Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four.

The Fantastic Four are a team of superheroes originating from the Marvel Universe.

History

During the space race, Reed Richards and his fiancé, Susan Storm, along with her brother, Johnny, and their friend, Ben Grimm, stole an experimental shuttle and blasted off into space. On their ill-fated trip, they were bombarded with cosmic rays and crashed back on Earth. The cosmic rays gifted each of them with super powers; and they vowed to use their new powers for the betterment of the world. Since then, they have become a team of world renown superheroes and explorers coming face to face with cosmic threats and battling some of the world's greatest villains, especially their archenemy: Dr. Doom.

Members

• Mister Fantastic - Leader
• Invisible Woman
• The Thing
• Human Torch

Production Background

The Fantastic Four #1 by Jack Kirby

The Fantastic Four were created in 1961, a creative collaboration of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. According to Lee, writing in 1974, "Martin Goodman mentioned that he had noticed one of the titles published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes. ... 'If the Justice League is selling', spoke he, 'why don't we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes?'"

Lee, who had served as editor-in-chief and art director of Marvel Comics and its predecessor companies, Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, for two decades, found that the medium had become creatively restrictive. Determined "to carve a real career for myself in the nowhere world of comic books", Lee concluded that, "For just this once, I would do the type of story I myself would enjoy reading ... And the characters would be the kind of characters I could personally relate to: They'd be flesh and blood, they'd have their faults and foibles, they'd be fallible and feisty, and — most important of all — inside their colorful, costumed booties they'd still have feet of clay."

Lee provided one of his earliest recorded comments on the creation of the Fantastic Four for a fanzine in 1968, during which time penciller Jack Kirby was also working at Marvel. (Kirby is interviewed separately in the same publication.) When asked who conceived the team, he or Kirby, Lee responded "Both ' 'twas mainly my idea, but Jack created characters visually". In the 1974 book Origins of Marvel Comics Lee described the creative process in more detail, stating that he developed the basic characters as well as a story synopsis for Jack Kirby to follow in the first issue. Lee noted the involvement of both Kirby and Publisher Martin Goodman prior to preparing his synopsis: "After kicking it around with Martin and Jack for a while I decided to call our quaint quartet the Fantastic Four. I wrote a detailed first synopsis for Jack to follow and the rest is history." 18  Kirby turned in his penciled art pages to Lee, who added dialogue and captions. This approach to creating comics, which became known as the "Marvel Method", worked so well that Lee and Kirby used it from then on, and the Marvel Method became standard for the company within a year.

Fantastic Four #247 by John Byrne.

Kirby recalled events somewhat differently. In a 1970 Fanzine interview he confirmed Lee's involvement in the creation of the Fantastic Four but took credit for the main characters and ideas, stating "It was my idea. It was my idea to do it the way it was; my idea to develop it the way it was. I'm not saying Stan had nothing to do with it. Of course he did. We talked things out." Years later, when specifically challenged with Lee's version of events in a 1990 interview, Kirby responded: "I would say that's an outright lie", although the interviewer, Gary Groth, notes that this statement needs to be viewed with caution. Kirby claims he came up with the idea for the Fantastic Four in Marvel's offices, and that Lee merely added the dialogue after the story was pencilled.  Kirby also sought to establish, more credibly and on numerous occasions, that the visual elements of the strip were his conceptions. He regularly pointed to a team he created for rival publisher DC Comics in the 1950s, the Challengers of the Unknown. "If you notice the uniforms, they're the same ... I always give them a skintight uniform with a belt ... the Challengers and the FF have a minimum of decoration. And of course, the Thing's skin is a kind of decoration, breaking up the monotony of the blue uniform."  It is important to note, however, that the Fantastic Four wore civilian garb instead of uniforms, which were only introduced (along with the Baxter Building Headquarters) in the third issue of the series following readership feedback. The original submitted design was also modified to include the iconic chest insignia of a "4" within a circle that was designed by Lee.

Given the conflicting statements, outside commentators have found it hard to ascertain who created the Fantastic Four. A typed synopsis by Lee for the introductory segment of the first Fantastic Four issue exists and outlines the characters and their origins, with various minor differences to the published version. However Earl Wells, writing in The Comics Journal, points out that its existence does not assert its place in the creation: "We have no way of knowing of whether Lee wrote the synopsis after a discussion with Kirby in which Kirby supplied most of the ideas".