web stats

CSBG Archive

A Year of Cool Comics – Day 261

Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here‘s the archive of the comics posted so far!

Today we take a look at beginning of the classic Fantastic Four stretch by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee where they introduced the Inhumans, Galactus, the Silver Surfer, the Black Panther AND had one of the all-time greatest single issue stories!!! We’ve already looked at the Galactus story and “This Man, This Monster,” now let’s take a look at the introduction of the Inhumans!!!

Enjoy!

Sorry for the delay – the internet was down at my apartment most of Saturday and Sunday.

The whole story begins in Fantastic Four #44, where Medusa (a member of the Frightful Four) kidnaps the Human Torch (mostly just to use his car to get out of town). She is on the run because a mysterious fellow named Gorgon is after her.

The FF tangle with Gorgon, but he gives them the slip.

In #45, Johnny meets a mysterious pretty girl, who leads him to…the Inhumans!!

The FF show up in a really cool Kirby splash page (with a nice piece of quirky humor from Lee at the bottom of the page)…

#46 opens with an extended fight sequence between the FF and the Inhumans (mostly Black Bolt).

But then the Inhumans run away. You see, they were tangled up in a bit of a Civil War at the time, with Maximus (Black Bolt’s brother) sending people after the rogue members of the Royal Family…

When the FF meet the Seeker, he gives them a quick rundown on the Inhumans…

The FF save Triton but the Seeker takes him. Reed, though, uses this to find out where the Inhuman’s Great Refuge is…

The Inhumans, meanwhile, confront Maximus…

And after an awesome battle, Black Bolt is made king, all part of the mad Maximus’ plan.

Which the FF discover at the end of #47…

This whole time there was also a plot involving the Dragon Man running through the story.

Kirby and Lee packed SOOOOOOOOOOOO much story into these titanic tales, it’s really nuts looking back upon it now.

I left you with the cliffhanger of #47 – #48, of course, not only wraps this story up but it also begins the Galactus Trilogy! What a stretch of comics!!!

  • Posted on September 18, 2010 @ 11:47 PM

7 Comments

Check the Seeker’s awesome cigarette lighter – guess higher life forms still smoke

Reed was really a dick back then. Poor Sue!

“Stop sounding like a wife, sue! I still make the decisions for the team!”

No wonder she has that terrified/bewildered face all the time. She’s only one voiced opinion away from a corrective backhand.

A great pick, Brian. Some comments:

1.Joe Sinnott: Sinnott’s impact on Kirby’s art was almost immediate. Just compare the Kirby-Colletta art in FF #42 to the Kirby-Sinnott combo in FF # 43; the jump in quality is staggering.

2.Kirby: I still can’t get over how fecund Kirby’s imagination was during this period. From FF # 44 to 53 alone he introduced the Inhumans, Galactus, The Silver Surfer, the Negative Zone in FF # 51, The Black Panther and Klaw in FF # 52-53.

3. Stan Lee: His ear for dialogue was unmatched during this period.

Wow, stuff this awesome, and there’s only 4 comments, half of them lazy shots at dated dialogue Stan wrote for Reed? Jesus.
I was lucky, I read this in cheap reprints which were readily available and affordable; Marvel’s Greatest Comics and Marvel Tales and the like were a boon for a kid catching up on classic runs, especially since, as “just reprints” some stores would either barely mark up, not mark up at all, or even MARK DOWN the prices on back issues.

And of course the Seeker smokes! One whiff of Terrigen and an Inhuman’s lungs are invulnerable to puny cigarettes!

Ronald Kearschner

October 14, 2010 at 3:14 am

I keep waiting for THE INHUMANS as an Essential. Surely there’s enough issues of FF, the backup stories in THOR I think, and the 12 issue series Doug Moench did (with Geoge Perez art).

@Jack Norrris: You’re quite right. I forgot to mention Stan’s atrocious dialogue for Sue :)

Leave a Comment

 

Subscribe to CSBG

Categories

Review Copies

Comics Should Be Good accepts review copies. Anything sent to us will (for better or for worse) end up reviewed on the blog. See where to send the review copies.

Browse the Archives