Issue(s): Fantastic Four #56
Cover Date: Nov 66
Title: "Klaw the murderous Master of Sound!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Jack Kirby - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker

Review/plot:
What the hell is Reed Richards up to? Sue tries to find out but the Thing turns off the view monitor just before she can see the effed-up Kirby monster that Reed is messing around with.

Fortunately Klaw shows up before too many questions can be asked. Klaw wants to hold Sue hostage so that the FF will deliver the Black Panther to him. Klaw is now a being made of solid sound (whatever that means).

Sue proves herself to be particularly useless this issue. Actually, all of the FF would have been defeated if the Black Panther hadn't sent Reed a pair of vibranium knuckles via mini-rocket.

Meanwhile the Inhumans are still whining about not being able to leave the hidden city that they never wanted to leave anyway (a point Medusa makes in some particularly strained dialogue this issue) and Johnny and Wyatt mess around with Lockjaw, hoping he'll teleport them to the Great Refuge.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 5 - first Klaw as "solid sound"

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Blackbolt tried to use the absorba-bomb against Maximus' barrier in Fantastic Four #54 (not that you would know it from my review).
  
• Klaw entered his sound converter in Fantastic Four #53.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel's Greatest Comics #43

Kirby made numerous mistakes about what hand Klaw had the sonic claw on. I believe Klaw had the sonic claw put on in the first place because one hand was destroyed by the young Black Panther, and Kirby sometimes gave Klaw both hands anyway.

Klaw had invented a sonic cannon when he had invaded Wakanda during T'Challa's youth. T'Challa turned it on Klaw who was holding a gun on the boy's father. The sonic attack caused the gun to explode destroying Klaw's hand.

Never noticed before how this issue and the last (where Ben fights the Silver Surfer) are a development in Stan and Jack's storytelling. Early on, heroes would often re-fight villains. But here, they return to the three major creations from the last year (Inhumans, Galactus, Wakanda) in different ways, fighting the Surfer because of his changed circumstances, trying to get back into the Great Refuge and fighting Klaw because of his new powers. It also clearly showed that they felt confident in what they had been creating recently. What with Jack's more interesting art, 1966 might be the peak of the Jack / Stan years on FF.