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 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.