Fantastic Four # 19
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Dick Ayers
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Colorist: Stan Goldberg
Cover Date: October 1961
Rating: 
“Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania” has hit theaters and so far the reviews have been mixed, to say the least, but It seems everybody loves the on-screen portrayal of Kang The Conquerer so this week, I’ll take a look at Fantastic Four # 19, the first appearance of Rama-Tut, another classic Kang variant.
Reed Richards tells the rest of the FF about his visit to a local Egyptian exhibit in a museum where he reads off a hieroglyph about a substance that cures blindness which would definitely benefit Alicia Masters, so with the encouragement of The Thing, the team uses Dr. Doom’s time-machine and travels back to ancient Egypt where they come across Rama-Tut himself; He quickly defeats them and makes them slaves with the expectation of Susan Storm (Who becomes Rama-Tut’s queen); The Thing turns into Ben Grimm and uses the chance to escape and rescues the rest of the team but soon turns into the Thing again and the FF leads a rebellion to overthrow Rama-Tut, soon they find the radioactive isotope that helped restored Rama-Tut’s vision (He was temporality blind when he landed in ancient Egypt)
This is a great story but to me, it felt like an unused Dr. Doom plot that Stan Lee never got around to using but reworked to introduce Rama-Tut. The story itself is very predictable such as the group coming into conflict with each other while the Ben Grimm/Alicia Masters relationship continues to get fleshed out during Stan’s tenure on the title. Reed explains his latest discovery which leads into their latest adventure and encounters the villain. Most of the issue makes it suitable for covering Rama-Tut’s origin, especially the part where he came from the year 3000, then took a liking to the FF’s career but ends up wanting to destroy them. The time-traveling element is amazing, especially for the 1960s but fans of the FF will still enjoy that aspect since Stan Lee loved working in Science Fiction for good measure. Fans of the new Ant-Man & The Wasp movie may find joy in this issue if they manage to track it down or read it in the Marel Masterworks, but the fact that Rama-Tut is another identity for Kang is once again a perfect example of him being a powerful adversary for both The Fantastic Four and The Avengers.
Well, that’s it for me this week. I’ll wrap up my tour of Kang reviews with a story that not only is amazing but it’s a story that I’ve been wanting to review for some time. Thanks for sticking around and I will see you all next time.
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