Fantastic Four #1, page 4, panel 1
Writer: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby
Uncredited inking by George Klein and Christopher Rule
Uncredited colouring by Stan Goldberg
Uncredited lettering by Art Simek
We start our journey right back on the fourth page of Fantastic Four #1, with a panel showing Ben Grimm causing the first of many damages to civil and private property in New York.
This panel comes from the opening sequence of the book, showing the team individually assembling at the request of Mr Fantastic. This set of scenes was designed to show off the team's powers, having them take part in every day activities before spying the Fantastic flare in the sky and responding with urgency and haste. Sue abandons tea with a friend, runs out into the street and hails a taxi, all whilst invisible. Johnny abandons his repair work on an expensive auto, melting the roof as he flies away. And Ben, as seen above, bursts out of a mens clothing store.
Just one question, though: If the door is too narrow for Ben to exit through, then how did he get into the store in the first place?
Episodes eight and twenty of The Fantasticast presented a round up of every trope and catchphrase that we have been tracking. Eagle-eared listeners may note that there was no mention of property damage on this list. Simply, we weren't tracking it when we started the show, and I didn't have the time to invest in rereading the issues to list every instance. But now this blog is up and running, I'm taking the opportunity to backtrack and add these to the list.
Find our coverage of Fantastic Four #1 on our very first episode: Introductions, Origins, and Fantastic Four #1