Fantastic Four #53

History

The issue was written by Stan Lee and penciled by Jack Kirby — the same partnership that had been producing what editor Robert Greenberger later described as perhaps the most fertile period of any monthly Marvel title — with inking by Joe Sinnott and lettering by Artie Simek; the cover was also a Kirby-Sinnott collaboration. It was released on newsstands on May 10, 1966, carrying an August 1966 cover date, at a cover price of twelve cents. The creative team worked in the Marvel Method, meaning Kirby's penciled pages drove the plot, with Lee scripting dialogue afterward, a process that has made the precise apportioning of credit for the Black Panther concept a subject of ongoing discussion among comics historians. A notable artifact inside the issue is the letters page, which includes a fan letter from a then-young Dennis O'Neil — the same writer who would later co-create Ra's al Ghul and reshape Batman at DC Comics — whom the editorial note identified as having recently joined Marvel as an assistant.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Title: 'The Way It Began!' — script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, letters by Artie Simek; cover date August 1966, on-sale May 10, 1966.
• Second appearance and first full origin of Black Panther (T'Challa), delivered in flashback as T'Challa recounts his history to the assembled Fantastic Four and Wyatt Wingfoot.
• First appearance of Ulysses Klaw (Ulysses Klaue), the sound-weaponeer who murdered King T'Chaka in front of the young T'Challa while raiding Wakanda for Vibranium — establishing him as Black Panther's defining arch-enemy.
• First appearance of T'Chaka, T'Challa's father and the reigning king of Wakanda at the time of Klaw's original attack; T'Chaka is killed in the issue's flashback sequence.
• First introduction of Vibranium, the rare Wakandan metal that absorbs vibrations, which Lee and Kirby establish as the source of both Wakanda's wealth and Klaw's obsession — a concept that became foundational to Black Panther mythology in every subsequent medium.
• The issue contains the earliest reference to the sacred herbs and rituals that confer the Black Panther's enhanced abilities, passed chieftain-to-chieftain — a precursor to what later comics would formalize as the Heart-Shaped Herb.
• The issue's letters page features a letter from future legendary comics writer Denny O'Neil (Dennis O'Neil), noted in the editorial response as having already joined Marvel as a staff assistant.
• Collected in Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 2 (Marvel, 2007) and reprinted in Marvel's Greatest Comics #40 (January 1973), as well as in international editions including The Mighty World of Marvel (Marvel UK, 1974), a French-language Éditions Lug reprint, and a Spanish Panini facsimile edition.

Cast · 14 characters

Full credits

Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers