Fantastic Four#2

Fantastic Four #2

Jan 1962 · Marvel

📊 ~58,421 copies sold its debut month

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★ 1st appearance — Skrulls

About this Issue

Fantastic Four #2 (January 1962) introduced the Skrulls — Marvel's shape-shifting extraterrestrial empire — to comics, giving the nascent Marvel Universe its first truly cosmic antagonist and a conceptual engine that writers would exploit for decades, culminating in the company-wide Secret Invasion event nearly half a century later. Only the second Marvel superhero comic of the Silver Age, it also planted what would become one of the medium's most durable narrative devices: the idea that society turns against its own protectors, a moral ambiguity absent from contemporary DC heroes that would echo directly into Spider-Man's press problem and the outcast status of the X-Men. Reed Richards defeating an alien fleet not with firepower but with pages clipped from Lee and Kirby's own pre-superhero monster comics is a moment of gleeful, almost postmodern invention — the Marvel Universe acknowledging its own publishing history to save the world. The three Skrulls hypnotized into believing they are cows became a canonical loose thread that later writers referenced in Avengers #89–97, Fantastic Four Annual #17, and beyond, making this issue a structural keystone woven into Marvel continuity at every subsequent scale.

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History

Written by Stan Lee and penciled by Jack Kirby under the collaborative framework that would soon be formalized as the 'Marvel Method,' the issue was produced while the title was still published bimonthly, less than three months after Fantastic Four #1's unexpectedly strong commercial reception had convinced Lee to stay in comics. Longtime Marvel editor Tom Brevoort, analyzing the page-by-page construction, concluded that Kirby's storytelling hand was more dominant in issue #2 than in #1 — Kirby apparently choreographing and laying out most pages with less editorial art-direction from Lee than before. The issue carried no formal creator credits in the manner of the era; the inker has been the subject of prolonged scholarly debate — for decades Dick Ayers was the default attribution, but detailed stylistic analysis by Timely-Atlas experts Michael Vassallo and Nick Caputo, confirmed by Masterworks editor Cory Sedlmeier, now credits George Klein as the primary inker (with possible alterations by Sol Brodsky), and comics historian Mark Evanier concurs. The letterer was John Duffy, and Stan Lee served as editor.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of the Skrulls, the shape-shifting alien empire created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby — one of Marvel's most enduring extraterrestrial villain races, later central to the 2008 crossover event Secret Invasion.
Cover-dated January 1962; the second issue of the Fantastic Four series and only the second Marvel Universe superhero comic of the Silver Age, published bimonthly.
The story is structured in four named chapters: 'The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space!,' 'Prisoner of the Skrulls,' 'The Fantastic Four Fight Back,' and 'The Fantastic Four Captured.'
Reed Richards defeats the Skrull invasion fleet by showing the alien commander pages clipped from Lee and Kirby's pre-superhero Marvel monster anthology comics (Strange Tales, Journey Into Mystery), convincing the Skrulls that Earth's true defenders are too powerful to fight — one of the earliest instances of the Marvel Universe referencing Marvel Comics itself.
Three of the four Skrull infiltrators are hypnotized by Reed Richards into believing they are cows and left in a field — a plot detail Marvel continuity later revisited in Avengers #89–97 (the Kree-Skrull War), Fantastic Four Annual #17, and Skrull Kill Krew Vol. 2 #1.
Inking credit was historically attributed to Dick Ayers but modern comics scholarship, including analysis by Michael Vassallo, Nick Caputo, and confirmation by Marvel Masterworks editor Cory Sedlmeier, credits George Klein as primary inker, with possible alterations by Sol Brodsky; the issue carried no formal printed credits.
Ben Grimm briefly reverts to human form after passing through cosmic rays on the return journey from the Skrull mothership — an early use of the Thing's tragic humanity as a recurring story beat.
The issue has been reprinted in numerous collected editions, including Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four Vol. 1, the Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The World's Greatest Comic Magazine, the Marvel Comics Library: Fantastic Four Vol. 1, the Penguin Classics Marvel Collection, Secret Invasion: Rise of the Skrulls (2018), True Believers: Fantastic Four – Skrulls #1 (2019), and a Facsimile Edition (April 2025).