Fantastic Four #94
Fantastic Four #94 earns its place in Marvel history first and foremost as the debut of Agatha Harkness, a centuries-old witch who entered the Marvel Universe under the deceptively humble guise of a governess hired to care for newborn Franklin Richards — and then, without the Fantastic Four's knowledge, casually dismantled the entire Frightful Four with her magic. The issue also marks the first official naming of Franklin Benjamin Richards (honoring both Sue's father and Ben Grimm), a character who would grow into one of the most narratively significant figures in the Marvel multiverse. Harkness's understated entrance — her true power implied to the reader but hidden from the heroes — established the slow-burn mystery that made her compelling enough to eventually anchor the 2021 Disney+ series WandaVision and its 2024 spinoff Agatha All Along, demonstrating how a single self-contained Kirby–Lee story could seed decades of storytelling. The issue is also a structural landmark for the title: it was the first fully self-contained, done-in-one Fantastic Four story since issue #80, representing the arrival of Stan Lee's new single-issue story policy on Marvel's flagship book.
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The issue was written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby in pencil, with interior inks by Joe Sinnott, lettering by Sam Rosen, and cover inks by John Verpoorten (with some fan and scholarly debate about whether portions of the cover may also reflect Herb Trimpe's hand, though the Grand Comics Database and GoCollect credit Verpoorten). It was produced at a transitional moment in the Lee–Kirby collaboration: Kirby had recently relocated from New York to California, meaning story conferences were conducted by telephone rather than in person, and the partnership was less than a year away from its end with issue #102. The story was the first done-in-one FF tale since issue #80 because Lee had introduced a company-wide single-issue story policy months earlier — announced in a 'Stan's Soapbox' editorial — but its application to Fantastic Four had been delayed while Lee and Kirby finished their multi-part 'Skrull gangster planet' arc. Original pencil art that later surfaced in The Jack Kirby Collector reportedly showed that Kirby's initial visual conception of Agatha Harkness differed noticeably from the final printed version, with some observers noting a resemblance between the original design and Kirby's wife Rosalind, though this remains an anecdotal claim rather than a confirmed attribution.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Agatha Harkness, created by Stan Lee (writer) and Jack Kirby (penciler), published with a January 1970 cover date (produced October 1969).
- First appearance of Ebony, Agatha Harkness's black cat familiar, who assists in defeating the Frightful Four.
- First official naming of the Richards' infant son as Franklin Benjamin Richards — the 'Franklin' honoring Sue's father, the 'Benjamin' honoring Ben Grimm.
- Agatha's status as a witch is deliberately left ambiguous for the reader in this issue; it is formally confirmed in Fantastic Four #110 (February 1971).
- The story is titled 'The Return of the Frightful Four!' and features the Wizard (Bentley Wittman), Trapster (Peter Petruski), Sandman (Flint Marko), and Medusa — with Medusa secretly acting to protect the Fantastic Four rather than aid the villains.
- Interior art by Jack Kirby with inks by Joe Sinnott; cover penciled by Jack Kirby with inks by John Verpoorten.
- The issue is the first self-contained, done-in-one Fantastic Four story since issue #80, reflecting Stan Lee's new single-issue story policy that had just been rolled out across Marvel's line.
- The issue has been widely reprinted, including in Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four Vol. 10 (2006), the Fantastic Four by Lee & Kirby Omnibus Vol. 4 (2021), and the 2009 Pet Avengers Classic collection, as well as numerous international editions in German, Italian, Spanish, French-Canadian, and other languages.
Cast · 21 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
The Fantastic Four take Reed and Sue's baby and place him in the care of Agatha Harkness. While there, they are attacked by the the Frightful Four but Agatha easily dispatches the Frightful Four.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).