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Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Issue #56 picks up on a lot of subplots left dangling in previous issues, including a new look for a noisy villain.

We begin with some sitcom-ish yuks, in which Sue is cooking a roast (not a euphemism) and can’t find Reed anywhere. The only place she hasn’t looked is the “Space-Time Room” in Reed’s lab. The door is locked, so Sue uses the “Space-Time Research Visi-Phone” to look on the other side. Ben is in there, and her warns her, “It’s almost H-hour!”

Inside, if I’m reading this right, Reed has opened a temporal field in the hopes of making subspace travel possible. Basically, he’s opened this doorway into some other world where weird-looking monsters are flying. Reed theorizes that travel through subspace could free the Inhumans, whose city is still trapped under an impenetrable dome. (This subspace business is what will later be known as the “Negative Zone,” except in this issue that phrase is used to describe the Inhumans’ dome.)

Reed continues to tinker, only to have the lab explode in a sonic boom. After that, they’re sealing behind a wall of solid sound. That’s when Klaw, master of sound, emerges seemingly out of nowhere. The last time we saw Klaw, in issue #53, He was an ordinary human, except for the metal hand, who used sound-based tech as weapons. He disappeared into his own sound converter as it was destroyed. Now, he’s back, in a much different, less human form. He wants the same thing he wanted last time – to go back to Wakanda and steal the Black Panther’s precious vibranium metal (also not a euphemism).

Then we cut to the Inhumans, to resolve their cliffhanger from issue #54. Black Bolt tried to use a powerful absorba-bomb to escape the dome, but he failed, and merely knocked himself unconscious. Maximus is out of his cell and hanging around, bragging that he knows the way out of the dome, since he invented it, but the others can’t have the solution because he’s gone crazy! Medusa gives in to despair, fearing the Inhumans will never escape.

At the Baxter Building, Klaw attacks Sue, and then exposits how the sound converter didn’t kill him, but gave him a new body made entirely of solid sound. “I have become the most powerful being on Earth!” he says. (Oh, how I wish the Hulk or Thor would’ve randomly walked through the door as he said that.) Sue grabs Reed’s neuro-stun-gun (still not a euphemism) and fires it, Meanwhile, Reed and Ben are having trouble escaping, with the walls sealed by pure sound. Reed just happens to have a “counter-sonic harness” lying around, which he attaches to Ben. With the harness, Ben is able to escape, leaving Reed behind.

Sue tries to escape Klaw by turning invisible, but makes it so her footsteps are incredibly loud, giving away her position. Ben shows up and attacks Klaw. Thanks to Reed’s invention, Ben can fight back against Klaw’s most powerful sonic blasts – so powerful they cause a blackout throughout New York City.

We cut from there to the Himalayas, picking up a subplot from the previous issue, where Johnny and his musclebound Native American friend Wyatt Wingfoot have reunited with Lockjaw, the Inhumans’ giant teleporting dog. Wyatt theorizes that Lockjaw was kept out of the dome intentionally, to keep humans from finding it. He then believes that if he and Johnny befriend the big dog, it’ll be just as loyal to them as it is to the Inhumans. So… super dog training.

Back to the action. Ben is dazed after Klaw’s attack. Klaw then lets Reed out of the lab so he and Sue can reunite. It looks like Klaw has the advantage, but then a “packet missile” flies through the window. Inside are two vibranium bands. Turns out that while Ben and Sue fought Klaw, Reed sent a message to Wakanda, and Black Panther responded by sending this super-fast missile around the globe in seconds. Reed wears the vibranium bands like a pair of brass knuckles, beating the crap out of Klaw.

Reed then puts the Black Panther on a speaker phone, thanking him for the last-minute save. Reed says the police will be able to keep Klaw held in a vibranium cell (I’m sure that’ll go well). Then, the issue ends on an ominous note, somewhere far away, where a mysterious figure is spying on the Silver Surfer…

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Here’s yet another example of Reed saving the day with super-science, but only after his super-science got the team in trouble in the first place.

Fade out: Sue is on the defensive the whole time, not much of a match for Klaw. Even as she’s defeated, though, she still refuses to give in to his demands.

Clobberin’ time: Early on, Reed briefly mentions that he’s still working on a way to turn Ben back into a human, only to have Ben say, “I’m beginning to feel like my normal loveable self.” We’re definitely in the era where Ben has accepted his fate and is even enjoying being a monster.

Flame on: Johnny takes the first step toward domesticating Lockjaw by heating up some strange local plantlife for the big dog to eat.

Trivia time: While not anyone’s favorite villain, this version of Klaw will go on to have a lengthy history in the Marvel universe, visiting Project Pegasus, the Nexus of All Realities, and even being a major part of the first Secret War. According to the Marvel Wiki, his first name is “Ulysses,” and he was born and raised in the Netherlands.

Fantastic or frightful? One of my favorite aspects of the Fantastic Four is mystique of Reed’s lab. Up there in that skyscraper, there’s this wondrous lab full of cosmic scientific wonders. So, it’s a real delight to have an entire issue take place inside just the lab. Klaw is not that interesting of a baddie, and it’s tough to depict sound in a visual medium, but this one’s nonetheless a lot of fun.

Next week: Too many torches!

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We’ve reached a big one with #55, one of my all-time favorite issues. Hopefully, I can make a good case for it.

The issue begins at the Baxter Building, where Reed and Sue have returned from their honeymoon, happy to report that nothing dangerous or weird happened while they were away. (That’s very superhero-ish. You’d think they’d run into some kind of supervillain or mystery while honeymooning, but no.)

Ben, who was apparently with Reed and Sue the whole time (!) is anxious to see Alicia again. Remember, the last time we saw them together was at the end of the Galactus trilogy, when he mistook her for romancing the spacey Silver Surfer. He actually left her in that story, but now I guess he’s forgiven her because he can’t wait to see her again. When Ben can’t get Alicia on the phone, he worries she’s found a new beau, someone who’s not a giant rock monster. Reed and Sue tell him not to worry about it. Sue suggests Ben visit her in person, so he takes off on the FF’s jetcycle.

Elsewhere, a couple of mountain climbers are scaling one of the world’s most inaccessible peaks, only to find the Silver Surfer already standing there. He’s still exiled on Earth, and sees this planet as his prison. Still, he’s willing to accept this as his destiny. With that in mind, he too decides to pay a visit to Alicia, the one human who has shown him kindness. See if you can guess where this is going.

We finally catch up with Alicia, who’s left her Manhattan apartment and is now staying at a beach house on the Atlantic coast. (How much do sculptors make, anyhow?) The Silver waxes philosophic about how she’s the only good thing she’s seen since he’s been on Earth. Earth, he says, could be a paradise, except for all the humans’ greed and corruption.

While the Surfer has his “poor me” moment, Ben arrives. He enters the house and encounters a woman named Mrs. Binns. They’ve apparently met before, as he already knows her. He hears a man’ s voice coming from Alicia’s room (how does he know it’s her room?) and he heads up the stairs, his temper growing with each step. He finds the Surfer talking to Alicia, and he promptly flips out, punching the surfer through the wall and outside the house.

Time for fighting and lots of it. Ben is outraged, full of jealous fury, demanding that the Surfer fight him. The Surfer does fight back, but he elucidates the whole time about how Earthlings are all violent and warlike. As the two exchange blows, Ben realizes he’s pulling his punches even though he’s trying to force himself to hate the Surfer. The Surfer lets atomic energy build up inside his body, turning into a walking a-bomb. Ben knows this is trouble, and back on the jetcycle, hoping to lure the Surfer away from a populated area before any bystanders – including Alicia – are harmed.

In the abandoned warehouse district (convenient!) Ben and the Surfer battle it out some more, punching each other through more walls. Ben gets his hands on the Surfer’s surfboard, but he can’t break it in two. Ben then makes like the Hulk, smashing up the entire building, bringing the whole thing down on the Surfer. He’s about to cause even more destruction, but Reed and Sue arrive, stopping him. Alicia called them and asked for help. Reed relays a message from Alicia, saying Ben is the one she really likes. The Surfer, an alien, means nothing to her. The Surfer frees himself from the rubble, and Reed makes Ben apologize. Before flying off, the Surfer uses his powers to repair Ben’s jetcycle. He then creates some silver flowers out of nowhere for Ben to give to Alicia, so Ben can apologize to her as well.

Unstable molecule: Reed breaks up the fight by getting Ben to listen to reason. Early in the issue, he uses his stretching powers to carry in the luggage from the honeymoon, in the closest thing this issue has for the excuse-for-the-characters-to-show-off-their-powers-in-the-first-few-pages gag.

Fade out: Sue describes Ben as “obdurate.” I looked it up. It means resistant to the influence of others, stubborn, or unmoved by pity. Sure, why not? (Ben, hilariously, responds to Sue’s declaration of “obdurate” with, “My religion’s got nothing to do with it!”)

Clobberin’ time: While the Silver Surfer is set up as one of the most powerful Marvel characters, Ben nonetheless puts up a good fight. The Surfer describes Ben’s initial attack as “savage, unthinking brute force,” and Ben twice succeeds in separating the Surfer from his cosmic surfboard.

Flame on: While all this is going on, there’s a three-page subplot with Johnny and his musclebound Native American friend Wyatt Wingfoot. They’re in the Himalayas, investigating reports of a monster. That monster turns out to be Lockjaw, the Inhumans’ teleporting dog. This is good news for Johnny, because if Lockjaw escaped the dome that has the Inhumans trapped, then maybe Crystal and the other Inhumans can escape as well. More in this in future issues.

Trivia time: This issue is well known for being reprinted in 1974’s Origins of Marvel Comics, one of the first comic book trade paperbacks. Or, at least, one of the earliest to be widely read. Issue #55 is the “now” following the first issue’s “then.” The trade also has origins and follow-up issues for Spider-Man, the Hulk, Thor, and Dr. Strange.

Fantastic or frightful? OK, so why is this issue one of my favorites? If you look at just the plot description above, you might think Ben comes off as just an angry jerk, but it all succeeds in the dialogue. Stan Lee’s playful sense of humor is on every page, and Ben has one amusing line after the next after the next. Such as:

“C’mon, ya blasted silver skunk!”

“I figured that’d bring ya down to Earth, you crummy Casanova!”

“You ain’t exactly playing potsy with no campfire girl!”

And so on. Ben, with his rough and tumble ways, makes a perfect foil for the elegant poetic Silver Surfer, and with him Stan Lee gets to write as flowery and 1960s hippy-ish as he wants, with lines like these:

“I, who have crested the currents of space, who have dodged the meteor storms and who have outdistanced the fastest comets, I must resign myself to this prison that men call Earth!”

“Your courage is laudable, but you are like a child, attempting to battle the elements themselves!”

“You have forgotten than I am not bound by the physical laws of Earth! You still do not see that I can increase my extra-terrestrial energy to almost any degree that I require!”

And so on. Sure, a lot of comes across as silly — perhaps intentionally — but it’s the dialogue that nonetheless fills these two guys with personality. Two completely different characters, with two completely different fighting styles, with two completely different ways of speaking, make this an all-time great Lee/Kirby slugfest. It’s just that much fun to read.

Next: Don’t be so negative!

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We’re making our way through an exciting time, as previous weeks have had the debuts of Galactus, the Silver Surfer, the Inhumans, and the Black Panther. Issue #54 gives us the historic first appearances of… Prester John and the Evil Eye! I guess they can’t all be winners.

As the story begins, our heroes are still visiting the African nation of Wakanda, where they have invited the Black Panther and the Wakandans to join them in a friendly game of baseball, which is this issue’s excuse-for-the-characters-to-show-off-their-powers-for-a-few-pages thing. We actually haven’t had one of those in a while. Later, everyone enjoys a fancy dinner at the Panther’s palace, but Johnny doesn’t seem interested. His friend and tagalong Wyatt Wingfoot suspects something is wrong. Johnny is, of course, pining after Crystal, the one-time love of his life who is now separated from him.

On that cue, we rejoin Crystal and the rest of the Inhumans, with their entire city still trapped under a giant impenetrable dome. The Inhumans’ silent leader, Black Bolt, is determined to find a way out. The only person smart enough to escape, the Inhumans say, is the one created the dome – Black Bolt’s evil brother, Maximus. Problem is, Maximus’s brain has reverted to a childlike state (when did this happen?), so he just sits around his jail cell making high-tech kites. Gorgon (remember him? He once singlehandedly defeated the FF) tries to convince Maximus to invent something that will shatter the surface of the dome.

Back in Wakanda, the Black Panther gives our heroes some wondrous gifts. Reed and Sue get clothes, which Reed says are the latest fashions from Paris (!), Johnny gets a supersonic fishing net (?), Wyatt gets a book of athletic records that mentions his famous athlete father (the Panther just had this lying around?) and Ben gets a cool-looking exercise machine to make him even stronger. By now, the Black Panther can also tell Johnny has the blues. That’s when Johnny drops the bombshell – he’s not going home with the rest of the team. He wants to go back the Inhumans’ city and find a way through that dome. Wyatt agrees to tag along and help him. (The Native American Wyatt actually compares himself to Tonto in one line. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.) Then the Black Panther makes with another gift, a futuristic Gyro-cruiser! It’s like a spaceship enclosed in a glass dome. The Panther says it runs on “a magnetic-tension element energized by friction.” Because of course it does.

Johnny and Wyatt take off in their new ship (it must be really easy to fly) and they are immediately caught in a sandstorm, which draws them deep into an underground cavern. There, they go exploring and come across a giant crypt. Inside, they find a man dressed as a medieval knight, apparently sleeping. But no, the knight wakes and catches them by surprise, zapping them with an eye-shaped weapon. His name is Prester John, and he’s been asleep down there for 700 years (the “chair of survival” kept him alive the whole time).  John is from Avalon, ancestral home of the knights, which in this story was rules not by King Arthur but by King Richard. John traveled the world, soaring on flying carpets and battling yetis. To protect the wonders of Avalon from the outside world, the wizards of Avalon created John’s weapon, the Evil Eye. The Eye can fire powerful disintegrator rays, and it traps Johnny and Wyatt in a barrier just like the one holding the Inhumans.

Speaking of the Inhumans, we cut back to them, where we learn the aquatic Inhuman Triton now has an apparatus that allows him to exist outside of water. (He’s a real boy now!) Gorgon is outraged that Maximus has invented this instead of a way out of the dome. Gorgon is about to attack Maximus, but Black Bolt intervenes, protecting his brother.

Back with Johnny, then. Prester John’s attack was just a demonstration of his power, and he says he would not actually hurt Johnny or Wyatt because of his chivalrous code. Johnny wants to borrow the Evil Eye, believing it can free the Inhumans. Prester John refuses, so the Torch takes the Eye by force and flies off with it (Never thought I’d write that sentence). Prester John freaks out, because if the Eye is out of his control for too long, it will overload and explode.

Then we’re with the Inhumans again, where Black Bolt has decided to go to extreme lengths to free his people, by entering the “cyclo-electronic chamber.” (Being mute, Black Bolt doesn’t say any of this, so it’s up to the other Inhumans to follow him around and narrate everything he does.) Inside the chamber, Black Bolt channels all of his power and energy into an “absorba-bomb,” but the pain is too much for him and he screams. That right, Marvel fans, he screams. On that note, the Inhumans’ subplot ends. We won’t learn the outcome of this for quite a few issues.

The scene shifts again, this time to Wyatt and Prester John aboard the Gyro-cruiser. Prester John is at the controls (!) and they catch up to Johnny, flying through the air. Wyatt uses a polarizer gun (where’d he get that?) to shoot the Evil Eye out of Johnny’s hand, after which it explodes like a nuke, with Johnny, Wyatt, and the old knight barely making it to safety. Then, the issue ends with some high drama, where an infuriated Johnny, believing this was his last chance to save Crystal, cries, “Maybe it would have been better if you hadn’t saved me!”

Unstable molecule: Reed and Sue sit out most of the issue, with one throwaway line of how they still haven’t taken their honeymoon.

Fade out: During the baseball game, Sue turns invisible and trips Reed to punish him for cheating. What do you call playing while invisible?

Clobberin’ time: Ben’s weightlifting gizmo is described as “the most powerful portable exerciser on Earth.” He grouses about it, but then thinks to himself that it’s pretty great.

Flame on: This is pretty much a Human Torch solo issue, which showcases the new “grown-up” Torch, willing to sacrifice anything to save the girl he loves.

Trivia time: The character of Prester John is based on one out of actual folklore. There are a lot of stories about the guy, but the gist of it is that he was one of three knights, or three magi, who guarded a vast and amazing treasure. I can’t possibly be the only one reminded of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, am I?

Prester John never became a Marvel mainstay, but he’s shown up from time to time over the years, having adventures with Thor, Iron Man, and even Deadpool!

There are references in this and previous issues to Black Bolt being “mute” and “unable to speak.” This goes against what is later established about his powers, and I wonder how/when the big reveal will be handled.

Fantastic or frightful? What a crazy issue! With Wakanda, the Inhumans’ city, and Avalon, there are three secret, high-tech cities hidden away from the rest of civilization, all in one story. What really makes the issue work, though, is Jack Kirby’s eye-popping art (he’s really off the chain by this point, and every page is a stunner), and Johnny’s heartbreak at the end, which is a total gut-punch.

Next: Ya blasted silver skunk!

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Issue #53 begins with the Fantastic Four and their pal Wyatt Wingfoot as honored guests in Wakanda, where they are guests of the country’s leader, the Black Panther. Hidden away in the jungles of Africa, Wakanda is a nation of high-tech wonders.

After a ceremonial dinner, the Panther takes the FF and Wyatt to his private residence, where he explains his origin story. He explains that he is the son of T’Chaka, a great hunter. T’Chaka discovered Wakanda’s famed vibranium mound. What’s vibrainium? The Panther, with help from Reed, explains that vibrainium absorbs vibrations around it, making it a useful and highly valuable metal. Wakanda is the only source of it in the world. T’Chaka’s reign came to end when the evil Klaw, master of sound, arrived in Wakanda to claim the vibranium for his own. Klaw killed T’Chaka, and T’Chaka’s young son vowed revenge. It’s then several pages of high drama as Klaw tries to burn the Wakandans out of their homes, and the little boy takes one of their sonic weapons and goes wild with it, injuring Klaw’s hand. Now, it’s years later, and the Panther fears Klaw will soon return.

Then we get a rundown of the Panther’s skills and abilities. In addition to his vast wealth, Panther has been educated in the world’s finest universities. His fighting skills and speed, and his ability to see in the dark, come from herbs and rituals known only to him and a select few. The Panther says he attacked the FF last issue not to test them, but to test himself, so that he knows he’ll be ready for Klaw’s return.

Meanwhile, two Wakandans out on patrol come across a torn-up patch of jungle, where they are attacked by two giant crimson-colored monsters. More monsters attack, and the Wakandans believe this means Klaw is back. The Black Panther and the FF head off to join the battle. Then, more fighting! At one point, the monster grabs Johnny, and Ben risks it all in the midst of the intense flames to save his teammate.

The Black Panther deduces that the monsters are made of pure sound. He follows them to their source and finds Klaw, who has now replaced his injured hand with a sonic weapon. With his sound converter, Klaw can transform sound into solid objects, which he can animate to his will. He creates a panther out of sound and has it fight the Black Panther. (I guess he was going for the ol’ ironic punishment thing.)

The Black Panther flips a power switch on Klaw’s device, causing it to overload. “You did not realize I am a scientist, too!” he says. (Homer: “Batman’s a scientist.”) Klaw’s hideout is destroyed in a huge explosion, and the battle is over.

The Black Panther wonders if he should retire now that the threat of Klaw is no more, but the FF cheer him up, saying Wakanda, if not the world, will always need the Black Panther. Good thing, too, because at the end, we see Klaw has survived. He steps into the remains of his sound machine and is transformed. But into… what? We’ll have to wait to see.

Unstable molecule: While marveling at the Black Panther’s many technological advances, Reed is impressed with the elaborate “stereo music system – complete with tape recorder!”

Fade out: Sue is right there to catch her teammates in a force field after Klaw’s monsters throw them around.

Clobberin’ time: Ben is a paragon of cultural insensitivity in this issue, comparing the Panther to Tarzan and something called “Bomba the Jungle Boy.” (Bonus trivia time: I looked it up, and Bomba the Jungle Boy was a real thing – a series of mid-1960s children’s books, matinee serials, and comics published by Marvel’s rival, DC Comics.)

Flame on: To escape Klaw’s monsters, Johnny burns so hot he nearly burns the Thing. There’s also one obligatory reference to him still being miserable about being separated from Crystal.

Trivia time: The story goes that around this time, Marvel was preparing a secondary line of all-new superhero comics. Supporting characters from this era were allegedly created to headline their own series, which never happened. These characters include the Inhumans, the Black Panther, and even Wyatt Wingfoot. While the Inhumans and Black Panther have had series of their own in the past, they’re usually supporting characters.

The Black Panther’s real name, T’Challa, isn’t used in this issue. When not called “The Black Panther,” he’s instead referred to as merely, “the son of T’Chaka.” The character was allegedly going to be called “The Coal Tiger,” and would have worn a red cape with yellow striped gloves and boots. Call me crazy, but the all-black look is way better.

Klaw in this issue is a human with a metal hand. The next time we’ll meet him, he’ll be a lot different.

Fantastic or frightful? This is basically a Black Panther story guest-starring the Fantastic Four. But that’s all right, because Stan and Jack have done a great job making the Panther cool. He’s got a great look and all kinds of slick fighting skills. He’s pretty much a Kirby Batman, and that’s awesome. All in all, this is a fun read, making up for the previous all-they-do-is-fight issue.

Next week: Don’t be givin’ me the stink-eye!

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

Rereading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. The folks at Marvel started bringing diversity into the comics in a big way in the mid-60s, illustrated by issue #52’s introduction of a black superhero, the noble Black Panther.

We begin with the FF in a futuristic flying car, zipping over NYC. Only this isn’t the Fantasticar, it’s a high-tech gift from the Black Panther, king of the African nation of Wakanda. Interesting that instead of being a mystery for the FF to solve, the Panther is already a public figure, and everyone (except the reader) already knows who he is. On the roof of the Baxter Building, the Panther’s ambassador greets the FF. Using “cosmic channel waves,” the ambassador sends a message to Wakanda, saying the FF will soon visit. The Black Panther appears, and there’s ominous talk about a hunt.

We check in with Johnny, who’s living in the dorms at Metro College, still pining away for his one-time love, Crystal. His team members pay him a surprise visit and they head to Wakanda. Johnny’s roommate, the musclebound Wyatt Wingfoot, sleeps the whole time. We then check in with Crystal and her people, the Inhumans, with their hidden refuge still trapped inside a giant dome, cut away from the rest of civilization. They still can’t escape, and Crystal longs for Johnny just as much he longs for her.

In Wakanda, the FF’s ship arrives to find high-tech paradise hidden away in the African jungle. We’re told that the entire jungle is man-made and that it hums with the power of computer dynamos. Then, for apparently no reason, the Black Panther attacks. As fast an agile as his namesake, the FF can’t get ahold of him, and he leads them into a trap, sealing them up in a big cage. Wyatt’s still with the group, and he figures that the entire cage is booby trapped. He knows this, he says, because the blood of the world’s greatest trackers flows in his veins.

Our heroes don’t have time to even try to escape, because the Wakandans attack with polarity guns, separating the FF. Then it’s several pages of the FF getting chased around. The Panther is so sharp he’s able to listen closely and tell where Sue is even though she’s invisible. Then he takes on Ben, using a freezing machine to stop him. The Panther attacks Reed next, only to have Reed fall into another trap, getting tangled up in the Panther’s machines. Johnny rescues Reed, explaining that Wyatt freed him from his cage. (During all the action, there was a bit where Wyatt snuck around and caught the Wakandans secretly recording the fight.) Although the Panther prepared for the FF, he hadn’t considered what an ordinary human could do.

The Black Panther unmasks, saying the mask is not to conceal his identity, but it instead acts as a symbol. The whole fight, he says, was merely a game. He promises to explain more and…

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed fails to capture the Black Panther by doing that thing where he turns his arm into a lasso. Has that ever worked?

Fade out: Sue’s limitations are revealed, when she can’t be perfectly silent while invisible, and she can’t create a force field fast enough, trapping the Black Panther inside it with her. That’s never happened before.

Clobberin’ time: Ben’s short temper is in full effect in this one. His response to every problem is punch the crap out of everything.

Flame on: Johnny is the first one taken out of the fight, but then, with Wyatt’s help, he puts an end to the fight.

Trivia time: Yes, it’s the first appearance of the Black Panther, often credited as the first black superhero. According to most reports I’ve read, this issue predates the real-life Black Panther movement of the 1960s by just a few months. It appears that one is not named after the other.

Fantastic or frightful: For what’s often described as a historic issue, not a lot happens. They go to Wakanda, everybody fights, and the cliffhanger is the promise as to why they were fighting. Kirby’s action-packed artwork is a delight, but the plot is surprisingly thin.

Next: Chillin’ with T’Challa.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.