Retro Comics are Awesome

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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Superman #8 continued

The Fifth Column
Writer: Jerry Siegel Pencils: Wayne Boring

"In the privacy of his midtown apartment", Clark spots someone watching his window. He switches to his Superman identity to go investigate, but there's a knock on the door, so he gets dressed again and answers to find his friend Frank Martin, a man in the "anti-espionage service" who enlists Clark's help in keeping his eyes and ears to the ground in Metropolis, noting that the leader of "a dangerous fifth column organization" is arriving by boat. The man watching the apartment turns out to be Martin's assistant Jeff Carlton. Satisfied, Superman heads to the waterfront and sure enough, runs across a meeting where people are being paid to distribute subversive literature. Superman busts up the meeting, easily fights off everyone, takes the list of names. When the 5th column leader points a gun at Superman, Superman grabs the gun, shoots at him instead, but catches the bullet before it hits him. Wow. Talk about intimidation.

Clark takes the list to Martin, but when he enters the office, he's just in time to see that Carlton has shot him. Clark is framed for the murder, and the list of subversives in his pocket makes him look even more guilty. Rather than go with the police, Clark escapes and changes to Superman to find out what's going on and prove his innocence. Clark trails Carlton to a hidden enemy military base (how could such a thing be hidden?!?) run by a bald, monocled man named Sagdorf. After collecting evidence from the safe in Sagdorf's tent, Superman proceeds to trash everything: planes, tanks, generators, etc, and when a shell is launched at him he dodges and it completes the work, destroying everything else. Superman returns to the city and as Clark forces Carlton to confess in front of White and Lois. When Lois reminds him that a confession under duress won't hold up, Clark produces the evidence he took from the safe, clearing his name.

I forgot to note last time that we're back to hand-drawn Superman logos on the stories in this book. Maybe they were drawn well in advance of the Action issues that use the standard designed logo? A lot happens in this story with espionage, attempted sabotage, Clark framed for murder and planned domestic invasion. Once again, these guys are Nazis in all but name. I'm not sure the normally timid Clark could really pull off the tough guy act in front of White and Lois and then go back to being timid, but it's always good to see Clark asserting himself.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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And wrapping up Superman #8...

The Carnival Crooks
Writer: Jerry Siegel Art: Paul Cassidy

Clark and Lois head for Jackel's Carnival, where some unscrupulous game operators cajole Clark into playing more and more ball-tossing games for what turns out to be a nearly worthless prize, and he ends up owing far more than he expected. Lois is disgusted with him and tells White all about it, which leads to him promising to print any evidence they can find of actual wrongdoing. Clark protests and Lois goes alone to get the goods, with Superman of course following her. Lois takes some pictures but then has her camera "accidentally" broken. She complains to Jackel, the owner, who fires the two men... only for them all to have a good laugh after Lois is gone, which Superman observes.

Before he can put an end to this scheme he has to stop some thugs from roughing up a carnival customer. I love this bit: one guy tries to stab him, and Superman takes his pocketknife away, chews it up and swallows it. "Umm-mm! Delicious!" He toys with the carnival workers who try to fight him off, until he has to rescue Lois, and then he gets serious. Jackel makes a run for it with his crooked earnings, but Superman captures him and turns him over to the police. He gives Lois a break for once and lets her have the story instead of himself, with the final panel a fourth wall breaking bit of advice to watch out for unscrupulous game operators. It's small potatoes as a threat for Superman, and indeed he treats it as such and has fun with the whole situation, never taking it all that seriously other than when Lois is in danger. But it's the kind of crime that hurts the little guy that Superman often deals with in this era.

Perrone and the Drug Gang
Writer: Jerry Siegel Pencils: Joe Shuster, Wayne Boring Inks: Wayne Boring

The final story in issue 8 opens with gangsters in suits and fedoras machine-gunning some police to death in front of an armored car in broad daylight. Other gangsters, trying to outrace the police while driving and shooting, nearly shoot Lois Lane, hit a man on crutches, and almost run down some school children before Superman lands and stops the car. One crook escapes as Lois learns from the police that the gangsters are all "dope addicts". Superman trails him and finds out who his contacts are as the man begs for more drugs, clearly addicted. Superman decides to lure the gang in and trap them, which he does by "accidentally" dropping a report on a shipment of morphine for the addict to find, and he turns it over to his supplier, Parrone. Thanks to some interference by Lois and the police, things get a bit complicated, but the trap essentially works and Parrone is put on trial, only for his lawyer and secret cohort Brokenshire to get him declared not guilty on a technicality.

Of course Superman is not going to let that stand. When Parrone mockingly invites Lois and Clark to a victory dinner at the Gray Goose, Lois accepts. When a crazed criminal employee of Parrone's bursts in, Parrone takes him out back to "reason" with him and shoots him. When Parrone and Brokenshire go to dispose of the body, Superman traps them in the act then turns as Clark calls the police, leaving them to find the body, and Parrone and Brokenshire trapped in a truck, right where Superman left them.

However the subject matter is handled, this is a story of murder, drug addiction and abusing the law, not subjects aimed at kids at this time, demonstrating once again that comics were not initially seen as primarily a children's genre. These things stand out at me as part of that original era of Superman comics where he's often dealing with some pretty ugly crime. Once this era ends, I don't think we'll see stories like this again until the 70s, probably not until Speedy ends up dealing with heroin in the Green Lantern/Green Arrow issues.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Green Lantern: Sector 2814 volumes 1-3, collecting Green Lantern vol. 2 issues 172-200

Reading these has filled in a lot of gaps for me, and despite being a series of individual or two-issue stories, the whole thing really is one long story arc that mostly pays off in the end and changes a lot along the way. It starts out with the Silver/Bronze Age status quo: 3600 Green Lantern and 35 Guardians of the Universe, with Appa Ali Apsa having been stripped of his immortality and sent to Maltus some time earlier. Hal Jordan has just spent a year in space, forbidden to go to Earth, as punishment for an infraction. Dave Gibbons, of Watchmen fame, is the artist for most of the issues in volume 1 which involve Hal's return to Earth where he reunites with Carol Ferris, deals with the Javelin and the Predator and with the machinations of Congressman Bloch, who wants to destroy Ferris Air. When the Guardians call him out to save a planet just as Ferris is under attack, Carol gives Hal a choice: her or the Green Lantern Corps. Hal chooses Carol and decides to resign. He goes to Oa and turns in his ring, after which the Guardians return him to Earth.

Volume 2 continues to follow Hal as he adjusts to post-Green Lantern life, but it spends a lot of time with John Stewart as the replacement GL, who comes across as enthused and willing to learn, as opposed to the angry and jaded Hal Jordan of volume 1. Katma Tui is sent to Earth to help train him, and here is where that relationship begins as the two of them flirt and become attracted to each other, and that relationship is contrasted with Hal and Carol who despite finally no longer having Hal's GL duties, enjoy the time together initially but there is a clear friction between the two of them. The Predator storyline comes to a head here as he kills Jason Bloch, stalks Carol, and then when a powerless Hal tracks him down, the Predator kidnaps Carol and lures Hal in to a trap. It's revealed, and it's not entirely clear how this works, but the Predator is part of Carol, who had a physical and personality split due to the Star Sapphire. The two of them merge, and Carol has rejected her human life entirely, choosing to be the queen of the Zamarons. Hal is left alone and powerless on Earth without Carol, and he's lost everything. And Guy Gardner, who has been in a coma, comes out of it at the end of the volume, but he's not the same old Guy...

Volume 3 is the most closely tied to the Crisis on Infinite Earth, with tie-ins to several issues. A lot happens and the pace of events is quicker and the number or characters grows. John goes off to deal with the Anti-Monitor. Guy is recruited and given a Green Lantern ring by a lone Guardian and sent to collect a gang of criminals to destroy the birthplace of the Anti-Monitor. Hal is rejected by that same Guardian when he offers to help in any capacity, but then later when the situation is dire, that same Guardian offers him a ring if he will join Garder's group and take orders, and Hal agrees. The Guardians themselves split on how to deal with the Crisis, with 22 thinking there's nothing they can do, and the remaning group trying to stop the Crisis, but dying in the course of events. Guy Garder is pretty much a villain in this story, willing to kill Qwardians and Hal Jordan. This is the version of the character that I just could not stand back in the day. The Crisis is resolved off-panel in the pages of that series, and Hal becomes a full-fledged Green Lantern again when Goldface kills Tomar-Re, who wills his ring to John Stewart, so John can return what was Hal Jordan/Abin Sur's ring back to Hal, who appears in uniform again for the first time in probably 18 issues. The surviving Guardians respect Tomar-Re's wishes and fully reinstate Hal to the corps.

The final issues have the 22 surviving Guardians deciding that they made a nearly fatal mistake in dealing with the potential end of the Universe, and they depart the Universe with the Zamarons (much to Star Sapphire's chagrin... she had JUST become queen), leaving Appa Ali Apsa to administer, while the Corps runs itself.

It's a nice collection, and it set a lot of characters in place that are still there today. I guess it really did set up the post-Crisis Green Lantern status quo, at least briefly. I think the book became Green Lantern Corps with issue 201 and only ran another 24 issues.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Action Comics #33
February 1941

Something Amiss at the Lumber Camp
Writer: Jerry Siegel Art: Jack Burnley

Ken Hall, owner of a massive lumber business, wills his fortune to found a summer camp for underprivileged kids, remembering his own childhood in the slums. Both Lois and Clark are impressed with the man's generosity. Later, Hall is found dead, having apparently fallen off a cliff to his death, and his brother Brett vows to fight the will. He loses in court, but the money for the camp does not appear. White sends Lois and Clark to investigate the lumber camp and find out what's going on there, which they decide to do by trying to get jobs so they can investigate.

Subtle this story is not. If you don't immediately suspect Cliff the shady boat operator and Bernier the big, cruel, moustached lumberjack foreman, you aren't paying attention. Bernier orders Lois thrown into the river to drown, but Superman barely gets to her in time and rescues her. Bernier then tries to lock the two of them in a shed and burn them alive, though the blasting powder in the shed is likely to explode first. Clark again resorts to hypnotism just like he did in Action #32 so Lois won't realize he's pulling them both clear before the shed goes up. Bernier goes to report to the boss, a guy in a mask who is so obviously Brett Hall that it's no surprise when the reveal is made. Hall kills both Bernier and Cliff and only Superman's intervention saves Lois from the same fate. Hall dies when his bullet ricochets off debris as Superman busts in, and with Hall dead, the lumber business is profitable again and the kids get their camp.

I'll say it again: nobody makes Lois look more attractive than Jack Burnley. It's a wonder she's not traumatized after seeing two men shot to death right in front of her, and not for the first time. She's tougher and more resilient than she's often given credit for. Clark/Superman is very reactive rather than proactive in this story, having to save Lois's life three times. He doesn't so much figure out the scheme as manage to be present when things go down. The whole plot is very transparent, and nearly everything that happens is easily predicted before it does, but the art makes up for a lot, particularly the whirlpool sequences.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Action Comics #34
March 1941

The Beautiful Young Heiress
Writer: Jerry Siegel Art: Jack Burnley

A beautiful young girl, trying to run one of the biggest, toughest coal mines in the country? That IS a story!

Editor White (and I keep calling him that because I'm not sure his first name of Perry has been given yet) assigns Clark a story: Doris Laurey, daughter of a "coal magnate" has inherited her father's coal mines. She's under the guardianship of her uncle (so she's still a minor, legally), and she decides to run the coal mining operation herself. I figured from the start that she was going to be targeted for death by her uncle so he could obtain the company and the money that came with it, and I wasn't wrong. To me, the interesting elements of the story are that Clark and Lois claim to be university students as a cover to get into the mining operation and the guard buys it, so both of them must look pretty young (and Jack Burnley does draw them as fairly young people, probably in their 20s). And the story sees Superman spending a lot of time rescuing Doris from danger, meaning she essentially takes the place of Lois as "damsel in distress", giving the story a different feel than others from this same time. I love when Superman heads into the coal mine at super speed with a "whiz" sound effect. Once again, someone does not believe that Superman exists, in this case Doris's uncle, so Superman is still not a well-known public figure. Like last issue's lumber camp story, this story is not hard to predict, but the art and small details mean that I still enjoyed it.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Superman #9
March-April 1941

The linework restoration for this issue is poorer than most of what we've seen so far. I'm sure these older issues were originally restored decades ago for the earliest Archives, so much better results can be achieved now with digital technology. Or maybe the source they had to work with was poor. I really don't know, but the lower quality of the art jumped out at me, starting with the cover. We also still have the hand drawn Superman logos, so for whatever reason Action Comics has had the designed official logo for months, while the Superman book has not yet caught up.

The Phony Pacifists
Writer: Jerry Siegel Pencils: Paul Cassidy Inks: Shuster Shop

The United States is not officially in World War 2 yet, but it's out there on the horizon and more and more is creeping into the Superman series as a topic. Here we have a story about military rearmament and secret meetings out at sea. Clark and Lois are heading home from a movie (a date?) when they spot police activity on the waterfront, but they're run off by Sergeant Casey. Lois is determined to go back and investigate, and of course Superman will do the same. Lois is arrested, but not before she notes a freighter in the harbor signalling the shore. Casey and Major Lester, the military office on duty, did not see the signal, but Superman did and follows the man who made it out to sea where he meets with a submarine. The sub attempts to destroy a ship in the harbor which Superman prevents by blocking the shells and torpedo. The sub self-destructs rather than face capture by Superman.

Clark convinces Casey and Lester to release Lois, and Lester does a complete about face, offering to show them the government's war material warehouse. Superman foils another attempt to destroy the valuable stores. He rounds up all the saboteurs except the leader, who he follows to learn that the man is part of a ring operating out of a Senator Galsworthy's office, so this conspiracy goes way up into the US government. Superman reveals the scheme to the Senator (who for once is NOT a crooked politician) who has the men arrested after Superman prevents the ringleader from falling to his death out of an open window.

I like these pre-war espionage and sabotage plots, and I've always thought that World War 2 is a suitably massive canvas to use as a backdrop for larger than life superhero stories. This version of Superman is still limited enough that he has to work for his victories, though that usually applies to discovering who is involved and what is going on rather than the physical conflict, which he usually wins without breaking a sweat.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Superman #9 continued....

Joe Gatson, Racketeer
Writer: Jerry Siegel Pencils: Paul Cassidy Inks: Shuster Shop

Thug 1: The bullets - bouncing off!
Thug 2: He must be wearing a bullet proof vest!
Superman: And then again --- I might not!


Racketeer Joe Gatson is on trial in Judge Crane's courtroom. When the judge, well known for punctuality, is twenty minutes late, postpones the trial and looks pale and anxious, Clark suspects something is up. As Superman he checks on the judge and is just in time to stop him from committing suicide. Turns out that the judge's daughter Sylvia has been kidnapped in order to pressure the judge into freeing Gatson. The judge can't choose between his oath or his daughter and decided to take "the easy way out". Superman of course determines that he will rescue Sylvia and see that justice is done, which involves finding out where she's being held. Among his super-feats is wrestling an alligator while fighting quicksand and following a telephone line beneath the ground using his x-ray vision. He does get lucky, he follows it to a cable box on a phone line just before one of the kidnappers uses it to call Judge Crane and threaten him. Superman rescues Sylvia, and arrives back and Judge Crane's home, only to find that Gatson and the court bailiff, in Gatson's employ, have taken the judge hostage. When Gatson tells the bailiff to shoot Sylvia, Superman tosses Gatson in front of her so that he is shot instead! That's one of the more ruthless actions he's taken in a while. The story ends with a panel where Superman encourages readers to pick up Action Comics every month.

Mystery in Swasey Swamp
Writer: Jerry Siegel Pencils: Paul Cassidy Inks: Shuster Shop

In "far off Rovertown" in Lamson labs, two scientists are working on the "W-142 formula". We're not told what that is, but it's enough to cause someone to threaten the inventor and then murder one of his assistants, as well as bomb his lab, all in an attempt to gain the formula. Lamson refuses to capitulate. At the Planet, we see an unnamed red-haired, bow tie wearing kid tell Clark and Lois that White wants to see them both. Jimmy Olsen has not yet been named and properly introduced into the series, but this sure seems to be him, at least in retrospect. Perry sends Lois to investigate a mystery about a powerful electrical field in Swasey Swamp, and sends Clark to cover the attempts to steal the formula from Lamson labs. No points for guessing that the two mysteries are related. Clark is worried that he won't be able to help Lois this time when she inevitably gets into trouble, since the lab and the swamp are a hundred miles apart.

While Lois is dealing with a treacherous guide into the swamp, a fallen meteor and men in metallic outfits, Clark is targeted for assassination and plays the coward, taking refuge in the labs where he meets Lamson's assistant Krawl. We find out that the formula has to do with a new substance "capable of yielding energy equal to 5 million pounds of coal per pound" which is certainly valuable. The same metallic-outfitted men raid the lab, but here Superman goes into action and fights them off. Krawl proves to be a traitor who commits suicide, but not before he reveals that Lois has been captured. Superman races to her rescue, and oddly the villain that has been built up over the story, which I half expected to be Luthor, is a rather unremarkable one-shot mad scientist type who is killed by his own magnetic force machine as he tries to kill Lois with it. I don't think he even got a name.

This story has a bit too many locations and plot threads to work in 12 pages. It tries to be both a pre-war espionage story and throw in a bit of potential sci-fi with the meteor and costumed men, and it ends so quickly that poor Sergeant Casey gets a single panel from the back and an off panel explanation about why he has custody of a many from another city entirely. Lois calls the editor "chief" (first time for that, maybe?) and once again Clark gets the story into print before Lois can write it up.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Superman #9 concluded.

Jackson's Murder Ring
Writer: Jerry Siegel Pencils: Paul Cassidy Inks: Shuster Shop

It's positively astonishing the way you two always manage to be on the spot when something newsworthy occurs! - Sgt. Casey notices the trend

The final story of issue 9 starts in a pretty gruesome fashion as Clark and Lois spot a man falling from the Metropolis Tower, and though Clark contemplates jumping to save his life, thus exposing his secret identity, he is able to determine that the man is already dead and is spared the choice.The dead man is identified as Morton Carling of the Nelson and Lassiter law firm. Carling turns out to have been a very wealthy man, and as Clark and Lois investigate the possible inheritors of his fortune, We don't actually see Superman in costume until page 7. The whole plot ultimately turns out to involve a jewelry company being used as a front for transferring money by a "murder syndicate", and the dead man at the beginning of the story was one of their victims.

I enjoy seeing the story split between Clark Kent, investigative reporter, and Superman. Clark's trick of learning a phone number by memorizing the number of clicks as the rotary dial is turned is one that the modern cell phone generation might not get. Superman once again toys with the bad guys, pretending that being shot at affects him then laughing about it afterwards, and he roughly stops the fleeing Lassiter by flipping his car over. On the last panel, Clark thinks to himself that sooner or later he'll slip up and Lois will figure out who he really is.
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World's Best Comics #1
Spring 1941

Superman vs. The Rainmaker
Writer: Jerry Siegel Pencils: Wayne Boring Inks: Don Komisarow

I love the cover with a happy Superman, Robin and Batman smiling at the reader, with a silhouetted city in the background. I enjoy the happy superheroes of the Golden Age. Inside the book, Superman face the threat of the Rainmaker, a man who has learned how to control the rain. He uses this technology to extort money from wealthy Drexel Rutherford. Superman becomes involved when Rutherford's house catches fire and he has to help save his life. Rutherford tells Clark Kent about the Rainmaker's threats. Clark doesn't believe it at first, but an attempt to kill everyone on a bus owned by Rutherford's company is one coincidence too many.White grants Clark's request to cover the story of the threat on the Imperial Dam (which sure does look like Hoover Dam) where he saves the lives of some men there.

Here is where things get quite interesting. One of the Rainmaker's hired thugs takes a note to Superman threatening him. Naturally Superman is not impressed and after the guy tries to shoot him, he forces the thug to take him to the Rainmaker. Upon arrival he is attacked by a boa constrictor, which Superman ties in a knot around a tree. More thugs arrive and Superman makes short work of them, but the Rainmaker himself shows up and robs Superman of his strength with a "radical new paralysis gas" which would have killed a thousand ordinary men, according to the Rainmaker. Superman is uncharacteristically meek while under the effects of the gas, and it's a strange thing to see him looking so shocked and worried. But within not all that many panels he shakes off the effects just after the Rainmaker floods the valley, intending to destroy the dam. Superman tosses his whole lab in the raging torrent with the guy still inside! He cannot stop the dambreak, but smashes some cliff walls into boulders to block the flood (reminds me of the Valleyho Dam break story and like that story, reminds me a similar sequence in the first Superman movie). He saves Lois's incoming plane from crashing since White had sent her to cover the story as well. The Rainmaker survived his lab's destruction at Superman's hands and tries to take Lois hostage and run from Superman, only to trip and kill himself when he cracks his skull on a boulder.

It's always strange that Superman's cape is constantly referred to as a "cloak" in these early stories. I can see some hints of Wayne Boring's familiar style in the artwork, particularly with the Rainmaker, now that I know it's Boring's art. The story itself is a variation on the "mad scientist" plotline, but this guy earns some points for actually stopping Superman briefly and being able to do exactly what he claimed. Why he specifically targeted Rutherford is never explained.
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The Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1

Since reading this volume, I think these guys have become my favorite Marvel characters. We've had discussion in the past about the big two companies, and I'm a DC fan first and foremost. I don't care for a lot of modern Marvel (and a lot of modern DC doesn't do a bunch for me either, to be honest), but the sixties Marvel that I tried out via omnibus reprints has turned out to be pretty good. I will say that for all the hype Jack Kirby gets as an artist, he's not at all what I expected. I do think the Fantastic Four has some of the weaker plots compared to Spider Man or Thor (which admittedly, in volume 3 are a few years down the road when Lee and Kirby had more experience), but the concept is sound. So I thought I'd review these from time to time in between reading GA Superman.

Fantastic Four #1
November 1961

The Fantastic Four
Writer: Stan Lee Penciller: Jack Kirby

A shadowy figure fires a flare from a high rise window into the sky, summoning a woman who turns invisible, a big orange skinned monstrous creature, and a teenager who turns into fire. They are Dr. Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Susan Storm and Johnny Storm, the Fantastic Four. The story then takes us back and tells us how they gained the powers they displayed during an unauthorized space flight before the "commies" can get there first. Ben warns them that they haven't done enough research into the cosmic rays that might affect them, but he is goaded by Sue into piloting the rocket for the test flight. All four are indeed affected by the rays, and when the rocket's auto-pilot returns them to Earth, all four display changes. Johnny can turn into living flame, Ben has become a large, strong, orange-skinned humanoid (not the rocky Thing we typically think of at this point), Susan can turn invisible, and Reed can stretch his body to vast lengths. Reed declares that they have been given power, and have to use that power to help mankind.

Back in the present, Reed gives the reason he called them all together: atomic plants across the world are falling into enormous craters appearing beneath them. Giant monsters are emerging from the Earth to attack. Reed thinks he's pinpointed the source of the problem: an island in the sea known as Monster Isle. They fly there in a private jet and encounter some of these monstrous creatures, and while Johnny and Reed fall through a cave in into an underground cavern and encounter the master of the creatures, the Mole Man, Sue and Ben fight off the creatures and go to the rescue. They seal the creatures and the Mole Man into his underground lair and retreat, hoping they've seen the last of him. I guess it doesn't occur to them that having tunneled through the Earth beneath the power plants, they can probably tunnel out of their island as well...

I'm reasonably familiar with the basic origin story of this team, even though I haven't read the series before. It's told with perhaps too much economy, leaving out some key details that might help explain more of who Reed Richards is and how he became involved in this research, but I do like that the entire first issue is not just the origin, but an adventure for the group that flashes back to their origin to explain who they are. Since this is a super-hero comic, it's odd to see them all remain in civilian clothes the entire time, and since it's a team book, it's strange to see them all apparently living separate lives, only gathered together by the flare, something Reed oddly hoped would never happen. Reed and Sue are engaged prior to the test flight, so perhaps the mutations/powers they all received as a result of the cosmic rays caused a falling out and all four went their separate ways, only to be drawn back together by the crisis. This book seems to me to be a classic example of a "pilot" episode, where the basic concept is there, but changes and refinements will occur as the series goes on.
The Mole Man and all the monsters he controls are visually interesting even if his plan to knock out all the atomic power stations across the world and then use his monsters to attack is not terribly well thought-out on his part. There is an attempt to make him somewhat sympathetic with all the rejection he's experienced in his life, and to an extent it works, though he's still clearly in the wrong here. Jack Kirby draws some great monsters, without a doubt, though some of this art feels a bit more "sketchy" than I expected, given his reputation and given what I've seen him draw in other books elsewhere.

Overall, this is a series that is trying something different than what Lee and Kirby had apparently done before, and different than what DC was doing at the time. They're clearly finding their footing and have only a rough idea of who these characters are and where they will go. There's a lot of change ahead and a lot of improvement in store, but the basic building blocks are here. I enjoyed the story.
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