Hoping to overcome Marvel’s sales slump in the early 1960s, comics veterans Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created a team of superheroes. The goal was to revive the business and breathe new life into the superhero genre after 15 years in which it had been pushed into the background by romance, horror, and war comics. Lee wanted, as he put it, “to finally tell the kind of story I myself would like to read.” The Fantastic Four would go on to change the careers and lives of their two creators, and the entire comics industry, forever.

This volume reproduces some of the most iconic moments in the Marvel Universe. In the very first issue, Reed Richards, his best friend Ben Grimm, his girlfriend Sue Storm, and her younger brother Johnny Storm are hit by cosmic rays and crash-land their rocket. When they come to, they discover they have been transformed into Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl, the Thing, and the Human Torch. These emotionally complex characters are not always sure whether their powers are a curse or a blessing. Rather than taking place in a fictional setting, the Fantastic Four stories unfold in New York City, and Marvel heroes regularly cross over into one another’s titles. The artwork is dynamic and the storytelling is entertaining and gripping. Lee and Kirby were to the comics world what John Lennon and Paul McCartney were to pop: it’s hard to separate their individual strengths, but together they were unbeatable.

This XXL volume contains reproductions of pristine original copies of the first 20 issues, opened and photographed in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company (CGC).

In addition to the comics, this volume includes an extensive essay by renowned Marvel writer Mark Waid, a foreword by former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, and original artwork, photographs, and other rarities. Welcome, True Believers, to Marvel’s comics age. Also available as a collector’s edition limited to 1,000 copies.

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