Four & Thor 1

If you know anything about me, you know of my endless admiration for the King of Comics, Jack Kirby.  I've been studying Kirby's work for... quite a while.  I actually went backwards, starting with the 70s and 80s, and working backwards through the 60s, all the way back to the 40s.  Of all of Kirby's work, Kirby ran with "The Fantastic Four" and "Thor" the longest.  Kirby worked on both books for a full decade (well, not quite with Thor, but let's just move on with our lives).  Kirby did over 100 issues of the Fantastic Four, and a little over 80 issues of Thor (well, Journey into Mystery, again, moving on).  Annnyywwaaaayyy, because I need something to blog about, I'm gonna start working my way through every issue of the Fantastic Four and Thor.  Joseph love study comix.

Fantastic Four #1
by Jack Kirby with Stan Lee filling word balloons.  Inker unknown.  Really?

Story:  The origin of the Fantastic Four.  Also, the Mole Man shows up, dumps out a bunch of monsters and wrecks some power plants.  The Fantastic Four beat him up, but he escapes, and some stuff blows up.

Notes:  First off, the Fantastic Four don't have any costumes in this issue.  They spend the whole issue running around in street clothes.  The Thing, when he's not bashing stuff, is wearing a trench coat, a fedora, and glasses.  Speaking of the Thing, he doesn't really look rocky, he's almost reptilian or like a big wad of clay.  Oh, and the Human Torch looks just like the original Golden Age Human Torch, where he's basically just a vaguely human shaped mass of flame.  In the first issue, the Fantastic Four are unknown by the world at large, and both the Thing and the Human Torch get attacked by the police and air force respectively.  We also get some of the trademark Fantastic Four infighting in this issue, mostly Ben Grimm snarking on Reed whenever the opportunity presents itself, although we get a little of the Ben/Johny rivalry.  Oh, and the only thing Susan can do is turn invisible.  I love Kirby monsters.

The Art:  The art is ... the early Kirby art from the 60s is kind of so-so.  It's not got the sleek, draftsman-like skill of Kirby's 50s art, nor does it have the ropey kineticism of Kirby's 40s art style.  Kirby also wasn't at the stage of his later artwork where it was just pure, unadulterated POWER.  Also, there's probably a reason why the inker never got credited.  Despite all of that, there's still some cool stuff here, most notably the giant monsters that populate Monster Island.  Also, we get some cool shots of the Thing smashing stuff.

Whatta I Think:  Kind of a crude start, but a start nonetheless.  Plus, we get the Mole Man, one of the most noteworthy and enduring FF villains right off the bat.

Fantastic Four #2
By Jack Kirby with Stan Lee filling in word balloons.

Story:  The shape shifting Skrulls wanna conquer the world, but they're scared of the FF, so they send a quartet of Skrulls to frame our heroes and turn the public against them.  Soooo, the FF get captured by the army, escape (if they could escape so easily, why did they get captured in the first place), round up the Skrulls (whooping em easily),  and bluffing out the Skrull war fleet using pictures from ... comic books.  I love how goofy crazy this stuff is.  Oh, speaking of goofy crazy, the FF deal with the remaining Skrulls by hypnotizing the Skrulls into turning into Cows.  Forever.

Notes:  Perhaps the most notable thing about this issue that I haven't already covered is that the Thing reverts to Ben Grimm for the first time.  He doesn't stay that way for long, but this whole "I'm not the Thing!  Wait, I'm the Thing again.  Damnit!" routine will continue throughout the series.  It's no wonder the poor guy is crabby all the time.

The Art:  No real changes stylistically yet.  Best moment-- Reed Richards squeezes through a screw hole.  Yeah, baby.

Whatta I Think:  Issue 2 and we've introduced one of the three most important alien races in the entire Marvel Universe.  Yeah, Kirby certainly didn't introduce anything to the Marvel Universe.  Oh no.  It's not like there's been numerous crossovers and events about the Skrulls, or that they've appeared in cartoons on TV or in toy lines.  Oh.  There will be a lot of this sort of thing.  Because Kirby didn't contribute anything at all important and his descendants don't deserve anything at all in compensation.

Oh, and if you're not picking up on it, my prose drips with irony and anger.  Screw you Marvel, and your little Lawyers, too.

Journey Into Mystery featuring Thor #83
by Jack Kirby with Larry Lieber filling word balloons poorly, Stan Lee getting top billing for doing nothing, and Joe Sinnott inking (cool).

Story:  Stone Men from Saturn show up to conquer the world (because what else are they gonna do).  Lame physician Dr. Donald Blake decides to check thing out, gets chased into a cave, and finds a walking stick that turns into Thor.  Thor stomps the crap outa the Stone Men, and they run away because they assume everyone on Earth is as bad ass as Thor.  I wish I was as bad ass as Thor.

Notes:  Welp, we get a lot of the basics here.  Thor's basic design (only slightly modified for the movies that have made billions of dollars.  But Jack Kirby didn't contribute anything), his Hammer (not even slightly modified for the films that made billions of dollars.  But Kirby's descendants don't deserve anything.  Oh no.)  We get the introduction of (groan) Dr. Donald Blake.  Oh, perhaps the most interesting thing about this first issue is that when Dr. Blake turns into Thor, he's still essentially Dr. Blake.  He talks normally, instead of flowery verse.  We also get some of Thor's tricks with Mjolner, like spinning it around, summoning storms, and throwing it and catching the pommel so he can fly.  And of course, none of this appeared in a multi-million dollar film franchise.  Nope.

The Art:  More or less the same as the Fantastic Four work.  Highlight panel:  Thor smashing a whole group of Stone Men by swinging his hammer like a madman.  Chaos Kirby Magic, baby.

Whatta I Think:  This is kind of a weird comic.  It's a Sci-fi Monster comic that just happens to have a Superhero based on a classic mythological figure running around smashing everything.  It really doesn't make any sense, but that's half the fun.  Also, I kinda wish Thor didn't have an alter ego.  Dr. Donald Blake is a waste of ink.  Still, a good start.

Journey Into Mystery #84
by Jack Kirby with Larry Lieber sucking up the dialouge, Stan Lee taking credit for doing nothing, and Dick Ayers on inks.

Story:  Evil Commies are trying to take over some fictional country that looks it might be in South America (maybe?), so Dr. Donald Blake and Jane Foster volunteer to go down there and tend to the wounded.  The Evil Commies don't want Doctors tending to the wounded, so they try to blow up the doctors.  Thor saves the day and stomps the Commies, until (groan) Jane Foster gets captured.  Thor has to turn into Donald Blake for three panels, switches back (that makes no sense), and stomps the Commies some more.  Everyone is happy.

Notes:  Sigh.  Y'know who I hate more than Dr. Donald Blake?  Nurse Jane Foster.  Oh Lord, what a waste of time this stupid relationship is.  Blake:  "Jane Foster will never love me because I'm all lame and sucky.  I will have to admire her from afar.  Woe is me."  Foster:  "I secretly love Dr. Blake, but for some reason he never come on to me.  I wish he wasn't such a wussy.  If only he was a real man, like Thor".  Groan.  This goes on FOREVER, and it all starts right here, in the second issue.  Also, in an interesting note, the evil Commie leader is called the Executioner.  A few issues later, we will have another villain called the Executioner, who is a kick ass mythological bad dude.  The guy in this issue is just some greedy, greasy looking dude.  Odd.

The Art:  Thor uses a tree to flip a tank onto another tank.  This is one of the worst Kirby comics ever, and that one panel is better than 99% of all other comics ever made by anyone that's not Jack Kirby.  Seriously, for all of the brilliance of every Allan Moore comic ever, this one panel:  Better than all of it.  Yeah, I said it.

Whatta I Think:  Have I mentioned that this is one of the worst Kirby comics ever?  Jane Foster.  Boo.  Evil Commies.  Boo.  Blatant Jingoism.  Boo.  Oh, and the worst part?  In the previous issue, Thor singlehandedly halts an entire alien invasion being staged by super strong alien rock monsters.  In this issue he beats up a buncha commies.  Kind of a let down.  Still, that bit with the tank flip?  Beautiful.

Welp, that's the first installment of Four & Thor.  Everyone bored yet?