The second group of ten issues of the “World’s Greatest Magazine” is not so great. The stories remain formulaic, often beginning with the Thing and Human Torch acting like a couple of seven-year-olds fighting, Reed pining for Sue who can’t understand her feelings for the Sub-Mariner, and plots that resolve themselves easily in one issue. The only bright shining moment is that Lee finally gives the Invisible Woman some more powers other than just the ability to make herself invisible. Only for the dedicated fan. ( )

(This review seems to be appearing under both volumes 1 and 2 for some reason, but is only meant for the 2nd one.)

I'm not that big of a Fantastic Four fan, but some of these stories were a lot of fun. Kirby's art is excellent, as always, and Lee's writing is considerably better than the first volume. Their stories about Namor or Doctor Doom are consistently good, and they get two stories each in this collection. For pure stupid fun I loved the Red Ghost, a Soviet spy with a team of super-powered trained apes.

In the introduction, Stan Lee mentions the flood of hate mail he got for introducing the Impossible Man. The character is pretty annoying (his powers basically boil down to being the most obnoxious tourist in the galaxy), but there are so many ridiculous villains in early Marvel books (see my previous comment about the Red Ghost), I really didn't think he stood out that much. ( )

The Fantastic Four was Marvel's premier team of superheroes, miles above such groups as the Avengers and the X-men. The team was more cohesive, the characters more interesting and the stories and writing tighter. ( )

This second volume of reprints from the beginning of The Marvel Age Of Comics shows Stan Lee and Jack Kirby building on the first 10 issues as they set about trying to live up to the claim made on each cover: The World's Greatest Comic Magazine.
Dr Doom and The Sub-Mariner are back and are joined by new villains such as The Super Skrull, The Red Ghost and his superpowered apes and The Mad Thinker and his androids. On top of this issue 12 gives us the first of many battles between The Thing and The Hulk. ( )