Writer: Stan Lee
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Dick Ayers
“The Return of Doctor Who”
October 9, 1962
“Does anyone else read these ’60s FF comics with the voices of the Hanna-Barbara cartoon characters or is that only me?”
The story opens with Johnny, Sue, and Reed working on experiments in Sue’s invisibility when they see the emergency flare. After a moment of struggling to get out of the locked room they are in (Seriously, the smartest man in the world and they manage to get themselves locked in. Mind you, it’s a vault door, but still…) they arrive on the street below where they cause all sorts of a fuss with their appearance. Johnny upsets the people with his flame. Reed is mobbed by people who want autographs and bits of his uniform.
And Sue has her hands full with a creeper. Considering it was a ’60s comic, I am impressed with Sue’s reaction and how she outright calls the man repulsive. She causes a traffic accident as she runs about invisibly. It all leads to them showing up at Alicia’s place where Ben admits he used the emergency flare to show them Alicia’s great sculptures of the villains they have fought in the past. Not one word of reprimand from Reed.
Instead, he and Sue get into it as she is upset that Namor is among the villains showcased. She feels it’s not fair as he was a nice person. It leads to a roundabout discussion of how Reed thought they would be married soon, but Sue cuts off that talk. I don’t remember it getting this deep when Namor showed his affection for Sue, but there you have it.
The comic takes a very meta turn as we switch scenes to the offices of Marvel Comics where Stan is trying to think up a new villain, the likes of Doctor Doom. He laments they left Doom adrift in space in his last appearance, but then he suddenly shows up at their door. Like the Master of Doctor Who, he refuses to explain how he managed to avoid what was pretty much a death sentence as he demands that Reed be called in.
Now, Stan and Jack Kirby are relating the adventures of The Fantastic Four, but they also write what appears to be original stories that they work out with Reed. That’s the subterfuge they use to bring him in. The question is, did the story with Doom being lost in space really happen or did Stan just write it? And if he is the creative force, why not just bring him back instead of lamenting the situation the way he does?
In any event, Doom captures Reed and proceeds to switch bodies with him, a process, among a number of others he learned from an alien race, the Ovoids, that he met in his travels. Reed, as Doom, tries to stop Doom. (Getting dizzy yet, kids?) Interestingly enough, for all of Doom’s bravado when he was trapped in his armor, he boasts now of how much more powerful he is in Reed’s body.
He manages to convince the others when they arrive and they place Reed, as Doom, in an airtight container with only an hour or so of oxygen as Doom gloats he has the perfect hideout. (Seems very thuggish of him to think in these terms, amirite?)
Back at headquarters, Doom, as Reed, is confronted when the team learns he stole a bunch of animals from the zoo to experiment on with a reducing ray. He points out he did it for the team to enhance their abilities and comes up with a ridiculous story that they buy into. They fight with each other as to who will go first.
Meanwhile, Reed manages to escape by using the remaining oxygen in the cylinders provided to explode, breaking the glass of his chamber. He heads to Alicia’s to ask her help, but Sue is there as well and she sneaks up on Reed, as Doom, and knocks him out.
Back at headquarters, Doom, as Reed, restrains Reed, as Doom, and proceeds to urge the three to take the shrinking ray so they have the power to defeat doom. But Ben and Johnny have been seeing things differently. As a test, Johnny projects a mirage of dynamite in the middle of the room. Reed, as Doom, leaps to try to defuse it while Doom, as Reed, tries to escape.
That cinches it for them. They attack and in the confusion, Doom manages to get hit by his own shrinking ray. He disappears from view, leaving the four to admit that Reed was tops in their book.
Overall, an enjoyable, if weird story. My only real quibble is some of the dialogue for Doom is off and I can’t understand how no one noticed Doom, as Reed’s, manic look on his face.
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Dick Ayers
Letterer: Artie Simek
“The Human Torch Meets Paste-Pot Pete”
October 9, 1962
Have to admit, these are painful to read. I never knew that the Torch tried to have a normal life by keeping his identity a secret. It makes sense, he’s a teenager and all, but it just doesn’t work for me. He’s not Spider-Man and he really doesn’t have the angsty issues that Peter Parker has. He’s the perfect-looking Aryan hiding out in the town of Glenville (one would assume in Long Island). His biggest issue, as we see in the opening of this story, is that he almost signed his deposit slip as “Human Torch”.
At the bank, Paste Pot Pete appears and robs the bank. Johnny waits for his opportunity to Flame On, but it appears soon after that he is in pursuit of the villain. He isn’t. The real Johnny gets a late start and follows Pete’s motorcycle heat signature as the villain arrives at a missile base.
What follows is a convoluted story of Pete stealing a missile and then launching it into the sea. I guess to halt America’s weapons advancement? And what of the duplicate that the Torch tussles with one moment and then is forgotten? The second half of this story simply makes no sense. I see from the looks of it that this run of the comic is coming to an end soon and I’ll be glad for it as these Torch stories are monotonous.
