SCOTT: The Fantastic Four have been around for over 50 years but how crazy could their origins
be? Well, let's dive into the comic book industry of the 1960s and find out a little bit more
about Marvel's first family.
Welcome to Comic Misconceptions, the show that takes you into
detail about the things you think you know about comics. I'm your host Scott Niswander,
and I told you that I'd eventually do an episode about the Fantastic Four, ever since Legofilms9894
suggested it many moons ago, and here we are. But first, I want to iterate something about
this show. Normally, I don't like to do origin story episodes because I feel like every comic
book channel does that kind of a thing, but if I can find an angle that hasn't really
been explored by everyone and their mothers, I am all over that, especially when it comes
to the production side of things. And, boy, does the origin of the Fantastic Four dive
into some deep, deep waters of the comic book industry that I can't help but find captivating.
But first, let's jump into the actual origins of the Fantastic Four just so we have kind
of a baseline understanding of these characters. Here's a bumper that I made a long time ago
that I never got to use until now.
Neat! Anyway, the origin of the Fantastic Four as told through
their first issue goes a little bit like this. Dr. Reed Richards, with the help of his fiance
Sue Storm and her brother, Johnny, convinced their skeptical friend Ben Grimm to pilot
an authorized launch of an experimental spacecraft that Reed spent years building. They all fly
to the heavens, but just as Ben feared, the ship's shielding was not strong enough to
protect them from cosmic rays. After a rough landing back to Earth, they discover that
Sue can turn invisible, Johnny can burst into flames and fly, Ben has turned into a, well,
Thing, and Reed can stretch his body like rubber. In that moment, they all decided to
use their powers to help mankind, and the Fantastic Four was born, consisting of Mr.
Fantastic, Invisible Girl -- later changed to Invisible Woman -- Human Torch, and the
Thing. One of the defining characteristics of the Fantastic Four at their launch was
that they were one of the rare breed of superheroes that did not hide their identity from the
public. Between the first and second issue of their original comic book run, they went
from being completely unheard of to instantly recognizable, nationwide at least. Clearly,
they have a great PR guy, especially when you consider the first two issues. Take a
look at these covers. Notice anything a little bit off about them? The Fantastic Four aren't
wearing costumes. They're just dressed in normal clothing. This was very intentional,
and it has a really cool, kind of tricky reasoning behind it. But first, we need to understand
the state of the comic book industry at the time. In another video I did about the different
ages of comic books, I talked about how superhero comics after World War II had basically just
died out. Marvel scrapped all of their costume fighters in favor of Westerns and teen humor
and monster and sci-fi, all that stuff that's just not superheroes. But in 1961, Martin
Goodman, the then publisher of Marvel, saw how well DC was doing with their new line
of superhero comics, especially their team book called Justice League of America. He
called up Stan Lee and asked him to create a team of superheroes that could rival JL.
As legend goes, Stan Lee was just about to quit comic books entirely at this point when
his wife suggested that he give it one last go and write a story that he would actually
like to read. So, in July of that same year, Stan Lee sat down to write the first draft
of the Fantastic Four. This draft, which was reprinted in Fantastic Four #358, shows the
same team, essentially. It's just their powers are a little bit different. For example, Human
Torch could only flame on for exactly five minute intervals before having to take a rest
for another five minutes before he can flame on again. And it didn't happen on command,
but only when he got excited, which could make for some pretty dangerous scenarios.
BRUCE BANNER: I can't get too excited.
SCOTT: Mr. Fantastic experiences excruciating
pain every time he stretches, which prevents him from using it for more than just a quick
stunt. And probably worst of all, Invisible Girl was permanently invisible, with no way
to change back. In order to be seen, she'd have to wear a mask of her face over her actual
face, and there's no way that that would be anything less than unsettling. The Thing,
however, remains fundamentally the same, although the draft never really describes him as an
orange rock monster. In fact, the only thing the draft says about his appearance is that
he is, quote, "sort of shapeless." I guess the interpretation was left up to Jack Kirby.
Ultimately, changes were made and characters refined, but that doesn't really explain why
they aren't wearing costumes on the first two covers. Trust me, we're getting there.
Remember how I said that one of the main types of comic books Marvel produced at that time
were monster books? Here's an example of a cover from one of those monster books from
late 1961 when the Fantastic Four were about to make their debut. Now here's a cover from
a Justice League of America issue around the same time. And here's that cover from Fantastic
Four #1 again. As you can see, the cover was specifically designed to look like a monster
book instead of a superhero comic. You have people in ordinary clothes surrounding a giant
monster who has taken the real spotlight of the cover. But why would they do this? Why
hide the fact that it's a superhero comic? Well, maybe they thought that their audience
was much more used to monster books so they wanted to tap into that familiarity and optimize
sales in case the superhero genre was still toxic. It's more than likely, however, that
Marvel was just trying to hide the Fantastic Four superhero status from DC because, at
this point in time, without going into too much detail, Marvel comics were being distributed
by a company called Independent News, which was owned by DC Comics. You heard me right!
At this point in time, DC was distributing Marvel comics. For fear that DC would shut
down the Fantastic Four comic book seeing it as a rival to their own superhero comic,
Marvel could have chosen to disguise their covers as regular old monster books. Pretty
sneaky, sis. After putting out two comic books and no intervention by DC, Marvel decided
to make it blatantly obvious that the Fantastic Four were superheroes with issue #3 and the
debut of the team's costume. The original cover for issue #3 still showed the team's
new costumes but they were heavily obstructed or even invisible, and still had a monster
take center stage. But the new cover finally felt like the big premiere that the Fantastic
Four deserved. As I said earlier, at this point in the Fantastic Four's career, they
are basically known nationwide, both their superhero identities and their alter egos.
So, why even bother wearing a mask? Well, obviously, they didn't, but they almost did,
except Sue's mask of her own face. Let's just never talk about that again. In that same
issue of Fantastic Four #3, the original artwork shows the use of masks as a part of the team's
magic costumes. Even the Thing, for some reason, gets a big helmet to hide his identity. And
even the emblem on their chests was different. It was a double-F logo instead of the classic
number four. The emblem was changed, the masks were scrapped with the exception of the Thing's
helmet, which he wore for about two second before he decided that it, like shirts apparently,
are for the weak. Don't get me wrong. I love the inclusion of the costumes from the issue
forward, but there's always going to be something kind of special about those first two issues.
They weren't flashy superheroes but just regular people who got special powers and are trying
to do good the best they can. And yeah, sometimes that means fighting monsters in a dress or
full suit or sweater or even just pants, but that, to me, kind of adds a new level of coolness
or something. I don't know. I'll leave that up to you guys. We talked about a lot of stuff
today, guys, but I want to know your opinion on it. Would you have liked to see Stan Lee's
original draft of the Fantastic Four come to fruition? And do you prefer your superheroes
with or without flashy costumes? Or if you just want to keep it on the lighter side,
tell me who your favorite member and/or what your favorite moment is of the Fantastic Four.
Let's chat about it all in the comments. One last quick announcement before we leave, guys.
We recently started a Patreon page where you can become a Patron of NerdSync and support
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Once more, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram, and we'll see you right here next
week for more things that you thought you knew about comics. See ya!
So, yes, this all goes back to Amazing Spider-Man #1, the very first issue, when Spider-Man is written a
check as payment for his showbiz work. Fun fact if you didn't know, I think we all remember
Spider-Man's wrestling days, but he also got a job showcasing his powers on television
before he hit his stride with the Daily Bugle. Anyways, he goes to cash a check at a bank
as Spider-Man but he can't because he has no form of identification as Spider-Man. As
the bank teller points out, anyone can dress up as Spider-Man, but you need a valid form
of ID to cash the check.