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Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four #11
Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four, Vol. 11
Collects The Fantastic Four #105-116
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
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98 people want to read
About the author
Stan Lee
7,563 books2,347 followersStan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 17, 2024
Jack Kirby has left the building. And it shows. Stan Lee delivers, roughly speaking, the last two years of “writing” for the Fantastic Four. And yes, that’s “writing” because I am definitely in the camp of those who have come to recognize that the actual writing styles on all the issues he is credited with are completely inconsistent. Was he the editor on all those issues? Absolutely. And he did a phenomenal job at it. But the writing? Nope. Suspension of disbelief is officially suspended (at least for me). So this volume, with John Buscema handling the art, with some assistance from John Romita Sr. and some archival material from Kirby, is not anywhere near as entertaining as previous volumes. The characterizations are not quite the same, a bit more stereotypical and two-dimensional, and the stories are definitely … well, let’s just say they don’t live up to those from the Kirby and Lee years.
Fantastic Four #105-106 - Opening up the volume is a 2-part Cold War era weird monster piece with art provided by John Romita Sr.. A strange threat appears it the city and the FF are tasked with dealing with it. It’s pretty straightforward, nothing special, but what is interesting are the various background elements that complicate the otherwise clichéd narrative. This sub-plots will all get played out in future issues and they do tie this volume together rather nicely.
Fantastic Four #107-110 - This picks up the loose end of curing Ben, begin in the previous issues, but quickly evolves into a story that offers some archival art from Kirby’s last unused FF story. The closest we’ll ever get to seeing that actual story is in Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure #1 (also included in Fantastic Four Epic Collection, Vol. 6: At War with Atlantis). Here, as it was actually published, it is chopped up and presented as a flashback to an unpublished story. The narrative then resolves into another Negative Zone chase, stranding, and escape story, that feels more like Lee couldn’t figure out what to do so he just borrowed some ideas from the last time Reed was trapped and about to die in the Negative Zone. The resolution is new, since Agatha Harkness wasn’t around the first time this happened. And that leaves us with the cliffhanger that begins the next arc.
Fantastic Four #111-116 - This starts off with lots of repetition of old themes: the Thing runs amok turning on his teammates, the Thing and the Hulk have slugfest, then we get the introduction of a new threat (the Overmind), and then a pseudo history lesson from the Watcher about the Eternals, before it’s Reed’s turn to run amok and then Sue recruits Doctor Doom … wait! Say what? Eternals? Doctor Doom recruited? What the heck? Okay so the Doctor Doom is just a one-off, no need to lose sleep. But the Eternals are … interesting. No. These are NOT the Eternals that Kirby would bring along in a couple of years (see The Eternals by Jack Kirby MONSTER-SIZE). But there are some interesting similarities between this bunch and Kirby’s characters. More on this later. In any case there’s a lot of stuff going on here, but not much really happens. Part of this is because the FF have virtually lost all of their agency and become inconsequential pawns in this cosmic game of bean toss. In fact, Johnny is so pissed off about the whole fiasco, it turns into HIS turn to run off. Wow, way to be creative.
Fantastic Four #105-106 - Opening up the volume is a 2-part Cold War era weird monster piece with art provided by John Romita Sr.. A strange threat appears it the city and the FF are tasked with dealing with it. It’s pretty straightforward, nothing special, but what is interesting are the various background elements that complicate the otherwise clichéd narrative. This sub-plots will all get played out in future issues and they do tie this volume together rather nicely.
Fantastic Four #107-110 - This picks up the loose end of curing Ben, begin in the previous issues, but quickly evolves into a story that offers some archival art from Kirby’s last unused FF story. The closest we’ll ever get to seeing that actual story is in Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure #1 (also included in Fantastic Four Epic Collection, Vol. 6: At War with Atlantis). Here, as it was actually published, it is chopped up and presented as a flashback to an unpublished story. The narrative then resolves into another Negative Zone chase, stranding, and escape story, that feels more like Lee couldn’t figure out what to do so he just borrowed some ideas from the last time Reed was trapped and about to die in the Negative Zone. The resolution is new, since Agatha Harkness wasn’t around the first time this happened. And that leaves us with the cliffhanger that begins the next arc.
Fantastic Four #111-116 - This starts off with lots of repetition of old themes: the Thing runs amok turning on his teammates, the Thing and the Hulk have slugfest, then we get the introduction of a new threat (the Overmind), and then a pseudo history lesson from the Watcher about the Eternals, before it’s Reed’s turn to run amok and then Sue recruits Doctor Doom … wait! Say what? Eternals? Doctor Doom recruited? What the heck? Okay so the Doctor Doom is just a one-off, no need to lose sleep. But the Eternals are … interesting. No. These are NOT the Eternals that Kirby would bring along in a couple of years (see The Eternals by Jack Kirby MONSTER-SIZE). But there are some interesting similarities between this bunch and Kirby’s characters. More on this later. In any case there’s a lot of stuff going on here, but not much really happens. Part of this is because the FF have virtually lost all of their agency and become inconsequential pawns in this cosmic game of bean toss. In fact, Johnny is so pissed off about the whole fiasco, it turns into HIS turn to run off. Wow, way to be creative.
February 3, 2021
I had forgotten the issue where they took an unused Kirby story and converted it a bit for their present needs. Unfortunately, it makes sense that the story wasn’t used. This collection also includes Lee relinquishing the scripting and ultimately the plotting of the flagship Marvel title to Archie Goodwin.
December 26, 2024
Wow. That was rough. Kirby was carrying this title.
Jack Kirby was quoted as saying:
"If you'll notice the way the Thing talks and acts, you'll find that the Thing is really Jack Kirby...He had my manners, he has my manner of speech, and he thinks the way I do. He's excitable, and you'll find that he's very, very active among people, and he can muscle his way through a crowd."
I notice in these stories immediately after Kirby left Marvel for DC, The Thing acts uncharacteristically egotistical and then aggressive and dismissive. Eventually The Thing "runs amok". Can't help feeling the writers took inspiration from life and wrote what they felt about the way Jack Kirby left them in a lurch, and attributed it to The Thing, the stand-in character for Jack Kirby. Ah well. Entertaining.
Never bothered reading any FF between Kirby's departure and John Byrne's arrival. Thought I'd give it a chance. Started here. Think I will continue investigating their 70s progress. Last few issues of Vol. 11 were interesting.
Jack Kirby was quoted as saying:
"If you'll notice the way the Thing talks and acts, you'll find that the Thing is really Jack Kirby...He had my manners, he has my manner of speech, and he thinks the way I do. He's excitable, and you'll find that he's very, very active among people, and he can muscle his way through a crowd."
I notice in these stories immediately after Kirby left Marvel for DC, The Thing acts uncharacteristically egotistical and then aggressive and dismissive. Eventually The Thing "runs amok". Can't help feeling the writers took inspiration from life and wrote what they felt about the way Jack Kirby left them in a lurch, and attributed it to The Thing, the stand-in character for Jack Kirby. Ah well. Entertaining.
Never bothered reading any FF between Kirby's departure and John Byrne's arrival. Thought I'd give it a chance. Started here. Think I will continue investigating their 70s progress. Last few issues of Vol. 11 were interesting.
May 10, 2025
Jack Kirby is gone, and here we see the last of Stan Lee's stuff. It feels like one longer arc, tied up as Archie Goodwin comes in at the end. Crystal leaves, The Thing becomes evil, we get more Negative Zone stuff, and finally some big bad dude shows up to just be strong or whatever- it's not really a highlight in Fantastic Four's tenure, either his introduction or defeat. The Thing vs Hulk issue was great to see (even if it felt more like fanservice than something necessary for a story), and John Buscema's art is great, but it's not a very exciting collection.
August 15, 2024
When I first started reading the Fantastic Four I was really not impressed. This volume is really filling out the characters nicely. The stories are much improved over previous volumes and I look forward to more FF reading.
It is too bad that Jack Kirby left the series as it is that Stan Lee is no longer writing. But I think the Buscema art is more mature and the stories by Archie Goodwin are far superior.
It is too bad that Jack Kirby left the series as it is that Stan Lee is no longer writing. But I think the Buscema art is more mature and the stories by Archie Goodwin are far superior.
August 17, 2025
I think this is the end of Stan Lee writing the FF. There’s quite a few “the entire universe is at risk” stories but more interesting is a background story that gets raised then forgotten then raised with the impact on the city from the destruction caused by FF battles. Hope that gets picked up next volume.
February 16, 2019
Man, without Jack Kirby on the book, you quickly realize how much he brought to the title. With Stan Lee unchecked, the book is quite a slog. That being said, Lee seems to be gone by the end of this collection, so hopefully better things are ahead.
September 15, 2020
Post-kirby FF is undeniably weird at first, but it starts to find its groove towards the end of this volume.
May 18, 2021
The end of an era. No more Lee or Kirby. I enjoyed these though and look forward to seeing how the FF is handled by a new creative team.
January 10, 2016
With Kirby gone and Lee's attention elsewhere, the Fantastic Four get into some pretty dire material. John Romita took over the art in Kirby's wake, handling issues 103 through 106, which is probably the nadir of this period. Starting with 107, John Buscema takes over and things marginally improve while remaining quite poor. Most of these issues feel like Buscema trying to swallow the shadow of Kirby & Lee and come out with something different on the other side. Issue 108 builds a framing story around some un-used Kirby art and is a literal example of this. Issue 110 even has the audacity to include a knock-off Kirby collage!
Storywise, this is mostly half-assed rehashes of things we've seen before with lots of the FF acting out of character for either no reason at all (issue 107) or dumb reasons (110-112). The three primary arcs involve the Negative Zone (the worst of the three); the Thing turning evil, battling the Hulk (you'll never believe how boring this battle is), dying and then immediately returning to life with no consequences; and the FF battling the Over-Mind.
That last one sees Buscema joined by Archie Goodwin on script. With Lee relegated to plot & editorial, we get something different and actually pretty good. With issue 114, Buscema stops aping Kirby and draws in the Marvel house style. In issue 115, Goodwin starts scripting and we get a pretty solid space opera origin story for Uni-Mind and the Eternals. In issue 116, things gel for the first time in ages, and we get a good story with Evil Reed Richards and Dr. Doom leading the FF. It's fresh and brings this whole collection up to the two star level.
One other highlight is the Thing wearing sandals in 105. Love that look.
Storywise, this is mostly half-assed rehashes of things we've seen before with lots of the FF acting out of character for either no reason at all (issue 107) or dumb reasons (110-112). The three primary arcs involve the Negative Zone (the worst of the three); the Thing turning evil, battling the Hulk (you'll never believe how boring this battle is), dying and then immediately returning to life with no consequences; and the FF battling the Over-Mind.
That last one sees Buscema joined by Archie Goodwin on script. With Lee relegated to plot & editorial, we get something different and actually pretty good. With issue 114, Buscema stops aping Kirby and draws in the Marvel house style. In issue 115, Goodwin starts scripting and we get a pretty solid space opera origin story for Uni-Mind and the Eternals. In issue 116, things gel for the first time in ages, and we get a good story with Evil Reed Richards and Dr. Doom leading the FF. It's fresh and brings this whole collection up to the two star level.
One other highlight is the Thing wearing sandals in 105. Love that look.
February 9, 2016
The Marvel Masterworks volumes are fantastic reprints of the early years of Marvel comics. A fantastic resource to allow these hard to find issues to be read by everyone. Very recommended to everyone and Highly recommended to any comic fan.
July 28, 2024
This is the first run of FF post-Kirby. John Romita, Sr. and then John Buscema more than capably handle the artwork in "the King's" absence. Stan Lee exits towards the end of the book to be replaced by Archie Goodwin. The Bronze Age is on!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews