Fantastic Four #35
Fantastic Four #35 is a genuine crossroads issue of the Marvel Silver Age: it delivers the first appearance of Dragon Man, a Jack Kirby-designed android who would recur across Marvel continuity for decades, while also serving as the issue in which Reed Richards proposes to Sue Storm — the emotional milestone that sets the trajectory toward their marriage in Fantastic Four Annual #3. The campus setting lets Stan Lee weave in cameo appearances by Professor X, Scott Summers (Cyclops), and Peter Parker, making this one of the earliest issues to treat the expanding Marvel Universe as a genuinely shared world where characters from completely different titles could credibly cross paths without a formal crossover. As a showcase for Kirby's creature-design instincts — Dragon Man stands alongside the Mad Thinker's android as proof of his gift for making mute, oversized creations compelling through visual personality alone — the issue exemplifies the Lee-Kirby engine at full creative speed.
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The issue was written by Stan Lee, penciled by Jack Kirby, and inked by Chic Stone, with lettering by Artie Simek; the cover was inked by Dick Ayers (a credit that required later correction via the Grand Comics Database). It went on sale in November 1964 with a February 1965 cover date, placing it squarely in the middle of the Lee-Kirby collaborative run that defined the first 102 issues of the series. Lee acknowledged in the issue's own letters page that he and Kirby deliberately concealed the cameos of Peter Parker, Professor X, and Cyclops from the cover — an unusually restrained bit of editorial showmanship for a Bullpen that normally trumpeted every guest appearance.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Dragon Man (Draconus), a massive dragon-like android created by Professor Gregson Gilbert and animated through Diablo's alchemy — Dragon Man would return as early as Fantastic Four #44 (November 1965) and continued appearing in Marvel comics for decades.
- First appearance of Professor Gregson Gilbert, Reed Richards' former State University professor and Dragon Man's creator.
- Second appearance of Diablo (Esteban Corazón de Ablo), who first appeared in Fantastic Four #30 (September 1964); he escapes Transylvanian imprisonment and uses his alchemical powers to bring Dragon Man to life before both are swept into an underwater cave at Dead Man's Lake.
- Reed Richards proposes to Sue Storm at the end of the issue, at the campus 'sweetheart tree' — the formal engagement that leads directly to their wedding in Fantastic Four Annual #3.
- Cameo appearances by Charles Xavier (Professor X), Scott Summers (Cyclops), and Peter Parker (Spider-Man), with the Fantastic Four unaware of Xavier's and Summers' secret identities; this marks the first time Reed Richards meets Professor X in-continuity.
- Written by Stan Lee, penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by Chic Stone, lettered by Artie Simek; cover pencils by Kirby with inks by Dick Ayers (cover ink credit was originally misattributed to Chic Stone and later corrected).
- The story's title is 'Calamity on the Campus!' and was released with an on-sale date of November 8, 1964, carrying a February 1965 cover date.
- The issue has been reprinted multiple times, including in Marvel's Greatest Comics #27 (June 1970), Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four Vol. 4 (2003), the Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 2 (2007), the Fantastic Four Epic Collection Vol. 3 — The Coming of Galactus (2018), and as a standalone True Believers: Fantastic Four — Dragon Man #1 (February 2019); the story was also loosely adapted as 'Calamity on the Campus,' Season 1, Episode 9 of the 1978 DePatie-Freleng animated series The New Fantastic Four (aired November 11, 1978), with Diablo written out and the setting relocated to St. Louis.
Cast · 40 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Diablo takes control of the Dragon Man android and wreaks havoc on the Empire State campus.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).