There is so much to talk about in Fantastic Four #16. This issue brings back one of the best villains in all of comics, is the first meeting between Ant-Man and the team, and introduces Reed and friends to the microverse. While there have already been some fun stories, this is the first time it feels like Fantastic Four has real staying power and begins to tell a connected story for Marvel 616.

The opening page of the issue feels more like a film poster than a comic book page. It’s reminiscent of those amazing B movie posters from the 50s and 60s featuring strange stories about monsters and adventurers. It promises us the return of, “The world’s most dangerous super-villain!”. It has a huge title which says, The micro-world of Dr. Doom with doom himself looming over a microscope as The Thing and Johnny Storm attack it. A banner at the top advertises a special guest star, “The amazing Ant-man!” And at the bottom of the page we see Reed and Sue looking up in shock while Ant-man rides a flying ant next to them.

The artwork by Jack Kirby conveys so much through movement and perspective that it’s immediately interesting. Each glance back at it gives me something new to appreciate here. And we haven’t even gotten to the story!

Getting into the story itself a few things happen and they all relate to Johnny Storm. First an amateur rooftop astronomer in New York city is overjoyed at finding a new comet. A doctor in an operating room is able to complete a surgery despite the power being out when a streak of light crosses the window. And a group of thugs is caught red handed when the same light allows cops to see what they are up to. What’s the cause of all this? The Human Torch streaking through the air. He’s headed to the Baxter building. Why? no one is answering his signal.

He knows there is something wrong but he can’t think of any power strong enough to overwhelm the rest of his team. Inside the building there are no signs of life. But eventually Johnny sees the outstretched arm of a tiny Mr. Fantastic. His team mates have been shrunken down to the size of toys and they are in danger of being pulled into an air duct.

Johnny welds the duct shut. His friends are safe. But they are small. Suddenly they grow to regular size. Johnny asks how it all happened but none of them seem to have a clue. But then an odd thing starts to happen. Each member of the team tells about an incident when they also shrunk in the recent past.

Personally, I think this is something you’d want to share with the group. But they all say they were too afraid of no one believing them. I mean, these people have incredible powers, have encountered super villains, aliens and underground civilizations, but apparently shrinking is too weird to be believed.

Anyway, just as they all start to share, they hear a voice say, “Hah! You fools! You are helpless as putty before my power! This is only the beginning of what I have in store for you!”

None of them know who spoke but it seems like Reed and Johnny suspect. One by one the heroes tell their tales of shrinking. Johnny was working on his car when it happened. The Thing was working out with a 3 ton weight when it happened. For Sue Storm the incident occurred when she was on a talk show but the audience just assumed she turned invisible. And for Reed Richards, he was testing out the fantasti-car when it happened to him. They all suddenly grew back to normal size with no real explanation.

After everyone tells their tale, Reed has a good thought. He could contact Ant-man. Sue isn’t sure he even really exists. I guess all those newspaper stories about him must have been made up? I don’t know.

Conveniently for the team, Henry Pym’s ants were listening. They relay the incident to Ant-man who rushes over to the Baxter building. He leaves The Wasp in charge while he is gone.

The Fantastic Four are shocked when Ant-man shows up just as they’re trying to figure out how to contact him. Reed uses what he calls a “crystal magnifying amplifier” to allow the group to see and hear the tiny Ant-man better. It’s basically a clear box of some kind but it gets the job done. Ant-man then gives the team a solution with two drops of fluid. One drop is for shrinking and the other is for growing. Henry then goes back to his own lab to learn what he can.

For a moment Reed wonders if Ant-man could be behind the whole thing. I think that’s a reasonable suspicion given the circumstances. But Sue Storm gives irrefutable proof that it could not be him. She says, “Oh no, Reed! He’s much too cute!” Well, I guess that’s proof then.

The next day Ben Grimm is helping out his friend Alicia. Reed comes up and excitedly pours a formula down The Thing’s throat, telling him it’s a cure for him. He won’t need to be the rocky Thing anymore. But out of all people in the 616 universe, Reed Richards has the absolute worst sense of timing. He gives this stuff to Ben while he is… literally holding a piano. Reed lets Ben know it’s only temporary but the piano goes crashing to the floor. Alicia, who is blind, is a little upset to feel Ben’s face in human form. She loves him for him. Ben asks Reed to basically stop trying to change him back from being The Thing and start helping Alicia to see again instead.

But just then a voice speaks again. It says, “…Beware of Doctor Doom! He’s trying to— ohhh!! Help!”

Meanwhile, Johnny entertains his friends by showing off his powers. He does this a lot by the way. But he also hears a voice warning him about Doctor Doom.

For her part, Sue Storm is experimenting with perfumes. She believes her only weakness is that even when she is invisible, dogs can sniff her out. She’s trying to make a scent that will deaden a dong’s sense of smell. It doesn’t work. But she also hears the voice just as the rest of the team arrives. They discuss things for a while and decide it’s possible Doom is still alive so they take the reducing serum.

They start shrinking but it’s so fast they have to take the enlarging formula to slow it down. And the group enters what Sue Storm calls a, “micro-world — a world which might fit on the head of a pin!”

An interesting tidbit about the microverse here. While this is the first time the team has experienced this world, this is not the first time it appeared in Marvel comics. In fact, it debuted way back in 1943 in the pages of Captain America #26. This is technically outside of the timeline of Marvel 616 so, like the Sub-Mariner, this existed before the current heroes we are reading about did. And at the present moment in Marvel 616 there is no Captain America to tell the team what they are getting into here. This doesn’t really change the story in any way but I just find it interesting when things from even older comics pop up in the pages of Marvel 616 stories.

As much trouble as this place sounds like, it’s worse. As soon as they land, the team discovers Dr. Doom has overthrown this world. And Doom has been waiting for the team to show up. They try to attack but Doom activates a shrinking ray from his throne.

Being a true villain, Doom can’t help but explain how he came to power in this place. We get a short recap of how he was shrunk down back in FF #10. Doom was quite angry to find himself in a place where people were… living in peace and happy. You can’t really accuse the Marvel 616 comics of the 1960s of subtlety can you?

Doom impresses the king and the princess Pearla by crafting a telescope and they think he’s a wizard. They make him the court scientist and he promptly invents a shrinking ray and shrinks the king and princess. You know, as you do. he then invents a whole machine just so he could send his shrinking ray and project his voice to taunt the Fantastic Four.

Despite their small size, Doom’s guards have a tough time capturing the team as they use their powers. But Doom captures Sue under glass and uses a sleeping gas on the rest of the team. When they wake up they find they are imprisoned with the king and princess Pearla.

They are in what looks like an underwater apparatus but it’s actually an acidic fluid surrounding the place. And it’s filled with mechanical sharks spying on them the whole time. Johnny flames on and that startles Pearla. Johnny gets a bit flirty with her saying, “Heck! I wouldn’t scare a living doll like you!” Pearla seems pretty impressed by him. And I gotta say, Johnny is not, at least at this point, a one girl type of guy.

They figure out the voice warning them about Doom belonged to Pearla. Doom wants Pearla to marry him. He’s forcing her into marriage by contacting a planet called Tok. This is a planet of lizard people. And Doom has decided the Fantastic Four will be slaves to these aliens.

We get a description of how our heroes will be used. Reed will be used as a bridge for their troops during their invasions! The Thing will be forced to pull out riches from their diamond mines! The Torch will be forced to attack their victims with his flaming powers! And Sue Storm will be… a scullery maid! Come on Lizard men of Tok, you can think of something better for her.

Back at the Baxter building Ant-man returns to find the team gone. He shrinks himself down until he ends up in the micro-world as well. He puts up a good fight but Doom’s guards capture him.

From their prison, Reed has Ben tear out pieces of the wall to make a shelter for the good guys. They turn this into a sort of floating capsule that can take them to the surface.

While they make their escape, Doom is handing off Ant-man to the aliens from Tok. But the Invisible Girl frees Henry Pym. The team gets themselves and the king and Pearla up to regular size. Well, regular for the micro-world.

The team runs to the landing area where the lizard men are about to land. But The Thing grabs a control tower and uses it as a baseball bat to swat the ship away. Ant-man fights his way past the guards. Sue Storm stays invisible and snags Doom’s gun. Doom ducks through a trap door and takes off running. He heads back to our world to, “…give them a reception they’ll never forget!”

With Doom gone the guards are a piece of cake. To repay them, the king allows our heroes to use his enlarging ray to go back home. Pearla doesn’t want Johnny to go and calls him the most fascinating man she’s ever met. Johnny says he’s gotta go back to his “pards” but says he might be back.

And with that the group steps in front of the enlarging ray and… the issue ends!

For the first time in Marvel 616 history, we are embarking on a continuous two-issue story. It’s a huge step towards the longer narrative that is building.

There are a lot of really interesting things going on in this issue. We’ve got a major villain who is becoming an incredible threat. We have a true crossover with the FF and Ant-man. And we’ve been introduced to a whole new world. It’s one that will come up over and over again. The artwork is out of this world good here and really broke boundaries at the time. And the story, while silly at times, really is engaging. And at the very end of the issue, there is a pinup page detailing the powers of Mr. Fantastic.

Can the story be topped? Can it come to a satisfying conclusion? We’re ending on a cliffhanger. So you’re going to have to wait until next time to find out. (Or you could, you know, read the comic yourself if you want)

Next up on our reading list, we’re going to find out what happens with our heroes in the pages of Fantastic Four #17!

There were times when the early Marvel 616 comics could get a bit out there and experimental. Issue eleven of the Fantastic Four is one of these instances. There are two stories in the issue. For some reason the second story, the “B” feature, if you will, is listed in the Complete Marvel Reading Order is listed as happening first. I’m not sure if there is an actual story reason for this but I’m going to go through the features in the order listed on the website. Both stories do some sort of groundbreaking things and the end of the issue has a major tease which helps propel Marvel 616 into a more unified universe.

The second story in this issue is called The Impossible Man! It’s about an alien who lands in what is described as a “hobo jungle” where a bunch of vagabonds are having dinner. The green skinned alien with the pointy head asks for some food but is told he needs to pay for it with cash. The alien asks where to get cash and is told you have to ask for it at the bank. Not realizing what that means, the alien transforms into an airplane and pops into a vault at a bank. This freaks out the bank attendant enough for him to leave and the alien grabs some money. The cops immediately arrive on the scene and start firing at the alien but he turns to steel and the bullets bounce off of him.

The police realize this is more than a match for them and they can call the Fantastic Four to come help deal with the situation. They hop in the Fantasti-car and find the alien chowing down on a bunch of food in a restaurant. The FF demand to know what the deal is with this guy and he tells them he comes from “the planet Poppup!” The evolutionary processes on Poppup are so swift the inhabitants can change themselves into anything whenever the need arises to survive the constant attacks from predators and environmental hazards.

This idea of constant evolutionary change is actually a precursor to what we will see when mutants are revealed in the pages of The X-Men in the future. For now it’s a bit of a silly joke and an excuse for Jack Kirby to just draw whatever he wants to.

After his little backstory the Fantastic Four tell him he can’t just take money from a bank and it escalates into a skirmish pretty quickly. The alien, who is dubbed The Impossible Man by The Thing is able to evade capture by changing forms whenever he is attacked and negates all four of the member’s powers. Individually and collectively the team is not able to do anything to stop The Impossible Man.

Reed Richards is no slouch though and he has some ideas on how to deal with this guy. After Impossible Man does a few stunts and some major property damage, Reed tells the police and all the world to simply ignore the Impossible Man.

The Impossible Man first came to Earth because he was bored of his own planet. Reed figures giving him the silent treatment might just be enough to get this guy to leave. It takes a while but it works.

If you were to think of something else in comic books to compare this to, The Impossible Man is the analog of Mr. Mxyzptlk in DC comics who comes around to harass Superman every once in a while. Impossible Man is not quite as fun as Mr. Mxyzptlk but he showed the Fantastic Four are able to use their heads instead of their powers when needed. Also, for a while in the issue the world started to think Reed Richards was a coward but he didn’t seem to care. Instead, he just sticks to his plan, never bothering to explain his strategy or solution to anyone. This is a very typical Reed Richards move which sometimes lands him in hot water.

The last panel of this story teases a major milestone in Marvel 616. It tells readers to come back to read a “surprise-packed full length thriller– The Fantastic Four meet– The Hulk! Don’t miss it!”

This is the first major crossover from one Marvel 616 book to another. There were always suggestions and rumblings, including some pretty solid evidence in the way of newspapers and dialogue that these characters existed in the same reality. But to have a major Marvel character appear in the Fantastic Four will be a landmark event.

The first story in issue eleven of The Fantastic Four is in some ways much more interesting than the “B” story. While most issues of the FF deal with supervillains in some way or another, this one shows us a slice of life for the superheroes in a story titled, “A Visit With the Fantastic Four.”

Stan Lee proves once again here that Marvel is not afraid to try new things in comics. He breaks the fourth wall a bit when the FF meet some fans who are eagerly awaiting the next issue of a comic book magazine called The Fantastic Four. We also meet an important figure in the annals of Marvel history, Willie Lumpkin, the mailman who delivers mail to the Baxter Building for the Fantastic Four. In time he will become an important figure to the series who plays integral parts in multiple stories. Willie even tries to join the FF in this issue, telling Reed Richards that he doesn’t have any super powers but he can, “wiggle my ears real good.”

The story shows off a few secrets of the Baxter Building. The FF have special belt buckles which can send a signal to their personal elevator allowing them and only them access to their apartments at the top.

The team then spends some time opening their fan mail. The Thing gets a gag gift which is a boxing glove extender that punches him in the eye. He’s not real happy about it. Thing is convinced it’s from the Yancy Street Gang who we already know he has some beef with but this is the first time Thing has really called them out by name.

Reed gives Thing a serum and he once again turns back to the human form of Ben Grimm for a while. We then get a few flashbacks from before the heroes flew into the cosmic rays. We find out Ben and Reed were college roommates. Reed is the smart one but Ben was the football star. Reed made a name for himself by winning lots of prizes in the field of science and it probably didn’t hurt that he was the son of a millionaire. Ben becomes a marine fighter ace pilot and gets nationally known as a hero for it. It’s also revealed Reed worked underground for the O.S.S., the first independent U.S. intelligence agency.

While Reed was at the front of the war he would dream about the girl he left behind, Sue Storm. As soon as Reed brings this up Sue is conflicted. She has some mixed feelings due to her emotions about The Sub-Mariner. Reed gives her some space but of course, he’ll bring this up again in later issues.

After returning from the war, Reed decides, “We’ve got to reach the stars before the reds do!” and the fateful events are put into motion which result in the first team of superheroes in Marvel 616 continuity. This origin will get refined over and over again in later issues but this one shows us why Reed was so eager to have Ben pilot the spacecraft. He was a famous war hero pilot so it made sense and Reed knew he could trust Ben.

It’s ultimately Sue who convinces Ben to be the pilot. She and Johnny have agreed to come along and implies Ben is afraid to go. Ben is not one to back down from a challenge so he decides to go.

The rest of the flashback is the standard rehash of how they hit cosmic rays and got their powers using panels we’ve already seen several times in these first eleven issues.

Sue then tells Reed and Ben she’s been getting letters saying she isn’t contributing enough on the adventures of the team. Ben and Reed reassure her she is vital to their success and we get some more re-used panels of several times Sue has helped the team get out of different situations.

Ben suddenly turns back into The Thing. The serum lasted longer this time but nothing seems to be permanent with curing him. An alarm goes off and the team rush into the spaceship they kept as a memento of their adventure on Planet X. Turns out it was just a surprise birthday party for Sue. Still, small gestures like this show this team is more of a family than a superhero team. The story concludes with Willie Lumpkin complaining about his heavy mail bag full of comic magazine heroes and letters to the editor pages.

While you could argue this story isn’t super interesting, it does show more sides to the characters than most comic books at the time were showing. For all we know about Clark Kent in the pages of Superman there wasn’t ever just a story about him having a day with friends where no actual fights break out. This kind of storytelling is what makes Marvel stand out from the competition.

Make no mistake, no matter what you think of the story and issue itself, this is an immensely important moment in the history of Marvel 616 and comics in general. It just begins to scrape the surface of what superhero storytelling could be. There will be more slice of life stories to come but this is truly the first.

Next up on the reading list we’ll be shrinking down once again to catch up with Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish #40!

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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