#ff v1 11

[pierre-reads-comics]

Fantastic Four (1961) #11 — Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

Oh hey, the first real retelling of their origin...only ten issues later! It's already made one big change, which is the motive for Ben's initial refusal to fly the ship.

"You know we haven't done enough research into the effect of cosmic rays! They might kill us all out in space!" - Fantastic Four (1961) #1 — Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

But now, Ben's motive for refusing was, "My days of bein' a hero are behind me! I'm not interested!" It's a massive misstep since it no longer puts most of the blame on Reed for them becoming monsters.

Although, it's Reed who's narrating, so he might have subconsciously misremembered out of guilt.

[pierre-reads-comics]

Fantastic Four (1961) #11 — Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

[pierre-reads-comics]

Fantastic Four (1961) #11 — Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

[pierre-reads-comics]

Fantastic Four (1961) #11 — Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

Shut up, Ben, don't taint the moment.

[pierre-reads-comics]

Fantastic Four (1961) #11 — Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

Just love Johnny dicking around with his powers to alleviate his boredom.

[pierre-reads-comics]

Fantastic Four (1961) #11 — Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

[pierre-reads-comics]

Fantastic Four (1961) #11 — Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

#InstantKarma

[pierre-reads-comics]

Fantastic Four (1961) #11 — Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

Honestly? I expected way worse treatment with Sue in these earlier issues. Outside of the stuff with Namor (which is genuinely awful), she's just been...kinda boring and uninvolved, which seems to be what these letters were (justifiably) complaining about.

Also, man, Stan Lee's response to the complaints stinks, haha.

"In fact, if we printed Lincoln's life in our mag, some wise guy would probably write in and ask why we don't leave his mother out of the story because she doesn't do enough!"

What a bad analogy! It's not like Lincoln's mom was a member of the executive branch! Of course, people would be asking to leave her out, she wouldn't be relevant past his youth! Susan is a member of the Fantastic Four!

However, it's unsurprising that Sue's left out of the action since (for now) all she can actually do is turn herself invisible.