The Fantastic Four Get Animated

Mr. Fantastic. The Invisible Girl. The Human Torch. The Thing. On their own, they may not look like much, but together, they make up the Fantastic Four. Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and debuting in 1961, Fantastic Four was a high point in the Silver Age of comics. Featuring characters who battled themselves and their own flaws almost as much as the villains, the book set the stage for how we see Marvel Comics today. Spider-Man, X-Men, The Avengers, and the rest of the Marvel universe as we know it would have never existed had the Fantastic Four not paved the road.

With such success, it was no surprise that Marvel would expand their empire by taking their characters to the small screen. The Marvel Super Heroes premiered in 1966, and on September 9th, 1967, both Hanna-Barbera's Fantastic Four and Grantray-Lawrence's Spider-Man began airing on ABC. But while the latter is remembered for its theme song, its place in Ralph Bakshi's career, and for achieving meme status, Hanna-Barbera's take on Marvel's first family is...well, kind of forgotten. Lost in a sea of animated adaptations of Marvel characters, the show has rarely been seen since the nineties, and due to its tricky legal status, it is likely to stay that way. And that's a shame because Fantastic Four is actually a lot of fun. 

Okay, it's no Batman: The Animated Series, and like most Hanna-Barbera action cartoons, it doesn't come close to the greatness of Jonny Quest, but I've always enjoyed this series. I'd even argue it's the best onscreen version of the characters, rivaled only by the second season of the Fox Kids version (don't bother with the first). For starters, it had an excellent voice cast. Gerald Mohr and Paul Frees as Mr. Fantastic and The Thing respectively are the standouts, but everyone fits their characters like a glove. The show had excellent character designs, brought to us by the extremely underrated Alex Toth. And, unlike many other Fantastic Four adaptations, the show stuck to the books and jammed every half-hour with some Kirby/Lee goodness. I maintain that their take on the Galactus storyline is the best we've gotten thus far. Sure, he's no giant, but it beats being a cloud! 

In a nutshell, those are my thoughts on the Hanna-Barbera Fantastic Four cartoon. As much as I like discussing Flintstones, Top Cat, and so on, I also enjoy discussing the more obscure sixties Hanna-Barbera productions, and considering that this one also crosses into my love of comics, it seemed inevitable that I'd discuss this one. And with a new Fantastic Four flick coming to theaters this summer, this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Check back throughout the month for posts highlighting the show's cast, storyboards, videos, and more. Until then, have a fantastic weekend!