Fantastic Four 7

In this issue:

Prisoners of Kurrgo, Master of Planet X
24 pages :: Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers
reprinted in Marvel Collectors' Item Classics 4, Marvel Masterworks

The Fantastic Four's first 60 issues are just about the best things every printed in the media. Without question, they have excited me more than the Williamson E.C.'s, Crumb's Mr. Natural, early Mad, late 50's Superman or Wrightson's Swamp Thing. Issue Seven though, as enjoyable as it was, was among the lesser of the early issues, and one of the few in the first ten that didn't have a theme carried on into later issues. I mean, in the first ten issues we got Mole Man, the Skrulls, Submariner, Dr. Doom, Puppet Master, Alicia Masters, Dr. Doom's time machine, the Fantasticar, even Willy Lumpkin! But Klurgo? It was a nice single story but in a series of masterpieces, a lesser light.

I would venture to say that all 102 of Kirby's FF are some of the best comics ever created and certainly the best FFs ever! How can you top the originals? Though I am certainly a Kirby fanatic, it also took the flamboyant and alliterative stylings of Stan Lee to make these comics work. Marvel's Silver Age would not have been as fun if not for the combined efforts of Lee and Kirby as well as Ditko, Ayers, Stone, Heck and many others. But I digress from the topic…
I have a soft spot in my head for FF #7. There is something extremely attractive about this stand alone issue that even as an old guy I can dip back into it from time to time and enjoy a comic when comics were fun! Sure the science is a little wonky (the whole”lets shrink an entire civilization to ant-size” routine is hard on the suspension of disbelief), but somehow you dont mind! This issue has a LOT of cool stuff! Flying saucers! Giant Robots! The FF hunted as criminals! In general, a good healthy dose of 50's era sci-fi! Why, in this issue alone we see a nod to Earth vs The Flying Saucers, The Day the Earth Stood Still and ( in my mind) a direct nod to an episode of the Twilight Zone called “On Thursday We Leave for Home”…
It was ine of the 18 only hour-long shows…If you get a chance, check it out and you may see the same similarity in this issues ending as in the TZ episode.
Is this as good as any issue with Doc Doom in it? Maybe not…but ol Kurrgo is not a bad guy your easily gonna forget!

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