BACK ISSUE BIN - THE KIRBY CORNER - FANTASTIC FOUR #4 (MARVEL COMICS ,1962)

 KIRBY CORNER

FANTASTIC FOUR #4

Writer:    Stan Lee

Art:    Jack (The King) Kirby

Published by Marvel Comics  (1962)

- FF #4 -

Open with: 

After The Human Torch left the group at the end of issue 3, the rest of the Fantastic four are discussing Johnny’s absence.  The Thing feels like it's for the better and would rather not have the hot head around their headquarters; while both Reed and Sue want to get Johnny back.  We then get a brief recap of the events from the previous issue.  Also to note; that we get a line in the bottom gutter of the page about “The Hulk is coming!.” 

The three decide to take the Fantasticar to go and look for Johnny.  We get to see the first time the Fantastic Four separate the car to scour the different parts of the city to find their young friend.  We first get a look at Sue Storm checking out a Soda Shop for her teenage brother.  Sue uses her powers to sneak into the store while scanning the teenagers for Johnny.  We get an interesting scene of Sue drinking a soda while invisible and scaring a teen.  Which begs the question: How did she get the soda?  Did she order and pay while visible, or did she steal someone's soda? 

Meanwhile: 

Reed Richards is out near a park or perhaps in the countryside as he sees two young men riding on motorcycles and decides to ask one of them if they have seen Johnny Storm.  Of course with no consideration for Driver Safety he grabs one of the young men off his motorcycle and pulls the biker to him in order to question him.  With no luck the disgruntled Mr Fantastic walks away to go ask some other boys that are playing baseball in the park. 

Elsewhere: 

We see Johnny Storm is working on a car in Swanson’s Garage and he uses his fire powers to weld a part of the vehicle he is fixing.  Johnny then proceeds to brag to the other guys in the garage at his ability to control his fire.  This catches the attention of everyone's favorite Blue Eyed Thing.  With quick precision, Thing smashes in the wall of the garage and yells at Johnny.   

Johnny and the Thing get into a fight but before either one can deal any serious damage, The Thing suddenly changes back into Ben Grimm. Thereby giving Johnny the opportunity to fly out of the garage and get away from his team member.   Just as Ben shouts at him he begins to turn back into The Thing. 

Cut To:  

New York's Bowery, Where Jack Kirby draws a couple of panels with some efficient detail that establishes what 1960’s Bowery looks like.   A little like a place that a young man shouldn’t be hanging out at, very run down and some of the people look a little down on their luck.  John sees a Men’s Hotel where he can rent a room for the night. 

A few minutes later he is lying on a cot in what appears to be a communal sleeping room reading a  Sub-Mariner comic from the 1940’s. When one  of the other men notices the comic Johnny is reading; and points out that there is a man in the hotel that seems to have the same strength as the Sub-Mariner.  He then calls out the “old man” and we see an interesting character with long hair and a beard. 

The old man wants to be left alone, but the other men in the hotel wish to see this interesting character's supre strength.  They don’t take no for an answer and the “Old Man” throws them around the room.  This enrages the rest of the men and they grab crude weapons to attack the strong man.  However, Johnny steps in to stop them and convinces them to leave the man alone.  He then uses his flame powers to shave the man’s face and hair to reveal that he is in fact the Sub-Mariner. Honestly, did no one see that coming?  

End of chapter Two:  

Chapter 3 starts with Johnny taking the amnesiac out of the hotel.  Coincedently, two of the Fantastic Four are looking for their young friend and brother.  Sue misses the young man as he turns away from the hotel with Namor.  Johnny then uses his powers to fly Namor the Sub-Mariner to the river and drops him in the cool water. The Human Torch is hoping the water will restore his memories and renew the Sub-Mariner to his true self. 

Which works, and works a little too well as we learn with the Sub-Mariner remembering where his underwater home was and travels there to find it destroyed, and everything is radioactive.  Namor assumes that it is because of the surface world and swims back to New York and meets Johnny on the Pier where he had been waiting for Namor to emerge.  

Namor tells Johnny about his plan to attack and destroy the surface world for what they have wrought on his home.  Namor swears vengeance and we end Chapter 3.  

Will Namor get revenge? Can the Fantastic Four stop him?  Will Johnny join back up the Fantastic four?  To get those questions answered you’ll have to read the issue.  

The Story: 

So this is the reintroduction of Namor into the Marvel universe.  It is Stan Lee’s attempt to bring back a classic character that was a war-time comic book.  Of course, unlike a certain Star Spangled hero,  Namor turns out to be an adversary to the Fantastic Four.  I am curious as to what the story would be like if Namor didn’t start out in this role, but in more of a man out of time.  Much like Captain America, Namor had been lost to history and apparently his memory was lost as well.  In this issue we really don’t get an explanation as to how it happened, but we can surmise that Namor spent the Post-War time away from his home and with the lack of water to connect him to his powers he somehow lost his memory.  

Jack Kirby’s art: 

The cool thing about this particular issue is that it highlights Jack’s ability to draw real places within New York City.  His use of streetscapes and the way he constructs panels to establish locations in the city is really fantastic.  Jack is also able to draw two different Namors in this book that seem to be two completely different people.  Namors amnesiac self is lost and seems to need help and seems to slouch and be despondent.  Whereas the restored Namor is strong and arrogant and looks decades younger. 

All in all I feel this is a really great classic episode for the Fantastic Four .  I recommend it for any Fantastic Four fan or anyone wanting to see the modern day origin of Namor the Sub-Mariner.  

It is a great story for our walk through Jack' s art in our Kirby Corner. 

All in all I give this book a:

Score 8.5 out of 10