For the tenth issue of a comic there sure are a lot of firsts in this issue. Right on the cover is the first of the firsts. This is the first Marvel comic (and I believe the first comic ever) to use the writer and artist of the comic as part of the story in the comic. It’s way more metaverse than Zuckerberg could ever get.

The issue starts off in fairly standard fashion for a Fantastic Four comic. Reed Richards is in his lab doing some tests to get a better understanding of how Sue Storm’s powers work. The team then sees the emergency signal in the shape of a 4 outside their window. They figure Ben Grimm must be in trouble since he’s the only member of the team not there. Somehow the lab door has been closed and we see Johnny and Reed try a couple different things to get the door opened. It’s not easy since it’s “nuclear powered” so heat won’t work and Reed has to basically stretch his way all through the building but he’s unsuccessful. Johnny tries again but with a flame concentrated so much it burns without heat. (Yeah I’m not sure how that works either but it’s a comic so I’ll go with it)

The team rushes out the door to head to Alicia’s place. She has now been established as the Thing’s girlfriend. But because the team is famous it’s a bit hard for them to navigate through the crowd. Reed has to stretch through legs to avoid a crowd, Sue has to go invisible after a creepy guy says, “How’s about a smile for one of your fans??” and of course the Human Torch just flies over everyone. They make to Alicia’s to find out Ben had just sent for the crew because he wanted to show them the sculptures Alicia made of some of their past foes. She clearly has talent as a sculptor and we get to see Mole-Man, Dr. Doom, Namor and a few others she has made. Sue doesn’t think Namor should be lumped in with the other ones. Reed very nearly talks to Sue about her feelings for Namor but Sue cuts him off. It seems Reed had the understanding he and Sue would eventually be married but it seems her feelings for the King of Atlantis may be making things a bit complicated.

The next panel is where Stan Lee and Jack Kirby make comic book history. I imagine they did this just to have something to put on the page and to see if it would work but for the first time ever we see the authors of the comic directly addressing the readers of the comic in the story. The panel narrates, “And that, dear reader, is as far as Jack Kirby and I got with our story, before the unexpected happened! But let us show you just how it all came about… our scene now changes to the studio of Kirby and Lee, on Madison Avenue, where we find…” And in the image we see Stan and Jack from behind, with lots of artwork around them. In the background you can see pictures of Hulk and Ant-Man. On Kirby’s art table is a picture of Thor and in his hands Kirby has an illustration of a villain he wants to call “false-face” who just really has a big mustache.

I call special attention to this panel for a few reasons. First, if there was ever any doubt, this firmly places the Fantastic Four right in New York City along with the offices of Marvel. Second, with the drawings scattered around Jack Kirby not only do we have a view of heroes we’ve been reading about, we also, very nearly, have the full Avengers team. And finally, we’ve known Marvel comics exist in the Marvel 616 universe ever since Johnny Storm remembered reading about Sub-Mariner but now we know that Marvel writers and artists also exist in the Marvel 616 universe.

The next panel has Stan lamenting that they can’t use a great villain like Dr. Doom again because he was lost in space. And then we get another first. Dr. Doom walks in to the office of Lee and Kirby. This is the first time we get to see a Marvel character meet a Marvel creator. Lee and Kirby are understandably worried but do want to know how it’s possible Doom survived. Doom says there is an explanation but he won’t give it now. He then takes off the mask he always wears. We as readers don’t ever get to see Doom’s face. We actually don’t see Lee and Kirby’s faces either as they are always shown from behind or with their hands over their faces. But either way, Doom’s face is disturbing to the Marvel men so we know there is some major disfigurement there.

Doom demands they call Mr. Fantastic to discuss a new story. This gives the reader the impression every issue we have read has actually been told to Lee and Kirby and we’re just reading the translation of that story by Marvel. And to confirm that, Reed does get a phone call in his lab from Lee and Kirby. The Thing even complains about how he’s drawn. Reed heads over to the office and as soon as he gets there he is gassed by Doom. Doom tells Lee and Kirby to pass on an address to the other members of the FF where they can go if they want to get Reed back.

Doom relates a rather silly tale to Reed about how he was rescued by space aliens called “the ovoids” who have oval shaped heads. Turns out they had advanced technology and were able to transfer their consciousness from one body to another. Doom being Doom he learns their technology and heads back to Earth. He switches consciousnesses with Reed thus setting it up so the other members of the team will attack Reed in Doom’s body. His ruse works for a time as the three do pummel what they think is Dr. Doom. He pleads with them but at first they don’t believe him. The team tries to think of different ways to keep Doom from menacing them permanently without, you know, actually killing him. Finally Doom as Reed suggests just putting him in a sort of glass cage he has. The other three team members leave, giving Doom a minute or two to gloat.

In the next section of the story there are a bunch of miniature zoo animals causing havoc in the Baxter building. Turns out Doom as Reed stole a bunch of zoo animals to see if he could miniaturize them. In truth it’s a reducing ray which will snap the Fantastic Four out of existence once Doom hits them with it. Doom fools them into thinking this is a good idea which will simply increase their powers. Except somehow, for Ben Grimm it would do the opposite and turn him back to human. The fact the ray is doing two opposite things doesn’t seem to occur to the rest of the group here.

Meanwhile Reed uses Doom’s facemask to break through the glass holding him prisoner. Reed is smart enough to go to Alicia’s apartment knowing she’s able to sense the good in people. Unfortunately for him, Sue is there in invisible form and bashes him over the head. There’s a bit of a fight amongst the group but Ben is just not quite able to smash Reed because in the back of his mind he knows Alicia is right. Johnny gets the idea to make it look like a stick of dynamite is in the room by using a “heat mirage” (yeah not clear how that works either). Reed as Doom immediately tries to shield the others from it while Doom as Reed tries to run out the door. The fact that the team turn on Doom is enough for him to lose concentration and switch back to his actual body.

In the fight that follows Doom accidentally trains his own reducing ray on himself. He shrinks to nothingness before anyone can do anything about it. Well, thank goodness we got rid of that guy. I’m sure there’s no way he could return again right?

This really was a groundbreaking issue in a lot of ways and it started a long tradition of the FF meeting writers and artists from Marvel. It’s a pretty clever gimmick and it’s a lot of fun.

Next up on the reading list we’ll be checking in on the insects once again as we catch up with Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish #39!

Through the years the Fantastic Four have faced many, many villains. Some more memorable than the rest but if we were to put all of them in a room together and decide which one has come the closest to completely and irrevocably destroying the first family of superheroes there is a clear winner. Money problems.

That’s right, financial woes consistently plague the team and it’s an issue they continually have to face. But the first time it became a real issue for them was right here in issue number nine. This was actually a new innovation in comic book storytelling. Over at DC and other magazines where there were superheroes galore the only time money was mentioned was to let the reader know how wealthy Bruce Wayne was. Stan Lee, in his effort to make heroes more relatable to us struck upon a brilliant realization. Even people who can turn into fire, are strong as ten men, can become invisible, and stretch farther than any human has a right to, still need to pay rent. It’s what made the early issues of Marvel 616 so compelling. Yes these are super humans but we get to see not just the emphasis on the super part. They are distinctly human. And there’s nothing more human than needing pay for where you live.

At the beginning of the issue we see Namor, The Sub-Mariner, watching a news bulletin talking about the demise of the Fantastic Four. We don’t know what he is planning to do but he clearly wants to take advantage of the situation.

We’re then shown a group of debt collectors, landlords, and other sorted people trying to collect some money from the Fantastic Four. Reed Richards with all his brilliance made a bad stock move and the markets tanked a bit and now Reed is in debt. This doesn’t sit well with the team, especially The Thing but the FF are good guys so they intend to pay everyone back. Reed has come up with a scheme to sell off all of their cool gadgets for a bit of quick cash but it will mean the group has to disband and move out of their beloved Baxter building. (This is definitely not the last time this is going to happen either)

Ben Grimm even momentarily flirts with the idea of giving a thought to crime. He flies into a bit of a rage when people come to collect a plane Reed has sold to them. They calm him down but he walks out saying, “Those three do-gooders were beginnin’ to cramp my style!” Hailing a cab the driver refuses to take The Thing anywhere, knowing he can’t pay. Thing’s response? He chucks the cab up onto a streetlamp. He then uses the FF’s flare gun just to get a ride out of Johnny Storm. This allows him to go visit Alicia, the kind, blind woman who he met last issue. She happens to be the stepdaughter of an evil mastermind but she herself is very caring and makes Ben feel pretty lousy for how he was behaving just by being nice to him.

Next we see Reed commenting to Sue and Johnny, “If only we could be like the super heroes in some of these comic magazines, Sue! They never seem to worry about money! Life is a breeze for them!” Stan Lee is throwing some serious shade there.

Moments later Reed is given what might be their best hope. An offer of a million dollars to star in a movie. Ben comes back and off to Hollywood they go. They go to the newly formed S.M. Studios. Gee, I wonder what that S.M. could possibly stand for? Gasp, it’s the Sub-Mariner!

As taken aback as the team is, Namor assures them his offer is real and he backs it up by providing them with some cold, hard, cash up front. He has plenty of money because he can just plunder any underwater treasure he finds and he knows where all those pirates buried everything on all those deserted islands and can dig those up any ol’ time he pleases.

Even while the team is suspicious of his motives they agree to the situation and Sue still seems attracted to Namor as she thinks, “He’s so masterful–so confident!” It’s a continuation of the love triangle between Namor, Sue, and Reed from the first time they met.

We see a couple of scenes of Johnny driving fast cars with his newfound wealth and The Thing showing off his strength on Muscle Beach. Namor takes the opportunity to have dinner with Sue. She’s suspicious of Namor but acknowledges his generosity with the money.

Of course, Namor has laid a trap here. He takes Reed Richards to an island to fight a robot cyclops. Turns out it’s the real Cyclops from Greek myth. We already knew Norse myth existed in 616 but having a Cyclops here opens up a whole bunch of other potential characters who will show up eventually, including Hercules himself. Reed handily defeats this creature after Namor has left.

In one of the more uncomfortable sections of this issue, Namor dumps Johnny Storm into the, “Dense African Jungle,” to fight a group of natives in a village which causes Johnny to say, “How can a bunch of savages give me any competition?” Yeah, as good as Marvel comics of the day were, they were far from perfect and they do fall into some pretty bad tropes and stereotypes at times. Basically, this village has a magic potion where they are fire proof. Namor has asked them to capture Johnny. He also makes it out of this trap and pretty much burns away this magic potion by unleashing a dormant volcano on the village. He doesn’t harm any humans but he did literally erupt a volcano at them which seems a bit much.

With Reed and Johnny busy elsewhere, Namor just has to deal with The Thing. This fight he takes on himself. There’s a lot of punching back and forth here and Namor wisely stays in the water as much as possible. Thing is no slouch though and he really only loses because at an opportune moment for Namor a bolt of lightning hits Thing and turns him back into the human Ben Grimm. Namor is too weak to even realize this happened when he knocks Ben out cold. This really does prove The Thing is one of the strongest people in the Marvel 616 universe and if he can nearly defeat Namor, he might make a good match for a certain green dude with purple pants.

Namor heads back to find Sue Storm and seems to think defeating her brother and her two good friends would make her want to be his bride. Sue shows a bit of agency here by saying, “Perhaps if you hadn’t deceived us — if you had been honest with us, I might have answered you differently!” She then turns invisible, reminding Namor he hasn’t defeated all of the Fantastic Four. She puts up a good fight but because Namor can use the abilities of any creature in the sea he is able to grab her by using, “the radar sense of the cave fish from the lowest depths of the sea!” The moment he grabs her, the other three members of the FF bust through the door and go right for the monarch of the sea. Sue actually defends Namor saying they made a contract with Namor and they lived up to their part of the bargain so he should live up to his part. Namor, as much as he is a bad guy at times, is honorable so he pays right up. The Fantastic Four are now out of debt and can go back to doing the whole super team thing.

Truly, the most significant part of this issue is the financial aspect and for the time, this really was a new kind of story. There will be more innovations of this type in the years to come and as time goes by the Marvel characters start to feel more like people than gods flying through the air. The next most significant part of the issue is the ongoing relationship between Ben Grimm and Alicia. She has a huge influence on Ben and there will be many stories revolving around the two of them.

For our next issue we’ll be going back to check on what the golden haired god of thunder gets up to as we read about Thor in Journey Into Mystery #87!

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The Fantastic Four in their long and storied career have had several arch nemesis. Dr. Doom is probably the most famous of these but they have met their share of colorful characters. The Puppet-Master is introduced in this issue but it will be far from the last time we see him. He’s also a bit of an oddball who has a power that is quite dangerous and destructive.

At the start of the issue we see Ben “The Thing” Grimm trying to enter Reed Richards’ lab. Reed, Johnny, and Sue all try to stop him from coming in. They are successful but Ben is pretty put out and feels the group doesn’t want him around. He goes out for a stroll but The Invisible Girl follows along. Ben gets into a tussle with a couple of thugs and they get a kick in the rear from Sue. As soon as that’s over Ben notices someone climbed to the top of a bridge and looks like he is preparing to jump off.

Here we get the introduction of the Fantasti-Flare. This is a flare gun that writes a giant four in the sky to signal the group. It’s straight up ripped off from Batman’s bat signal but it’s still kind of fun to see. Reed and Johnny both try to save the man but only Johnny is fast enough to get there. We see there are some limits to Reed’s ability to stretch in this issue.

The person on the bridge was being manipulated by none other than The Puppet-Master. This villain has come upon some, “radioactive clay”. And like any good villain he immediately had the idea to carve the clay into the shapes of humans so he can manipulate them as if they were hypnotized. Yeah, pretty impressive clay. The Puppet-Master figures out the Fantastic Four stopped him from making someone jump off a bridge. To stop that in the future he decides to lure them to him, starting with Ben Grimm. Sue follows but is of course invisible.

When Ben gets there he meets one of the most important characters in his life. This is Alicia Masters who also happens to be blind and the stepdaughter of The Puppet-Master himself. Immediately she senses that Ben is a kind and caring soul and she finds his face rather interesting when she touches it. Puppet-Master successfully hypnotizes Ben and captures Sue. He then sends Alicia, dressed up as Sue back with Ben. It wasn’t very clear what this would accomplish but I guess radioactive clay may go to your head after a while. Ben attacks Reed and Johnny but he is stopped when Reed gets him to break a chemical container. Ben then changes back to human form. Of course Ben is happy about this but Alicia actually prefers him as the Thing.

The rest of the issue is a fairly standard story of the FF trying to defeat a villain. They also have to deal with a prison breakout Puppet-Master has caused. They mostly do it but The Puppet-Master, in the end, is truly defeated because of Alicia who trips him accidentally at exactly the right moment. It’s obvious Puppet-Master and Alicia are going to have huge roles to play in the lives of the Fantastic Four but especially in Ben Grimm’s life.

The final page of the issue has a neat little feature page where Johnny Storm answers questions about his costume and how he keeps from, you know, lighting everything on fire all of the time. Marvel does this somewhat frequently when they want to fill a little space. I think the unfortunate thing is these pages are more or less meant to be ripped out and pinned up so a lot of the original prints tend to have this page missing. But, it’s not like anyone knew these comics could become valuable at the time.

This is a key issue, mostly for the introduction of Alicia and The Puppet-Master. It also continues the ongoing struggle of Reed trying to cure The Thing, something he spends most of his life feeling guilty about.

Next up on the reading list, we are going back to tiny town as we get small with Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish #37!

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