Fantastic Four: "The Skrulls From Outer Space!"

The Fantastic Four #2 (1962)

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Sol Brodsky*

Background: The Fantastic Four have only recently been formed.

So, What Happens? The Fantastic Four appear to go on a crime spree, but it's actually the shape-shifting green alien Skrulls, who wish to discredit the quartet whom they consider their only obstacle to conquering the planet. The real Four meet to discuss the situation, but the army find and imprison them in special holding cells. Nevertheless, they quickly escape and come up with a plan, using the Torch as bait to reveal the real culprits. The plan is successful and the Fantastic Four battle the Skrulls, quickly gaining the upper hand and pressuring them into explaining their plan. In order to avoid the invasion, the Four pretend to be Skrulls and reach the alien mothership, where they convince the Skrull commander to leave as the planet would be too dangerous for them. As the Four re-enter the atmosphere, the Thing briefly turns back to Ben Grimm, giving Reed hope of finding a permanent cure for him. After having showed the prisoner Skrulls to the police - hence clearing their name - the Four talk them into turning into cows. Reed then hypnotizes them to make sure they stay as cows, even though one has apparently escaped. 

Notes: As the issue still lacks proper credits, the inker of this story isn't revealed until the letter page of Fantastic Four #272. Apparently, the Fantastic Four are already famous at least all over New York, and the army has already had time to prepare custom holding cells for each member. In a flashback, Reed says that the rocket from last issue was supposed to go to Mars, and not simply "to the stars". 

This is Marvel's earliest retcon, but Stan Lee admitted he had originally Mars in mind but later changed it afraid the Russians would really get to Mars before the issue publication. In a series of first, the Daily Bugle appears among the newspapers accusing the Four for the crime spree, and the Human Torch introduces the "Flame On" catchphrase.

The clips Reed shows the Skrull commander are revealed to be from "Strange Tales" and "Journey Into Mystery", two magazines actually published by Marvel Comics. This could be the earliest reference to there being Marvel comics in the Marvel universe, something which will be a recurring inside joke over the years, with several heroes occasionally visiting the bullpen offices.

Something Silly This Way Comes: Long before the introduction of unstable molecules, the Four's clothes adapt to their powers, or to the Skrulls'. This includes the diamond fake Sue steals. The army knows of Sue's powers, and yet they are surprised when her cell appears to be empty.

Fake Reed blacks out the entire city to a standstill by flipping a single switch. In front of a janitor. Who for some reason doesn't simply flip it back on. Reed's plan depends on the Skrulls not only not being together, but also failing to communicate and know what each other is doing. Which apparently they are.

The Skrulls have observed the planet enough to be aware of the Fantastic Four, and yet believe all the stories Reed tells them. The Thing for some reason is the only one affected by the radiations as the ream re-enters Earth.

The ethics of permanently turning the Skrulls into cows is questionable at best. The fate of the fourth Skrull also doesn't make sense. Reed says he is travelling back to his home world, but this is clearly Stan trying to cover up an art mistake, otherwise the Skrull would easily reveal Reed's deception to his people. Years later, Neal Adams will pick up on it and use him heavily for the Kree-Skrull War in Avengers #93-97. The cow-Skrulls will also come back, making the Vision utter the now iconic sentence "three cows shot me down". 

Review: As only the second ever story from the canonic Marvel Universe, this issue is more about historical interest than real quality. There are so many plot holes it's hard to keep count and not much stands to scrutiny, but it's interesting to see the early seeds of what will become the classic Fantastic Four. Reed is smart but not yet a genius or even an inventor, Sue is pretty much useless as she can't project force fields yet and, most interestingly, Ben is overly aggressive against his team mates and the others don't appear to quite trust him. This is a far cry from the "The Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing, Idol of Millions" and sounds a lot more like the Hulk, possibly suggesting the direction Stan wanted to take him before coming up with the actual Hulk himself. This same sense of work in progress also applies to the Four's powers, with Reed in particular showing a few tricks we won't see very often again, such as squeezing his entire body through a tiny loose rivet. 

The main story is clearly still very much under the influence of the common sci-fi comics of that period. As friend and reviewing legend Owen Erasmus put it

Even ignoring the specific plot holes this is at best a mixture of a DC style ‘why is the hero doing unexpected things’ super hero story and a twist ending Marvel monster/sci-fi tale that Lee and Kirby had done countless times. Despite the heroes powers the two groups of Skrulls are either dealt with by being tricked in a corny fashion or being hypnotised. Neither depends on the FF’s powers or personalities and neither would have been out of place in a pre-hero story. The team don’t even wear costumes.

The Skrulls are stereotypically (and literally) Little Green Men and the idea of a small cell of them fitting in as Humans and working against the Earth is a staple of paranoid cold war science fiction. Lee and Kirby could work with those tropes in their sleep and they manage to build a story that entertains despite its clear failings of logic and originality.

In fact there is something quite interesting in seeing something that is clearly a hold over from the previous era of comics being nominally done as a super hero tale. 

This is further confirmed by the story being divided in chapters and by the lack of proper credits, prove that Stan was still ironing out the wrinkles and hadn't fully come up with what will become his typical style just yet. 

At the same time, the sparks of innovation are there. The Fantastic Four will be spearheading the exploration of the Marvel Universe, but this is not the main issue here. Indeed, the Four spend half the time arguing and there's a real sense of tension between Reed and Ben, producing a clear feeling that the inter-member dynamics are by far the most captivating part of the story, while the aliens at this time are still little more than a generic excuse. The Skrulls will become a staple of the MU, but here they are introduced as pretty bland and it doesn't look like Stan was really planning to use them again.

The art by Jack Kirby is expressive and dynamic, but not very sharply-defined yet. Much like Stan, Jack was still making himself familiar with the cast and Sue is the only one really close to what will become her final look. Conversely, the Torch looks like an actual flame instead of a human body on fire, and poor Ben is so amorphous that explaining his change in look will  eventually require an in-story explanation. Everything considered however, it's a good effort and far better than any other comic book of its time, explaining how it quickly became so popular. 

Final Verdict: A number of plot holes and inconsistencies aren't enough to subdue a Silver Age classic. 4/5