Database: Stories

• Fantastic Four #1 by Stan Lee -- Using some of Martin Goodman's swiped ideas as a springboard, Stan outlined what he thought the first appearance of the Fantastic Four should look like. It was interpretted and laid out by Jack Kirby.
• Giant-Size Fantastic Four #1 by John Byrne -- In the early 1970s, John was still trying to break into the comics industry. During that time, he wrote and drew a story; elements of which would later work their way into continuity a decade later. This is the original story John wrote in his days as aa pre-professional.
• Fantastic Four: Fathers and Sons by Danny Fingeroth and Al Milgrom -- According to Dan himself, "'Fathers and Sons' explores that relationship [between Nathaniel and Reed Richards] and several other actual and metaphorical father and son relationships, including those between Reed and Franklin, the Mad Thinker and Quasimodo, as well as the Vision and his twin children (who were later established to not be "real")... I pitched the project to the then FF editor, who loved it and gave it the go-ahead. As time went on, the story became less and less in line with developing Marvel continuity. And since it wasn't scheduled, it fell between the cracks."
• The Young Fantastic Four by Dwayne McDuffie -- In Dwayne's own words, "The Fantastic Four has always been my dream book. When I sold this graphic novel, I thought the news was too good to be true. It was. My story was rendered moot by the new continuity imposed by a Roger Stern Dr. Doom/Dr. Strange graphic novel. Not only did Roger's story kill my project, the damned thing was so incredibly well done, I couldn't even bitch in good conscience. I later used some of the material, in altered form, in an issue of What If?"
• The Quest for the Eleventh Ring by Joe Kelly and Walter McDaniel - In Marvel's early days of experimenting with online content, they tried publishing a weekly newsletter. After a few issues, they began running a 13-week serial featuring the Fantastic Four against the Mandarin. This is a collection of pages from those "Marvel Messengers" featuring the entire saga. (Warning: This file is over 10 Mb and will take some time to download!)
• Grim Temptation by Joe Kelly and Walter McDaniel - This is a collection of pages from the aforementioned "Marvel Messengers" featuring a young Victor Von Doom, his mother (curiously named "Magda" here) and the Thing in a second storyline. Not entirely suprising, this was the last story included in the "Marvel Messengers" experiment. (Warning: This file is over 13 Mb and will take some time to download!)
• Big Town #1 by Steve Englehart - This is the original script written for the first issue of Big Town. Amidst some confusion, the editors (unbeknownst to the writer) made some changes to the script before it was sent to the letterer. Collected here is the original script (provided by Marvel), with red highlights noting the portions that were changed.
• Fantastic Four volume 3 #35 by Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marín -- This is the original plot treatment Carlos and Rafael turned in to begin their run on the Fantastic Four. It was revised and re-written and would later become Fantastic Four #50. In Rafael's words, "You'll see there are some changes with this plot and the final version, as number 50 is tied to the continuity we had made in fifteen issues or so. You'll see too this plot has the dialogues and captions, as we originally intended to write the book by ourselves." Provided by Rafael Marín.
• Fantastic Four volume 3 #47 by Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marín -- This is the original plot treatment from which Carlos drew the story. It was then passed to Jeph Loeb to script. Provided by Rafael Marín via Rich Bellacera.
• Fantastic Four volume 3 #48 by Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marín -- This is the original plot treatment from which Jeff Johnson drew the story. It was then passed to Jeph Loeb to script. Provided by Rafael Marín via Rich Bellacera.
• Fantastic Four volume 3 #49 by Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marín -- This is the original plot treatment from which Carlos drew the story. (Rafael notes that "as an artist, Carlos is always including some last [minute] changes.") It was then passed to Jeph Loeb to script. Provided by Rafael Marín.
• Fantastic Four volume 3 #50 by Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marín -- This is the original plot treatment from which Carlos drew the story. The issue was part of Marvel's "Nuff Said" month, where all of the stories were to be told only with pictures. No dialogue or captions were added. Provided by Marvel.
• Fantastic Four volume 3 #51 by Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marín -- This is the original plot treatment from which Mark Bagley drew the story. It was then passed to Karl Kesel to script. Rafael notes, "Carlos and I are amazed at how Mark intepreted the plot... and how well Karl scripted it!" Provided by Rafael Marín.
• Fantastic Four volume 3 #511 by Mark Waid -- This is the original (nearly) full script from which Mike Wieringo drew the story. It is interesting to note that the script never actually refers to God as looking like Jack Kirby although, as evidenced by Mark's comment about God's cigar, the idea was expressly discussed beforehand. Provided by Mark Waid.