Startling Stories: Fantastic Four - Unstable Molecules #1

Part of Marvel's mature-readers "Startling Stories" line, this first issue of the four-part miniseries promises a grounded, almost documentary take on the Fantastic Four's origins — billed right on the cover as "The True Story of Comics' Greatest Foursome." Craig Thompson's cover art sets the tone beautifully: a brooding, suited figure sits tensely in a chair beside an American flag, while circular portrait medallions introduce the four principals — Dr. Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm — rendered in a clean, mid-century illustrative style that feels more 1960s realism than superhero spectacle. With writing by James Sturm and interior art by Guy Davis and Robert Sikoryak, this 2003 series clearly aimed to tell a very different kind of Fantastic Four story.