TREASURYCAST #38 – THE FABULOUS FANTASTIC FOUR
Rob welcomes the delightful Laurel Phillips (aka MtnFwr1) to discuss MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #11, featuring classic FF stories guest-starring Doctor Doom, the Sub-Mariner and The Frightful Four!
Check out images from this comic by clicking here!
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Another FANTASTIC episode featuring one of my favorite Marvel Treasury comics.
I had this one when I was a kid and I have great memories of the hours I spent devouring the King-Size Kirby artwork. While these may not be the FF’s greatest adventures, the stories chosen for this collection did serve as a perfect introduction to the classic Lee & Kirby era. With stories that range from the very beginning (#4) to near the end (#94) of their historic 102 issue + 6 annuals collaboration, you can really see the development of the characters and their world, as well as the evolution of Stan & Jack’s powerful storytelling.
It’s been almost 50 years since Kirby left the Fantastic Four and for me the book has never been the same. There have been other good runs–John Byrne came the closest to recapturing the magic of the early FFs–but no one has yet surpassed the combination of Jack Kirby’s wild imagination and Stan Lee’s characterizations.
‘Nuff Said!
“Groovy” Mike Decker
Congratulations on a great Treasury Edition debut from Laurel. As Rob says, perfect précis work!
Top collection of FF stories there, but yeah, why not print them in order? It’s great to see the artistic progression of Kirby on the strip. My favourite is the Frightful Four story – forget your Galactus cosmic palava, that’s great but I prefer the smaller, Earth-set stories. The Frightfuls are some of my fave Marvel villains but the big thing this tale has going for it is Agatha Harkness. She’s a great visual, fulfils a necessary role for the Richards family and makes for a great surprise element in the big brouhaha. Like Leslie Thomkins, she’s a character who becomes less interesting the more she’s used. As a mysterious maybe-witch, she’s perfect.
Namor’s horn does show up again in, for example, Defenders No.55, which was covered a fortnight ago in the always outstanding Titans For the Defense podcast from two weeks ago. What happens when Nighthawk finds it…
Impressive pod cast. An a cool line up of comics. I read the Sub Mariner story war Johnny is in the flop house. In Marvel age or Marvel Tails. It was pretty cool. And fun for the time. And this man this Monster I read in the omnibus of the FF stories and that one was pretty cool too. Though messed up no one believes Ben. Reed was a collage room mate with the man and surved in WW2 with him…yet he’s not gonna maybe ask if it’s posable? Or talk to the other “thing”? Just oh this guy is Ben you just a guy that looks like him to a T. And knows us. Hmm, must be a fan. La La.
Maybe ask stuff only Ben would know? Something? Oh did I mention I have a U tube page? That’s Liz Anne Oswalt. Any way was cool to see this FF collection in a Tresery. Sadly I missed the collection, but it looks cool. Can’t wait to hear the next pod cast.
Well, first it behooves me to say that from this point forward Laurel should do all of the story synopses.
Second, given the continual participation of high-caliber guests, it goes without saying that I thoroughly enjoyed the show.
Otherwise, I never had this particular treasury – the only FF one I had was the next one, with the Galactus story drawn by Big John Buscema. I did, however, read many times over the stories from FF #4 and #55. In fact, I first encountered the latter in the FF pocketbook from the late 1970s – a book that could be covered in your DigestCast.
By the way, besides the Defenders issue mentioned by Martin, Namor’s horn also makes an appearance in FF #219, when it’s stolen by Captain Barracuda, who uses it to summon a leviathan from the deep to come crashing into Manhattan and destroy buildings, like banks, so he can go on a crime spree. Cool…
This was, of course, a fantastic episode. I just want to add my voice to the chorus of those who will no doubt be calling for Laurel Phillips to read all of the synopses of all stories to all of us forever. Thanks, this was a blast!
Great episode! Nice to hear Laurel on the network, as I very briefly got to meet her at that same Heroes Con a few years back.
Any comic reprinting “This Man…This Monster” is worth the price of admission alone, but this sounds like a great collection.
I will only add that the follow-up story about Namor’s horn that Edo mentioned above was recently covered on the Fantasticast. Many innuendo-laden jokes ensued.
Chris
Great job, Laurel! Her style of synopsis reminds me of the way Howard Simpson re-capped stories for the Secret Origins podcast!
Regarding the contents of this Treasury, editor Archie probably wanted to have only one-and-done stories. Those were pretty rare in the Lee and Kirby FF days! The previous FF Treasury had included (most of) the Galactus saga. According to the Amazing Mike’s Amazing World site, these stories had only been re-printed once before, except for “Return of the Frightful Four” which had not been re-printed. Oddly, Mike doesn’t seem to include the books published by Fireside. That’s where I read the the Sub-Mariner story, c. 1980.
Great show, Rob and Laurel.
I first read the Sub-Mariner story in the Marvel Pocket Book that reprints FF 1-6. I was a bit surprised to see Sub-Mariner as a straight up villain, since I was familiar with him from Invaders and Marvel-Two-in-One.
I agree that the editor probably wanted to keep the treasury to done-in-ones and I’m glad that he did. This Man, This Monster is one of the great FF stories, so I’m glad it got the treasury treatment. If one story didn’t fit to me, it was the Agatha Harkness story, but only because the FF seem to be supporting players in their own title. That is ok for an occasional issue, but I don’t think a story like that is something an editor should put in a treasury, considering treasuries were probably bought as samplers by people thinking about trying the comics.
Rob, to your comment replies, I heartily encourage you to do a show about three-packs. I got a lot of them back in the day, although I don’t necessarily recall what comics came in which pack. You can find a little more information about three-packs here:
http://www.wymann.info/comics/043-MarvelMultiMags.html
The three-pack featured with Amazing Spider-Man #167, Incredible Hulk #210, and Thor #258 was my introduction to Marvel and the first Marvel issues I got. I don’t remember if I asked for the pack, or if my mother got it because I was getting into DC and the three-pack had such a good price. At the time, I hadn’t turned six yet and was just learning to read. I remember really liking Spider-Man and the Hulk, but not Thor because he had long hair. Plus, I did think the Hulk said a “dirty word” when he said “But” but my mother informed me that Butt was only a dirty word when it had two Ts.