Fantastic Four in 1964

Mole Man is a lesser villain — there, I said it. And he gets two appearances as the feature villain in 1964.

The Attuma vs. Namor war was a very cool way to end the year, though. Credit to Lee and Kirby here: Namor’s characterization just utterly breaks the boundaries of villainy and heroism here. He’s not even really a pure anti-hero — Namor simply has his own politically nebulous aims that transcend the series itself, acting as a tangential character that the Four only occasionally happen to cross themselves up with. 

It’s all very intellectually mature for what is effectively a kid’s comic series. One day, I’m going to have to go and actually read the 42ish issues of the golden age Sub-Mariner.

The second annual, the origin of Dr. Doom, is also substantially more complex than something one would find in this era. The revenge tale softens his villainy, creating a third dimension foe. The background of Victor von Doom, Reed Richards, and Ben Grimm being college acquaintances (and that Richards attempted to warn Doom away from his eventual disfiguring science experiment) is also an interesting  revelation.

But taking everything together? It was a perfectly suitable and entertaining year; just nothing transcendent YET. That should arrive soon.

Issues: Fantastic Four volume 1 022-033, annual 002

Rating: 7