Trivia / Fantastic Four (1961)

• Official Fan-Submitted Content: The name of the son of Reed and Sue was not decided by Stan and Jack: they were open to ideas from the fans. Someone proposed Franklin, and it stuck. Prior to the kid, Franklin was the name of the father of Sue and Johnny, who died saving the team from the Skrulls. It makes all sense that they would name their son after him.
• Recycled Script: In issue #10 the Fantastic Four are discussing ways to contain Dr. Doom forever. The Thing proposed to bury him at some remote location and then leave a giant rock on top of it, so he can't escape. This idea was expanded and turned into an actual plot when they introduced Diablo.
• Science Marches On: Issue #13 has the Fantastic Four beating Red Ghost in the race to the Moon. The real US and Soviet Union were in the race to the Moon by those years, and science was advanced enough that we already had a clear idea what to find there (or, better, what not to find: selenites). Still, the Moon still kept its aura of mystery while it remained beyond human reach. So Lee and Kirby introduced a powerful and mysterious alien from elsewhere, living on the Moon: the Watcher!
• Technology Marches On: In FF #7, an alien has an awesome futuristic device: a portable self-contained TV receiver!
• What Could Have Been: In the initial drafts, the Fantastic Four had Domino Mask, as typical superheroes with a Secret Identity. The published version never used this trope, or the masks
• Stan Lee and Jack Kirby achieved the record to the longest writer-artist collaboration in a comic book. They held that record for decades, until they were beaten in the 2000s by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley in Ultimate Spider-Man.

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