Final Stan Lee, Jack Kirby collaborations found in Essential Fantastic Four vol. 5

“Essential Fantastic Four, Volume 5″ collects issues #84-110 of what was called at the time “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.”   Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who had collaborated on the book since issue #1, end their partnership here with issue #102.  (Previous Kirby art was reworked for #108.)   John Romita Sr. and John Buscema follow the King, but despite their talents, never reach his heights on the series.

These issues are probably the least of the Lee-Kirby FFs — Doom’s a bit out of character in a multi-part story, and there are some apparent plotholes involving the Inhumans.  But there’s enough here to make it worth reading, especially for Kirby fans.   The best of the lot is probably the four part story in #90-93 in which the Thing becomes a gladiator on an alien world.

Also read:

Amazing Spider-Man #5: One of my favorite comics as a youngster (I had the Marvel Tales reprint) features Doctor Doom challenging Spider-Man.

Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure: Using the original pencils Jack Kirby had turned in, which later were rearranged to partially make issue #108, Marvel released this “lost” Lee-Kirby issue in 2008.

- Matt Price
Comics read in 2011: 1,725. Still to go: 286.