LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE_008

Fantastic Four #51: This Man... This Monster! Told completely from start to finish in a single issue and following the groundbreaking introduction of Galactus and the Silver Surfer in the pages of The Fantastic Four, this story commands attention. Kirby, Sinnott, Lee, Marvel Comics.

Doug on the left and Rick on the right wearing bootleg comic Tshirts, back when we both had a hairline. A little photoshop magic finds Ben Grimm in the pouring rain and Godzilla blasting Batragon. Test shirts by Rick.

"Stan and Jack had stumbled onto something"

Comics are always changing and the swarms of creative ants that scurry non-stop constructing characters and universes out of dirt piles each do it for their own reasons. There is no 100-year plan of development. Creators are responding to situations on the ground, in real-time. Both Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had long careers in comics before they struck gold with early Marvel stories that featured people with superhuman powers and abilities who also had problems like their readers did. Stan and Jack had latched onto something that hit the tuning fork just right with the public. It didn't matter what their relationship to each other was like.

Ultimately, they both poured their time, effort, and energy into pursuing the idea that comics could be more than they were. They both loved telling stories. Both felt that comics could speak to real issues, feelings, and connect with readers on a deeper level than had been the norm in the business. Both of them basically played in different garage bands until one day, when they teamed up, they began producing hit after hit after hit.

Kirby in particular was always known as an innovator in comics. He co-created Captain America with Joe Simon when the medium was brand new, produced war, romance, supernatural, western, and monster comics with fantastic success. Readers responded to his larger-than-life depictions of creatures and his dynamic action sequences. Kirby was endlessly creating new characters and concepts and, with help from the extraordinary talented Steve Ditko (Spider-Man, Doctor Strange) and a legion talented creators, put an ailing Marvel permanently on the cultural map. Over time, the contribution that Stan made has been given a much needed look. Jack had always been a pioneer in the field, blazing trails and testing out new storytelling methods. 

Do I miss those rough, early songs from that band? Yes. I feel like today there have been crops of writers and artists in comics who don't believe that "comics can be more" but that comics should be movies or book contracts or "launching pads" for something else instead of a stand-alone medium. Jack, Joe Sinnott, and Stan remind us with their signature body of work on the Fantastic Four, that capturing lightning in a bottle is really about sharing that lightning with others. Sharing the love of making comics and telling stories.

Reprint cover for This Man, This Monster. Marvel's Greatest Comics. My first introduction to the Fantastic Four. Unlike Reed in the Negative Zone, I was hooked.

I picked up this Fantastic Four story as a beat-up copy of Marvel's Greatest Comics #38. I had saved up paper route money and bought a grocery bag stuffed to overflowing with comics from a pal named Jimmy Joe. It was the mid-70s and I was in the single digits of age, just discovering the secret joy of reading and buying my own comics. As a kid, there was a weird alchemy to reading those stories, holding them in my hands, and buying them with my own money. This was probably the first thing I had ever purchased, and it was reading materials! I paid ten bucks for about a hundred comics. Iron Man. Avengers. Hulk. Spider-Man. Thor. And Fantastic Four. All were well read before I got to them, and all would get poured over continuously. I am pretty sure that my mom did not want them in the house and that my dad argued for me to keep them. He had been a collector during the early years of comics and came home one day to find his stacks in a burn barrel. My dad vowed to never do that to his kids.

I remember that cover vividly - Reed is in The Negative Zone and his cable has snapped. With the story, This Man, This Monster! Stan and Jack let the reader in on the secret right in the beginning. As the story unfolds, we get insight into the Fantastic Four, Sue, Ben, Johnny, and Reed by eavesdropping on the conversations and interactions of the Thing's doppelganger. The subtext is powerful. Things are not what they seem. The story starts as a revenge tale and twists neatly into a study in trust and redemption - all while cementing the Thing as the true outcast of the group. It is decidedly tragic. Even as a kid, I dreamed of being The Thing. 

Kirby's breathtaking storytelling combined with Joe Sinnott inks, masterfully conveying the humanity of the characters and the predicament of their situation. When gaining powers from cosmic rays during a failed exploration of space, each of the Fantastic Four could hide behind normal-looking faces and bodies except for Ben Grimm. The Thing is stuck forever looking like a monster. We get an examination of what a tortured existence an outsider has in life. Lee provides dialogue and editorial asides that cement the reader to the page. Coming hot on the heels of the introduction of the Silver Surfer and Galactus, this tale is complete in one issue (FF#51) and unmasks the real heart and soul of the Marvel superhero family/team with emotional gravity.

This Man... This Monster! is an undeniable classic and definitely a comicbook story that made me love comics. I would reread it many times over the years and I find myself rooting for the bad guy at the end, who has a change of heart and makes the ultimate sacrifice for Reed. Recommended reading.

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