Sic Semper Tyrannis!!

Because some mornings...

...you need to see Steve Rude draw the living hell out of Reed taking down a Galactus-sized Doctor Doom while yelling "Sic Semper Tyrannis!"

You're welcome.

Also, Rude drawing giant Doom taking on Fin Fang Foom, It The Living Colossus, and others...

From the same issue, Jorge Lucas giving us more Fin-on-Doom action!

From Fantastic Four:World's Greatest Comic Magazine #12 (2002)

The Solution To NYC's Subway Crisis?

So, the Hate-Monger [SPOILER ALERT: He's Hitler!!] has to haul ass from New York City to the totally-not-made-up South American republic of San Gusto.

You or I, we might book a flight, hire a plane. But Hate-Monger doesn't do anything small scale!

Now, I've gotta be honest--even as a wee tyke reading a reprint of this story, that bit didn't make a lick sense to me.

Sure, you can call it "reverse rocket thrust" all you want, but that doesn't make it so. And if your rocket is blasting south to dig the tunnel, it must be simultaneously be pushing the rocket itself backwards, or north, at the same time. And even if you somehow held the rocket in place while you were boring, you'd have to bore-stop-move-bore-stop-move ad infinitum for what would have to take weeks, if not months. (And I did paste all of the panels here--there is no indication of any mechanism for forward propulsion.)

Plus, if you had "suspected as much," Hate-Monger, maybe you should have the tunnel pre-dug?

Throw in the one-hour disembarkation time, and you and your thugs would have been better off hijacking a plane, or even walking down there.

Still this does mean that, under part of Manhattan at least, there's a sizable tunnel just waiting to be used--no need to wait for Elon Musk to do it for you!

From Fantastic Four #21 (1963)

Fantastic Fill-In #5--Reed Vs. Namor

To conclude our week of filling in for the delayed Fantastic Four #3 with material from Fantastic Four Annusl #1 (one of the greatest comics ever published!), how about some Reed versus Namor action?

Namor tried to conquer the surface world, and in fact even successfully invaded New York. But Reed come up with an invention that prevented the Atlantean forces from being able to breathe out of the water (except for Subby, natch--hybrid mutant and all that).

But the effort exhausted Reed, and he's convalescing in bed when Namor comes looking for revenge...

Heh. Namor calling out others for "arrogant self-confidence and conceit." Heh.

Later, over the sea...

BAM!!

Man, nothing is better than Reed vs. Namor!

Fantastic Fill-In #4--Pin-Ups!

Continuing our week-long attempt to fill the Marvel-mandated FF gap in your lives by presenting material from Fantastic Four Annual #1 (1963), one of the bestest comics ever published.

Today...pin-ups!!

Quite a rogues gallery, eh? Yet the Fox movies always have to run straight for the Doom or the Galactus...you're telling me you couldn't make a great movie with Red Ghost and the Super-Apes? Or Puppet Master? Come on now, guys...

Fantastic Fill-In #3--The World's First Director's Cut?!?

Continuing our attempt to generate Fantastic Four content for the two-month gap between Fantastic Four #2 & #3 by spotlighting Fantastic Four Annual #1 (1963).

We all remember the time Spider-Man tried to join the Fantastic Four, right?? Back in Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963)? By Stan and Steve?? I went a little something like this...

So what does this have to do with the Fantastic Four annual mentioned above?

This:

Whether you believe the "countless requests" or not, Marvel gave us the expanded, director's cut version of that meeting--over twice as long!! Because back then, annuals were special and filled special things, not just forgettable fifth-week fillers.

This time, by Stan, Jack...and inked by Steve!!

More to come...

Fantastic Fill-In #1--Bonus Features!

Look, Marvel crapped the bed here.

After depriving us of the Fantastic Four for 3 long years, they finally launched a new series.

And they can't even get 3 consecutive issues out on time. THREE!!

This week was supposed to see the release of Fantastic Four #3, but no, for unstated reasons, it has been delayed a month.

When you can't get 3 consecutive issues out on a monthly basis, well, you need some help. How can this happen?!?!?!

[Aside: When Jack Kirby went to DC in 1970, his contract called for him to do a minimum of 15 pages per week. Yes, that's writing and drawing. Now, apparently, 15 pages per month is too much for too many modern artists. Artists--you're no Jack Kirby--get over yourselves and draw faster! Editors--it isn't that hard to figure out--if you've got a slowpoke artist, waste less time drawing up with variant covers and put those people to work drawing your damn comics!

Of course, now it will turn out that the issue was delayed by illness or personal emergency. So, I'm an idiot. Just ignore me.]

So, I find myself forced to fill the dead FF space in our lives by upping the FF content around here. Today and throughout the week, I'll be focusing on content from the glorious Fantastic Four Annual #1 (1963)--one of the greatest comics ever published.

First up--let's answer some fan questions!!

This is at least the third time we've gotten a cutaway schematic of the Baxter Building, but this is the most detailed:

I ask again: is the "giant map room" a room for giant maps, or a giant room full of maps?

I also like that the photo analysis lab is apparently bigger than the biological research lab and the techincal research lab and machine shops COMBINED.

More to come...

Galactus Hungers...For Cash!!

Apparently, being a word-devouring cosmic entity is better than you'd expect for merchandising:

Take that, C'Thulu!!

And just who on Earth gets the benefit of all this Galactus money?

Well, if you believe Henry Peter Gyrich, it's...

...the Fantastic Four!

Silly, but it's entirely worth it to see Ben rolling around like Uncle Scrooge in his money bin...

From The Marvels Channel: Monsters, Myths and Marvels #3 (2008)