Essential Fantastic Four, Volume 3

by Stan Lee (Author), Jack Kirby (Illustrator)

The Fantastic Four TPBs, Essential Fantastic Four (3), Fantastic Four (1961) (Collections and Selections — 41-63, Annual 3-4)

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Mysterious cosmic rays bombard four courageous explorers testing an experimental spacecraft. They emerge with amazing abilities and herald a new era. Using their powers to protect mankind, they are the Fantastic Four, Marvel's First Family! This volume collects perhaps the greatest of the legendary Fantastic Four stories--including the first ever appearances of the Black Panther, the Inhumas, the Negative Zone and the Silver Surfer and Galactus! COLLECTING: FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) 41-63; show more ANNUAL 3-4 show less

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This volume includes most of the highlights of the Lee/Kirby era: the Galactus Trilogy, the debut of the Inhumans, and the first appearance of Black Panther, among others.
6-7. Essential Fantastic Four Vols. 3-4Marvel's trademark style–conflicted heroes, epic struggles, circus atmosphere–was laid out in the earliest issues of Fantastic Four, though the series itself was fairly leaden in the early going, as Lee and Jack Kirby fell back on Golden Age comics formulas. About three years into the run, just before the issues collected in Essential Fantastic Four Vol. 3, Kirby began to solidify his blocky penciling style, and he and Lee began exploring the cosmic. In the third volume, the FF have their first encounter with the planet-eating Galactus and his tortured herald The Silver Surfer, and by the fourth volume, the team is regularly beating down baddies from outer realms and innerspace, all while
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continuing to bicker among themselves and question their ongoing commitment to heroism. By the end of this stretch, Lee and Kirby had developed their own formulas, which everyone else would fall back on for the next 40 years.
-- Onion A/V Club: Inventory - 10 Essential Volumes Of The Marvel Essentials Series
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Author
2,640+ Works 26,586 Members
Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber in Manhattan, New York on December 28, 1922. During World War II, he wrote training manuals stateside in the Army Signal Corps while moonlighting as a comics writer. He joined Marvel Comics in the early 1940s and worked there for 60 years. He was a central player in the creation of Spider-Man, the Incredible show more Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and the X-Men. He wrote several books including Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee written with George Mair, Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir written with Peter David, and A Trick of Light written with Kat Rosenfield. He died on November 12, 2018 at the age of 95. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Illustrator
884+ Works 12,058 Members

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Marvel Essentials (Fantastic Four)

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Graphic Novels & Comics
DDC/MDS
741.5973Arts & recreationDrawing & decorative artsDrawingComic books, graphic novels, fotonovelas, cartoons, caricatures, comic stripsHistory, geographic treatment, biographyNorth AmericanUnited States (General)
LCC
PN6728 .F33 .E77Language and LiteratureLiterature (General)Literature (General)Collections of general literatureComic books, strips, etc.
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Reviews
2
Rating
½ (4.27)
Languages
English
Media
Paper
ISBNs
3
UPCs
1