Book Review: Fantastic Four Masterworks Vol. 1 by S. Lee et al.

Fantastic Four Masterworks Volume 1 written by Stan Lee and pencilled by Jack Kirby

The original Fantastic Four stories were the beginning of Marvel Comics. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby decided to try a new idea. The team-based comic The Justice League was popular but the superheroes worked and played together fairly well (this was the early 1960s, not today). Lee and Kirby wanted to make a team that was more realistic--when they weren't fighting bad guys, they had problems and got on each others' nerves. Sometimes they'd have personal problems as they were fighting the bad guys, making a different kind of drama, a different kind of comic book.

The team naturally has four members. Reed Richards is a brilliant scientist who wants to fly a rocket to Mars. He works with Ben Grimm, the ace pilot to fly the ship. Reed also brings along Sue Storm, his girlfriend. She brings along Johnny Storm, her hot-headed brother. They fly up out of the atmosphere and are hit by Cosmic Rays, which transforms them. Reed's body becomes super-pliable and calls himself Mr. Fantastic. Sue gains the ability to turn invisible and takes the name the Invisible Girl (later she becomes the Invisible Woman). Johnny turns into living flames for short periods of time and calls himself the Human Torch. Ben is transformed into a rock monster with incredible strength and endurance, called the Thing. They use their powers for the good of others. 

But Johnny has a smart mouth that really annoys Ben (and sometimes Reed). Ben is a bit of a sad sack, wishing he'd turn back into a regular guy. He's very grumpy and constantly threatens to leave the group. Ben has also taken a liking to Sue, creating another tension. Reed can be a little full of himself or a little too scientific in dealing with personal problems. They all have some difficulties with their celebrity status too.

The villains have more character than the usual supervillains. Mole Man starts removing atomic power plants (an early eco-terrorist?) though that's mostly to support his overthrow of a world that rejected him for his bad looks. The Sub-Mariner mourns the loss of his Atlantean underwater kingdom and wants revenge on the surface world. Sue Storm catches his eye and he catches hers, making her sympathize with the villain. On the other hand, Doctor Doom just wants to rule the world and show off how great he is (he's the sort of guy that talks about himself in the third person). He was a scientific rival to Reed back in grad school but a horrible accident disfigured him. Doom is interesting in his mixture of science and "dark arts," i.e. sorcery, so he has some extra challenges when fighting him. I feel compelled to state that a lot of the science in the book reads like magic (which I think is true of modern fiction as well). 

The book also shows its age a bit. The team uses flare guns to signal each other (Reed should get to work on some walkie-talkies or some such devices). A couple of the villains are finished off only to come back two or three issues later with some barely plausible excuse of how they survived. Sue starts off as more girl than woman, i.e. as a romantic interest, but she does her share of fighting and using clever tactics. The plots show a lot of creativity, sometimes too much like the story that involves Lee and Kirby for a couple of pages as they play a part in Doctor Doom's plan to take down the Fantastic Four. The aliens from space look pretty goofy. If you make allowances for its time (like you should for the 1930s special effects in King Kong), the book is a fun read and it's easy to see how it became a hit.

Recommended, highly for Marvel fans.