Fantastic Four #36

Name: Fantastic Four #36
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Mar 1965 · Marvel · 0.12 USD

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“The Frightful Four!”

★ 1st appearance — Medusa★ 1st appearance — Medusalith Amaquelin Boltagon★ 1st appearance — Medusalith Amaquelin Boltagon

About this Issue

Fantastic Four #36 delivered two of Silver Age Marvel's most consequential debut appearances in a single issue: the first appearance of Madam Medusa — who would soon be revealed as a member of the Inhuman royal family, making her retroactively the first Inhuman to set foot in the Marvel Universe — and the first team appearance of the Frightful Four, an evil mirror-image of the Fantastic Four that became one of their most enduring recurring villain groups. The issue also dramatically advances the Reed Richards–Sue Storm relationship by publicly announcing their engagement and staging a crossover party with the Avengers and X-Men, cementing the interconnected nature of the early Marvel Universe. The Wizard's consolidation of previously scattered Human Torch villains (Paste-Pot Pete, Sandman) with the mysterious new powerhouse Medusa into a cohesive rival team demonstrated Lee and Kirby's growing confidence in building long-running serial mythology rather than one-off threats.

In "The Frightful Four!", Reed and Sue share a heartfelt moment announcing their engagement, but their joy is cut short when the Wizard assembles a new team of villains to strike at the Baxter Building. Written by Stan Lee and brought to life with dynamic energy by Jack Kirby, Chic Stone, and Stan Goldberg, this classic issue blends personal milestone with escalating threat—setting the stage for a clash that will test the Fantastic Four like never before. The cover by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone captures the tension perfectly.

writer Stan Lee · artist Jack Kirby · inker Chic Stone · colorist Stan Goldberg · letterer Artie Simek · cover Jack Kirby, Chic Stone

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History

The issue was produced by the regular Lee–Kirby machine in late 1964, going on sale December 10, 1964 with a March 1965 cover date. Stan Lee scripted over Jack Kirby's pencils, with Chic Stone on inks and Artie Simek on letters — the same core team that had been steadily escalating the book's ambition through the preceding year. Credits in the issue are unusually spare, listed simply as Stan and Jack's shared work without breaking down individual contributions, consistent with the Marvel Method of the period. The story directly follows the engagement announcement in FF #35 and was clearly conceived as the launchpad for an extended Frightful Four–Inhumans narrative arc that would run through issue #47.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Madam Medusa (Medusalith Amaquelin Boltagon), created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; she appears first in a brief flashback, then in full costume as the Frightful Four's fourth member.
First team appearance of the Frightful Four, composed of the Wizard (who adopts the alias 'Wingless Wizard' and debuts his standard costume in this issue), Paste-Pot Pete, Sandman, and Medusa.
Medusa is retroactively the first Inhuman character to appear in the Marvel Universe; her Inhuman identity was not revealed until Fantastic Four #44, and her amnesia — which left her compliant to the Wizard's control — was later explained in Inhumans Special #1.
The issue's framing story is Reed Richards and Sue Storm's public engagement announcement and party, attended by the full Avengers and X-Men rosters; Spider-Man appears only as an uninvited hand stealing a slice of cake.
Written by Stan Lee, penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by Chic Stone, and lettered by Artie Simek; published March 1965 (on-sale December 10, 1964) at a cover price of 12 cents.
The letters page contains a published letter from Dave Cockrum — then a 22-year-old U.S. Navy sailor and dedicated Marvel fan letterhack — who would later co-create Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus for the 1975 X-Men relaunch.
The issue has been reprinted extensively, including in Marvel's Greatest Comics #28 (1970, with a new Kirby cover), Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four Vol. 4 (2003), Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 2 (2007), Inhumans: The Origin of the Inhumans (2013), and True Believers: Fantastic Four – Frightful Four #1 (February 2019).
The three villain members recruited by the Wizard — Paste-Pot Pete, Sandman, and the Wizard himself — had each previously been solo antagonists of the Human Torch in Strange Tales (#124, #115, and #118 respectively), making this issue a deliberate synthesis of the Torch's rogues' gallery into a team-level threat.