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| The Fantastic Four, featuring H.E.R.B.I.E. |
Before
Marvel
became an entertainment powerhouse at the box office, they were constantly
struggling to bring their characters out of the comics and onto the screen. They
often had to rely on other studios, and thus made deals licensing out their
characters for production. In 1977, Universal Studios
optioned an assortment of characters for various live-action productions. Most
famously in that deal was the Hulk
for The Incredible Hulk television series starring Bill
Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. Universal also optioned the Human Torch.
JUST the Human Torch.
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| H.E.R.B.I.E. helping work the Fantasticar. |
When
NBC’s Fred Silverman
wanted to commission a new Fantastic Four series, Universal would not allow the
use of the Torch (ironically, NBC would come to share owners with Universal
decades later). A popular myth that had spread over the years was he was left
out in fear kids would try to emulate him and set themselves on fire
(forgetting that Hanna-Barbera
had successfully produced
a show with the Torch back in 1967 with nary a
reported fatality). In the comics up to this point, the Inhumans Crystal
and Medusa
and hero for hire Luke
Cage
served as alternate members of the team, as others would as well down the line.
But, instead of using an established Marvel character, they decided to use an
all-new one: H.E.R.B.I.E. (Frank Welker).
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| The strange Inhumans. |
H.E.R.B.I.E.,
or Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-Type, Integrated Electronics, was a robot
created by Mr. Fantastic (Mike Road) to aid in his experiments and their
exploratory missions. Stan
Lee
pitched the idea of a cute robot sidekick to DePatie-Freleng
Enterprises, with comic artist Dave Cockrum
commissioned to design it. However, Cockrum ended up disliking the character
immensely and was replaced by Fantastic Four co-creator Jack Kirby. Lee would also serve as a writer for the
show, while Kirby provided storyboards.
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| The menace of Magneto! |
Like
the previous Fantastic Four series,
it adapted some of the plots from actual comic stories, albeit heavily altered especially
for the inclusion of H.E.R.B.I.E. For instance, “Medusa and the Inhumans”
adapted the first encounter of the Inhumans and the Fantastic Four from Fantastic Four vol. 1 #45
(1965), but they were led by Medusa instead of her husband, Black Bolt,
and had typical villain plans for world conquest. Medusa later returned as a
member of the Frightful
Four
in the same-titled episode, however as a willing member and not under the
influence of amnesia as depicted in Fantastic Four vol. 1 #36
(1965). “Calamity on Campus” was based on Fantastic Four vol. 1 #35
(1965) but relocated the story’s setting to St. Louis, Missouri instead of the
fictional New York State town of Hegeman and omitted the alchemist villain Diablo.
Along with the standard Fantastic Four foes, like armored arch-nemesis Dr. Doom
(John Stephenson),
the android Dragon
Man,
the subterranean Mole Man (Ted Cassidy), and the shape-changing alien
Impossible Man (Welker), there were also appearances by some original
characters and even the X-Men’s
Magneto
(although, he wasn’t called a mutant during his appearance and was depicted as
a typical crook, voiced by Stephenson).
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| Ad for the series. |
Fantastic Four, also
known as The New Fantastic Four, debuted
on NBC on September 9, 1978. The series actually began development at
Hanna-Barbera when Marvel decided they wanted to shift the show over to
DePatie-Freleng. As a trade-off, Hanna-Barbera got the Godzilla
cartoon DePatie-Freleng was working on. Along with Lee, the series was written
by Roy
Thomas, Bob
Johnson, Christy
Marx
and Bob
Stitzel. In an unusual move, the episode would begin immediately
after the intro with narration by Dick Tufeld, and then cut to the title card
shortly after instead of at the traditional start of the episode following the
intro. The series’ theme was composed by Dean
Elliott and Eric Rogers,
with the remainder of the music done by Elliott.
Even Dr. Doom is a completionist when it comes to his action figure collection.
The result was that nobody was particularly happy with the show—especially Silverman. Lee even sent a letter to Hanna-Barbera’s Margaret Loesch detailing his desire for the next attempt at the Fantastic Four to be more action-oriented. Despite DePatie-Freleng’s attempts to salvage the license with a proposed Thing spin-off, Silverman was ready to move on entirely. He took back the rights to the Thing and gave them back to Hanna-Barbera to combine with an idea they had to make The Thing. DePatie-Freleng turned their attentions to another Marvel hero, Spider-Woman, before eventually being taken over by Marvel’s parent company, Cadence Industries, to become Marvel’s first studio, Marvel Productions.
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| H.E.R.B.I.E.'s comics debut. |
At 13 episodes, this was the shortest Fantastic Four cartoon to date. H.E.R.B.I.E., while not a popular character, soon found his way into the comics in Fantastic Four vol. 1 #209 (1979) by Marv Wolfman, John Byrne, Joe Sinnott, Glynis Wein and Tom Orzechowski. The story’s explanation for his creation was that Mr. Fantastic was inspired to build H.E.R.B.I.E. after the character was included in an in-universe television show as a replacement for the Torch who was unavailable to give permission to use his likeness. H.E.R.B.I.E. has since appeared in a variety of comics, programs, movies and merchandise.
The cover to Fantastic Four #236, celebrating 20 years of the comic.
For
the comic’s 20th anniversary celebration in Fantastic
Four vol. 1 #236 (1981), Marvel
decided to include
finished and reworked storyboards from the episode “The Challenge of Dr.
Doom” as a clunky 14-page back-up story without Kirby’s knowledge or
permission. At this time, Kirby’s relationship with Marvel was strained—along
with the comic industry in general—as he was trying to reclaim his original
artwork from the company, and had refused to provide a new story for the
issue. While his name was used to promote the story on the cover, a caricature
of Kirby standing next to Lee was removed
from the cover drawn by Byrne at Kirby’s behest.
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| One of the VHS release covers. |
Originally posted in 2018. Updated in 2025.
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