COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Fantastic Four 1 Apparent SA
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Grade:
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9.4
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Page Quality:
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OFF-WHITE TO WHITE
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Pedigree:
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TRIMMED
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Certification #:
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0125053001
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Owner:
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Mississippi Mudcats
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Fantastic Four #1, along with Amazing Fantasy #15, are the two biggest books of the Marvel Silver Age. The iconic cover features the Fan 4, before donning their uniforms in Issue #3, tangling with one of the Mole Man’s rock monsters.
In the first chapter of the book, in an effort to beat the Communists into space, scientist Reed Richards, sister and brother Sue and Johnny Storm, and pilot Ben Grimm sneak off into space in a rocket. In space, the four are bombarded by cosmic rays.The auto-pilot lands the ship back on Earth, where they find themselves physically transformed and possessing remarkable new abilities. Sue can turn invisible. Ben has transformed into an orange, muscular "thing" with super-strength. Reed's body became highly malleable, allowing him to stretch into any shape, while Johnny's body bursts into flame, and he can fly. They decide to use their abilities to become the super-team known as the Fantastic Four and assume the individual names of Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch, and the Thing.
The remainder of the books introduces us to Harvey Elder, alias the Mole Man. Elder, a short, fat, bizarre looking individual, having been ridiculed by humanity, went off alone in search of the legendary land at the center of the earth. Eventually, he washed ashore on Monster Isle. Making his way through a cavern, he was caught in an avalanche and rendered almost blind. However, due to his other heightened senses taking over, he mastered the subterranean creatures and built himself an underground empire.
In the final chapter, the FF manage to thwart the Mole Man’s plan to invade the surface, but he remains at large and will reappear again in FF #22.
Fantastic Four #1 is one of those books where, because of the high value, the population of restored books approaches that of unrestored ones. This book looks great, but it has been trimmed, which means I only spent a fraction of what I would have for an unrestored 9.4. I purchased this book on e-bay from another collector several years ago-unfortunately, e-bay records only go back so far.
Some day, finances permitting, I would like to buy one with a universal label: I can dream, can’t I LOL. But in the meantime, we also own a 9.8 signature series Golden Record Reprint, Western Penn Pedigree, which itself dates from 1966 and was signed by Stan Lee on 9/4/2010. Because I do not have a scan of the 9.4, I have posted a scan of the Golden Record Reprint.
On the 9.4, we purchased it off an E-Bay listing many years ago. Even restored, it seems to have basically quadrupled in value since that time.
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