In my spare reading time, I've been picking up the 500 page black and white editions of Marvel Essentials and DC Showcase Presents. I am currently reading the first volumes of The Fantastic Four and Enemy Ace. I had been meaning to write some reactions to individual issues but hadn't felt enough motivation to do it until I read Fantastic Four #9. To me, this issue was so totally representative of what Marvel was in the early 1960s and why the DC comics of the same period sucked so bad.
The issue starts with the possibility of the Fantastic Four breaking up. Why? Because they are BANKRUPT! Yes, that's right, it appears that Mr. Fantastic made some bad stock market investments and now everything they own is going to have to be sold to pay their creditors! They are even going to sell the Baxter Building (actually it hasn't been given a name yet). I had been wondering how they had been bringing in money for a while now. I guess Reed was making oodles from the sale of his inventions.
What's even funnier is that at one point Reed is seen holding a comic book and waxing poetic about how the super heroes in the book never worry about money and lead carefree lives. I can only suspect that it was a dig at DC Comics. When did Superman ever have to worry about money?
Help arrives in the form of a call from a Hollywood director who wants the FF to star in a movie. They agree to do it since they are offered $1 million dollars for the job! Imagine their surprise when the find out the director is the Sub-Mariner! Of course he's using the whole thing in order to find a way to beat the shit out of the entire team....well, except Sue, who he wants to be his queen and paramour, to breed a new super race. Believe it or not, Sue actually has quite a crush on Namor at this point, and even contemplates marrying him. The slut! Two timing Reed like that! Actually, even the Thing has some romantic aspirations towards Sue that have toned down a bit since the first issues of the series.
Sue even kept a glossy 8x10 of the Sub-Mariner hidden in her bookcase.
Two things that make for some complications in these early issues are that the Human Torch can't seem to stay aflame for more than a few minutes before his fire burns out, and the Thing sporadically transforms back to his human form at the most inopportune times.
Reading these early issues, it's amazing how central the Sub-Mariner and Dr. Doom are as villains.
What I love about these early Marvel collections that I've been reading is that even though they can be as goofy as DC comics from the same period, they always seem to be rooted in reality. At one point in this issue, the FF are so broke that they have to HITCHHIKE to get to Hollywood. I can't even remember an issue from early 60's DC where a character underwent ANY hardships that didn't have to deal with super-villains.
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