Fantastic Four #20: Property Damage 21

Written by: Stan Lee

Drawn by: Jack Kirby

Inked by: Dick Ayers

Lettered by: Art Simek

The fiery ball continues to cause chaos across New York, so Ben decides that if Johnny can have his flame extinguished by dew, a good burst of water from the mains supply will take care of the ball. Without checking to see if any hospitals are relying on this pipe for their water supply, he just decides to rip it from the ground. So, in one swoop, he's adding to the congestion in New York and depriving a neighbourhood of their water. Nice one, Ben.

And nice one, Uatu. Keep up that non-interference!

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #20 on our twentieth episode: The (Pre-Emptive) Return of Captain America (Secret Wars II Continues In This Episode)

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_20.mp3]

Fantastic Four #19: (Ancient Egyptian) Property Damage 21

Written by: Stan Lee

Drawn by: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: S. Rosen

Look, just because the damage occurred 58 centuries doesn't meant that it escapes our notice!

Rama-Tut's plans are falling apart, and three of the Fantastic Four have broken his mental control. As the time-travelling Pharoah attempts to escape, Ben intercedes as only he can - grabbing hold of a giant pillar and breaking it into a cylindrical chunk, using that to roll down the stairs at the guards.

I'm sure the British Museum might wish to chide Ben for his actions, but as he saved the course of history from being affected by a bored inhabitant of the 30th century, I'm sure he'd be let off.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #19 on our eighteenth episode: Pharoahs And Plants, Spiders And Soldiers

[audio FF_Episode_18.mp3]

Fantastic Four #18: Property Damage 20

Written by: Stan Lee

Drawn by: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

We've seen plenty of instances of The Thing causing lots of damage to public property, from sidewalks and streetlamps to motor vehicles and holiday homes. This, however, is the first time that we've seen him cause damage to the New York skyline.

Hurled from atop the Baxter Building by a ram-headed Super Skrull, the only thing stopping The Thing from being hurled into the Hudson river is  the spire of the Chrysler Building. I hope Reed put his knowledge and abilities to good use to help repair the spire as quickly as possible following the fight...

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #18 on our seventeenth episode: No Funny Title Springs To Mind

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/Episode_17.mp3]

Fantastic Four #18: Property Damage 19

Written by: Stan Lee

Drawn by: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

A nice, simple panel today. Ben needs to escape from the crowds in the department store who seem obsessed with ripping off bits of his clothing, and join his team outside to take down the Super Skrull. So, with a tap of his fist, he flattens an escalator and speeds off down it.

As a regular user of the London Underground system, I am reminded at numerous stations of just how long it takes to replace an escalator. I'm sure this department store will be thrilled at the prospect of multiple months of building work to repair the damage done by Ben...

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #18 on our seventeenth episode: No Funny Title Springs To Mind

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/Episode_17.mp3]

Fantastic Four Annual #1: Property Damage 18

Written by: Stan Lee

Drawn by: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

Should I really include this? The cannon gun is not public property, nor is it privately-owned individual property. It's a weapon, a tool of war, placed in the streets by an invading force. Surely destroying the enemy's weapons during war is par for the course.

Well... yes. But it gets included here, because it's an utterly gorgeous panel of The Thing ramming his arm down the barrel and causing the cannon to blow itself up. How could I not?

Don't forget to let us know your feel-good Fantastic Four reading experiences!

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four Annual #1 on our sixteenth episode: The Best Of Annuals, The Worst Of Annuals.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_16.mp3]

Fantastic Four Annual #1: Property Damage 17

Written by: Stan Lee

Drawn by: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

We've arrived at one of the most important comics published in the early years of the Fantastic Four, the first Annual. This huge comic is probably the largest-scale Fantastic Four adventure published before the Galactus Saga (currently being covered by the podcast - check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #49 here, and we'll be covering Fantastic Four #50 this weekend), and is truly deserving of the description 'epic'.

It starts as a good Fantastic Four story should do, with Ben and Johnny having a spat, and destroying bits of the Baxter Building in the course of their fight. In this case, it's a fire-proof (not asbestos, sadly) vault door, that Ben rather cheekily suggests could be put onto a credit card to cover the costs.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four Annual #1 on our sixteenth episode: The Best Of Annuals, The Worst Of Annuals.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_16.mp3]

Fantastic Four #17: Property Damage 16

Story: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

Ah, the endless hilarity of searching for one of the most brutal dictators on the planet.

A couple of panels earlier, whilst pounding the streets looking for Doctor Doom, Ben had suddenly fallen through an open manhole. Instead of doing the sensible thing of looking for the nearest ladder and safely emerging back onto the street, Ben decided the best thing to do would be smash his way to the street without knowing who or what is standing directly above him.

As luck would have it, he stops a careless driver from running down a careless pedestrian. Which makes it all OK.

Except that it doesn't.

Don't forget to let us know your favourite under-rated Fantastic Four stories!

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #17 on our fifteenth episode: Whence Came The Man of Asbestos

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/Episode_15.mp3]

Fantastic Four #16: Property Damage 15

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

I guess I'm stretching the bounds of this category a little. The idea of Property Damage is to catalogue the sheer volume of destruction caused by The Thing to parts of New York,  both public and private. It's the kind of category I would never apply to The Man Of Steel...

Right now, Ben is smashing up the runway of a nameless planet in the microverse. It doesn't have any effect on our world at all. And yet it's incredibly fun to look at, with Kirby's exaggerated perspective resulting in a barely-visible Thing, but one who is completely animated in his poses. It's absolutely wonderful, which is why it's included here.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #16 on our fourteenth episode: The Return of Doctor Doom

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/Episode_14.mp3]

Fantastic Four #16: Property Damage 14

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

I may have forgotten to mention in Friday's post that Reed forces his potion onto Ben whilst he's doing some spring cleaning, holding a piano a couple of feet into the air. Well, it turns out that when you turn Ben back to his human form, he loses a lot of his strength. And the Fantastic Four lose their pianoforte.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #16 on our fourteenth episode: The Return of Doctor Doom

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/Episode_14.mp3]

Fantastic Four #14: Property Damage 13

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

Today's post comes in form of  moral lesson regarding the charging of special rates for unusual vehicles in parking lots.

Let's say that you had decided to drop your current job and open a parking lot somewhere close to downtown New York. One day, one of the city's most famous super-heroes, the one with the shocking, mutated, rocky appearance, comes to park his car in your lot. You take one look at his unusual vehicle, a module from the Fantasticar, and decide that if he comes from an organisation rich enough to produce such a wacky automobile, he must be capable of paying a premium. So, you charge him double.

What you don't know is that he's on his way to see his sweetheart to tell he that he's about to become the first surface-dweller to set foot in the undersea kingdoms, looking to rescue a team-member from the clutches of a super-powered being, the one who recently attempted to flood New York single-handedly. So, when he decides to stack the other cars in your lot into a giant tower to teach you a lesson, maybe you should think about your pricing policies and revise them to be more even-handed.

After all, you wouldn't want him to come back...

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #14 on our twelfth episode: HYPNOFISH!!!

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_12.mp3]

Fantastic Four #12: Property Damage 12

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

We left Ben surrounded by the elite of the US Army. I'm fairly sure we've yet to establish that his rocky exterior is bulletproof, so one would think that with a couple of dozen rifles pointed at him, Ben would be interested in making friends.7

Instead, he decides to rip up a fire hydrant and - in the next panel - belly dive the erupting water, using it to wash away the soldiers.

But props go out to the two soldiers who, having been told that they're on the hunt for the Hulk, decide to body-tackle an over-sized super-strong monstrous-looking guy.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #12 in our tenth episode: Hulk? Smash!

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/Fantasticast_Episode_10_Final.mp3]

Fantastic Four #11: Property Damage 11

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

Today's lop-sided extract show what a crushing bore Ben can be whilst showing off. Actually, he's not a bore at all, but I couldn't think of another pun related to the images. Maybe something about being under pressure? Nah...

On their way home from their failed comics-buying expedition, the team come across a bunch of kids play-acting at being the Fantastic Four. Always eager to engage with their fans, the team stop and show off for a bit.

Whilst Reed gently stretches out, Sue turns invisible, and Johnny delivers a couple of low-intensity fireballs, coupled with a comics code-pleasing warning about the dangers of playing with fire, Ben decides to wreck some city property, squeezing the poor lamp-post and, presumably, rendering it completely inoperable.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #11 on our ninth episode: Episode 9 - Patriotic Pedestrians Proceeding from Planet Poppup Prefer Poorly Produced Podcasts!

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/Episode_9.mp3]

Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for a chance to win digital copies of every Marvel NOW Fantastic Four and FF title!

Fantastic Four #9: Property Damage 10

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

With all the credits in bold, we hit the age of proper credits in Marvel Comics. Well, unless you were a colourer. Join me after the break to take a look at why Ben has created this intricate taxi-on-lamppost sculpture.

We open Fantastic Four #9 with a plot that has rather a lot of relevance today: Financial worries. Reed has mismanaged the finances of the group, losing pretty much all their money. He's selling off parts of the empire - including the Pogo Plane - to keep the team together. Because there are hardly any heroes in the world at this point - and, let's face it, one of the most popular papers in New York is edited by J. Jonah Jameson - their financial troubles are front page news.

Thus, when Ben tries to get a taxi to go and call on Alicia, the driver refuses to take his business. Which is why Ben whirls the cab over his head and plants it atop the street light. As opposed to, say, just hailing another one.

Ben then follows this up with one of our favourite moments from the early issues: Firing the Fantastic 4 flare (used to gather the team with the utmost urgency to respond to a threat) to summon Johnny to give him a lift in the Fantasticar.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #9 on our seventh episode: S(&)M Studios

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_7.mp3]

Fantastic Four #8: Property Damage 9

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Uncredited Inker: Dick Ayers

Uncredited Letterer: Art Simek

Today's ever-so-slightly wonky panel shows why the Fantastic Four may not necessarily be the best people to call if a prison riot occurs.

So, thanks to his wonderful clay, Phil The Puppet Master has caused a prison riot, whilst simultaneously escaping from the Four on his flying, jet-propelled robot horse. It's not exactly clear why he does either of these things, but these things he does do.

Ben's initial response to the prison riot is to rip a giant hole in the wall, an action not entirely recommended by the authorities. It's not entirely clear why he does this either - his next actions involve hurling criminals into a pile of sand, twisting iron cell doors into a cage, and trapping the escaped prisoners. The same ones who wouldn't have escaped if he hadn't ripped a large hole in the wall.

Still, it makes for a gorgeous visual in an enlarged 2/3 page panel!

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #8 - with special guest Joshua Lapin-Bertone - on our sixth episode: Like A Puppet On A String

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_6.mp3]

Fantastic Four #7: Property Damage 8

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Uncredited Inker: Dick Ayers

We have some beautiful wide-screen action today in this panel from Fantastic Four #7.

As Washington goes mad from the effects of the hate ray, Ben does nothing to quell things by bursting through the street (how exactly did he get underneath the street? The previous few panels had him taking shelter behind a wall) and upending a bus. Definitely proof that the team are a menace to society.

Right?

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #7 in our fifth episode: The Strangest Tales Of All

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_5.mp3]

Fantastic Four #4: Property Damage 7

Fantastic Four #4, page 6, panel 1

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Uncredited Inker: Sol Brodsky

Uncredited Letterer: Art Simek

In this glorious splash panel from the arbitrary start to chapter 2 of this issue, Ben hoists a car above his head, ready to hurl it into Johnny's body. The actual damage comes in the next panel, as he misses and the car crashes through the wall, destroying both the wall and the car. But this was such a nice panel, I couldn't resist posting it, even if I had to bend the rules slightly to do so.

You've got to feel sorry for the guy who owns this garage, though. Since this series began, he's had two walls and two cars belonging to customers completely wrecked because of his continued employment of Johnny Storm. Luckily for Johnny, this is comic-book-world, so instead of getting fired and sued for damages, he has a job for whenever he feels like turning up to do some work.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #4 in our third episode: Super-Villain Cavalcade

Fantastic Four #4: Property Damage 6

Fantastic Four #4, page 5, panel 6

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Uncredited Inker: Sol Brodsky

Uncredited Letterer: Art Simek

We're back to crazy ol' smash-everything-in-sight Ben. All three remaining members of the team have been looking individually for him, and it's Ben who tracks him down to the automobile shop where Johnny occasionally works. How does he choose to enter this building that presumably has an owner and several employees relying on it for their livelihoods? By smashing through the wall. Good going Ben...

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #4 in our third episode: Super-Villain Cavalcade

Fantastic Four #2: Property Damage 5

Fantastic Four #2, page 12, panel 6

Uncredited Writer: Stan Lee

Uncredited Penciler: Jack Kirby

Uncredited Inker: George Klein

Uncredited Colours: Stan Goldberg

Uncredited Letterer: John Duffy

I think this is most extreme example of Property Damage that we've seen to date: The Human Torch destroys a missile launching platform at an army base.

Now, this is all part of Johnny's half-baked plan to draw out the Skrull imposters by pretending to be one of them, allowing him to infiltrate them. Of course, his plan requires that the Skrull impersonating him has gone off on his own for a while, or else he's just the Human Torch acting badly.

But not too badly... note that Johnny destroys an unfinished launching platform. That's still going to be at great cost to tax payer. Your tax dollars, funding silly plans to draw out shape-shifting alien invaders.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #2 in our second episode: Secret Invasion Tie-In

Fantastic Four #1: Property Damage 4

Fantastic Four #1, page 5, 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

The rampage is still on, as in the very next panel, without even fully climbing out of the hole, Ben smashes up a sturdy - and therefore expensive - automobile. We get a small glimpse into the early character of Ben Grimm, as instead of apologising for the damage, he yells at the driver for not seeing him in time. Yes, Ben, because we all drive down the road hesitantly in case a super-strong superhuman should suddenly burst out from the street...

Find our coverage of Fantastic Four #1 on our very first episode: Introductions, Origins and Fantastic Four #1

Fantastic Four #1: Property Damage 3

Fantastic Four #1, page 4, panel 7

Writer: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby

Uncredited inking by George Klein and Christopher Rule

Uncredited colouring by Stan Goldberg

Uncredited lettering by Art Simek

Ben's rampage isn't yet over, as following a brief stroll through the sewers, he decides that the urgency of the flare overrides any concerns regarding public safety.

Find our coverage of Fantastic Four #1 on our very first episode: Introductions, Origins and Fantastic Four #1