When We First Met - Famous Fantastic Four Firsts!

In this feature we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that. Here is an archive of all the When We First Met features so far! Check 'em out!

Today we look at a bunch of notable Fantastic Four firsts, some collected from previous When We First Mets and some brand new!

The first supervillain the Fantastic Four Fought

That would be the Mole Man, from Fantastic Four #1 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and a mystery inker)...

The debut of the Fantasticar

The Fantasticar debuted in Fantastic Four #3 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky)...

The debut of the Fantastic Four costumes

The FF got their costumes for the first time in Fantastic Four #3 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky)...

The debut of the Baxter Building

The Baxter Building also debuted in Fantastic Four #3 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky)...

The building is not actually NAMED, though, until Fantastic Four #6 (by Lee, Kirby and Dick Ayers)...

when we see the debut of the Fantastic Four belt beam to open the elevator (as well as a brand-new diagram of the building)...

Go to the next page to learn where we first heard the famous catchphrases "Flame on!" and "It's clobbering time!"

First time Johnny Storm shouted "Flame on!"

In Fantastic Four #3 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky), we got perhaps a bit of a precursor to "flame on" when the Thing tells Johnny to "flame off"...

Sure enough, in the very next issue (by Lee, Kirby and Brodsky)...

The first appearance of the Thing's catch phrase, "It's clobbering time!"

Surprisingly, Ben Grimm, the Thing, did not even use the WORD "clobber" for the first ten or so issues of the Fantastic Four. Then he mentions clobbering people a few times, phrases like "Aw, you should have let me clobber them!" or "I can't wait until I get to clobber him." Stuff like that.

Shockingly, though, it was not until the twenty-second issue of the Fantastic Four (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and George Roussos), in a re-match with the Fantastic Four's first foe, the Mole Man, that the Thing finally let his catch phrase loose!

As soon as Lee stumbled upon this phrase, though, he knew he had a winner, as it was in regular usage by the next issue (also by Lee, Kirby and Roussos)...

First Time the Thing Called the Human Torch "Matchstick" and First Time the Thing Called Mr. Fantastic "Stretch"

Reader Aaron asked about a couple of first appearances of popular nicknames courtesy of Ben Grimm, the Thing.

Early on, the Thing's go-to nicknames for the Human Torch were "Squirt"...

and "Hot Head"...

And for Mister Fantastic, it was variations on "Rubber"...

and "Big Brain"...

In Fantastic Four #22 (the same issue that the Thing first said "clobberin' time," the Thing breaks out "matchstick" for the first time...

and the very next issue, he breaks out "stretch" for the first time...

By the way, in Fantastic Four #8 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers), some criminals call the Human Torch "matchstick"...

On the next page, see some notable Invisible Woman moments, like her first kiss with Reed, her first force field and the debut of her son, Franklin Richards!

First time the Invisible Girl used a force field

Reader Joe M. wanted to see the first time Sue used a force field. It happened in Fantastic Four #22, the same issue that saw the first appearance of "It's Clobbering Time"! Written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby and George Roussos

The first time Sue was taken hostage

In Fantastic Four #3 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky), the Miracle Man makes comic book history by becoming the first villain to hold Sue Storm hostage!

First kiss between Reed and Sue

Amazingly enough, the first kiss between Reed and Sue was at their WEDDING in Fantastic Four Annual #3 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta)...

No wonder Namor was so appealing to Sue! Reed wouldn't even KISS her before marriage!

First appearance of Franklin Richards

Franklin was born in Fantastic Four Annual #6 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott), after Reed, Johnny and Ben had to go to the Negative Zone to get something to help with the pregnancy...

First appearance of Valeria Richards

Sue's second child, a daughter, was seemingly stillborn (or miscarried - it wasn't clear for many years) in Fantastic Four #267. In Fantastic Four (Volume 3) #15, however, by Chris Claremont, Salvador Larroca and Art Thibert, we meet Valeria in the future...

This future became a reality through some time travel shenanigans where she was transported as a fetus into Sue and then, in Fantastic Four (Volume 3) #54 (by Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Marin, Karl Kesel, Mark Bagley, Al Vey and Scott Koblish), Sue gives birth, with the aide of Doctor Doom (hence "Valeria")...

Go to the next page for just a pile of random debuts, like the first appearance of the "4" signal, the first time Reed tried to cure Ben Grimm of being the Thing (plus the first time it failed) and some more firsts!

The first appearance of Latveria

Doctor Doom's homeland did not show up until Fantastic Four Annual #2 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Chic Stone)...

First appearance of Thing's Aunt Petunia

In 1964's Fantastic Four #26 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and George Roussos), we get our first mention of Thing's Aunt Petunia...

Over the next eighteen years, Thing would often cite Aunt Petunia, but it was not clear if he wasn't just being colorful.

In any event, in 1982's Fantastic Four #238, John Byrne introduced a woman...

and in the next issue, we learn that SHE is, in fact, the Aunt Petunia of lore...

Pretty clever of Byrne messing with readers' expectations of what Aunt Petunia would look like.

First apppearance of Thing's floating poker game

The idea came about surprisingly late into the history of the Marvel Universe, in 1979's Marvel-Two-in-One #51, by Peter Gillis, Frank Miller and Bob McLeod (it was an inventory story written by Gillis).

Miller was a great artist even back then.

First time Reed tried to cure Ben Grimm of being the Thing/First time Reed failed at trying to cure Ben Grimm of being the Thing

It happened first in Fantastic Four #8 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers) (Reed is trying to hide what he's working on in his lab, so naturally Ben presumes Reed is trying to screw him over...why, I dunno. Then the Puppet Master takes control of him and sends him after the rest of the FF...)...

First appearance of the Fantastic Four "4" Signal

This is a weird one, because it debuted in Fantastic Four #1, but it was originally skywriting...

that then TURNED into a 4!

Weird, huh?

First time the Watcher broke his pledge of non-interference

The Watcher's very first appearance in Fantastic Four #13 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko) had him interfere with a fight between the Fantastic Four and the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes...