Issue(s): Fantastic Four annual #3
Cover Date: 1965
Title: "Bedlam at the Baxter Building!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Jack Kirby - Penciler
Vincent Colletta - Inker

Issue(s): 40th Annual Wedding Anniversary
Cover Date: Jan 06
Title: "The Life Fantastic"
Credits:
Karl Kesel - Writer
Drew Johnson- Penciler
Karl Kesel, Drew Geraci, & Drew Hennessy - Inker
Tom Brevoort - Editor

Review/plot:
Dr. Doom reads about the wedding of Reed and Sue in the Daily Press...

...and decide to ruin their wedding by using his Emotion Charger to cause just about every super-villain in the marvel universe to attack the FF at their wedding.

    

But the Watcher (once again interfering, but this time in his 'fat man in a dress' persona instead of his early alien form) steps in and lets Reed choose any device from his laboratory.

Reed uses the Time Displacer to send the villains back into their "immediate past" with no memory of what happened. Not sure exactly how that works, but it looks like Doom was really robbed this time.

This issue was mainly just an excuse to print a bunch of massive fight scenes.

It ends with a nice wedding. There's Professor X blowing his identity again by standing (!) next to the X-Men. And it looks like Gabriel Jones has been trying out for Blue Man Group. I like the final two panels with Stan and Jack; it's a cute way to insert themselves without being obtrusive.

It's also worth noting that this issue shows Patsy Walker and her friend Hedy Wolfe in a mainstream Marvel comic for the first time. And they mention Millie the Model as well. Patsy will eventually become the Defender Hellcat.

The reprint in the 40th Wedding Anniversary Special starts with a story where versions of Sue and Reed are pulled throughout time to celebrate the 40th anniversary (real time) of their wedding.

It has a nice nostalgic bittersweet tone to it. It's odd that all the creators in that story except Karl Kesel have a first name of "Drew". Pseudonyms?

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 8 - wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Since the 40th anniversary story involves variations of the FF plucked from various time periods, it can take place just about anywhere. The wedding in the annual takes place between FF 43 + 44. The appearances of all the other characters are so context free they can take place during just about any break in their story lines.

References:

• Dr. Doom could not locate the Hulk or the Sub-Mariner due to the events of Tales To Astonish #72. The two characters are involved in unrelated storylines, so here are separate links for Sub-Mariner and the Hulk. Unfortunately, due to the events of Spider-Man/Fantastic Four #1, i am ignoring the footnote for Namor.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? P - Intro story is a continuity insert

My Reprint: Fantastic Four 40th Wedding Anniversary Special

Alicia Masters: I just know it was the most beautiful ceremony in the whole world!

that's right! never let her forget she's blind!

the very different personalities of the continuity insert Sue Storm versus the Sue Storm in the annual is kinda jarring. with the modern take in the insert, you've got Sue (pre-powers) making sexual innuendos -

"Well, thank me or spank me, Reed -- which'll it be? Hmm? Thoughts?"

versus Sue at the wedding -

"Reed, what does it mean?...Oh, Reed! What will we do?"

i would have preferred if they had tried to match the tone of the 1965 annual since they put the two out together in one book. and also the wedding dress should have matched in both.

wonder why Scarlet Witch is missing from the fight when all the other Avengers in the current line-up show. is it because all the ladies are waiting for the men to clean up the mess so they don't muss up their fancy clothes? Reed clearly says Sue is waiting in the Baxter Building.

There was yet another insert book that adds new bits to the wedding story, called "Marvel Heroes & Legends 1996" that you should check out. They show even more of the battles between the heroes and villains and the main character Phil Sheldon from the Marvels books appears.

Thanks, Jay. I've added this to the What's Missing page. Oddly, i had and read that book at one point so either it's incorrectly filed n my 1996 box and i'll get to it eventually or i lost/got rid of it. I remember thinking it was pretty terrible at the time, but it would have been a period where i wouldn't have properly appreciated Stan Lee scripting something or a jam issue featuring Ditko, both Buscemas, Romita Sr, and Marie Severin. Looks like it will be easy enough to get it back if i don't have it, and i see there was another one that came out in 1997 that i've also added to the Missing page.

"Like my entire life has already been decided."

Don't worry Sue, its not all from your future, I see some Earth-1610 counterparts there!

...

Probably just as well that's not post-Ultimatium Reed though...

You know, the way fnord has it positioned here, it almost looks as if Stan and Jack are also in the Patsy and Hedy panel, standing behind/in between P and H.

This would be the first time I would argue with one of your grades, but only from the perspective of a kid reading comics. As a kid, this would have been great - a comic that has almost every hero and villain from the MU fighting it out. That would be a great introduction for someone who's just looking for some hero comics (although, oddly, no Hank or Jan - they didn't get invited?).

But, thinking about it, this is clearly an example of what I call "late 90's Oakland Raiders syndrome". Like those teams, the villains here have a tremendous amount of talent and power, but like those teams, they have no chemistry and they get beaten by a group of heroes who really they should be able to soundly defeat.

I just did a check and basically both Hank and Jan vanish completely from the radar between the end of their Tales ot Astonish run and the storyline where they rejoin the Avengers. Characters vanishing these days is rather regular with how massive the universe is and how many they have to keep track of, but for this time period it just feels bizarre to have those two not even attend one of the key moments of this period.

At least Jan made the cover--she's under the credit box.

I meant the "corner" box, of course.

And here's a link to the cover.

http://www.comics.org/issue/18847/cover/4/

But...so is Sub-Mariner and the Hulk and they're not there either. Its like that cover is just an excuse to draw the entire Marvel universe of that moment and just say in the middle "and oh yeah, Reed and Sue get married in this issue". Not necessarily the best thing to advertise two characters getting married.

Arguably the Puppet Master's appearance in STRANGE TALES #133 takes place after this story, as he has his original appearance here. Could the problem be solved by placing the Torch and Thing stories from STRANGE TALES #132-#134 between FANTASTIC FOUR #43 and this issue?

Luke, i don't think it matters, since the Puppet Master again has a different appearance the next time he appears (closer to the one in ST #133, but still different). I've long believed that the Puppet Master just uses a series of puppet bodies for himself.

The MCP has this after ST #133 for Puppet Master, and they were following the Marvel Indexes. I don't want to touch the placement because there are a lot of contingencies (Journey Into Mystery #116, Uncanny X-Men #12-13, and probably a lot of other things cascading out of those). So unless it definitely can't work, i'll stick with the current placement.

Thanks, fnord. My brain skipped a track: placing #133 BEFORE this issue wouldn't solve the problem anyway. It would have to be after.

Since the villains are transported to "the immediate past" at the end of the annual, one could theorise the Puppet Master was sent back a lot further and in the alternative timeline thus established had his plastic surgery etc.

I've always LOVED this issue because as a kid having practically everybody in one story appealed to me. There was a great deal of Stan and Jack's brand of humor so it was a lot of fun to read.

However it was not as has been claimed the first superhero wedding story. DC's Aquaman had gotten married a few months earlier to Mera.

I was just now skimming through Fantastic Four #358, where I discovered a pin-up, by John Romita Sr., of Sue's and Reed's wedding, on the very last page.

The pin-up was probably made in 1991, but I thought it was noteworthy that it showed the Wasp, in costume and flying around the wedding scene-- I'm calling attention to this because a few people commented here that the Wasp, AKA Jan Van Dyne, was only featured on the cover of FF Annual #3.

It also showed Professor X, apparently standing up on his own two legs, as a member of the wedding. I hadn't noticed that when I read the annual, but fnord12 did.

The scene as shown by Romita was similar to one shown by Kirby in this annual, but from a different angle. It's the scene at the top of the last interior page, as shown in one of the scans above.

Despite not being seen during the issue, Jan must be at the wedding somewhere because she mentions seeing Patsy Walker there in Avengers #141 (vol.1).