Fantastic Four Annual #5
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFantastic Four Annual #5 is one of the densest single issues in the Lee-Kirby run, stacking three landmark events into 55 pages. It delivers the first appearance of Psycho-Man — a Microverse technocrat who wields emotion-control technology and operates his human-sized robot body by remote, a villain concept that would resonate for decades — alongside the Silver Surfer's very first solo adventure, titled 'The Peerless Power of the Silver Surfer,' previewing the introspective cosmic tone that would define the character's own ongoing series a year later. The issue also carries one of the most consequential domestic disclosures in the entire Silver Age: Reed Richards announces that Sue is pregnant, a story beat the Fantastic Four Annual format had been building toward since their 1965 wedding, and one that threads directly into the birth of Franklin Richards in Annual #6. As part of the tradition — Sub-Mariner crowned king in Annual #1, Doom's origin in Annual #2, the Richards wedding in Annual #3 — Annual #5 confirmed that the oversized format was Marvel's preferred stage for its biggest continuity milestones.
In "Divide--and Conquer!", the Fantastic Four face a crisis as the Invisible Girl shares the shocking news of her pregnancy, testing the team's unity. With tensions rising, the Human Torch and the Thing forge an uneasy alliance with the Black Panther and the Inhumans to confront the dangerous Psycho-Man.
In "The Peerless Power of the Silver Surfer," the Silver Surfer encounters a sentient machine abandoned by the mad scientist the Thinker, its mind burdened by the pain of existence. Moved by its suffering, the Surfer grants it a physical form—only to face the creature’s fury when it rejects its own grotesque shape, turning on all it sees, including the very being who gave it life.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Written and edited by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby with inks by Frank Giacoia, the issue shipped to retailers on August 1, 1967, carrying a November 1967 cover date and a 25-cent cover price consistent with the King-Size Special format. Gray tones on certain interior pages are attributed by the Grand Comics Database to Marie Severin. The issue also contains a short illustrated feature showing Lee and Kirby at work plotting a story together — an unusually self-referential piece that speaks to the duo's awareness of their own creative process and their audience's curiosity about the Marvel Method. Kirby had drawn every Silver Surfer appearance from the character's debut in FF #48 through this annual, and the backup story here served as a bridge between those Fantastic Four guest shots and the launch of the Silver Surfer's solo title in August 1968 with art by John Buscema.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Psycho-Man (unnamed Microverse scientist, pilot of a human-sized remote-controlled armor, wields a Control-Box that manipulates fear, doubt, and hate), created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
- First solo Silver Surfer story, 'The Peerless Power of the Silver Surfer,' written by Lee and drawn by Kirby — the character's only solo outing before his self-titled series launched in August 1968.
- First appearance of Live Wire (Rance Preston, electric-lasso wielder) and Shellshock (Gary Buser, Psycho-Man's armed enforcer), both introduced as Psycho-Man's hired muscle; Live Wire later joins the Circus of Crime.
- First appearance of Psycho-Man's race, the Traanians of Sub-Atomica (the Microverse).
- Reed Richards announces Sue Storm's pregnancy to the Fantastic Four — the narrative seed that leads directly to Franklin Richards' birth in Fantastic Four Annual #6 (1968).
- The lead story, 'Divide -- and Conquer!', pits the Fantastic Four, the Inhuman Royal Family, and Black Panther together against Psycho-Man, one of the earliest multi-team crossover team-ups in the Lee-Kirby era.
- The issue includes pin-up pages of the Fantastic Four and individual Inhumans, plus a short illustrated feature depicting Lee and Kirby plotting a story — an unusually meta bonus feature for 1967.
- The issue has been widely reprinted, including in Essential Fantastic Four Vol. 4 (2005), Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 3 (2015), Silver Surfer Epic Collection Vol. 1 — When Calls Galactus (2014), Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Silver Surfer #1 (2023), and the Fantastic Four Epic Collection Vol. 4 — The Mystery of the Black Panther (2019).
Cast · 35 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in I Fantastici Quattro #39 (1972), I Fantastici Quattro #50 (1973), I Fantastici Quattro #67 (1973), Giant-Size Defenders #1 (1974), Giant-Size Fantastic Four #5 (1975), The Mighty World of Marvel #149 (1975), Spécial Strange #4 (1976), Super Spider-Man #232 (1977), Marvel Superheroes Summer Special #[nn] (1979), Miss Hulk #2 (1981), Une Aventure des Fantastiques #29 (1982), Une Aventure des Fantastiques #31 (1983), Superaventuras Marvel #24 (1984), Nova #79 (1984), Nova #89 (1985), Nova #90 (1985), Marvel Age Annual #2 (1986), Strange Spécial Origines #208 (1987), Marvel Tales #213 (1988), Marvel Masterworks #19 (1991), Marvel Masterworks #25 (1993), Strange Spécial Origines #301 (1995), The Greatest Villains of the Fantastic Four #[nn] (1995), Essential Silver Surfer #1 (1998) + 33 more
Key issues in Fantastic Four Annual
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