It is easy to see the Fantastic Four now, and their wonderful adventures as a family and as a foundation of the Marvel Universe....
...but what were they like when there was no Marvel Universe?
A quick look at the first two issues of the Fantastic Four by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, with that thought in mind.
A Timely Preamble
While Timely Comics (the precursors to Marvel) had a few super heroes (mostly notably Captain America), by the early sixties, the publisher that would be Marvel was making monster comics, and the citizens of the world had to deal with alien invaders and horribly mutated creatures that would make their lives miserable, with only random scientists, brave military and occasionally some siblings to save them.
But all that would change with Fantastic Four #1....
The Fantastic Four!
Stan Lee,
Jack Kirby and
George Klein gave us
Fantastic Four #1 (November, 1961), and it started with a menacing gathering of four people (first, Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, who sent out the calling, then, the Invisible Girl, Sue Storm, fading out from a society friend, the lumbering Thing, Ben Grimm, smashing his way through a world too small for him, and the Human Torch, Johnny Storm, burning to get to the meeting, and needing a little help from Reed at the end).
But, who were these people?
The four were astronauts, led by Reed, a scientist, who disagreed with his friend, Ben, the ship's pilot, about how safe they would be from the cosmic rays in space. But, they still wanted to get to the moon, and would include as crew Reed's fiance Sue, who would go wherever Reed went, and mechanic Johnny, who would follow his sister. Stealing away in their ship to launch early, the four did make it to space, but Ben was smarter than Reed, as their shielding was insufficient, and the four were exposed to strange radiation, manifesting as powers for each of them. After a brief tussle, the four realized they needed to work together to help the human race.
But, what of the menace they had to face now?
Well, that was the threat of disappearing atomic plants across the world...that were taken by monsters from inside the Earth! Stretching his incredible brain, Reed calculated where to go to find the source of the problem, and it was Monster Isle. There, the four searched, faced a dragon like creature, then were separated, with Reed and Johnny meeting the Mole Man....leader of the subterranean world, who had found Monster Isle as he fled humanity, then, falling into this strange underground world, learned to master the monsters there to take revenge on the people who hated him. The four rallied together to beat him, sealing the tunnel to the island, though they left the Mole Man behind....
...and, on to the next adventure!
The Fantastic Four Meet The Skulls From Outer Space!
With their second appearance in
Fantastic Four #2 (January, 1962, by
Lee,
Kirby and
Klein), the four seemed to be famous (likely more from their astronaut fame, as no one other than the team saw their battle against the Mole Man), the four seemed to be an actual menace to the world, with the Thing destroying an oil tower, the Invisible Girl stealing a priceless diamond, the Human Torch destroying a statue, and Mr. Fantastic turning out the lights to a city...
...maybe they weren't heroes after all!
Well, it was really the evil invading aliens, the Skrulls, who were to blame for the misdeeds, as these four advanced soldiers used their shape-changing abilities to impersonate the heroic team, hoping to turn the world against the heroes. The FF gathered in secret, debating what to do, as the military closed in, taking the Four prisoner. But, not prison could hold these heroes, and they promptly escaped...
...but what to do now?
Reed came up with the idea of one of them causing more mischief, in the hopes that their evil doppelgangers would then find the mischief maker, and take in the FF member. Johnny volunteered to be the agent, and was quickly found by the Skrulls. They could Johnny to their base, where he called in the rest of the team, and they made quick work of these Skrulls. But, in finding them, the four realized there was a bigger menace, the rest of the Skrull invasion force. Thinking quickly, Reed decided his four would impersonate the Skrull four, and go back, and report that Earth had too many menaces there for the Skrulls to conquer the world (oddly, using
Strange Tales and
Journey Into Mystery comics as proof). The invasion fleet left, and the Fantastic Four returned to Earth, convincing the remaining three Skrulls to change into cows, where they were hypnotized to forget their Skrull life, leaving them contented. (But, what of the fourth Skrull? A tale for the future....).
Still, these two issues helped found the Marvel Universe, setting up many tales both in and above the Earth...as soon after, the Marvel Universe started to grow with Hank Pym, a man who shrank to the size of ant, and the Fantastic Four got costumes, a headquarters and even a car, as the Fantastic Four became more of a success for
Lee and
Kirby!
