DRAMA Versus COMMON SENSE - Is It Worth The Sacrifice...?

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Sometimes common sense has to be ignored for the purpose of drama.  Remember when James Bond chases a fleeing bad guy up some kind of crane in Casino Royale when all he really had to do was wait for him to come down at some point and capture him then?  Wouldn't have been as dramatic or exciting though, would it, and it could be argued that Bond was so caught up in the chase that he wasn't thinking clearly when he continued the pursuit and placed his own life in extreme danger.

Same goes for comics.  Take Fantastic Four #1 for example, where Reed Richards fires a flare gun into the sky to capture the attention of his teammates.  Why not just use the little walkie-talkies of the kind that the Invisible Girl uses in issue 4, instead of seemingly causing a panic among the populace by a smoke-message?  (And would three English words in the sky really start rumours of an alien invasion - according to one cop - within seconds of group's name appearing?  Even accepting that aliens might be suspected, it would take time for rumours to spread, surely?)

Then we cut to Susan Storm, taking tea with a society friend.  Why doesn't she simply say she has to leave instead of turning invisible?  The short answer is to show the readers what her power is, but it's kind of contrived.  Then she makes things difficult for herself by pushing through a crowd while still invisible.  Surely if she could be seen, people would get out of her way and not inadvertently impede her, but this doesn't seem to occur to her.

And why not turn visible when she gets into the cab/taxi?  The driver must've heard the door open and close and known he had a passenger, and it makes no sense that Sue would be prepared to trust to sheer chance that the driver would go anywhere near where she wanted to.  My own view here is that Jack Kirby intended that the driver was aware he had a hire and it was purely the fact that the money seemed suspended in mid-air that surprised him, not that he wasn't supposed to know someone was in his cab.  Perhaps an example of a 'failure to communicate' between Stan Lee and Jack for which the 'Marvel Method' became famous for.

We now turn our attention to Ben Grimm, standing inside a men's clothing store.  Despite his bulky form and being swathed in a heavy overcoat, hat, and shades, he seems to have been able to enter the shop without difficulty.  When his attention is drawn to the flare, surely it would make more sense to exit as quietly and as (apparently) easily as he entered, instead of disrobing and crashing through the door frame and drawing unwanted attention to himself?  Of course it would, but this is a short-cut way of showing readers what The Thing looks like and what his 'schtick' is.

And what about that Johnny Storm - what an utter plonker!  He's inside a car, yet 'flames on' and reduces it to molten slag, with no regard for igniting the petrol/gasoline and possibly blowing his pals to kingdom come.  (He seems to have learned his lesson to some degree by the time issue 4 rolls around.)  Interestingly, in Stan's surviving two-page synopsis of the first issue, none of these details are present so it's likely that Jack was responsible for how each individual character was introduced.

These first half-dozen pages of FF #1 are utterly bereft of logic and common sense, but there are other failings throughout the rest of the mag which I'll leave for another time.  Sure, these liberties are taken for the purpose of creating dramatic impact and introducing the characters and their powers as quickly as possible, but does that excuse such 'shoddy' storytelling?  What do you think, readers?  Tell your fellow Crivvies and say how you would've handled this issue had you been in charge.