Thursday, July 27, 2006

Where It All Began, Part 2!

The first issue of Fantastic Four contains a lot of exposition.  That’s natural for a first issue of a new series.  But the character exposition on the cover (see prior post) actually seems to do a better, more accurate job showing the gist of the characters than the inside of the first issue.

Let’s start with the Thing.  He’s supposed to be a gritty, blue-collar type who is street-smart and down to earth.  He spends a lot of time mocking Reed’s nerdiness and prolix manner of speech.  (That’s right, it’s prolix!)

But the first time we meet Thingy, his speech is astoundingly proper:

Just to make sure you didn’t miss his speech patterns amidst the exciting violence in these panels, here’s a recap:

“Why must they . . .”

“Fool!  Did you not see me in time!”

Yep, that’s exactly how you would expect a salt-of-the-earth, man-of-the-people type of guy to speak!  He actually sounds just like Doctor Doom in these panels.  But never fear, he’ll find his groove soon enough!  Let’s take a look at the Torch:

Our introduction to Johnny Storm is apparently meant to inform us that he really can’t help destroying others’ vehicles.  It just happens!  They came too close!  Good thing the pilots all used their parachutes.  They would make excellent COBRA pilots!  (As in GI JOE.) (Sorry.) OK, now let’s check out Mr. Fantastic:

Pretty boring introduction for Reed Richards, which is no shock given that he’s well, sort of a boring guy.  He’s smoking a pipe for pete’s sake!  But what strikes me is that for all his genteel intellectual docility during the first half of the comic, by the end of the origin story when the big four are choosing their “official” names, he chooses MR. FANTASTIC.  Talk about hubris!  What about Stretchy, or Flexo, or even, um, Elastic Man?  But nooooooo, he had to coopt the name of his whole fledgling organization for himself. 

I saved the best for last—poor, helpless Sue Storm:

Holy damn!  Sue’s invisibility may be pretty weak, but she has an unbeatable alternate power:  passive-aggressive red scare!  Look how in a single panel she manages to manipulate the Pre-Thing with the spectre of communism and a blatant “are you chicken?” play. 

Fortunately, Sue got her way, and the commies didn’t beat the FF to space.  They did catch up later . . . but that’s a story for another day.