Four & Thor 2

Welp, here we go with the second of installment of Four & Thor. 

Fantastic Four #3
by Jack Kirby with Stan Lee filling in word balloons and Sol Brodsky doing so-so inks

The Story:  A magician called the Miracle Man declares himself to be more powerful than the Fantastic Four, and demonstrates his amazing powers.  Unsurprisingly, the Miracle Man immediately turns to crime, animating giant monster statues and stealing super tanks.  Eventually, the Human Torch defeats the Miracle Man by flaring up, blinding the dude.  Turns out the Miracle Man was just a really good hypnotist.  Anyway, Johny and Ben get into a fight, and Johny has a baby fit and flies off.

Notes:  There's a lotta firsts in this issue.  We get the first appearance of the Fantastic Four's flying bathtub, the Fantasticar (Reed builds the coolest transport).  We get a diagram of the Fantastic Four's headquarters (groovy).  Aaaannnnd, all the way out in issue 3 we get the FF in their costumes for the first time.  The suits are designed by Sue, interestingly enough.  Also, Ben has his own costume, along with a ridiculous bucket helmet.  Ben doesn't really like his outfit too much.  He chucks it pretty early on.  Also, the Human Torch, who looked more like the Classic Torch in the previous issues, now looks more like the Human Torch we all know and love.  You still can't see his face in the flames, but otherwise, he's a lot closer to normal.  Lastly, I think it was implied in one of the earlier issues, but in this issue Ben admits to having the hots for Sue.  Odd.

The Art:  Still along the same lines as before.  Some cool moments-  Another killer Kirby monster.  Mr. Fantastic turning himself into a super bouncy fun ball.  Mr. Fantastic replacing a busted tire on a car with... himself (that is one crazy ass image).

Whatta I Think:  When I first read this issue, I thought it was kinda lame.  The bad guy, the Miracle Man, is turbo lame, and this is his only appearance (perhaps the only Kirby FF villain to never, ever show up again).  But, after rereading it, it's not such a bad issue.  Lots of stuff is introduced, and we start to see the FF really working as a team.  Not a great issue, but not nearly as bad as I thought it was.

Fantastic Four #4-
by Jack Kirby with Stan Lee filling in word balloons.

Story:  Johny's still throwing a hissy fit, so the rest of the gang are out trying to find him.  After an altercation with the Thing, Johny hides out in a homeless shelter, where he meets a bum who just happens to be an amnesiac Namor the Submariner.  After Johny dumps Namor into the ocean, Namor regains his memories, discovers his people have disappeared thanks to nuclear testing, and promptly declares war on humanity (whoops).  Namor summons Giganto, the giant whale monster, to destroy everything.  The Thing responds by strapping a Nuclear Bomb onto his back (hell yes hell yes hell yes) and jumps into Giganto's mouth, climbs down into the stomach, and detonates the bomb, killing the beast.  Johny creates a flaming tornado (huh?) and sends Namor and Giganto's corpse out to sea.  Whew.

Notes:  First off, this issue re-introduces Bill Everett's classic Golden Age character, Namor the Submariner.  This is one of the rare instances where Jack Kirby actually worked with a character he had not created.  For some reason, Jack really like Namor.  Not only is Namor a recurring "villain" (perhaps anti-hero is a better word) throughout the Fantastic Four series, but he also pops up to bedevil both the Avengers and the X-Men.  Anyway, that's the main thing going on in this issue.  The only other thing of importance is that right off the bat Namor's got the hots for Sue, thus creating a romantic rivalry that will last for quite awhile.

The Art:  Ahem.  Giganto the Giant Whale Monster.  Beautiful.  Just beautiful.

Whatta I Think:  The Thing straps a BOMB onto his back and climbs inside a giant whale monster.  If you don't think that's awesome, you don't know awesome.

Journey into Mystery featuring Thor #85
by Jack Kirby with Stan Lee hogging credit, Larry Lieber doing a sucky job of dialouge, and Dick Ayers doing okay Inks.

The Story:  Loki is stuck in a tree, but escapes and desires revenge on Thor.  Loki and Thor duke it out, with Loki trying hypnosis and a bunch of other dirty tricks to try to beat Thor.  Thor triumphs in the end, sending Loki back to Asgard with his tail between his legs.

Notes:  Lots of firsts in this comic.  We get the first appearance of Loki, which in and of itself is something of a milestone, considering he is Thor's longtime archnemesis and was only featured in two big budget movies that made a ton of money and his design in those movies was obviously based on Kirby's design.  Anyway, we get our first glimpse of Asgard and Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge (but only a little bitty glimpse).  Hiemdall pops up, but it's only a cameo, and he doesn't really look like how he'll look later.  Also, we finally hear Odin's name mentioned for the first time, but he doesn't really show up.  So, yeah, lots of stuff going on here.  Oh, in the previous issue no one knows who Thor is, but in this issue Thor is a big time celebrity that everyone loves.  I guess beating up commies makes you popular.  Oh, and one more thing, Thor and Loki don't acknowledge that they're brothers, and Loki first shows up, Thor only recognizes him from mythology.  Larry Lieber seriously had no idea what he was doing.

The Art:  That one little tiny shot of Asgard floating in space is a nice taste of what's to come.  We also get Loki flying on the backs of a flock of birds, which is crazy.  That's the cool stuff for this issue.

Whatta I Think:  It's the beginning of the Thor/Loki rivalry.  How can you go wrong, right?

JIM featuring Thor #86-
by Jack Kirby with Stan Lee taking credit for doing nothing, Larry Lieber filling in word balloons, and Dick Ayers inking.

The Story:  In the distance future, man is at peace and all weapons have been destroyed.  Zarko the Tomorrow Man wants to rule the world, so he builds a Time Machine (why not?) and goes back in time to steal weapons.  He shows up at a military test site where Thor is helping the military test weapons (What?  Seriously?) and steals a Bomb and goes back to the future.  Thor follows Zarko into the future (cause, y'know, Thor can time travel.  Why not?), and discovers that Zarko has conquered the world with a single bomb.  Thor smashes everything Zarko throws at him (including robots, nice).  Zarko crashes a ship and gets amnesia, and Thor snags the bomb and travels back to the Present.  Whew.

Notes:  Did I mention that Thor can time travel in this issue?  Oh, we also get the first actual appearance of Odin... or his head at least.  Other than that, not much else of import.

The Art:  Kirby's art has a definitive 1950s sci-fi feel to it.  It almost looks like a throwback to the old Simon/Kirby "Blue Bolt" series.  Especially the robots.  Those don't look like Kirby robots, they look like something out of an old Pulp. 

Whatta I Think:  Wow.  This issue is goofy as hell.  I mean, reread my rundown of the story.  Go ahead.  I'll wait.  Absolutely ridiculous, right?  Still, it's kinda fun.  Having said that, it's kinda sucky that in the previous issue we get some Mythology, while in this issue we get back to the out of place sci-fi stuff.  Still, there's some great novelty value to this oddball issue.

So, we get some missteps, but we also start to move towards where we need to be with both comics.