#11,525: Fantastic Four (1961) #1
"The Fantastic Four"
Title: Fantastic Four (v001)
Editor-in-Chief:
Archie Goodwin
Writer:
Stan Lee
Artist:
Jack Kirby
Inker:
George Klein
Colorist:
Stan Goldberg
Letterer:
Artie Simek
Cover Date: November 1961
Release Date: August 1961
Pages: 25
Cover Price: $0.10
Times Read: 7,335
Times Rated: 3,334
Plot Flags:
Universe:
Earth-616
![Tales of Suspense (1959) #34 [A Story]](/images/sites/cmro/covers/tales_of_suspense/v1/034a.jpg)
![Tales of Suspense (1959) #37 [A Story]](/images/sites/cmro/covers/tales_of_suspense/v1/037a.jpg)
![Rawhide Kid (1955) #25 [A Story]](/images/sites/cmro/covers/rawhide_kid/v1/025a.jpg)
![Rawhide Kid (1955) #25 [C Story]](/images/sites/cmro/covers/rawhide_kid/v1/025c.jpg)
Issue Blurb
The Fantastic Four is introduced to the world and their origin is revealed. They must battle the Mole Man and stop his plans for vengeance.
Issue Notes
This issue is considered by most to be the start of the Silver Age of comics, and where the reading order starts.
Additionally, this story is split into 3 chapters.
1)The Fantastic Four
2)The Fantastic Four Meet the Mole Man
3)The Mole Man's Secret
Why Essential Notes
Besides it being the intro for the Fantastic Four this issue is also considered the beginning of the Marvel silver age. Really one of the most essential issues you could read.
Additionally, this story is split into 3 chapters.
1)The Fantastic Four
2)The Fantastic Four Meet the Mole Man
3)The Mole Man's Secret
Why Essential Notes
Besides it being the intro for the Fantastic Four this issue is also considered the beginning of the Marvel silver age. Really one of the most essential issues you could read.
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Aruin
Feb 12, 2026
It was pretty good since I didnt know what I was expecting, I liked the campiness of the mole-man and the potential for his eventual return that was delivered. As a villain Id say 4/5.
I also liked that this issue gave a full rundown of their powers and their multiple uses without relying solely...
Andrei_V
Nov 3, 2025
And here my adventure begins!!
I want to say that I had never read comics of any kind before and that because of my mania I have decided to start from the beginning of the Marvel universe. I expect too much from this path that I will follow.
Now, speaking about the comic, well, it seems like a...
Lomen
Jul 12, 2025
This is where it all beginsnot with grace or subtlety, but with a giant flare blazing across the sky, people shouting their lines like they're late to their own comic, and a hero literally melting a military jet over Manhattan.
Reed Richards, aka Mr. Science Over Everything, wants to beat the...
jonjarocki508
Apr 2, 2025
Theres a certain frantic charm to this issue, its like watching someone invent a genre while sprinting. Everyone talks in declarative sentences, the origin story is handled in a single breathless flashback, and then bam: Mole Man and his kaiju show up to make sure the book technically qualifies as...
Ratio Tile
Feb 15, 2025
Warning: do not approach with a modern mindset.
In our post-modern world where every superhero trope has already been twisted, dismantled, dissected, and rebuilt, the first Fantastic Four issue will look like a very naive story. But it's a story from a different time and aimed at different...
jonrock41191
Sep 3, 2023
Fantastic Four Volume 1, Issue 1, is perhaps a work that might deserve a high rating simply by nature of its importance to the comic landscape, being the start of the world of Merry Marvel as we now know it. Whilst I'm not the kind of person to give something importance simply by nature of its...
AirSabe
Sep 10, 2021
This first issue of the Fantastic Four has so much fun playing around with their powers as they mystify and bewilder the general population. This issue feels packed with plot. You get the humorous introduction, the team's origin story and a fun adventure to fight the Mole Man at the center of the...
jejarocki
Aug 17, 2021
A solid start to both the Fantastic Four and the modern Marvel Universe in general. While the writing can be a bit hokey and simplistic, it does serve to give us a good introduction to our characters and their personalities, while the artwork really shines, especially when they get their powers,...
ShanyetEast
Jan 14, 2021
This is definitely one of the most iconic and important comic books ever published by Marvel Comics, being the start of the entire Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, when it comes to the quality of the issue itself it really is not very good at all.
While the origin story of the Fantastic Four is...
DJ_AK
May 4, 2020
This is iconic, this is fun, this is interesting, this is a must-read. However, it's just not a great book.
I would have cut a lot out, and focused on the origin as quickly and as much as possible. Susan calling Ben a coward could potentially be a very emotionally powerful inciting moment if you...
Psikonetic_2.0
Aug 21, 2019
So, let's do this!
The Marvel Universe as we know it begins here. That makes this an interesting comic to review. One, you can't understate it's importance as it launched the Marvel Universe as we know it. Two, you have to read it with your Silver Age glasses firmly in place.
The tropes we read...
EndGame1985
Jun 12, 2019
I've never read a Marvel comic in my life. I've seen all the movies and love those. I just tore my Achilles and am laid up at the house for the next 6-8 weeks, so I decided to get a subscription to Marvel Unlimited after a friend mentioned this website. So here we go!
As I have no baseline to go...
MarvelHistory
Sep 20, 2018
Always a very fun read, Fantastic Four #1 will always be one of my all time favorites. I'm a sucker for all of the "why do they always have to build these doorways so narrow" kind of stuff. The introduction to the order starts out with a bang. +1 for all of the character introduction. ...
FrankComics
Jan 15, 2018
In its simplicity and banality, this story contains all the beauty of the Silver Age comics.
The origins of the Fantastic Four is not just the story of how the group of superheroes, later become legend, has obtained its powers, but are also the origins of the legendary Marvel Universe, in which...
beerzerked
Oct 17, 2017
Hard to believe this is where it all started. This was Kirby, Lee, and lightning in a bottle. All thanks to Joan Lee encouraging Stan to go out on his own terms by writing a comic he would be proud of. The rest, as they say, is history.
RikerDonegal
Aug 7, 2017
What would be an average story is ruined somewhat by a forced dilemma.
The action comes from a hijacked plane, and an assassination attempt. But the real story is about an ordinary man having a heart attack, and his wife blaming the Vision.
But instead of coming across as a real dilemma, it just...
noahsell
Jun 12, 2017
This issue is a classic and a must read for anyone who calls themselves a comic book fan. Despite the Stan Lee campiness and the 60s tropes this issue still holds up today. Jack the Kings art is not to go unnoticed for it is splendid and engaging.
kent18
Nov 11, 2016
It's almost impossible to review something like this -- the very first chapter of what we now know as "The Marvel Universe," for pity's sake -- in anything like a cogent or rational manner, ultimately. There's the comic in question (FANTASTIC FOUR #1) as a cultural artifact, and...
JimboJangles
Mar 28, 2016
The Thinker isn't much of a villain, and there isn't much of a plot, but the Thing makes it all better when he says to Reed "Bah! You talked so much that I got over my anger!"
Seriously, that's pretty much the one redeeming thing (hah!) In this drab comic. Uninspired settings, a villain...
quartertwain
Jul 14, 2015
Nuclear missles fired over cities by The National Guard... A world run by nuclear power... Gargoyles and Giant Lizard Men and Stone Men and a Moleman... Tunnels running through the earth's core...Space rockets that can land on Earth via autopilot... Kind of makes the Fantastic Four seem tame by...
mushroommunk
Sep 26, 2014
There are a few reviews for this issue already, I'm going to try and bring two new aspects however. I'm completely new to comic books. That's right. I can literally count the number of comics I may have read on one hand...unless you count Calvin and Hobbes. The second aspect, is I want to try and...
bastos
Feb 13, 2014
I've heard it a ton of times, but not really read it until now. First, I have to get over the reality disconnect. Of course, a book that details the theft and flight of a rocket into space can't be all good. Getting over my perspective disconnect is tough. It's hard to look at the book from...
TitansGirl196
Jan 2, 2014
It was a pretty descent issue
karlruben
Dec 2, 2013
Even though any fan of the Fantastic Four knows the story inside and out, there's still a lot of pleasure to be had revisiting their first appearance, at the dawn of the Marvel Age. Like most of the company's central creation myths, this is a story we've seen retold and refined again and again over...
leisch
Jul 3, 2013
Four adventurers hijack a rocket to head into space and find themselves bombarded by cosmic rays. Gifted with strange powers they have no second thoughts about using their new abilities to help humanity. Their 1st adventure brings them into the underground realm of the Mole Man who wants revenge...
Phantasmagoria
Oct 27, 2012
Ah, Fantastic Four vol. 1 #1, the beginning of The Marvel Age of Comics, and my beginning in my reading of the Marvel Reading Order. To preface, I have developed a certain fondness for The Fantastic Four despite my limited experience with the group, so I am definitely excited to see how they...
TStarnes
Oct 6, 2012
Here we go, the first issue in the modern Marvel continuity and the first in the reading order. I think I should start with a warning that I am not a big fan of early silver age stuff. These comics were all geared at a pre-teen audiance, and it shows. This is before the writting in an issue was...
