superman Animated Series is indeed a dead ringer for "King" Kirby himself. There are also some original penciled storyboards to go along with the boards and unused covers found in other recent Essentials. I'm sure I'd buy these books even without little prizes like this but still, thanks Marvel.

The story has become familiar to comic book fans because it is not just about the birth of a comic book but of the entire Marvel universe. In 1961 comic book publisher Martin Goodman heard from his counterpart at DC Comics that they were enjoying success with a new superhero team, the Justice League of America. Goodman made his money in comics following trends, so he told Stan Lee to come up with a comic book about a team of superheroes. Lee's wife, Joan, suggested that for once her husband should put as much effort and creativity into a comic book as he did for all of the other writing jobs he was doing, and that maybe the time had come to write a comic book that he would actually enjoy reading. Lee worked with artist Jack Kirby to create "The Fantastic Four," consisting of Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), the Invisible Girl (Sue Storm), and the Thing (Ben Grimm). The rest, as they say, is Marvel history.

"Essential Fantastic Four, Volume 5" collects issues #84-110 of the self-proclaimed World's Greatest Comic Magazine," which brings us with issue #102 to the end of Kirby's legendary run on the series. He would come back to do some art for #108, along with both of his initial replacements, first John Romita (Sr.) on #103-106 and then John Buscema on #107-110. Filling "King" Kirby's artistic shoes is not an enviable job, as Romita full well knew having replaced Steve Ditko on "Spider-Man." I will just say that Romita draws the better women and Buscema the better men, and leave it to that, because it would take a while to get used to somebody else drawing these characters.

This collection begins as you would wish with another Doctor Doom multi-part story (#84-87). At this point Crystal, the Inhuman, has taken the Invisible Girl's place in the line up while Sue is taking care of baby Franklin, with help from Alicia Masters. Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. sends the FF to Latveria to check out what Doom is up to with his new robots. But the FF is captured and Doom makes them forget how to use their powers. Fortunately, Sue shows up to help. Next up is a Mole Man story arc (#88-89), where the Richards make the mistake of buying a futuristic home in the country, which turns out to be a trap. This leads to a Skrull kidnapping the Thing to be a gladiator on an alien world (#90-93).

We then have a return visit by the Frightful Four (#94), who have to deal with Franklin's new nanny, Agatha Harkness, and her cat Ebony (you know, there is something familiar about that cat...). We then have a Cold War story involving a man named Monocle (#95), the Mad Thinker and His Androids of Death (#96), the Monster from the Lost Lagoon (#97), and a timely story in which the FF makes sure the Moon walk goes okay in July of 1969 (#98). The Inhumans show up for #99, to set up issue #100 when the group have to deal with Kang the Conqueror, Doctor Doom, the Sentry, Dragon Man, Sub-Mariner, the Red Ghost, the Wingless Wizard, the Trapster, the Sandman, and almost, but not quite the Hulk. This might seem like overkill, but you have to understand who is really beyond all of these attacks.

Kirby sticks around for two more issues, an assault on the Baxter Building (#101), and a rematch with the Sub-Mariner (#102), that continues with Romita as Magneto shows up and takes both Sue and the Lady Dorma hostage, which leads Namor to team up with the FF (#103-04). Then Crystal collapses, which might be a break for the Thing to become Ben Grimm again, which makes the monster that shows up terribly inconvenient (#105-07). We then end this collection with the Mega-Man (#108), Annihilus in the Neutral Zone (#109-10). There is a nice ending point here when the Thing quits and Reed starts ranting he could become their enemy. Ah, the joys of comic book hyperbole.

Granted, the stories after Kirby leaves are not on the same level as the others, but in retrospect it seems clear Lee and Kirby were trying to show off before their fabled creative relationship came to an end. In the history of Marvel comics I cannot think of another writer and artist who worked together on over a hundred straight issues, let alone from the start of the book (Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan were getting close on "Tomb of Dracula"). I know that Dave Sim did 300 issues of "Cerebus," but that was his only comic book for most of that run and Lee was also writing several other titles and Kirby was also drawing "Thor" and "Captain America." The only possible complaint at the end is that while returning to Doctor Doom, the Mole Man and the Inhumans, then did not come up with anything significantly new to rival the likes of Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Still, Ben Grimm as a gladiator was a decent little mini-tragedy and the Doom story along is enough to justify rounding up. You might not proceed beyond this point, but you have to have the first five volumes of "Essential Fantastic Four" to have the complete Lee & Kirby run on the FF.

As I state in the title, Kirby's art stands the test of time but Lee's writing comes across as dated and simplistic (he is a great writer by the way but was overworked) but I'm now 42 and demand more complexity to characters and plot lines. Let me comment on both though starting with the art.
The departure of Kirby was devastating to Marvel and especially to the FF as each page looked like a masterpiece. Together with Sinnott's inking you could just stare at the art and wonder how they did it all in a month's time over and over again without loosing quality. It's no wonder the works sold so well and embodied for me the notion that story mixed with art is indeed a form of art. A graphic novel is indeed a graphic novel. No wonder Dan Turbin was created for Superman the Animated series. What a great way to pay tribute to Jack Kirby and the legacy he gave us. I have also heard many rumors about why Kirby left but the one that makes the most sense to me is that Kirby was simply tired of being paid so little for doing so much and who can blame him. The way back then was by the page, and whether your art was junk or fabulous did not matter. It would destroy the career of Jim Steranko who was the next Jack Kirby and invited less qualified but more productive artists such as Sal Buscema into the reins. As you notice in the volume, sweat work by John Buscema and John Romita Sr. took over from Kirby doing the best they can but as a testimony to Kirby they all fell short.
As far as writing there is no question that the prolific pen of Stan Lee was burning out as plot inconsistencies and quirky storylines were showing their age. The four part Doom series truly presents itself with that problem as Doom first uses hypnosis which suddenly wears off when ready as Doom once again fails to destroy the FF because he left too many devices behind that just so happens to save the FF. Lee took more writing duty after Kirby left but he was ending his reign and it showed. Perhaps that's why he was promoted. While he kept Spiderman strong the FF were hurting for good writing and sadly that would not happen till Byrne took over and saved their behinds.
Added features included a photo gallery (I really wanted to see Steve Ditko in that mix but he's a pretty private man as I understand it) as well as unused material that show Kirby's amazing pencils. All in all this is a fun read and for goodness sakes, the worst FF story in here is still better than the FF movie which had no plot, no story, no character motivation and no substance beyond the ending credits which felt good to see. As Stan would say -- nuff said!

Look, enough with the hand-wringing and false speculation. Lee and Kirby's split involved several factors I'll touch on - BRIEFLY - in a sec, but FF Vol 5 is the end of their collaboration, and so the stories suffer because Kirby was essentially phoning it in at this point. Sad but true. Y'see, Kirby wasn't miffed at the so-called "Marvel Method" one reviewer mentioned; in fact, he embraced it. Stan Lee basically scripted (ie wrote the dialogue) for the stories Kirby came up with. Which is what engendered Kirby's resentment leading to his ultimate break with Marvel. After creating scads of original heroes and villains, all of the skrilla was going to Marvel - owned at that time by Stan Lee's family - a fact that began to infuriate Kirby. Later in life he went on to make some wild claims about fully writing the Marvel stories, which are actually partly backed up by original pages with distinctively Kirbyesque dialogue penciled in with the art, but whether you believe that or not, its clear that Stan Lee was NOT the source of many of the grandiose cosmic concepts presented over the years in FF - just take a look at Essential Silver Surfer Vol 1 for Stan Lee writing wholly on his own. Evidence suggests that Kirby is telling the truth, at least in part, and his split from the House of Ideas at the peak of his popularity confirms this. Google all of this if you don't believe me.

Enough backstory, let's talk about this thing. I'm not going to rehash the other reviews - pretty bland stuff, story-wise. I would, however, like to disagree with the people bashing the art. Kirby was unique, had a distinctive vision, and helped define the very essence of sequential art. That said, his grasp of realistic anatomy was...severely limited. The people apologizing for the efforts of John Buscema are way off base - the FF was lucky to have an artist of his caliber step in after Kirby. In fact, its nice to see the FF look consistently realistic for a change, and though Buscema never came up with new creations (he actually hated super hero stories, ironically) what he did put to paper was beautifully rendered, though he suffers quite a bit with Sinnott's heavy inking. Nevertheless, Big John was a giant of the industry, and the beauty and grace of his characters outshine the raw cubism of the King's. [To the guy that felt "sorry" for him having to follow Barry Smith on Conan, I just wonder if he ever READ the original Smith stories he's talking about, because the John Buscema work that followed was incomparably better, particularly the Savage Sword issues he did with Alfredo Alcala (BWS didn't really hit his stride until the mid 80's). Luckily, Marvel is getting around to Essentializing these, so you'll be able to see for yourselves what I'm talking about]

I'm not getting into Romita. He's another master, and along with Sal Buscema draws some of the ugliest chicks in comics. His version of Mary-Jane looks like a swollen butt with dimples and a mullet, but since he's more derivative of Ditko anyway (rightfully so) his rendition of the FF doesn't really bear much discussion.

All in all, this is a classic volume by 3 legends of the comic art medium, and shoot, even Stan Lee is on hand to ham it up, too. At Amazon's discount price, there's no excuse not pick this one up. YES, Vol 3 is better, YES, the stories here aren't on the level of the introduction of Galactus, the Inhumans, or the Black Panther, but seriously, how many thousands of other comics share the same distinction? Once you come to terms with this you'll better appreciate these stories, as well as the opportunity to have them collected in one handy volume. This is primordial super hero stuff that represents the sad end of the true Marvel Age that was defined by the King's brobdingnagian creative output, and as such is an indispensable bookend to one of the major works in the history of comic books.

Not unlike professional sports, it is pretty rare to see talent in comics stick with a title for more than a couple years. For that reason, the 102 issues that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby worked on to kick off the Fantastic Four is even more special (beyond the fact that their issues are a lot of fun to read). The Essential Fantastic Four Volume 5 features the last issues of that run and brings in new FF artists John Romita and John Buscema (although Lee continues at the writing helm).

Things kick off quickly enough with a four issue story pitting the FF against Dr. Doom. Next up is the Mole Man, a tale with the inane premise of the Richards clan moving into a mysterious house without really questioning its origins. Then the Thing is taken by a Skrull slave trader to another world where he is forced to fight as a gladiator.

Later, Agatha Harkness will be introduced as Franklin's nanny, and shows herself more than capable in protecting the infant from the Frightful Four. Other foes in this volume include the Mad Thinker, Magneto, the Sub-Mariner and Annihilus, which also covers the Human Torch-Crystal romance and yet another attempt by Reed to reverse the Thing's powers, once again with negative effects.

Not to knock today's comics, but it is nice to read the simpler superhero comics of the Sixties and Seventies. Yes, some of it is dated (particularly Reed's condescending attitude with Sue), but overall, it is a lot of fun. This is another worthwhile volume in the Essential Fantastic Four series.

This is book 5 of the Essential series, which is a "fantastic" series of Black and white reprints of Marvel's silver age material. This section the the fantastic four is Jack Kirby's last on the title, and the work is amazing. His artwork is at his peak, and the inking throughout most of the book by Joe Sinnot is impeccable. I would definitely recommend this to any fan of silver age comics, and anyone who wants to see Kirby's finest work.