Marvel Masterworks Volume 2: Fantastic Four #1-10 Review
Here were four super heroes who didn’t hide behind masks or flashy costumes, but rather walked among the mortals and lived as a family. They had troubles, albeit more cosmic in nature, squabbled with each other and pitied themselves, and that made them all the more human to us.
Read on for Barry’s full review.
Marvel Masterworks Volume 2: Fantastic Four #1-10
Review by Barry Harter
As surely as Dec. 2, 1941, marked the dawn of the Atomic Age, August 1961 marked the beginning of the Marvel Age.
And, while Enrico Fermi tooled away with graphite and uranium, Stan Lee made do with imagination and typewriter ribbon.
Okay, equating the first sustained atomic chain reaction with the launch of Fantastic Four issue one may be a stretch, but each were foundations constructed by men of vision and daring and signaled the world would never be the same again.
Stan “the Man” Lee had triggered a chain reaction resonating to this day in the four-color world of comics. Rather than manufacturing a weapon capable of incalculable destruction, Lee forged a theme in comicdom with a new breed of nuclear family who were pioneers in a fickle industry dictated by many under the age of 10.
So, in saying that, Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four is a worthy showcase for the title upon which the Marvel empire was built - for the book that shaped the destiny of all that the comics that followed.
Lee’s many interviews and lectures normally include the origin of Marvel Comics, which is the launch of FF number one. It’s stories and populace mirrored the baby boomers of the early 1960s, their innocence and need for adventure after a stodgy decade when everybody liked Ike, but loved Lucy.
Here were four super heroes who didn’t hide behind masks or flashy costumes, but rather walked among the mortals and lived as a family. They had troubles, albeit more cosmic in nature, squabbled with each other and pitied themselves, and that made them all the more human to us.
Placing them head and shoulders above their fellow New Yorkers was the testosterone-driven pencil of Jack “the King” Kirby who’s heavy but simple lines made them Gods among men.
Fantastic Four issue one has become so iconic, I can’t remember the first time I actually read it. It may have been in the late 1970s when Marvel and Pocket Books collaborated for the paperback-size reprints of the first six issues.
Or, it may have been during one of the almost countless reproductions in various titles. Marvel was never shy in trotting out their past accomplishments to pull a little more hard earned cash from readers’ pockets.
Of course these were all cheaper than buying the original, but reprints were never handled with much care and often the reproduction was lacking.
Yet, for the past decade, Marvel has finally taken the time and care to repackage these time-tested tales still as captivating a read the hundredth time as they were the first.
Marvel Masterworks allows we adopted children of Lee and Kirby to sit at their feet again and read the new mythos that was the blueprint for all the comics that followed.
Not only do we meet the FF, but Prince Namor is awakened from his long slumber in limbo and Marvel’s quintessential villain, Dr. Doom, steps onto the stage.
So, dig a little deeper and go back to the well for a deep drink of Marvel history. Five of five stars for the first building block of the House of Ideas.
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