Fantastic Four Vol 1 1

{{Marvel Database:Comic Template
 * Image              = Fantastic Four Vol 1 1.jpg
 * Month              = November
 * Year               = 1961


 * PreviousIssue      = (Title) &mdash; (Story) {{c|Fantastic Four: First Family #2}}
 * NextIssue          = (Title) {{c|Fantastic Four #2}} (Story) {{c|Fantastic Four: First Family #3}}


 * Editor-in-Chief    = Stan Lee
 * CoverArtist1       = Jack Kirby
 * CoverArtist2       = Dick Ayers


 * Writer1_1          = Stan Lee
 * Penciler1_1        = Jack Kirby
 * Inker1_1           = George Klein
 * Inker1_2           = Christopher Rule
 * Colourist1_1       = Stan Goldberg
 * Letterer1_1        = Artie Simek
 * Editor1_1          = Stan Lee


 * Quotation          = It is the first time I have found it necessary to give the signal! I pray it will be the last!
 * Speaker            = Mister Fantastic


 * StoryTitle1        = The Fantastic Four!
 * Synopsis1          =

Chapter 1
A shadowy figure fires a flare out of a window. The flare forms the words "The Fantastic Four!"

Susan Storm is having tea with a friend. When she sees the flare, she turns invisible, gets into a cab, and offers the surprised driver a banknote when she reaches her destination.

Ben Grimm is trying to find a coat that fits him. A clerk in the haberdashery sees the flare. Grimm bursts out of the too-small door, rips a manhole out of the street, follows the sewers, and bursts out when he thinks he has reached his destination.

Johnny Storm is working on his latest hot rod in a service station. The mechanic sees the flare, which turns into the number 4. Johnny bursts into flame and flies away. The authorities treat him as an enemy attack, so he reluctantly melts the jets that come after him. A nuclear heat-seeking missile locks onto him, and just as Johnny's flame starts to fade, an impossibly long pair of arms grabs the missile and throws it out to sea.

Johnny's savior is the same man who fired the flare. He greets Susan, Ben, and Johnny with the words, "There is a task that awaits us ... a fearful task!" But how did these four people become so fantastic?

To beat the Communists into space, scientist Reed Richards, sister and brother Sue and Johnny Storm, and pilot Ben Grimm sneak off into space in a rocket. In space, the four are bombarded by cosmic rays. The auto-pilot lands the ship back on Earth, where they find themselves physically transformed and possessing remarkable new abilities. Sue can turn invisible. Ben has transformed into an orange, muscular "thing." Reed's body became highly malleable, allowing him to stretch into any shape. Johnny's body bursts into flame, and he can fly. They decide to use their abilities to become the super-team known as the Fantastic Four. They give themselves the individual names Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, and the Thing.

(Chapter 2) The Fantastic Four Meet the Mole Man!
Atomic plants in the Soviet Union, Australia, and South America have been mysteriously attacked by cave-ins. Another attack occurs in Africa, where a huge monster burrows out of the ground but is recalled by a human figure. The Fantastic Four travel aboard their private jet to Monster Isle, which Reed has deduced is the same distance from each attack. There, they are attacked by a giant three-headed monster. Reed stops the monster, but a cave-in separates Reed and Johnny from Ben and Sue. Beneath the island Reed and Johnny land in the Valley of Diamonds, which temporarily blinds them. The Mole Man appears, revealing he is responsible for the attacks.

(Chapter 3) The Mole Man's Secret!
The Mole Man explains his origin. Having been ridiculed by humanity, he went off alone in search of the legendary land at the center of the earth. Eventually he washed ashore on Monster Isle. Making his way through a cavern, he was caught in an avalanche and rendered almost blind. However, due to his other heightened senses taking over, he mastered the subterranean creatures and built himself an underground empire.

Meanwhile, on the surface, Ben wrestles a rock monster. Ben and Sue find their teammates listening to the Mole Man's plan to invade the surface world. He sends his monster army against the Fantastic Four. Whilst Johnny distracts the biggest one, the team flees through a tunnel, which Johnny seals shut behind them. After the Fantastic Four escape in their jet, Mole Man destroys the island so the surface world cannot trouble him again.

Featured Characters:
 * Appearing1         =

Villains:
 * various of Monster Isle
 * various of Monster Isle
 * various of Monster Isle
 * various of Monster Isle
 * various of Monster Isle
 * various of Monster Isle

Other Characters:
 * Citizens of Central City
 * Cab driver
 * French Soldiers
 * French Soldiers
 * French Soldiers

Locations:

Items: Vehicles:
 * Fantastic Four's private jet
 * Fantastic Four's private jet


 * Notes              = ===Origins and Retellings===


 * As Marvel has continued to publish stories eventually they had to institute a Sliding Timescale as a means of slowing down the advance of time in the Marvel Universe over the length of publications in real time. This was to prevent ageing their characters quickly as well as updating dated plot concepts, generalizing real life events or dates that are mentioned in various stories. When Fantastic Four #1 was published in 1961, Reed's spaceship is specifically referred to as a rocket, and his intentions for his mission is to beat the Soviet Union in the space race. Contextually, the story was published during the height of the US/Soviet Space Race, which saw both countries competing to see which one could develop manned space flights. Since then, many retellings of the Fantastic Four's origin have changed the details of Reed Richard's space flight, updating concepts so that they were not considered dated more modern readers. While Fantastic Four #1 implies that Reed was trying to reach the moon, states that he was attempting to reach Mars. Other stories since then have generalized where his destination was supposed to be. 20 years later in, the origin of the Fantastic Four was updated, it was stated that Reed's experimental ship was intended to travel to the edge of the solar system and while it needed a rocket booster to reach escape velocity from Earth's atmosphere it relied on a Star Drive to reach its destination. This tale also goes on to expand on how the quartet were mutated. While Fantastic Four #1 merely states that it was cosmic rays, Fantastic Four #236 goes further to explain that these rays passed through the Van Allen Belts that is held around the Earth by it's magnetic field.  published in 1991 states that the this "Star Drive" was intended to bring them into hyperspace in order to visit other solar systems. It's also stated in this story that unusual sunspot activity from Earth's sun also played a role in boosting the strength of the cosmic rays that mutated the Fantastic Four.

Other Notes

 * This issue is the considered the start of the Marvel Universe. It was first coined as Earth-616 in, however as Marvel began incorporating super-hero stories from their predecessors Timely and Atlas Comics, the first appearance of Earth-616 has been retconned back to which feature the first appearance of the Sub-Mariner.


 * The monsters of Monster Isle were revealed as having been created by the Deviants as per.


 * The crash site of Reeds' Rocket is identified as North of Ithaca, New York in.


 * The Cab Driver that picks up Sue Storm in this story appeared next in.


 * The letters page of credits Art Simek as the inker for this issue. The theories on who actually inked  (and  for that matter) continue to be debated, and will probably never be definitively answered. Many scoff that Art Simek could not have inked either issue, and dismiss the editor's reference in  as Jack Kirby's faulty memory of years gone by. Though it was also backed up by Roz Kirby and Steve Leialoha on the same letters page.

Reprints

 * This issue is reprinted in other comics and books, see references for more info.


 * Trivia             = *Marvel and many Marvel fans have often referred to this issue as the start of "the Marvel age of Comics".
 * The Fantastic Four wore blue and white flight suits in the first printing of Fantastic Four #1. All subsequent reprints and flashbacks feature the more familiar purple and blue flight suits.
 * In late 1961, no one in the US really knew how conditions in space would affect a human being, since the first man in space was a Russian, Yuri Gagarin, in April 1961. (The first American, John Glenn, went into space in February 1962.) At the time 'gamma rays' were a real concern that later proved groundless. The 'cosmic rays' in this story were later retconned into a freak confluence of gamma rays, sunspots, and other phenomena.

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 * Recommended        =
 * Story retold in more detail in.
 * Mole Man is shown discovering Monster Isle in.
 * Links              =
 * The Grand Comics Database: Fantastic Four Vol 1
 * Marveling Comics