Fantastic Four #19

Cover Date: October 1963

Plot Overview: Reed calls for The Thing and Alicia Masters to come to the Baxter Building. When they arrive, he explains that he had been studying up on ancient Egypt and discovered a tale of a blind ancient Pharaoh. This Pharaoh was cured by a radioactive plant. Reed proposes that they use Doctor Doom's time machine from issue #5 to travel back in time and retrieve this plant for Alicia Masters.

They head to Doom's abandoned castle and teach Alicia to use the machine. She sends them to the past where they are immediately confronted by an ancient Egyptian army. The army is no match for the FF until suddenly their powers are sapped away and they all collapse.

The FF are captured and taken to the Egyptian leader Rama-Tut. He explains that he's a time traveler from the year 3000. He came back in time in the Sphinx to loot history. He crashed and damaged his ship when he arrived and was stranded here. He was also blinded in the crash but still managed to conquer the Egyptians with his special gun. His damaged ship leaked radiation and infected the plants which then healed him. He further explains that his gun can dominate the FF and make them slaves.

Rama-Tut sends Reed, Thing and the Torch off as slaves and decides that Sue will become his bride. Each member of the FF try to fight the rays powers but have no success. Until one day, the hot Egyptian sun turns the Thing back into Ben Grimm. The change removes the effects of the ray gun and he escapes from slavery.

Ben manages to get the gun away from Rama-Tut and releases Sue from it's power before becoming the Thing again. Sue uses the gun to release the Torch and then the Thing. Rama-Tut escapes to his Sphinx ship while the Torch finds Reed and releases him as well.

The FF storm the Sphinx and are briefly caught in a water trap but the Torch manages to defeat the trap. They find Rama-Tut but he escapes in a smaller ship and travels back to the future. They muse about who Rama-Tut might actually be until Sue finds the plant that restored Rama-Tut's vision. The Thing is overjoyed at this news. They head to the present only to discover the vial didn't return with them. Reed explains that a fail safe in the machine probably won't allow radioactive material to travel with them. Everyone is dismayed at this setback as the issue comes to an end.

My Take: Rama-Tut as the villain here is a little silly but I enjoyed this issue. It was a straight forward adventure with nothing too ridiculous. This issue also holds up quick well following the Annual. It didn't feel like a giant letdown after a really good story there.

I really enjoyed the time traveling here. It was a little different of a situation from the more recent issues. It's also nice to get a villain that isn't Dr. Doom or Namor for variety. I also really liked that the ending was a downer. Spider-Man has been doing that a lot but it really feels like a novelty for this time period. It was cool that things weren't wrapped up in a nice little package when everything was all said and done.

The art was good as always when it comes to the Fantastic Four. It's Jack Kirby, what more can you say on the art front? He has the character models down and is pumping out consistent quality on a monthly basis.

This gets *** out of *****.

Notes: This is the first appearance of Rama-Tut. Rama-Tut himself is a fairly minor character but he branches out into more important characters like Kang the Conqueror and Immortus. There are multiple versions of Rama-Tut over the year due to his time traveling. Like I mentioned, Kang is the most important version of Rama-Tut to the MU. Kang himself will appear in Avengers #8 about a year later.

Next Issue: Tales to Astonish #48

Fantastic Four Annual #1

Cover Date: September 1963

Plot Overview: Namor has found the citizens of Atlantis and take his place as their king. Lady Dorma professes her love for Namor while Warlord Krang professes his love for Dorma. Namor has decided to exact his revenge on the surface world with the armies of Atlantis.

We switch scenes as the Thing and Torch are up to their usual antics around the Baxter Building. Reed breaks things up and says the group needs a vacation. Strange sea creatures have been spotted so he booked them a cruise. While out at sea, Johnny spots a monster. The FF head out to sea in a boat and are captured by Namor. He tells them to warn the U.N. of his coming and then expels them back to the surface.

Reed and a professor tell the U.N. of Namor's origin. How he is the product of a marriage between a surface man and an Atlantis princess. After their discussion, Namor reveals himself, he was disguised as the professor, and Atlantis invades New York. The Torch counterattacks but can only do so much damage by himself.

Meanwhile, Reed has developed a device to fight the Atlantis invasion and sends the Thing out to catch a prisoner. The Thing eagerly follows orders and brings some soldiers back. Reed notices that they can not breath water and knows he can use his machine. Reed's machine works and Atlantis is forced to retreat.

The last half of the issue is a giant brawl between the FF and Namor. He captures Sue at one point and takes her to his main ship. The Lady Dorma gets wind of his affection towards her and tries to drown Sue as a result. Sue is nearly lost until Namor and the other members of the FF put their differences aside briefly to save her. Sue ends up recovering and Namor returns home. Upon his return, the other citizens of Atlantis have left him. He chose the surface over them and they abandoned him for it.

My Take: This was a 37 page story with a ton of action. It really felt like a culmination of the Namor appearances in the Fantastic Four book up until this point. Namor got a lot of screen time here and they really developed him in a big way. He is a much more tragic character and you can see the seeds of him being more of an anti-hero than a villain in this issue.

After that, it feels like they have the Fantastic Four formula down with this Annual. The Torch/Thing antics feel right, the Reed/Sue relationship feels right. The book just feels like the Fantastic Four now.

This was a really great annual. It had bios on most of the villains from the series up to this point and it reprinted the origin of the FF from issue 1 as well. This would've been a fantastic buy for 25 cents when it was initially released.

I left my review a little vague on the details because of the length of the story on this one. The fight was pretty big and long and I didn't want to give away too many of the details on this one. Honestly, if you were to read an early Fantastic Four issue, you should check out the Annual. It was a really good tale.

I give this ****1/2 out of *****

Notes: This book features the first appearance of Warlord Krang. He'll be around as time progresses. I wouldn't call him important by any means. This book also features the re-introduction of Atlanteans, Lady Dorma and many other characters into the Silver Age of Marvel. The Atlanteans will be an important part of the Marvel Universe going forward. Lady Dorma is mostly a side character with a minor role in Marvel history.

Next Issue: Fantastic Four #19

X-Men #1

Cover Date: September 1963

Plot Overview: Professor X summons the X-Men to start the issue. Cyclops, Angel, Beast and Iceman answer the call. Xavier tests the members of the team. Angel can fly, Beast has super strength and agility, Iceman has ice powers and Cyclops has eye beams. The team rough houses a bit until Xavier stops them and tells them a new student is coming today. Jean Grey arrives to the delight of the male students. She reveals telekinesis as her powers. Xavier explains that the X-Men exist to protect the world from evil mutants that want to harm mankind.

The scene shifts to a man named Magneto. He proceeds to use his magnetic powers to take over a base at Cape Citadel.

Xavier summons the X-Men and tells them about the attack and tells them this will be their first mission as a team. The team flies to Cape Citadel and the military agrees to let them try to save the day.

Cyclops uses his eye beams to break Magneto's shield around the base. Magneto sends missiles after the X-Men but they manage to disable the missiles with relative ease. Magneto then throws a flaming cart of fuel at the team but Iceman saves the day with an ice shield. The X-Men return and Magneto decides to flee the scene. The military thank the X-Men as the issue comes to a close.

Fun Fact: Professor X named the X-Men with the X standing for Ex-tra power.

My Take: I had read this issue at a much younger age and didn't have many fond memories towards it. I remembered it as being pretty boring and kind of a dry read. This reading of it went better in my head.

There isn't a lot of story to this issue. It's really 23 pages used to explore each character's power with a justification for them to show off. In that regard it works. Everyone on the team has a bit of personality and you have a really good idea of what each member of the team can do power wise. Magneto is kind of a blank slate but they were trying to show what he is capable of as well.

I enjoyed this read quite a bit. The team is likable for the most part. It's interesting to see that Cyclops was a bore from almost day 1. My only complaint with this is Jean Grey is really similar to Sue Storm powerwise and Iceman is essentially an ice version of the Human Torch. But those are really minor issues and I expect that to get better as more issues are released.

The art for this issue was Jack Kirby so you know it was good. The action scenes were good and the team has a very distinct look from anything else in the Marvel Universe at this point.

A little aside to this review. The advertising for this issue was interesting. Marvel revealed the name of the team in several ads but didn't show what the members of the team looked like at all. I thought it was a good way to get people to check out this book.

I'd give this *** out of *****

Notes: This book features the first appearance of the X-Men. Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel and Iceman all go on to be important members of the team to this very day. This would essentially be the X-Men throughout the 60s and the early 70s. This book also features the first appearance of Magneto who is the main antagonist of the X-Men. Magneto would be their most popular nemesis throughout the entire run of the series.

A sidenote here as well. Cyclops is introduced as Slim Summers in this issue.

Next Issue: Fantastic Four Annual #1