Fantastic Four #22

Cover Date: January 1964

Plot Overview: An experiment of Reed's increases Sue's invisibility powers. Now she can create a shield and make other objects invisible. Meanwhile, the FF field numerous complaints from neighbors about the dangers of Reed's experiments. Reed decides that maybe he should experiment in a more secluded area. As luck would have it, there's an ad for an island for sale.

Reed and the FF take off to check out the island in the U-Car. The island is concealed by a barrier reef so the Torch burns a path through for them. The island is quite creepy but Reed thinks it will work for his purposes.

Suddenly, the U-Car begins to sink. The Torch tries to see what's going on but the steam caused from his flames puts him out. Reed makes the save and is critical of how careless Johnny was. They spot a mysterious figure watching them and chase him to a nearby cave. They fall into a trap. They're in a ring surrounded by a radioactive wall.

They come face to face with the Mole Man. The Mole Man reveals that he's planning to pull the cities of New York and Moscow under the ground. The Americans and Russians will blame each other and start a nuclear war. The FF spring into action but the Mole Man captures each of them in specially made prison cells.

They each use their powers to escape their prisons in the nick of time. The battle continues and the Mole Man escapes with the trigger to sink the cities. Reed let's him go and herds the other members of the FF to the found U-Car. The other members doubt his motives but as they escape the whole island sinks. Reed reveals that he rewired the trigger and New York and Moscow are safe.

My Take: I have mixed feelings on this issue. The first half of the book had some good energy with the antics of the various FF members.The art also was really good in this issue. The characters really had a lot of personality. I might have missed it in a previous issue but this felt like a big jump in the quality of the art. It's like Jack Kirby decided to try a more detailed approach in this issue.

The second half of the issue, I didn't like as much. The Mole Man capturing them in various prisons. I've felt like they've used that plot device several times and it feels kind of tired. The second he captured them, it felt like the air just went out of the story. I would rather they just had more straight up battles in this book. The gimmicks are just tiring at times.

Reed was also kind of a jerk in this issue. He was very short with the other members of the team during the mission. That seems different for him but I could be glossing over some instances in previous issues. Reed being a little grumpy is a little more characterization than he's shown in previous issues though. I would prefer they dial it back a little from this issue but I think it makes him a little more interesting.

Overall, I'm just going to say it was an average and forgettable issue. There were some character things I liked and I laughed at a few of the moments earlier. I also like that Sue has a broader range of powers now and she can do more than sneak up on the bad guys. It will be nice to see her be more useful in more situations. Outside of that, I didn't like how the fight with the Mole Man went. I'm just going to cut the difference on this one.

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

Notes: The Thing utters his catchphrase "It's Clobberin' Time" for the very first time in this issue.

Next Issue: Tales to Astonish #51

Fantastic Four #1

Cover Date: November 1961

Plot Overview: A mysterious man stands in a window and fires a flare gun into the air. The flare reads Fantastic Four. A woman sees the signal and turns invisible and tries to catch a cab. The cab driver freaks out and drives away. A man in a trench coat sees the signal and reveals himself to be a monster of stone. Everyone around him freaks out and panic follows. A younger man sees the signal and bursts into flames and takes to the sky. The military responds and fires a missile at the flaming man. The mystery man stretches and saves the flaming man from the missile and then catches him from falling as his flames went out. He greets them all and explains they have a fearful task to complete.

The book flashes back as Reed Richards and Ben Grimm argue about taking a risky space flight. Ben is against the flight as they don't know the risks of cosmic rays. Sue Storm points out that they have to beat the Commies into space. She also calls Ben a coward and in a fit of anger he agrees to fly the spacecraft.

They take flight and to their dismay the cosmic rays have a greater effect than they thought. Ben can no longer fly and the ship is forced to land with the help of the auto-pilot. As they stumble out, Sue turns invisible to their shock. Reed and Ben start argue and Ben suddenly turns into a monster made of rock. Ben goes to attack Reed but Reed suddenly becomes elastic and subdues Ben. Johnny bursts into flames shortly afterwards and realizes that he can fly in this state. They now realize that they're the strongest humans on earth and they vow to use their powers to fight for the good of humanity. They become the Fantastic Four with the code names of Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, Invisible Girl and the Human Torch.

Back in the present Reed shows the group pictures of nuclear facilities around the world. The reactors have been swallowed into the ground. No one knows the cause of these cave-ins but Reed predicts another one is about to happen.

We change scenes to French controlled Africa. A nuclear reactor is swallowed into the earth and a giant monster climbs to the surface. French soldiers fire on the monster to no effect. The monster crushes several cannons until a mystery man orders it to stop.

We return to the Fantastic Four as Reed has discovered Monster Isle is the center of all the cave-ins. They fly to the island and Sue is attacked by a three headed monster. She turns invisible and Reed uses his powers to hurl it into the sea. A cave-in sucks Reed and Johnny into the ground and they are blinded by a brilliant light. They wake up in special suits and the Moleman introduces himself to them.

Back on the surface another monster attacks Sue and the Thing fights the creature off. In the underworld the Moleman explains how he was shunned by the surface world and how he ended up here. He explains losing his sight and learning how to control the creatures of the underworld. He demonstrates his power by besting Reed or Johnny, the comic doesn't say, at combat. Sue and Ben arrive and the Moleman summons the giant monster from earlier in the book. Johnny distracts the creature while the Fantastic Four flee the island. The Moleman destroys the island with an explosion. The book ends with the FF wondering if they'll ever see the Moleman again.

My Take: This was a solid debut for the Fantastic Four. The book had a nice flow to it and it wasn't as wordy as books from that time period can be. The characters are a little flat but character development was a novel concept at the time. Reed and Ben got the majority of the screen time to build an adversarial relationship between them. I liked the fact that they were running around without costumes because they were so new to the superhero thing at the time.

This book had a lot of content crammed in. You got the origin of the FF and they took on a villain. This would've taken 4 or 5 issues to tell in today's world.

I'd give the book ***1/2 out of *****

Notes: This is the first appearance for Mr. Fantastic, Thing, Invisible Girl, Human Torch and the Moleman. Note that the Johnny Storm Human Torch is not the Golden Age Human Torch. The Golden Age Human Torch was an android and he'll return much later on for Marvel. This also didn't feature New York, they lived in a fictional city called Central City. It should be interesting to see when this switches over to being New York.

Next: Fantastic Four #2.