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Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Issue #24 provides some serious 1960s psychedelic weirdness. (Note: I’ll be doing a bunch of these FF posts throughout February to make up for weeks I’ve missed. If all goes according to plan, that’ll put the blog on track to reach Galactus at the one-year mark!)

The “action” begins as the FF shows off their powers in front of a bunch of photographers from Life Magazine. (Too bad it wasn’t Now Magazine, because then Peter Parker could have been taking the pics.) Nobody wants photos of Reed, Johnny or Ben, focusing all their attention on Sue – you know, because she’s a hottie. The reporters learn of a disturbance in Times Square, so they take off. The FF follow in the Fantasticar, and then it’s on.

The next few pages are an onslaught of crazy: The Fantasticar is trapped inside a giant milk bottle, the streets are reshaped into some sort of maze, a giant spinning top threatens all the pedestrians, and an army of giant robots appear. They vanish, as an alien appears. It’s the one behind all this, using its powers to do stuff like transform lampposts into flowers and make soda fountains appear out of midair. The photographers try to take its picture, and it reacts by telekinetically throwing them through the air. It then causes meteors to rain down on New York, which the FF promptly destroy before they can do serious harm.

Reed deduces that alien is an infant, based on its behavior. He tells the public that the best thing to do is stay out of the creature’s way and not antagonize it. Elsewhere, a gangster named Big Joe learns of this and hatches a plan. When the creature reappears, Big Joe and his goons use candy and ice cream to tempt it to join them.

Back at the Baxter Building, Reed theorizes about all the awful things the alien could do if it continues to run around unchecked with its seemingly godlike powers. He coins the creature “Infant Terrible.” (“It means a child who does dreadful things,” Reed says.) Reed wants to work on a solution in his lab, but Johnny and Ben want to hit the streets and look for the alien, so the team splits up.

Big Joe has trained the Infant Terrible to steal money for him, transporting an armored bank van to his location outside the city. Only it doesn’t stop there, transforming the bags of money into pigs, birds and dinosaur eggs, for its own amusement. Ben, Johnny and Sue show up, and the gangsters don’t stand a chance. The alien panics and creates a giant rock monster to fight our heroes.

Back at HQ, Reed reveals that his device he’s been building is a transmitter. He sends a message into outer space, gets a response, and WOW the alien ships are a total rip from War of the Worlds. I expected better of Kirby.

The alien traps the other three heroes in a fireproof, unbreakable bubble. It then returns to New York and unleashes hell, trashing a helicopter and causing all kinds of damage. Alicia shows up among the crowd. She’s nearly trampled in everyone’s panic and almost run over by a car, but Ben, Sue, and Johnny escape and make it back to the city just in time to save her.

The alien ship arrives, and Reed gets it attention. The Infant Terrible looks up at the sun, and is about to use its powers to crash the Earth into it, when someone else intervenes. Yes, it’s the aliens parents, reuniting with their kid and keeping its powers in check. The aliens leave, as Reed gives a big speech about how the aliens are so advanced that they must be peaceful, because ignorance and evil go hand in hand. (Hey, if it’s a giant baby with cosmic powers, what do you suppose the cosmic diapers are like?)

Unstable molecule: Once again, Reed saves the day with his brains and not his powers.

Fade out: Sue uses her invisibility to show off for reporters, and then uses her force fields to stop the gangsters from escaping.

Clobberin’ time: Ben gets a workout in this issue, fighting all the robots, and then several pages of fighting the rock monster.

Flame on: Johnny traps the gangsters in rings of fire, and then uses his flame to burn a bunch of rubber tires together as a trap for another gangster. One can only imagine the stink that caused.

Trivia Time: The Infant Terrible fell into obscurity after this, appearing very rarely in later comics. Its race is the Elanians.

The “all-powerful alien is really a child” thing is popular sci-fi trope, seen in Star Trek’s The Squire of Gothos, Joe Dante’s Explorers and many others.

Fantastic or frightful: Basically an excuse to get the FF into and out of one crazy scrape after another, this issue is a riot as long as you don’t take it too seriously.

 Next time: Rematch of the century!

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. What is Dr. Doom’s master plan? Let’s find out. (Note: I’ll be doing a bunch of these FF posts throughout February to make up for weeks I’ve missed. If all goes according to plan, that’ll put the blog on track to reach Galactus at the one-year mark!)

Everyone say it with me: This issue’s story begins with a mishap in Reed’s lab. A baby dinosaur is on the loose! Turns out Reed stepped out for a while, leaving Johnny and Ben in charge. They turned their backs on Dr. Doom’s time machine for a second, and the dinosaur came bumbling out. After catching it and returning it to its own time, Reed takes a second to exposit that they’ve relocated the time machine to the Baxter Building after that Rama-Tut business in issue #19. He then reads Ben and Johnny the riot act, calling them “childish” and “my so-called partners.” He then lays it real thick, saying, “In case it’s slipped your alleged minds, the work we do here means something,” and, “Stop flapping your lips and get back to work!” This encounter has Ben, Johnny and Sue saying it’s time the team had a new leader.

Elsewhere, in a courthouse, a criminal is being sentenced to jail, but a mysterious stranger intercepts, putting the guy in a limo and driving him to a secret location, where two other crooks are waiting. The spectator is revealed to be a robot in disguise, and a voice over the intercom provides exposition. Our three baddies are tough guy brawler Bull Brogin, studly con artist “Handsome Harry” Phillips, and circus performer Yogi Dakor, known as “The Fireproof Man.” A door slides open to reveal that the ringleader is none other than Dr. Doom. This would be a shocker if it wasn’t on the cover.

At the Baxter Building, Sue, Ben and Johnny hold an impromptu election for a new leader. They of course each vote for themselves, solving nothing. Ben and Johnny start fighting, and we get a tiresome three pages of them duking out, all while trashing everything in the room. Reed steps in and breaks up the fight. Still Mr. Attitude, he says, “If you think I like being the leader of this group of temperamental prima donnas, you’re crazy! But someone’s got to do it, and I’m the only one who can stand you!”

Back in Doom’s lab, he exposes his three new cohorts to his “XZ-12 Device,” which enhances their powers. Handsome Harry now has super-hearing, Yogi is truly fireproof, and Brogin has superhuman strength levels. Each is now equipped to take out a member of the Fantastic Four, while Doom himself says he will defeat Reed personally.

Johnny gets word that a visiting Maharajah is in town and wants to give him a new, high-tech car as a gift. The Maharajah is Yogi in disguise, and they take off in the car. Yogi traps Johnny inside an airtight compartment inside the car. Johnny tries to burn his way out, but his flame eventually extinguishes and he passes out.

Elsewhere, the Thing heads to Yancy Street, looking for trouble, where Brogin is waiting for him. They fight, with much collateral damage, until Brogin zaps the Thing with a ray that turns him back into a human. Back at the Baxter Building, Handsome Harry shows up looking for Sue claiming to be an admirer of hers. He gives her flowers that are drugged. Sensing something is wrong, Sue turns invisible and tries to escape. Thanks to his super-hearing, Handsome Harry knows exactly where she is, and he captures her. In the city, we see what looks like the Thing firing the “4” signal into the sky. Reed responds, only to have Ben and Dr. Doom trap him inside a glass box. It’s not really Ben, but a robot Ben lookalike.

Now with all four heroes trapped in his hideout, Doom gives his three partners envelopes, which they believe are filled with cash. Instead, they’re booby-trapped (hehe, “booby”), and they transport all three to another dimension. (Harsh, Doom, harsh.) Using her new force field powers, Sue helps free the others. Doom fights back with some automated defenses he’s set up in his base. He has a battering ram for Ben and a freezing device to prevent Reed from stretching. Johnny frees Reed and the four work together and start to get the upper hand on Doom. Doom escapes into an adjacent chamber.

Here’s where things get just a little kooky. Doom has picked this particular building as his hideout, he explains, because a solar wave is about to hit it, transporting the entire building into outer space. (“I should have guessed!” Reed says. How, exactly does one guess something like this?) Sue extends her force fields to the other side of the wall, trapping Doom along with them. Desperate to escape, Doom falls through the floor and is sucked away into the vastness of space. With him gone, the FF hurries through Doom’s escape route and finds their way to safety. Johnny and Ben say they’re glad Reed is the FF’s leader, but Ben is still not so sure.

Unstable molecule: This issue reveals that Reed’s stretching is weakened by extreme cold. His surly attitude toward the other three is never really resolved, but that’s kind of realistic isn’t it? The whole “family that bickers but still cares about each other” thing is one of the more endearing things about these characters, and it’s in full force in this issue.

Fade Out: Sue continues to prove how versatile her invisible force fields can be, using them in a telekinetic-like way several times this issue.

Clobberin’ Time: Ben goes to Yancy Street looking for a fight because the Yancy Street Gang sent him a letter asking where he buys his “ugly pills.” If this sets Ben off, just imagine how irate he’d be if they had internet comment threads back in the day.

Flame On: Johnny’s powers come in handy when Reed gets frozen. He enjoys his celebrity status when meeting with press and his adoring fans during the car incident.

Trivia Time: Doom’s three cohorts would reappear on occasion, calling themselves the Terrible Trio, but never really received superstar status. Too bad, because they’re fun characters. It seems they’re a trial run for the Frightful Four, which we’ll get to in a few issues.

Fantastic or Frightful? Fun stuff! It’s often been argued that Doom is secretly a coward beneath all his bluster, and his actions in this issue prove it. He’s always running off and hiding when things get to be too much for him. The “solar wave” business comes out of nowhere, but it gives Doom a great send-off.

Next time: Evil space baby!

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Issue #22 introduces big changes for one of our heroes. (Note: I’ll be doing a bunch of these FF posts throughout February to make up for weeks I’ve missed. If all goes according to plan, that’ll put the blog on track to reach Galactus at the one-year mark!)

The story in #22 begins in Reed’s lab (I’ve been saying that a lot lately, haven’t I?) where Reed says he suspects Sue’s powers of invisibility are greater than anyone suspected. After a little experimenting, Sue discovers she can create invisible force fields, strong enough to withstand Ben’s punches and Johnny’s flame. A little more experimenting, and Sue finds she can turn other objects besides herself invisible as well, including her teammates.

While this is going on, the FF are also being bombarded by local cops, neighbors, and more, all based on the ordinary inconveniences of trying to live with a superhero headquarters in the neighborhood. Zoning regulations have a problem with the team’s personal ICBM transport missile, while others complain about the noise, random damage, and more coming from the Baxter Building. Seeing the need for a more secluded place to conduct his experiments, Reed reads (heh) about an island for sale off the coast of New Jersey (!). The team hops aboard the amphibious U-Car and checks it out.

There’s a lot of strangeness on the island, such as an “impenetrable” barrier reef, and an unknown force pulling the U-Car into the ocean. A mysterious stranger is behind it all, revealed to be the Mole Man, last seen way back in the first issue. He says he’s there on the island to start his new kingdom, Subterranea. With the help of his alien-like subterranean subjects, the Mole Man traps the FF on top of some sort of futuristic netting surrounded by a radioactive field.

Villain monologue time! The Mole Man explains that he survived the events of issue #1 by escaping deeper into his underground tunnels. He and his subjects then started building giant hydraulic platforms under the surface of the Earth’s largest cities. He plans to suck all the cities down to the center of the Earth.

As one of the Mole Man’s subjects approaches with a detonator, Sue acts quickly, surrounding it with an invisible force field. She uses another force field to escape from the netting. Check it out: This isn’t just a historic issue for Sue, but it’s one for the Thing to — the very first time he ever says “It’s clobberin’ time!” (He also adds, “Yay bo!” which didn’t catch on as much.)

The escape is short-lived, as all four heroes fall into trap doors. While Reed, Ben, and Johnny face the usual death traps, Sue finds herself in what appears to be an ordinary living room. It’s all illusion, though. Thanks to her new powers, Sue is able to make the illusion mechanism visible the escape. Ben, Reed and Johnny escape from their traps as well, and there’s several pages of running and fighting, as Ben dukes it out with more subterraneans and the others escape more traps. Reed insists everyone retreat back to U-Car, and Sue can’t figure out why. As the team flees, the Mole Man makes his way back to the detonator and presses it, only to discover that Reed reprogrammed it so that the island is the one sucked to the center of the Earth, and not the world’s cities.

Unstable molecule: Reed uncovers Sue’s new powers. He says it was actually the radiation from his nuclear testing device that did it. He also pulled the switcheroo on the Mole Man at the end.

Fade Out: Sue gets her new powers, and immediately finds uses to use them. I was hoping she’d use them to be the one who stops the Mole Man, but I guess saving her team will have to.

Clobbering Time: In his death trap, the Thing finds himself sinking in a soft, cotton-like substance, which threatens to suffocate him. Instead of fighting his way out, he thinks his way, by following the goop to its source.

Flame On: Johnny’s trap is an ice-based one, which prevents him from using his flame. He too thinks his way out, using a piece of ice to disrupt the machinery.

Trivia Time: In later years, most notably on John Byrne’s run on the title, it’s often speculated that Sue’s force fields make her the most powerful member of the team. But this issue, the one in which her powers are introduced, Reed says much the same thing.

The Mole Man’s subterranean servants will become part of pretty much every Mole Man story from here on out. Later, we’ll learn they’re called Moloids.

Fantastic or Frightful? Stan Lee often gets credit for bringing “real world problems” into superhero tales, and we get a huge dose of that in this issue, with about half the issue taking place with our characters hanging out headquarters dealing with everyday stuff, so that the Mole Man’s threatened apocalypse seems almost tacked-on. A quirky issue, but a fun one.

Next week: The Master Plan Committee.

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Things get serious in issue #21, in a tale of bigotry run amok, with one crazy surprise ending.

The issue begins with the four hanging out in HQ, which interrupted by what appears to be an earthquake, but no, it’s just Ben, clobbering a giant, high-tech punching bag. He’s upset because of a new type of fiend making headlines – the Hate Monger. The FF are helpless to stop this guy, simply because he’s not breaking any laws, just delivering speeches and getting people riled up.

While out and about in the city, the FF stumble upon one of the Hate Monger’s rallies, where he whips the crowd into a frenzy about wanting to drive foreigners out of their neighborhoods. Ben stops the riot by squashing the crowd underneath the bandstand (How was no one killed?) The Hate Monger responds by zapping the FF with his “H-Ray.” The FF then spend several pages fighting each other, forgetting all about the Hate Monger. They’re so incensed with one another that they go their four separate ways.

Reed returns to the Baxter Building to find Nick Fury duking it out with building security. Fury wants Reed’s help to quell political unrest in the formerly peaceful country of San Gusto. Reed says he’s on it, and takes off. Fury can tell something’s off with Reed. From around the city, Ben, Johnny and Sue see Reed taking off in the team’s pogo plane, and return to HQ, demanding an explanation. Fury fills them in, and uses a little reverse psychology to get them to head to San Gusto as well. They do, as the team’s personal ICBM makes another appearance.

The Hate Monger pursues with his henchmen in a sub-surface missile. An editor’s note then tells us, “This machine is not as imaginary as it may seem! It’s reported that even now the Russians are working on a similar vehicle, powered by the reverse thrust of a rocket engine!”

In San Gusto, Reed thwarts the efforts of the rebels, blowing up their ammunition, stealing their guns and rockets, and so on. He finds an underground passage, which blasts him with nerve gas, making him the Hate Monger’s prisoner. Hate Monger explains that his H-Ray can be bounced off the surface of the moon to hit anywhere on earth. Once he controls all the haters, he says, he will control the earth. Fury shows up with a machine gun and shoots up the place, forcing Hate Monger to surrender and give Reed the antidote to the H-ray. He then escapes behind some bulletproof glass. It’s a few more pages of the FF fighting each other, as Reed manages to trick each of them into taking the antidote.

At the dynamo that fuels the planetary H-Ray, Fury is attacking, but is almost out of ammo. Once his gun is empty, he fights back with his fists, referencing his time among the Howlin’ Commandos. The FF rescue him. The Hate Monger is about to fire another H-Ray blast at the FF, but Sue, while invisible, deflects his aim, and the ray hits HM’s hencmen, who turn against him. He’s shot (Dead!). Johnny and Sue round up the henchmen while Reed and Fury unmask the Hate Monger.

Ready for this twist ending? Hate Monger is really… Adolph Hitler in disguise!!! Although Reed does speculate that maybe it’s not Hitler but a Hitler lookalike. Either way, the H-ray is defeated. As the FF return home, Reed says, “Until men truly love each other, regardless of race, creed, or color, the Hate Monger will still be undefeated! Let’s never forget that!”

 Unstable molecule: Reed does a lot with his powers in this issue, using his body like a giant slingshot again, stretching his arms up into the sky to swipe missiles off of passing planes, and contorting his body deep into the ground in the shape of a plant’s roots to find the underground hideout.

Fade out: Sue gets a great hero moment when she’s the one who defeats the HM at the end. There’s also a funny bit early on where she tries on wigs, wanting to look like Liz Taylor in Cleopatra.

Clobbering time: Ben doesn’t do much in this issue, practically disappearing once everyone reaches San Gusto. He gets in some slapstick in the fight against Reed by tying Reed’s arms into knots.

Flame on: Likewise, Johnny doesn’t do much except fight with the others. His business at the beginning of the story is him throwing flaming darts at a picture of Spider-Man.

Trivia Time: Folks who’ve only seen the Avengers movie might be surprised to learn Nick Fury was originally a white dude, but I’m more surprised to see this is a pre-eyepatch version of Fury. I always thought that was a 1960s addition. From what I’ve been able to tell, the eyepatch was introduced shortly after this. Here, Fury is CIA agent, with no mention of SHIELD. Also, Reed and Ben are still WWII vets at this point in the series, and Reed mentions having fought alongside Fury in the big one. This is how they know each other.

Fantastic or Frightful: Here the book attempts to tackle important social issues (in this case, racism) with mixed results. The depictions of “bigotry” are cartoonish and the plot twist is way too on-the-nose. But there’s a lot of fun to be had, too. Fury, as written by Stan Lee, is a fun character, totally badass but also a wisecracker. It makes me wonder what Stan’s take on Wolverine would have been like.

 Next week: That’s not Hans, Moleman.

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.