New Heroes

It was on a rainy Saturday afternoon in November of 1961 when I first saw it. My neighbor Paul Avis had picked up some new comics in Camden, and this one was different. The cover featured a quartet of superheroes battling a green creature who was coming up from beneath the sidewalks. One of the quartet was a human torch, another could stretch his body into any shape he wished. Rounding out the group was a woman who could become invisible, and the fourth was some kind of superhuman thing with orange lumpy skin and the strength of Hercules.
The artwork had a raw quality, it wasn't slick like the comics from DC, the most popular of the day. This was the start of something new, and I was one of the few to see it: the very first issue of The Fantastic Four.
The Fantastic Four was a story for our age, the Atomic Age-The Space Age. They were testing a rocket ship in outer space, and were exposed to cosmic rays. The radiation endowed them with powers beyond those of mortal men, so their status in the world was an accident. They chose to use their powers for the good of mankind, and a comic book legend, a comic book universe, was born.
Reed Richards- leader of the group. A bit too serious, a little dull. His power was the ability to stretch his body into all kinds of shapes, reminiscent of Plastic Man from the DC line. Reed would be known as Mr. Fantastic.
Sue Storm/Richards- Sue would become Reed's wife. Hers was the power to become invisible, so she would be known of course, as Invisible Girl.
Johnny Storm- Sue's teenage brother. Johnny's body became engulfed in flames. He would become The Human Torch.
Ben Grimm- Their loyal friend. A test pilot whose body was turned into a grotesque mass of orange lumps, endowed with superhuman strength. He would call himself The Thing.
This was a new comic book company- Marvel it was called.
For years I had been reading their western titles under the Atlas brand name.
Kid Colt, Rawhide Kid, Ringo Kid, they all had Kid in the name. There were also some odd and rather scary-looking titles that we sometimes picked up. Journey into Mystery, and Strange Tales. The covers were kind of lurid, so I tended to stay away from those. Millie The Model? No, that was a girl's comic, and besides, it was pretty lame, a lot like Archie and Jughead.
I didn't realize it at the time, but during the summer I had read the very first Marvel comic, another find from Paul Avis. Amazing Adventures it was called, and there was a dinosaur on the cover. They weren't on the newsstand in Woodbury yet, so I only got hold of them when Paul would come back from his visits to Camden.
The Fantastic Four would stir our imagination. The art by Jack Kirby and the witty dialogue from Stan Lee. Marvel would talk to its readers, and there would be letters pages with snappy answers from the editors. Deadly villains like Doctor Doom, and cosmic ones like Galactus. The Silver Surfer would come sailing through the galaxy, and the Sub-Mariner would be reborn.
Jack Kirby's art would get more astounding and complex with each issue, and Stan's plot lines would have us clamoring for more.
It was the dawn of a new age, and I was there from the beginning, eagerly awaiting new characters and stories from the Marvel Bullpen.
They wouldn't be long in coming.
One of them would be amazing.