Review of
Fantastic Four (1961) #1
Published:
November 1961
Reviewer Rating:
Avg User Rating:
(3.67)
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 essential building block of an entire half-century spanning mythos... and then there's FF #1, the actual *comic story*, itself.
And said "actual comic, itself" is -- quite frankly -- simply not all that *good*, really; certainly not in comparison to what Marvel's closest rival, DC Comics, was publishing at that exact same point in time (Gil Kane-era GREEN LANTERN, Infantino FLASH, Kubert HAWKMAN, etc., etc.). Kirby's artwork, here, isn't even on a par with the stuff he'd done only a year or two earlier, in CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN; and Stan Lee's story is little more than just another one of those interchangeable "giant monster" yarns he'd been monotonously churning out for the better part of a decade by this point, padded out to full-issue length.
I ultimately split the difference and awarded it three stars -- midpoint between Great and Awful -- solely due to its aforementioned (and inarguable) place in comics lore and legend. Not so much an actual comic, all these years later, as it is a historical artifact.
And said "actual comic, itself" is -- quite frankly -- simply not all that *good*, really; certainly not in comparison to what Marvel's closest rival, DC Comics, was publishing at that exact same point in time (Gil Kane-era GREEN LANTERN, Infantino FLASH, Kubert HAWKMAN, etc., etc.). Kirby's artwork, here, isn't even on a par with the stuff he'd done only a year or two earlier, in CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN; and Stan Lee's story is little more than just another one of those interchangeable "giant monster" yarns he'd been monotonously churning out for the better part of a decade by this point, padded out to full-issue length.
I ultimately split the difference and awarded it three stars -- midpoint between Great and Awful -- solely due to its aforementioned (and inarguable) place in comics lore and legend. Not so much an actual comic, all these years later, as it is a historical artifact.
