A review by jbleyle63
Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee

5.0

With Jack Kirby's birth centennial in 2017 and Stan Lee's passing in 2018, I started reading the Marvel Masterworks series mostly with an eye to skimming through them quickly just to get a taste for both during their peak collaborative years together. I've wound up going through every panel of these wonderful collections. This volume featuring the first ten issues of The Fantastic Four is really where Marvel got its start. Sure the stories are pretty campy but the imagination of Lee and Kirby still holds up today. Especially loved the meta "The Return of Doctor Doom" from issue #10 where the two creators appear as their comic creating selves. Also a plus in this volume are the introduction and afterword essays by Stan Lee where he recounts not just the creation of the Fantastic Four but also provides a historical survey of the comic book industry from its Golden Age beginnings to the Silver Age.