BC: FANTASTIC FOUR #56

As I’ve mentioned before, I first really met my friend David Steckel when the both of us attended the once-a-week gifted student education program in our school district. It was designed to give the top students in the community more creative and hands-on learning opportunities, and was a terrific program that did a lot for me. But even before that, we’d had one earlier encounter a year before. My old fourth grade teacher Brian O’Leary knew that I was an avid comic book fan–I had done little to conceal that fact–so when David brought in a stack of FANTASTIC FOUR issues that he’d been given by a relative, Mr. O’Leary had me summoned to his classroom so that I could see them. Once we became friends a year later, I wound up reading and/or borrowing pretty much all of the issues that I saw that day. But this issue, Steckel’s oldest, wasn’t then among them–though he no doubt got it from the same source. Like myself, FANTASTIC FOUR was David’s favorite comic book, so that was something that we bonded over. He was a lot more outgoing and athletic than I was, which I think was good in terms of getting me more out into the world than I had been up to that point.

This particular issue of FANTASTIC FOUR is noteworthy to a chance made to the credits. Following the disastrous interview that had appeared in the New York Herald-Tribune (which we covered at the link below) which ascribed the full credit for the innovations of the Marvel line to writer/editor Stan Lee, and which had characterized Jack Kirby as being akin to the foreman in a girdle factory, in order to assuage Kirby’s anger, Lee agreed to thereafter list their credits as Produced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in reflection of the fact that Kirby was doing virtually all of the plotting on the series. This adjustment did little to arrest Kirby’s steadily-worsening animosity–especially given that it wasn’t employed consistently, and so there’d continue to be stories crediting Lee as the writer and Kirby merely as the artist.

Super-Heroes With Super Problems

Unfortunately, the name of FANTASTIC FOUR’s third creative contributor, polished inker Joe Sinnott, was misspelled on this page.

When I got to read this story, I recognized it almost immediately. the previous summer, Hanna Barbera had put their 1967 Fantastic Four cartoon series back into syndication as a part of an umbrella package called Hanna Barbera’s World of Super Adventure. The show grouped a number of the firm’s short-lived super hero shows, though only Fantastic Four was based on an outside source. The very first episode, “Klaws”, was a more-or-less straight up adaptation of this story, with the Black Panther eliminated and replaced by the Human Torch, who was going on vacation at the start of the story and who returned in time to deliver the vibranium units to Reed Richards that would allow the group to defeat Klaw. So I was familiar with the story in general, but the additional power of the Kirby and Sinnott artwork made it all feel a lot more dramatic, and much of Stan Lee’s crazy copy had to be excised from the animated incarnation as well. Here’s a quick look at the next episode trailer highlighting that episode:

This issue came out at the height of the series’ most innovative period, a time where everything was firing on all cylinders and the book was rolling out new characters and concepts at an almost frightening pace. Klaw himself was the big new player in this story, even though he’d contended with the FF and the Black Panther a few issues earlier. at the close of that adventure, Ulysses Klaw entered his own sonic device, transforming himself into a create composed of pure solidified sound. As this issue opens, he attacks the Fantastic Four (or the three of them who are present–the Human Torch is still off with Wyatt Wingfoot and Lockjaw looking for a way to penetrate the great barrier that has sealed away the city of the Inhumans, including his beloved Crystal) within their Baxter Building headquarters. His first strike seals Reed and Ben inside the space-time lab behind a barrier of solidified sound, then he goes to take out Sue.

With the FF now on the ropes, Klaw is hoping to coerce Sue into contacting the Black Panther and drawing him away from Wakanda to come to the team’s aid–and directly into a trap. Sue’s able to hold her own, though, but of course, this being the 1960s, her force-field isn’t mighty enough of a weapon to stop Klaw’s relentless attacks. Fortunately, Reed is able to jury-rig a Counter Sonic Harness for Ben out of equipment within the lab they’re imprisoned in, and the mighty Thing is able to use it to break through the barrier containing them and take the fight directly to their attacker.

But even the Thing is overwhelmed by the onslaught of Klaw’s sonic force, enough raw power that it blows out the lightbulbs of every building in the vicinity of the FF’s headquarters. But as Klaw faces Reed Richards for the final showdown, there’s a sudden appearance at the window: a tiny rocket fired towards Manhattan from the African nation of Wakanda enters through the open window, delivering to Mr. Fantastic just the thing he needs to put an end to the danger: a pair of vibranium bands, made of the extraterrestrial material that absorbs all vibrations, including sound. While he wears the bands that the Black Panther has sent his way, Reed is impervious to Klaw’s sonic onslaught, and so he whales on the now-disarmed villain.

And that’s all she wrote for poor old Klaw, who in the end wasn’t quite as devastating a villain as he seemed to be for a couple early pages there. In the end, the FF radio the Black Panther, thanking their friend for his aid, and the issue prepares to wrap up. But before it does, events are transpiring in far-off Latveria that will soon portend trouble for the Fantastic four and the world. For the Silver Surfer, herald of Galactus who has been trapped upon our world, has come into the orbit of the team’s greatest foe, Doctor Doom! To Be continued! In all honesty, while it looked great and read well, this was a bit of a lesser effort than many of the issues that surrounded it, and I think that comes down to the fact that Klaw turned out to be a bit of a piker, for all that he’d return time and again across the Marvel line.

Almost as much as the stories, I loved reading the ancillary materials in these old books, and getting a bit of a peek at the other magazines that were on sale at the same time. The Bullpen Bulletins page hadn’t yet evolved to the point where it included Stan Lee’s Soapbox column every month, but it was chock-a-block full of interesting tidbits about what was going on throughout Marveldom at that time. Which in this instance included hype about the upcoming AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and FANTASTIC FORU Annuals, some love for Gene Colan’s work on DAREDEVIL, the announcement of a new logo for STRANGE TALES and an upcoming feature on marvel that would be running in the pages of Esquire magazine, a legitimate publication. Plus the intriguing Marvel Checklist and a listing of 26 more members of the merry Marvel Marching Society fan club.

The big news at this moment was the impending arrival of the MARVEL SUPER HEROES cartoon in syndication all across the country. This was the first big media exposure that the Marvel characters ever received, and it helped to build awareness of the line among potential young readers. The animation on these old cartoons was primitive to say the least, but they drew directly from the Marvel stories and artwork (to the point where artists such as Jack Kirby felt understandably taken advantage of, as their drawings appeared on national television without them receiving any manner of recompense for that usage.) The show was blurbed across the bottom of several pages, but this issue went to print early enough that the arrows on each blurb, which later would contain the name of a particular TV station that was running the show, would here remain blank.

Lee’s letters pages during this era were perhaps some of his strongest writing and the place where his full personality would often shine through. They were just fun to read, and were simultaneously outrageously bombastic and completely self-effacing, a delicate balancing act that Lee pulled off better than just about anybody else in the field. These were simply fun to read, and made you feel like you were a part of some insider crowd in a very effective manner.