Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 3

Fantastic Four Omnibus

by Stan Lee

Under Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, FANTASTIC FOUR earned the tagline "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine." And there's no doubting it when you read the adventures they have in store for you in their third Omnibus collection! It's one history-making hit after another -the first appearances of the Kree, Annihilus and "Him" (a.k.a. Adam Warlock); team-ups with the Inhumans and Silver Surfer; and the birth of Franklin Richards! Add in classic enemies Dr. Doom, the Mole Man and Galactus - and Crystal's first outing as a member of the FF.

COLLECTING: Fantastic Four (1961) 61-93, Fantastic Four Annual (1963) 5-7, material from Not Brand Echh (1967) 5-7

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

907 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1969

About the author

Stan 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.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 3 collects issues #61-93 and annuals 5-7 of Fantastic Four.

I'm a Fantastic Four guy from way back and I've had the first and second omnibuses for years. When the third was reprinted this year, I had to get it. The dust jacket doesn't match the other two but I'm still pleased with it. I wouldn't have minded knowing this was coming out so I wouldn't have spent money on Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Name is Doom but that couldn't be helped.

The classic team of Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, and Stan Lee are heading toward the end of their monumental run in this volume. In this collection, they go up against the Wizard, Galactus, Annihilus, the Mad Thinker, Maximus the Mad, Doctor Doom, The Frightful Four, Mole Man, and the thing that could tear the team asunder, Sue Richards' pregnancy. Guest stars include Daredevil, Spider-Man, Thor, The Inhumans, the Silver Surfer, and Adam Warlock, or Him as he was known at the time.

Kirby was on his way out the door and wasn't throwing quite as many ideas into the mix at this point, though he still had enough juice left for Annihilus and Adam Warlock. the rest of the villains are the old standards. Still, there is some groovy shit going on, like the Silver Surfer going to the Microverse, Crystal joining the team, and the psychedelic site seeing sojourn into the Negative Zone to grab Annihilus' cosmic rod. Ahem. My favorite part of this one was the last three issues, with Ben getting whisked away to the gangster planet to be a gladiator.

The art is Kirby in his prime, although there are fewer panels per page toward the end of the volume than we normally get. He wasn't phoning it in but he wasn't going 100 miles per hour either. Part of the greener pastures thing I mentioned earlier. Stan Lee's dialogue alternates between great and grating, always with a hint of cheese. I love it but some of it is terrible.

Back to the art, Kirby was still experimenting despite being disillusioned with how much credit he was getting. There were some Kirby collages and this volume has some striking covers.

The Fantastic Four Omnibus, Vol. 3 is the penultimate volume of one of the greatest runs in comics history. 4 out of 5 stars.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent collection of Fantastic Four comics. Really I think this series does get better as it goes on. There's less new and interesting bad guys, the Kirby and Lee slowly develop the characters and their lives. It's a shame Marvel comics have no progression anymore. Here over just a few years we get the marriage of Sue and Reed, a baby, Johnny starts a relationship with Crystal. The Thing and Alicia seem to go steady. But nowadays each writer ends their run by putting the FF right back where they started.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby keep trucking along on their long tenure on Fantastic Four. This volume keeps the trend going from the last two volumes with more first appearances. We get the introduction of Blastarr who forces Sandman to show him around earth. The FF run into the Sentry which is one of the Kree’s giant robot guards which brings on the first appearance of Ronan the Accuser. We got Adam Warlock, aka Him, showing up for the first time. And we have Annihilus also pulling up for the first time. Then of course we have a few returning characters like Doctor Doom, Galactus and the Sliver Surfer, Mole Man, the Inhumans and the Wizard to name a few. In these pages is also where Franklin is born although Reed and Sue have still not decided what to name him 😂. With Sue being pregnant and then having a new born, Crystal from the Inhumans fills in for her as a new member of the FF. Most of his was typical 1960s flavor with the one and done battles. But there were a few story arcs that went for two or more issues. Those happened to be my favs out of the bunch. The return of Surfer and Galactus, the return of Doctor Doom, and the final arc where Ben Grim gets captured by a Skrull and enslaved as a fighter on some far off planet. Sort of Planet Hulk before Planet Hulk. Gonna stop here and read some East of West and then come back to the FF omnibus vol 4.

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 3 out of 5]

This third omnibus is not the best in the series, that one still goes to the second omnibus with the Galactus trilogy, but its a very nice one still. The villains are a bit quirky at times here, who remembers bad guys like Blastaar, Sentry, Psycho-man Mole Man (who i kinda dig) or freaking Tomazooma, the walking Totempole.. I read a theory that Kirby was about to leave and stopped pushing ideas and was just through with the way he got handled and it sort of shows nearing the end, his panels get simpler and bigger and bigger, with at the end almost only 4 panel grids. Still this omnibus has some of his best works, it has Galactus, Doctor Doom, the microverse, the negative zone, Silver Surfer, Thor, Spidey, Sue Richards pregnancy (did not saw that one coming right?) Daredevil and Adam Warlock for the very first time, it has yet again some of the very best Doctor Doom stories with The name is Doom, and a fantastic story about The Thing, the highs are not that high as the previous omnibus, but this is still peak Marvel.

3.5 stars

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kirby is King, but after the first two collections the stories just don't match up for the most part.

[Blindzider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art: 4 stars
Writing: 3 stars

I've really grown to appreciate Kirby these last few years and with the addition of Joe Sinnott's ink his art really pops, especially on the splash page that appears in just about every issue.

The first half of the volume continues to showcase the depth of ideas with Ronan, Annihilus, Him, and the birth of Franklin Richards. The second half stories are different, perhaps to better fit the time period and their key audience. I found this second half to be less interesting.

These stories still suffer from Stan's writing from the time period where the characters are constantly telling you what's happening, but reading these stories for the first time was a thrill for me. I enjoy seeing the origins of the different characters which are still around after all these years.

[Rick]

The Sandman has escaped from prison and he’s after gadgets to help free the Wizard as well, gadgets he can get at the Baxter Building. It’s an epic fight that leads us readers into a tale of Mr Fantastic being trapped in an antimatter reality (what will become confusingly called the Negative Zone, Stan Lee clearing forgetting that this was what he’d named the barrier imprisoning the Inhumans) where (inexplicably) only Triton can rescue him. And this leads to the introduction of Blastarr who follows the heroes back to earth where he teams-up with the Sandman. Yikes! And this is only the beginning?! Ah, a breather, the Fantastic Four decide to take a much needed and long overdue vacation, but the island in the South Pacific they choose is also the location of an ancient alien base belonging to the Kree and guarded by Sentry-459. But defeating the Sentry, only brings the wrath of Ronan the Accuser on our beleaguered heroes. Then we get the introduction of the Beehive and the birth of Him (not a very auspicious introduction for the character who will become known as Adam Warlock, but there he is). Next up is a tale pitting the Fantastic Four, the Inhumans AND the Black Panther against the menace of the Psychoman from the microverse (aka the Quantum Realm) and there’s even a short story featuring the Silver Surfer all on his own; both of these are from the pages of Fantastic Four Annual #5. Next up is another epic 4-part battle royal, this one with the Mad Thinker pitting the Thing against the world. Then Reed and Sue are contemplating their departure from the team and retiring from adventuring now that Sue is pregnant. But the Watcher and a misunderstood threat from the Silver Surfer pull them back. Next up is a typical Marvel mash-up as only Jack Kirby could deliver as the FF have to battle Daredevil, Spider-Man and Thor. After that Kirby delivers yet another 4-part masterpiece with Galactus again threatening the Earth and only the presence of the missing Silver Surfer can save the planet. And if that wasn’t enough, Kirby takes us to the wild and mind-boggling world of Sub-Atomica (aka the Microverse, aka the Quantum Realm) and the team has to contend with the Psychoman once again. Upon returning the FF have to deal with the Wizard and his new Wonder Gloves and The Thing has been transform, perhaps permanently, back into his human form of Ben Grimm. Then a threat from the Mad Thinker emerges that forces Ben to make a grave, life altering decision. There’s a quick visit to Wyatt Wingfoot out west and then the fateful day arrives and Sue goes into labor, which means Reed, Johnny and Ben head for … the Negative Zone? It seems that this superhero soap-opera wouldn’t be complete without a complicated childbirth and a unique substance found only in the Negative Zone will save her and the baby. But the introduction of Annihilus threatens to end their mission almost before it has a chance to begin. But we’re not stoping there, as the FF gains a new recruit: Crystal of the Inhumans. And she arrives just in time to send the Wizard flying with his tail between his legs in utter defeat. But it looks like Crystal might be leaving before she even catches a breath as her family summons her home and there’s more menace from Maximus the Mad. Then Nick Fury drafts the FF to infiltrate the kingdom of Latveria, in what seems to be a Kirby homage of the cult classic TV series The Prisoner. Thus begins (you guessed it) an epic spanning 4-issues that is nothing short than a classic confrontation with Doctor Doom.

Yep, Jack Kirby is firing on all pistons with this one.

[Gary Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lee & Kirby's Last Hurrah: The Gangster Planet Saga!

Boasting Fantastic Four 61-93 and Annuals 5-7, this is a pivotal omnibus packed with later Lee and Kirby classics. For me, the draw was the Gangster Planet saga that closes the book.

I was a baby when these comics were first published in the late 1960s, but I was 10 and a front-facing, true believing Marvel Zombie when these classics were reprinted in Marvel Greatest Comics. I fondly remember going to 7-11 and buying the current Wolfman-Perez FF and also the Lee-Kirby FF (and a Slurpee and a Reggie or Marathon or Charleston Chew!).

The Gangster Planet saga spanning issues 90 through 93 captured my imagination as a kid. I was not yet a Star Trek fan so didn't know Kirby lifted wholesale the plot of "A Piece of the Action." And learning that fact only made the story cooler. Wow, Kirby was watching Trek too? (And The Prisoner as the Dr. Doom epic of ish's 84-87 testify, and Dark Shadows as evidenced by Agatha Harkness of Widow's--oops--Whispering Hill, but that's in the next omnibus!).

Many of the issues in this book were all-new to me. And many of those disappointed. Without the nostalgia of having read it as a kid, I saw them for what they were. Just filling 20 pages for that month, with fight scenes and quips or worse--Ben's bemoaning being the Thing. The growing chasm between Lee and Kirby is also evident. The "Beehive/Him" story in 66 and 67 is often cited as the crack in the creative team's synergy. Kirby intended the story as a critical commentary on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, but Lee rewrote Kirby's plot and while still a compelling story, was stripped of its significance. Kirby starts phoning it in, slipping in more full-page splashes to lighten his workload. Kirby-Sinnott art is always worth looking at, however, and the book is filled with hundreds of pages of amazing illustrations.

Marvel's omnibi are a tremendous boon to old fans like me. I was never able to read Lee-Kirby's Thor aside from the odd reprint. But now I'm reading Thor alongside that month's Fantastic Four, just as fans did circa 1969. I suspect Kirby was burning out on the FF after 90-plus issues, but Thor still sparked his creativity. Galactus and Him (proto-Adam Warlock) turn up in the Thunder God's pages while the FF are battling the Mole Man and Frightful Four for the millionth time.

This third Fantastic Four omnibus is a treasure and captures the late Silver Age with many classic and key issues. Inclusion of the letters pages, original art, a few Not Brand Ecch yarns, and the covers of the Marvel's Greatest Comics reprints were welcome and appreciated extras. With the fourth omnibus published, the complete Lee-Kirby FF is readily available. I think back to being a kid when I never imagined I would read all these issues let alone own the complete run in beautiful hardback reprints. Good times!

[Cody Wilson]

Early Fantastic Four is basically my comfort food. I consistently get a kick out of 60s Marvel comics in general. I decided to reread this third omnibus of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s FF because I found myself struggling to recall its stories. I’ve read the first two omnibuses a few times and basically know those comics like the back of my hand.

Kirby/Lee consists of three basic eras, each of which is roughly (but not perfectly) split up by the three omnibuses that collect most of the run. The “early era” largely contains single-issue stories that are inventive, goofy, and a bit rough. Kirby is still refining his approach to superhero comics with an inconsistent roster of inkers. These comics make up the first Kirby/Lee FF omnibus.

The “golden age” of Kirby/Lee FF is the most creatively fertile period for the run with a quick succession of show-stopping introductions for new characters like the Inhumans, Black Panther, Silver Surfer, Galactus, and far more. The book becomes an ambitious, sprawling epic as Kirby juggles various subplots and stretches stories to unfold over multiple issues, providing room to breathe for character beats and ideas. Kirby refines his visual language to include everything fans know and love – “Kirby Krackle,” impossibly complex technology, highly stylized figures. Inker Joe Sinnott joins the title to offer consistently gorgeous embellishment over Kirby’s pencils. The second Kirby/Lee FF omnibus largely encompasses the “golden age.” This third omnibus contains its last few issues with the introduction of the Kree race (including Ronan the Accuser and the Supreme Intelligence), Blastaar, “Him” (later renamed “Adam Warlock”), and the Microverse. The "Him" story in particular involves some really effective cosmic horror.

Generally, the “late stage” era of Kirby/Lee FF mostly comprises this omnibus. By this point, tensions had flared between Kirby and Lee over the former's mistreatment by Marvel. Kirby, who was plotting the stories in addition to drawing them, slows down in his creation of new concepts and begins reusing plots. Ben Grimm’s “brainwashed to fight the FF” arc from FF #68 – 71 is largely recycled from FF #41 – 43. Likewise, Grimm becomes human but must transform into the Thing once more to save his loved ones in #78 – 79, similar to #39 – 40. We even get another “Maximus the Mad takes the throne of the Inhumans” plotline. It’s hard to blame Kirby for more or less going into “autopilot” with the plotting. These stories still offer an impression of the ideas that fascinated Kirby, especially androids and the power of hypnotism, but these ideas fail to coalesce into compelling, innovative plots. If Stan Lee was going to receive credit and Kirby wasn’t compensated for associated merchandise and whatnot, what was the point of giving Marvel new creations?

Despite the creative slowdown, these “late stage” stories still have a great deal of fun and spurts of inspiration. FF Annual #6 is an all-time great FF story in which Reed, Ben, and Johnny must venture into the Negative Zone and confront new villain Annihilus in order to save Sue and soon-to-be-born baby Franklin. FF #84 – 87 feature the FF as prisoners of Dr. Doom in Latveria, offering Kirby the opportunity to lovingly illustrate a quaint Eastern European village. I enjoyed the adventure with Wyatt Wingfoot and his tribe in FF #80, which is far from perfect in its representation of American Indians but is surprisingly progressive in some regards.

My favorite story in the omnibus is the last (FF #90 – 93), which transpires on a planet full of shape-shifting Skrulls who are fixated on and mimic Prohibition-era gangsters. Kirby clearly has a ball depicting old cars and sleazy hoodlums with an unique combination of 1920s aesthetic and sci-fi technology. As is generally true for the title, this era of FF is best when the superhero team is exploring new worlds and partaking in wild adventures.

Generally, fans recognize that Stan Lee’s main responsibility on FF was scripting the pages that Kirby turned in. Lee has a great grasp on the characters’ unique voices and the group dynamic. The team may bicker, but Lee effortlessly balances this in-fighting with touching moments that underscore how much these characters care for each other. The Thing’s dialogue is a riot – I was laughing often at his ridiculous jokes. Lee’s scripting is an acquired taste for readers unaccustomed to older comics. He is often melodramatic and overly obvious, but the script is infused with a self-awareness that I find highly charming. More than anything, Stan Lee is a hype man for Kirby’s show-stopping art. He clearly has great admiration for Kirby, and their falling out is tragic in a way (although largely Lee’s own fault).

Of course, the main appeal of this omnibus is the artwork. In his last few years on FF, Kirby delivers highly confident, iconic work. Even with less-than-stellar plots, he never phones in the visuals, painstakingly rendering galaxies exploding with cosmic energy and futuristic computers. Kirby delivers one or two splash pages every issue just to spoil us. He clearly recognizes what fans like most about his work and is more than happy to cater to these tastes. His art is highly stylized, pure pop art. It’s impossible to understate the visual impact of Kirby’s dynamic work on the comics medium. The FF in particular remain heavily indebted to Kirby even today, over sixty years later.

I also appreciate that Sinnott embellishes most of this omnibus, as he is my favorite Kirby inker. Sinnott seems to have fallen out of favor with some hardcore Kirby fans because he tends to soften the angularity of the pencils and override the pencils while rendering features like characters’ hair. Nevertheless, Sinnott’s bold, consistent linework complements the pencils well with particular attention to capturing textures. He understands the appeal of the pencils and draws out their essential dynamism. Most importantly, he never takes shortcuts in rendering detail, unlike other inkers (looking at you, Colletta). Simply put, Sinnott makes Kirby pop.

Despite this praise, my greatest reservation for this omnibus – along with most of Kirby/Lee’s FF – is the dated depictions of female characters. These stories are full of cringe-inducingly misogynistic remarks, particularly pertaining to Sue Richards. She becomes pregnant and has her first child, Franklin, in this volume. This was new ground for superhero comics and Kirby/Lee were unfortunately not up to the task of depicting motherhood in any sensible way. As soon as she becomes pregnant, Sue nearly disappears from the title as characters keep her in the dark about the FF’s conflicts to avoid upsetting her. Readers get little impression of Sue’s feelings about pregnancy and early motherhood. Once Franklin is born, he rarely appears in the book and often becomes an excuse for why Sue can’t join the FF on an adventure. Frankly, this whole subplot seems designed to sideline the team’s only female character. Besides a few moments of heroism for her and Crystal (Johnny’s girlfriend), Sue Richards is treated poorly. This aspect makes Kirby/Lee FF difficult to recommend without a qualifier.

Altogether, I feel mixed about this omnibus. I’d recommend that a fan interested in this era of the FF start with the first two omnibuses. If they’re fully immersed in those stories, this third omnibus is easily recommendable, even if the plots aren’t these creators’ best.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pues me duele decirlo, pero parece que según voy avanzando con la historia de los Cuatro Fantásticos, me voy deshinchando. La verdad es que hubiera sido muy complicado estar a la altura de los números 30 a 60, como ya comenté en su momento creo que esos números están tan cargados de historia de Marvel que uno babea con solo echarles un ojo. ¿Afloja en esta tercera parte? Pues aún no sé si es cosa mía o es de los cómics, la verdad. Sí es cierto que quizá al leerlo tan seguido todo, los chascarrillos, comentarios y bromas de los personajes se hacen reiterativos, ese estilo exagerado de Stan Lee llega a cansar bastante debido a la repetición una y otra vez de las mismas frases o situaciones en el equipo. Las pullas de La Cosa y la Antorcha Humana, el amor asfixiante entre este último y Crystal, la dependencia de la Mujer Invisible a Míster Fantástico, el drama de la Cosa y sus dudas respecto a su relación con Alicia Masters, e incluso el odio de algunos villanos que quieren derrotar a los Cuatro Fantásticos simplemente porque sí, porque ese es su objetivo en la vida... Pues hombre, la vuelta a los mismos mecanismos siempre cansa un poco. Sé que el paradigma de Lee es darle al lector la ilusión del cambio pero sin el cambio... Pero esto, insisto, es demasiado poco cambio.

Ahora bien... ¡la creación de Adam Warlock! ¡La aparición de los Kree, la Inteligencia Suprema y Ronan el Acusador! ¡El nacimiento de Franklin! Y es que el gran peso de estos cómics vuelve a ser todo lo que significan a nivel de construcción de un universo, el estallido de imaginación que supone cada uno de los cómics... y que creo que hubiera sido mucho mejor con más Kirby y menos Lee, aunque no quiero olvidar que ambos son hijos de su tiempo, por supuesto. Quizá lo más llamativo en estos arcos, además de las incorporaciones al corpus de Marvel ya comentadas, y por supuesto el regreso de personajes ya conocidos (el Hombre Topo, el Doctor Muerte, Estela Plateada y Galactus, Pantera Negra, los Inhumanos...), sea que por primera vez la alineación de los Cuatro Fantásticos cambia, y de hecho, llegan a ser cinco miembros en el grupo al unirse a ellos Crystal durante el embarazo/lactancia de Sue Richards.

En fin, sigue siendo parte de la historia ... y yo sigo adelante con ellos.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collecting FF #61-93 and Annuals #5-7 (though just the cover of that last Annual since it was all reprints), Fantastic Four Omnibus vol.3 shows Kirby in great form, as he's finally found his inker. I think Joe Sinnott is THE Fantastic Four inker (it's all about how you render the Thing). Every issue now includes a big ker-pow moment at a time when artists weren't doing splash pages beyond page 1, and there's even a point where Stan lets the art breathe without dialog (but exactly once). In terms of stories, we're moving into longer story arcs and evolving subplots. It's unfortunate that one of these - Sue's pregnancy - makes Reed bench her for a lot of issues. She's either pregnant or "the mother of my chiiiiiiiild!!!!!", even though every time she shows up, she proves herself the most powerful member of the team. But it's still more palatable than clingy Johnny treating Crystal - Sue's replacement - as if she needed protecting and getting in her and his own way. The gender politics in this book are near unbearable. They also leave the baby nameless for over a year (comic book time), which is kind of ridiculous (the "plot thread" is still dangling at the end of the book). The boys are still cranking out key Marvel concepts - the character who would become Adam Warlock, Psycho-Man, the Kree, Quadimodo, and Annihilus all get ther starts in these issues - in addition to returning foes, and giving a lot of play to the Inhumans and the Silver Surfer. The collection also includes a lot of Not Brand Echh material, which I have a hard time finding funny, and a lot of penciled and/or inked pages, enough of them that you could easily have squeezed in another issue instead.

[Jimbo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, sitting down to read 900+ pages is daunting, so it takes a bit of time for me to pick up these heavy books and read them all the way through--which is NOT a comment of how good or bad they are.

I have to admit that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby did right by the Fantastic Four. Again my only complaint is be wary of the fact that Reed and Johnny treat their woman (Sue and Chrystal) like fifties housewives and are always not wanting them to leave the house. There are many images of the girls cooking with aprons for the menfolk. It is rather disturbing when you look at it now, but I realize it is from that time period and even the woman's movement hadn't been started. It is only 1965-1968.

It is great when Chrystal or Sue are the reason that the three guys get saved and at least we get those moments and they are wonderful--even though it still feels like the guys are the bad asses.

These stories are also the birth of Sue and Reed's son (Franklin -- although they don't name it for many issues--why? No idea. The reason is flimsy at best in the comics.)

Many great stories: Skrulls, the Kree -- first meeting --Mole Man, Doctor Doom, Annihilus, Blastarr, the Wizard, Sandman, and the Inhumans' Maximus the Mad, and more.

The stories are great. So basically these are 4.8 stars (.2 off for the old values of men and women which grate today.)

[Kelly McCubbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite wonderful, the only reason that this is not five stars is to show a little contrast between this and the second volume which is possibly the greatest comic run of all time.
This is excellent. Crystal comes into her own. Sue Richards is sadly underutilized, but some of the stories around her pregnancy are fascinating. Stan and Jack seem to be swinging a little wildly towards the end, but hey, they're still Stan and Jack, the greatest comic team ever.

[Timothy Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these silver age marvel books though I have some problems with how Sue Storm is portrayed. She is often treated as a second tier character behind her male teammates.

Other than that the imagination and story telling by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby is wonderful. I had a blast reading these stories.

I don't know if I could honestly recommend it to anyone if they don't already have an appreciation and knowledge of the Silver Age of comics.

[Craig W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. In fact, I think I may consider it a level above omnibus volumes 1 & 2. The lesser number of panels per page, plus the further streamlining of unnecessary writing, makes for a faster, more engaging read. Although some may criticize these developments that I’m praising, I love seeing more details within an enlarged Kirby panel, as well as more concentrated details and dialogue from Lee.

[Will McClintock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wrapping up the late Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s run on the Fantastic Four. Love reading comics form the 1960’s. Feels like I am traveling back in time. Kirby does such a great job at this time. It’s a miracle the man could produce such amazing artwork in such a short period of time to produce these monthly comics back then. The man was an absolute legend.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lee/Kirby run is such a blast. I just live for the over the top action and melodrama. The dialogue is great, the cheesiness gives me life. I love it, that is all.

[Jacob Hess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Doom starts being involved in more story arches, so I'm pleased.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kirby is still going fairly strong but not as great as the first two omnibus.

[Tetris Terrets · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the stuff I was desperate for in FF. As few inhumans as possible, not headassed and great characterization & adventures

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a certain argument you'll hear that The Fantastic Four, after the famous Galactus/Silver Surfer issues (#48-50), had nowhere to go but down. In some ways I agree with that sentiment and believe we see the beginnings of it in this volume with several stories of mixed quality. We also see what seems to be Kirby becoming either tired, frustrated or both. Although his art remains stellar, we actually begin to see less of it. Many of the later issues in this volume contain more than one splash page and even more four-panel pages. We also don't see much of the experimentation that made those issues in the #40s-50s range so memorable. Although the stories involving Him, Ronan, the Silver Surfer, and Galactus are quite good, as well as a powerful four-issue Doctor Doom story, many of them (Sandman/Blastaar, the Wizard, the Skrulls, etc.) are pedestrian if not embarrassing. A mixed bag at best.

[Jake Nap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Four Vol 3 has some of the best stories in the whole Kirby/Lee FF run. It doesn't have the creativity that issues 44-67 had, but 68-93 had quality stories. In the aforementioned issues, Kirby went back to the well to reuse characters and concepts they created in the first half of their run to just make great stories. The reason I say Kirby and not Lee is because Kirby's creative influence on this book really shows. Each issue has more splash pages and bigger panels, there was a greater focus on the art on these issues and that isn't a bad thing by any means. Issues 74-77, Annual 6, Issues 84-87 and 90-93 are all quality stories. Especially 84-87 which is my personal favorite arc from the entire the run. It features the FF infiltrating Latveria and attempting to subdue Doctor Doom. The arc has fantastic action, art and twists. It's truly a fantastic read and in my opinion, just as good as the perfection that is volumes 1 and 2.

[Kirby Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Issues 61-90, plus a few special editions, from the classic "Fantastic Four" comics run by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This huge hardcover displays impressive growth in both storytelling and graphic art. It marks a historic period in American comics history.