Part of my “Actually trying to be slightly more deliberate in what I do” approach to 2025 has included the new tradition of reading an issue of Fantastic Four every evening. Specifically, I made the decision to read through the entire Jack Kirby and Stan Lee run of the series — all 104 issues, and the attendant annuals (I think there’s four of them, somewhat fittingly) — an issue per day, no matter how much I might be into it and wanting to rush ahead and read more. I’m also revisiting a bunch of other comic runs that I like an issue per day as well; there’s something to this drip-feed revisit approach that really appeals to me, especially when it comes to going back over favorite comics from my past. It’s weirdly exciting and restorative, in ways that I struggle to understand, never mind put into words.
One of the things about the Fantastic Four issues in particular — and the early Thor stories from Journey Into Mystery, also by Lee and Kirby from basically the same time period, which I started reading as well — is how playful they are. I don’t just mean that in the sense of, “they hadn’t worked everything out and were willing to throw things against the wall and see what stuck,” although that’s always thrilling to see from today’s perspective, especially when it comes to what didn’t stick around.
What I mean is, these stories are often very intentionally silly in a way that feels almost sacrilegious when compared to the self-seriousness of superheroes in pop culture today, and in almost every single case, that silliness is utterly charming and winning to readers. It’s difficult not to enjoy the experience of people in what in the full flush of not just creativity but success, so secure in what they’re doing that they’ll take the piss out of themselves and poke holes in their own work just to see what happens next. The confidence, the swagger, on show in all of this would be infuriating if it wasn’t being punctured right in front of your eyes, so all you’re left with is low key awe at what you’re reading.
If there’s one thing I’d want to see more of in contemporary superhero comics, it’s that willingness — eagerness, even — to embrace silly ideas and notions and run with them, just to see where they lead.