Marvel Comics (Fantastic Four # 2, January 1962)
So the Fantastic Four have made their debut. In that debut we had clashing personalities, explorers, super powers, rocket crashes, cosmic rays, mysterious islands, villains and gigantic monsters from the center of the Earth. Where do we go from there? Why aliens, of course.
Given the prevalence of aliens in comics that isn't that big a jump, but it's worth noting that going to aliens as early as issue # 2 is the deliberate opening up of the potential "world" of the Fantastic Four to more than merely the terrestrial. Rather than be content with earthly menaces (albeit supernatural ones) Lee and Kirby are immediately establishing the precedent that the whole universe is part of the their playground.
So how are they going to play with their new toys?
Summary
A series of attacks and crimes take place, apparently committed by the Fantastic Four. The Thing destroys an offshore oil rig, the Invisible Girl steals a rare gem worth ten million dollars, the Human Torch melts a priceless marble statue and Mr. Fantastic causes a city-wide blackout.
Once alone, however, the four perpetrators reveal themselves to be imposters, using advanced technology to achieve their destructive feats as well their natural ability to alter their forms. They are the Skrulls from outer space and they have committed these crimes to put the blame on the Fantastic Four. Once the humans hunt down and deal with the heroes then the Skrull invasion will begin. The ploy appears to be successful as the media latches onto the story and a manhunt is called for the Fantastic Four.
The real Fantastic Four are hiding out in an isolated hunting lodge, trying to determine who is impersonating them as well as how and why. As the Thing starts to lose patience, wanting to strike out at their pursuers, the Army surrounds the cabin and demands their surrender. Reed complies to avoid violence.
At a federal prison, the four are split up and placed in cells specially designed to deal with their powers. However, they underestimate those powers and each member of the team manages to escape their cell, the four of them making a getaway by stealing a helicopter.
Once free, they decide to turn the tables on their foes. The Torch "attacks" a rocket launching site, impersonating his impersonator and is soon contacted by "Reed" and "Sue" who bring him back to their headquarters and reveal themselves as Skrulls. Johnny's ruse is easily rumbled, as he can't change shape himself, but he manages to fire off a flare to alert his teammates and hold off the Skrulls with his flame. The fourth Skrull, the one who had impersonated Johnny himself, arrives and douses Johnny's flame but the rest of the team arrive before they can finish the teenager off.
The Fantastic Four incapacitate the Skrulls easily but soon learn that there is a whole invasion fleet outside the Earth's atmosphere, waiting for the symbol to attack. The team makes use of the Skrull's space ship, which was disguised as the water tower on their building, to travel up to the Skrull mother ship, impersonating the Skrulls. Once there, they convince the Skrull commander that Earth's defenses cannot be beaten...using clipped panels from comic books showing monsters. The foursome then volunteer to stay behind and cover up all traces of their presence.
As the Skrull fleet leaves and they return to Earth, the Fantastic Four passes through the same Cosmic Ray radiation belt that originally gave them their powers. This time the result is that the Thing is transformed back into his original human form of Ben Grimm.
Upon landing, the team are immediately captured by the police. Ben also, unfortunately, returns to his Thing shape. Reed convinces the Police Chief to take them to his apartment, where they encounter three of the Skrulls, all trying to escape in monstrous forms. Reed, Ben and Johnny subdue the Skrulls and the incident convinces the Police Chief of their innocence.
Reed asks the Chief to let him deal with the Skrulls. At first, the Skrulls are terrified that he plans to kill them but, instead, he has them change shape into cows. He then hypnotizes them to forget their previous identities and puts them out to pasture.
Credits
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: George Klein
Overview
There is definitely a '50s alien invasion movie feel to this issue. The whole story has a bit of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe to it, not just with the presence of aliens at all but the fact that they're already here and operating in the shadows to undermine human society from the inside.
This feeling is reinforced by Jack Kirby's art style throughout the book, which uses a lot of shadow, giving the whole thing a bit of a horror feel to it. This isn't a big stylistic shift from the previous issue, which also featured a lot of imagery drawn from Marvel's sci-fi/monster/horror books. Marvel's embrace of super heroes in the Silver Age is a bit slow in the beginning and they're not straying too far from their other fare yet.
Along those lines, the FF still have no costumes. They still garb themselves in civilian attire, even the monstrous Thing. Nor do they have a permanent headquarters yet. Instead we see them operating from secluded hunting lodges or Reed's apartments in the city, as they did in the last issue.
Oh, and they have no secret identities.
They didn't really have any last issue either but then they were effectively unknown to the world. But things have clearly progressed to the point where their identities are known to the public. We see this very early on in the issue when Skrull-Susan uses the celebrity of her name to get close to the jewel she wants to steal. Not only are the Fantastic Four now a known quantity to the world, but there appears to be full knowledge of who they are as well.
Wait, when did that happen?
In the previous issue, much time and page space was devoted to the public's reaction to the debuts of the four and their powers. New York was effectively undergoing mass-panic as its populace reacted to invisible girls, rock monsters and flaming teenagers. Now it appears that the source of those disturbances has been positively identified and (prior to the Skrulls' actions) accepted. Clearly events have moved along between issues.
To my knowledge, there is no issue that actually covers the FF "coming out" as super powered individuals. (That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, of course, just that I've never heard of it.) In the absence of such a story, I posit my own theory. I suspect that the panic in the previous issue was precisely why they chose to reveal themselves. They are looking to be able to operate without generating fear and uproar every time they reveal themselves. I suspect that, upon their return from Monster Isle last issue, they contacted a media outlet and announced who they are and what they do to the world. They're not quite celebrities yet, but they will be. (More on the FF's celebrity status next issue...)
Still, revealing their identities to the world may have advantages but it has disadvantages too. Knowing that Mr. Fantastic is Reed Richards is likely how the government was able to track them to the hunting lodge they're hiding out in during the beginning of the issue. The army might not be able to handle their powers, but they can handle basic investigative work.
Those powers, though...
The U.S. Army is used to dealing with conventional threats so that's how they go about trying to deal with the FF. They're not stupid about it, mind you, They bring a lot of soldiers for that original confrontation at the hunting lodge. They prepare special rooms to deal with the FF's powers. But they don't know the extent of those powers or account for the ingenuity of the individuals who possess them. The Army's not being dumb but it is out of its depth. Indeed, the ease of the FF's escape makes it pretty clear that all those troops wouldn't have been enough had the FF decided to resist at the hunting lodge. Their surrender was to protect the soldiers, not themselves.
All this speaks to how new all this is to the parties involved. It's got to be remembered how early this is in the Marvel Universe. As I mentioned last issue, there have been previous superpowered beings in Marvel's world, but it's been quite a while since any of them have had any sort of public profile. Yes, this is the same world that saw the Sub-Mariner fight the Human Torch back in the '30s but the chances of any of the soldiers being old enough to remember that clearly are low. For all intents and purposes, super powers and all the craziness that comes along with them, are brand new to the world. Nor are other super powered characters popping up left and right in this world (yet, anyway.)
Which is why it's important that we get aliens this early on.
Aliens Among Us
As I mentioned above, giving us beings from another world as early as issue # 2 is a bit of a statement. Before we even establish much about the Earth of Marvel, it's being made clear that the story is not going to be limited to Earth at all.
Stylistically, it's not that big an expansion. We've already got people with powers beyond the abilities of normal human beings. We've already seen creatures from Earth's Core. The book has already firmly embraced the, err, fantastic.
Aliens haven't been non-existent in Marvel's pre-Fantastic Four books either. Indeed, they're something of a staple.
Further, aliens are often a staple part of superhero universes, stretching back to the first superhero himself, Superman, who is an alien.
But, at the same time, aliens aren't a given for superhero stories either. It's perfectly possible to do a story about someone gaining super powers with alien life never rearing it's head in the narrative. Indeed, there are many stories that would see such a thing as a distraction, taking away from the focus on the travails of the super powered characters themselves. Sure, I can find you stories in which Batman or Daredevil fight (or team up with) aliens but when you think of those characters, you likely think of something more grounded.
So what is being established by bringing in aliens this early is that the Fantastic Four (and by later extension, the whole Marvel Universe) is not going to limit itself in focus, that anything goes. They're going to take an expansive approach to building this universe, rather than a hyper-focused one.
It's important to establish this early on. If we'd had 20 issues of the FF encountering nothing but terrestrial threats, trying to add in aliens later would seem like a massive shift in scope. It has to be done early, when the foundations for what the story can stretch to are still flexible, still being created.
That's the key, really. Both in and out of the story, the FF's early adventures are creating, rather than just following, the blueprint for how super powered people are going to function in the Marvel Universe.
And what about those super powered people themselves?
Characters
In the previous issue I stressed how firm Reed's leadership of the team is. He's definitely the one who calls the shots. That's true in this issue too. It's Reed who decides they should set a trap for their imposters even if Johnny's the one who implements it. It's Reed who decides what to do with the captive Skrulls. It's Reed who decides they'll impersonate the Skrulls and bluff their commander...with clipped panels from comic books.
That's a wonderfully ridiculous fourth wall breaking moment, by the way, Reed offering up clipped pics of "monsters" and "weapons" from Strange Tales and Journey into Mystery, two of Marvel's sci-fi/monster books of the time, as examples of Earth's defenses. Is it particularly plausible? Not really but it's wonderfully entertaining in a metafictional way. I wouldn't want every threat to be handled this way but it's amusing as a one-off.
There's also the unspoken implication (as there was in the previous issue) that Reed's the money behind the group, He's got several apartments in New York they can use as safe houses and a hunting lodge upstate. The man's clearly got money.
He's also got guilt. It's interesting that the first issue only briefly touched on the idea that Reed might feel guilty for the accident that transformed himself and his friends but, in this one, he verbally states that he considers this all to be his own fault. Reed puts up a very cold front most of the time, but it's clear that he does have feelings.
Ben...Ben's clearly not dealing with his condition well. He was pretty bitter in the previous issue but this one makes it abundantly clear that the frustration and anger at what's happened to him is eating away at the man. When Ben threatens to beat on the captive Skrulls, it doesn't come off like a bluff. When he yells "If they say I'm a menace, I'll be a menace! I'll show 'em all!" (while flipping out and hurling something through a window) it's clear that he's not just talking but rather actually considering it.
The other three are not blind to that possibility, either. Both of the Storm siblings bring up the potential danger of the Thing running amok and they do so as if it's an inevitability. Reed, usually the one to view things from a pragmatic perspective, seems oddly unwilling to intervene. Is it because he feels guilty about the Thing's condition? Or does he legitimately feel that the Thing will adjust if they are patient enough? It's so rare, even this early, to see Reed not want to immediately and logically tackle a problem, that it's genuinely hard to tell.
Nowhere is Ben's plight better illustrated than his absolute joy at regaining his humanity upon their return to Earth followed by his sad realization that it isn't permanent.
Johnny's getting cocky. That's a trait that'll last from this issue until about...well, forever, really. He's personally sure of his ability to handle anything and, in a larger sense, sure of the team's ability to cope with anything. He expresses little to no worry about them being impersonated, just a surety that "Reed will figure out what to do, and then we'll take care of them, I'll bet." He doesn't just volunteer to be the one to infiltrate the imposters but actually insists upon it. And, while he expresses worry about the damage the Thing could do if he goes rogue, Johnny appears to have no personal fear of the Thing at all, sure that his flame is enough to ward Ben off.
Johnny's cockiness is, to an extent justified, though. The Thing is afraid of his flame. Reed does have a plan for finding their impersonators. The team is, indeed, capable of handling almost anything thrown at them. The closest Johnny comes to actually having a problem in this issue is when the Skull-Johnny collides with him and puts his flame out and, even then, the other three show up and rescue him before the Skrulls can finish him off. For those looking to see the Torch taken down a peg, they're going to be waiting a long time. He's cocky, but he's not incompetent. He can usually back up his bragging, which is frustrating for any villains he meets (and for those who prefer their heroes more humble.)
This issue also contains the first real instances of the infamous Thing/Torch rivalry, with the Thing getting annoyed when Johnny wants to be the one to bait the trap for their imposters. This rivalry will, over time, grow to be a very friendly one but, at this point, it's quite nasty. Much of this seems to come from the different results each of them experienced from the accident. For Ben, his life has been ruined. As I mentioned when discussing their first issue, it's easy to underestimate just how bad Ben has it, but it really is a life-destroying event. For Johnny...well, this is all kind of awesome, isn't it? Johnny got nothing but good things out of this situation and he's reveling in it...right in front of Ben. While I'm not saying Ben's anger and belligerence toward Johnny is entirely justified, it's easy to see where it comes from. Watching someone revel in the same situation that's made your life a living hell must be difficult to say the least and Ben's emotions are on edge anyway. At the end of their argument Johnny says that he's not holding any grudges but I don't think Ben feels the same.
As is often the case, Sue's characterization is a bit more subtle than the other three. Like her power, it's easy to overlook Sue if one isn't paying attention. But doing so is as much a mistake for the interested reader as it is for a supervillain.
Sue isn't cocky like her brother but she does have a nice confidence about her. One sequence I've always liked is that, when captured by the Army and locked in her cell, she has a nice bit where she thinks to herself "So, they don't think we can escape? They think our powers aren't strong enough. Well, they may be right...but I doubt it." She then proceeds to turn invisible and just walk out the door when they bring her dinner. Sue's power is less flashy than those of the boys but it's very useful. She also seems to continue to find her power, well, fun, like she did in the previous issue. She even gets in a quip while she trips a Skrull.
Team Identity
Reed may be the leader and the "smart guy" of the group but the sequence where they escape from the Army makes it clear that all four of the team are pretty intelligent, particularly when it comes to how to make the best use of their powers. They each, independently, identify the weakness in the cells designed to hold them and exploit it. Even Ben's "hit it until it breaks" approach is more refined in that he specifically chooses the target the same area over and over, making the maximum use of his strength. The FF are effective as a team but the issue goes out of its way to point out that they're far from helpless as individuals too.
The Shape of Invasion
I've mentioned the significance of introducing aliens to the Marvel Universe this early on in their newly formed superhero world. But what about the aliens themselves? What about the Skrulls?
If I'm being perfectly honest, there isn't a whole lot to them. They have a power, specifically the ability to alter their shape. This will be their defining trait over the years but it's likely that it only exists because this story was based around the idea that the FF were being impersonated.
Apart from that, though, the Skrulls are pretty generic bad guys. They're sneaky. They're ruthless when they're in control of the situation and cowardly when they're not. (Realistically, they have the numbers and technology to invade the planet even with the presence of the Fantastic Four. Super powered or not, there are only four of them. But apparently they don't like the idea of any Skrulls having to face the FF, so they're trying to remove even that possibility.) The only one of them that displays conspicuous intelligence is the one who impersonates the Torch when he uses his artificial flame to collide with the real Torch and snuff them both out.
The Skrulls also aren't presented with much in the way of redeeming qualities in this story. The closest we come to that is when the Skrull commander hastily and mistakenly gives Reed an award for bravery, thinking he's a Skrull. I suppose that means they have a slight concept of honoring soldiers on their side in war but that's about it. The Skrulls will remain quite villainous throughout most of their appearances in comics over the years, with exceptions being rare. This villainy was consistent enough that the MCU was able to successfully subvert it when the Skrulls made their big screen debut in Captain Marvel.
No, the Skrulls function more as a catalyst to get the FF to act in this story than as characters themselves. Mind you, this is true of most antagonists in stories, but how obvious that is can really vary from story to story.
Does that make it ok to turn them into cows, though?
The story itself treats that question in a very pragmatic fashion. In practical terms, the Skrulls' ability to change shapes renders it virtually impossible to hold them prisoner, at least with the level of technology currently available. But it is absolutely necessary to prevent them from escaping, lest they find a way off the planet, ruin Reed's bluff, and the invasion is on again.
The most obvious, pragmatic answer to this would be to kill them. Indeed, that's what the Skrulls assume Reed's planning. Instead, he has them turn into cows and hypnotizes them into believing they really are cows.
How different is that actually from killing them?
For all intents and purposes, Reed's plan involves the erasure, or at least wholesale sublimation of the Skrulls' real personalities so, for all intents and purposes, aren't they actually dead? Does the difference between the two approaches have any real substance or is Reed just placating his conscience (and those of his teammates) by not engaging in the physical act of killing them.
Well, let's give Reed the benefit of the doubt for a moment. He's a pretty cold, logical guy when it comes to problem solving but he's not without compassion. This is the same guy who let the Mole Man escape in the previous issue, after all.
To start with, despite my terminology above, the Skrulls' personalities have not been erased, just suppressed. As long as the Skrulls are physically alive, the possibility exists that, at some point in the future, Reed can reverse the process. Given Reed's general problem-solver approach to things, I can easily believe that this is in the back of his mind. Perhaps he's looking forward to a time when the Earth is more secure from invasion and they no longer pose a threat. Or, even more hopefully, he might be envisioning a time when peaceful relations have been established with the Skrulls and their memories can be restored without incident.
And does it change anything to take into account that there is a future story where the Skrulls' memories are restored? Or that the restoration is not of Reed's doing?
It's interesting to ponder these things. I don't know if Reed is right or wrong to do what he does with the Skrulls. The story presents it as a good compromise and, in fairness, they do seem to be happy at the end. If nothing else, the whole "pragmatic but tinged with compassion" approach does seem in keeping with what we've seen of Reed's personality so far, which is arguably more important than him being "right."
The Mystery of the Missing Skrull
I first read this issue a loooooonnnnnggg time ago, when I was, I think, about 7 or 8. I obtained one of those little paperback collections of Marvel comics and it contained reprints of Fantastic Four issues # 1-6. I can't even tell you how many times I read and reread that thing. It saddens me that this collection is one of the few comics I've owned that I've actually lost. I've never been entirely sure what happened to it, other than that it must have been misplaced during one of the many times I've moved. I've since obtained more impressive reprints of those issues, but I kind of wish I'd been able to hang on to that original book just for nostalgia's sake.
But, despite having had access to this story for the vast majority of my life I have never, ever, ever been able to figure out what happens to the fourth Skrull. When the FF capture the Skrulls, there are four of them. When they return from the Skrull ship and their run-in with the police, there are only three. What the heck happened to the fourth Skrull?
Reed has a bit of a throwaway line about the fourth Skrull being on its way back with the Skrull fleet but that makes no sense. The only reason the fleet is leaving is because Reed successfully managed to bluff them into doing so. If the fourth Skrull had gone with them the bluff wouldn't have worked at all because it would have given the bluff away to its superiors. Similarly, even if it had stowed away and the FF didn't realize it had left with the fleet until they returned to Earth then, again, the fleet would turn right around and come back to invade. It's clearly not doing that (nor is Reed worried that it will) so that line makes no sense.
The most obvious possibility is that it was captured with the other three Skrulls but managed to escape later, either before the FF returned or slipping away while the team are recapturing the other three. But, again, why is Reed so unconcerned about this? Its escape means the bluff could be rumbled.
Indeed, the fourth Skrull will show up again, in the same future story where the cow-Skrulls get their memories back. His reappearance doesn't really do anything to clear up the mystery of what happens to him in this issue, though. (Although, in that story, the fourth Skrull is considerably more cunning than the three cow-Skrulls, leading me to believe that it's the slighty smarter one that impersonated the Torch in this issue.)
As I approach what must be four decades since I originally read this story, I can honestly say I've never been able to figure it out beyond...well, beyond thinking it's a plot hole. I know plot holes exist, obviously, but I've always preferred to try and explain them away (earn my No Prize and all) than just note their existence. I have never been able to do so with this one.
It has occurred to me, many times, over the intervening decades, that there's probably some incredibly simple explanation for the fate of the fourth Skrull that I've been missing. If anyone's got it, feel free to share. I can't feel any more dumb about it than I already have for not figuring it out in 40 years.
Little Tidbits
-Amongst the various newspapers running headlines about the FF's crimes in the beginning of the issue there's one called the Daily Bugle. I wonder if it'll come up again...
-While I enjoy Kirby's art in this issue, it is a bit inconsistent from panel to panel. I don't mean in terms of quality but rather continuity. Objects and characters alter a bit in their design from one appearance to the next. Things like the look of the Skrull command ship or the attire of the Skrull commander himself are not wholly consistent.
-In contrast to that, Kirby draws the Police Chief in this issue with pretty much the exact same features as the one who reacted to all the FF sightings in issue # 1. It's a nice bit of consistency, implying that they're the same guy in a situation where he could easily have just made them two different characters.
-Indeed, consistency aside, Kirby's art is pretty good throughout the issue. I noted that Sue looks pretty stylish with her neck scarf.
-As he did in the previous issue, Reed wraps his stretchy arms around the Thing when the latter gives in to his rage. Given Ben's actual strength level, I have to believe that he's capable of escaping from that with some effort. Reed's pliable, but he's not indestructible (and he can still feel pain when stretched. His nerves don't shut off.) This leads me to believe that it's more like Reed doing this just causes Ben to take a moment and realize how out of control he is before calming himself.
-Ben continues to dress in heavy clothing that covers as much of him as possible in this issue, only removing it when action requires. He even keeps his sunglasses on when he smashes through the wall to fight the Skrulls. (They're gone later in the fight. Must've fallen off in the scuffle.)
-Reed smokes his pipe again. Tobacco's for smart guys, kids!
-The part when Ben, briefly human again, transforms back into the Thing, is heartbreaking. In the future, such back and forth transformations will become, if not frequent, at least common enough that Ben doesn't pin all his hopes on them. This is still early on enough that Ben could reasonably have hoped that his nightmare was over. Sue and Johnny try to cheer him up and suggest that it means there's hope but I note that Ben doesn't bother to acknowledge them. Kirby draws his Thing-face with a bit of asymmetry too, emphasizing how grotesque Ben must feel.
-Reed is apparently not just skilled in hypnotism but enough so that he can erase someone's entire identity and replace it with a bovine one. Quite apart from the moral question, that's pretty impressive but, I must say, not terribly surprising for the brainy boy.
So, with aliens under Marvel's belt now, what is next for our intrepid foursome?
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