“The Hate Monger”
CMRO#96
The Fantastic Four #21
December 1963Written by Stan Lee
Pencils by Jack Kirby
Inks by George BellOne of the few issues of Fantastic Four not to be inked by Dick Ayers in over a year, this latest issue tries to break from the mould a bit thus far established by previous issues and the result is a little less than stellar. While obviously stemming from good intentions, the majority of the Four’s adventure this month which deals with hatred, bigotry and injustice, is a little too plain-faced and simplistic to significantly deal with the themes at hand. Of course, this was a good fifty years ago, so something as mainstream as a kids’ comic book making even a small go at such themes is somewhat admirable. Nevertheless, the whole thing just never comes together—especially with the bizarre twist at the end. Usually it’s fun to see these guys fight in amongst themselves, but this time it just drags on and on. Oh well, it’s not all bad—but in an issue centred on hate, there isn’t much of the stapled Fantastic Four fun and excitement to be found here. Just half-baked politics and ironic flag-worshipping. Probably the poorest issue in the series since #2.
MY SCORE: 3.5 (out of 10)
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