Menu Close

Superhero Smash Season III—Audio Issue #46: The Fantastic Four

Original Air Date

  • July 24, 2025

Part 1 Begins

Super Show ID 1: Superhero Smash (0:20)

  • You’re listening to Superhero Smash on WIUP FM 90.1
    • Featuring “The Best in Superhero Music and Comic Book Lore”
  • I’m your host, Dr. Gian Pagnucci, a.k.a. The New Professor X

Heroic Audio Episode Theme: Fantastic Four (:40)

  • The Fantastic Four: First Steps premiers tomorrow, July 24
    • The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) Movie Information & Trailers | KinoCheck

Hero Opening Song (3:21)

  • “4 Mississippi” by Chapel Hart

Super Show ID 2: Superhero Smash (0:30)

  • You’re listening to Superhero Smash on WIUP FM 90.1
    • Focusing on current superhero movies and popular culture events
    • All summer long, I will be playing great music about superheroes as well as music that is featured in superhero movies and shows
    • I also will be talking about comic book history and heroism
    • And you can rest assured that no matter how much super cool stuff I talk about during each episode, you don’t have to worry because Superhero Smash is a NO SPOILERS show!
  • Superhero Smash is aired exclusively on WIUP FM 90.1
  • Contact me, the new Professor X, via email: SuperheroSmash3000@gmail.com

Heroic Instrumental Theme Music (2:28)

  • “Fantastic Four to Be Reckoned With” movie theme song by Michael Giacchino

The Superhero Smash Comic Book Vault (2:00): First Appearance of The Fantastic Four

  • The Comic Book Vault Sound Effect (0:12)
  • The Fantastic Four First Appearance: Fantastic Four #1
    • Fantastic Four #1 CGC 3.0 Off-White Pages - Picture 2 of 3
  • Publication Date: November 1961
  • Publisher: Marvel Comics
  • Creators: Stan Lee (writer) and Jack Kirby (artist)
  • Value: $11,000 on eBay (CGC graded 3.0 on a 10-point scale)

Super Song #1 (4:45)

  • “Four Sticks” by Led Zepplin
  • Legendary drummer John Bonham would play the drums with 4 drum sticks, 2 in each hand

Part 1 Ends (@15 minutes)

Part 2 Begins (@15 minutes)

Super Show ID 3: Superhero Smash (0:30)

Super Secret Origin Story (5:00)

  • The Fantastic Four’s origin story begins when brilliant scientist Reed Richards, one of the smartest men in the world, persuades his girlfriend Susan Storm, her younger brother Johnny Storm. and Reed’s good friend Ben Grimm, who is a pilot, to join him on an unauthorized spaceflight aboard an experimental rocket to beat the Soviet Union to the moon.
  • During the journey, the group’s spacecraft is bombarded by a sudden and intense storm of cosmic radiation. The ship’s inadequate shielding fails to protect them from the rays.
  •  The damaged vessel crashes back to Earth, and the four emerge from the wreckage, discovering that the cosmic rays have mutated their bodies and given them extraordinary powers.
  • Reed gains the ability to stretch his body and limbs as Mister Fantastic. Sue can turn invisible and project force fields as the Invisible Girl. Johnny can generate and control flames and fly as the Human Torch. Ben is transformed into the monstrous and powerful Thing, with super strength and a rock-like hide. The group’s powers are linked to air (Invisible Girl), fire (Human Torch), earth (The Thing), and water (Mister Fantastic, though water is a bit of a “stretch”)
  • The group decide to use their newfound powers to benefit humanity and form the Fantastic Four. They becom public heroes and explorers, operating out of the Baxter Building in New York.
  • Fantastic Four #1 marks the beginning of the Marvel Age of Comics and set the stage for a new kind of superhero team – one that embraced flaws, bickered like a family, and lived in the public eye rather than maintaining secret identities.
  • Fantastic Four #1 actually preceeds Amazing Fantasy #15, which features the first appearance of Spider-Man; Amazing Fantasy #15 was published in August 1962
  • And since I’m talking about dates, it’s the perfect time to feature a song for Johnny Storm, the Human Torch

Super Song #2 (4:51)

  • “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel

Johnny vs. Ben (2:00)

  • In the comics, Johnny often would play pranks on Ben, which always made Ben mad
  • In return, Ben always called Johnny nicknames, like flame head
  • In Fantastic Four #68, though, Ben gets his revenge on Johnny.
  • Johnny, has been newly appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of Fantastic Four, Inc. Johnny takes advantage of his new position by playfully denying Ben advances on his allowance. After enduring a week of this, Ben decides to get even. Ben fills a massive water balloon and drops it on Johnny while Jonny is suntanning.
    • Fantastic Four #68 (Marvel Comics 1967) VF Jack Kirby Joe Sinnott
  • Since Ben got the last laugh in that comic, let me feature a quick song for Ben Grimm

Super Song #2 (1:59)

  • “The Thing” by Pixies

Part 1 Ends (@30 minutes)

Part 2 Begins (@30 minutes)

Super Show ID 4: Superhero Smash (0:30)

Long Lost Hero: H.E.R.B.I.E.! (2:00)

  • In the Fantastic Four comics, H.E.R.B.I.E. stood for Highly Engineered Robot, Built for Interdimensional Exploration
  • Who Is the Fantastic Four's Robot Sidekick, H.E.R.B.I.E.? - Nerdist
  • H.E.R.B.I.E. first appeared in the 1978 animated series called The New Fantastic Four
  • H.E.R.B.I.E. was built by Mister Fantastic and Master Xar of the Xandarians to search for Galactus
  • Galactus was an immortal being who was so gigantic that he was always hungry and would need to consume entire planets to fuel himself
    • How Eternals Sets Up Galactus As The MCU's Next Thanos
  • This made him highly dangerous to earth and all other inhabited planets
  • After appearing in the animated show, H.E.R.B.I.E. was introduced into the comics in Fantastic Four #209
  • In the comics, Doctor Sun was a supervillain from China who transferred his mind into the Xandarian computers and then into H.E.R.B.I.E., making H.E.R.B.I.E. his temporary body
  • Doctor Sun used H.E.R.B.I.E.’s body to construct a duplicate of the Ultimate Nullifier
  • The Ultimate Nullifier was a device Mister Fantastic used to drive Galactus away from Earth
  • H.E.R.B.I.E. could fly, interface with computers, and was a great fire-extinguisher

Super Song #4 (5:29)

  • “Mr. Roboto” by Styx

Super Romantic Interlude: Reed & Sue (2:00)

  • Despite all their bickering, the Fantastic Four were a family anchored by the love of Sue and Reed
  • The couple did have fights and struggles and Sue was even pursued at times by Namor, the Submariner, who was smitten with her
  • In 1991, the couple finally gets married in Fantastic Four Annual #3
    • Fantastic Four Annual #3 Reed and Sue's Wedding | Marvel 1965 | 1st Print FN- | eBay
    • This was a Marvel Milestone event, the first real superhero wedding in comics history
    • In classic Marvel comics style, the issue featured “the world’s most colossal collection of costumed characters crazily cavorting and capering in continual combat!”
    • But the couple made it through those 72 “big pages,” and finally got to have their wedding kiss
    • The Wedding Of Reed & Sue Richards By John Romita (1991) : r/Marvel
    • The bride wore white, including a veil, and the groom wore his blue super suit, and The Thing, ever the emotional one, had to blow his nose to keep from crying as he watched
  • In a later retelling of the story, the band at the wedding was actually the Beatles
  • But as much as I love their music, I need to play a different song to honor Mister Fantastic whose main power, besides his incredible brain, was to be able to stretch his body in any way he could imagine

Super Song #5 (5:29)

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then Comes Susan with a Baby Carriage (2:00)

  • The couple’s son Franklin was born three years later in Fantastic Four Annual #6, although the couple gets caught up in so many challenges that Reed says has been too busy to come up with a name for the baby, to which Sue replies “If we put it off much longer, he’ll be old enough to choose his own name!
    • The birth of Franklin Richards in Fantastic Four Annual #5 from 1968.
  • They later had a daughter they named Valeria
    • Valeria Richards - Wikipedia
  • The family even faced tragedy in 1984’s Fantastic Four #267 when Sue had a miscarriage due to the cosmic radiation still in her body
    • Island Zero: Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four had a miscarriage
  • My heart goes out to anyone who has been through that unbelievably hard loss
  • The family went through a lot of up’s and down’s
  • And thankfully writer/artist John Byrne felt that by Fantastic Four #284 in 1985, Sue had earned the right to discard her Invisible Girl name and become the Invisible Woman
  • So here, in Sue’s honor, and in honor of the other women and men who have had to go through the darkness of losing a child, here’s…

Super Song #7 (2:52)

  • “Invisible” by Zara Larsson

Part 3 Ends (@50 minutes)

Part 4 Begins (@50 minutes)

Super Show ID 5: Superhero Smash (0:30)

R.I.P. Ozzy Osbourne (1:00)

  • The Best Moments From Ozzy Osbourne's Back to the Beginning Concert
  • In case you have not heard, Ozzy Osbourne passed away on Tuesday, July 22
  • He was the lead singer of Black Sabbath and later had a surprise hit reality show on MTV called The Osbournes which also starred his wife and manager Sharon and two of their children, Kelly and Jack
  • The Osbourne family had almost as many problems as the Fantastic Four family
  • Ozzy has a great song, “Bark at the Moon,” which would fit well with the space adventures of the Fantastic Four
  • But since the Fantastic Four and Iron Man sometimes teamed up, and Tony Stark wore a Black Sabbath shirt in The Avengers, in honor of Ozzy Osbourne, here’s the Black Sabbath song featured in 2008’s Iron Man movie
  • Superhero Smash Back Issue Bin (Season I): Audio Issue #6: Iron Man (06/13/23)
  • R.I.P. Ozzy

Super Song #8 (5:55)

  • “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath

Super Show ID 6: Superhero Smash To Be Continued in 2 Weeks! (2:00)

  • Not Quite the Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel
    • I’ll be gone next week, but I’ll be back in 2 weeks to bring you “The Best Superhero Music and Comic Book Lore” in the MCU, the DCU, and our U too!
    • If you are enjoying today’s show, you can catch more Superhero Smash on Thursday mornings at 11:00 a.m. all summer long on WIUP FM 90.1
  • Listen to Superhero Smash on WIUP FM 90.1
  • Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
  • Or email Professor X using the address SuperheroSmash3000@gmail.com
    • I love to hear from the Legion of Superhero Smash Fans
    • Since today’s episode has been all about family, I’m going to give a Superhero Smash Super Shout-out to my sons, Cormac and Loughlin, who suggested a bunch of the songs I featured on today’s show
  • And remember, while Superhero Smash is about the adventures of amazing individuals,
    • “You don’t need superpowers to be a hero. The only thing it takes to be a hero is the courage to do what’s right when someone needs your help.”–Gian Pagnucci

Heroic End Credits Song (3:37)

  • “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge
  • Fantastic Four Family

Part 4 Ends (@60 minutes)