Fantastic Four #10

The return of Doctor Doom!/Back from the Dead!/The End of Mr. Fantastic?/No Place to Turn!
Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: October 9, 1962
Cover: January 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Pencilling: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
23 pages

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Tales to Astonish #39	Reading order	Strange Tales #104
Fantastic Four #9	Fantastic Four	Fantastic Four #11

Our fans have grown to expect real exciting super-villains from us! Too bad that Doctor Doom was lost in space! He was possibly the greatest super-villain of all!

I read this comic in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1.

Again, Stan gives relatively full credits, compared to the previous 25 years of comics. He has been inconsistent about crediting the letterer. He is also not careful to distinguish between plot and script, which has led to much confusion over the years. It is known Kirby contributed at least some, likely much, and perhaps all of most of these plots. Yet he is only ever credited for pencils or art. The plotting is just not in the credits here. Stan does credit himself with plots for the Human Torch and Thor stories when he credits his brother Larry with the scripts.

This comic is most famous for introducing the characters of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. We learn they exist in the Marvel Universe, and they publish Fantastic Four comics, in consultation with the real team. To preserve a bit of mystery, Jack never draws either creator’s face.

This issue also features the return of Dr. Doom. He uses Lee and Kirby to help trap the Fantastic Four. The issue is notable because he removes his mask for the first time in our presence. As with Lee and Kirby, the art obscures his face from the audience, but Lee and Kirby see it, and see it is hideous. From his origin, we knew the accident that got him expelled from university disfigured him; it was implied that’s why he wears the mask; now it’s explicit. Dr. Doom notes he must occasionally remove the mask. It’s interesting that he’s vain enough to wear a mask to hide his disfigured face, but doesn’t mind taking the mask off in front of other people on occasion.

The thrust of the issue is that Dr. Doom and Mr. Fantastic switch bodies. We learn Doom had been rescued by the Ovoids, and learned their secrets, including mental teleporting. In Reed’s body, he infiltrates the Fantastic Four. This is similar to the technology developed by Gorilla Man, though far more advanced.

In Reed’s body, Dr. Doom invents a reducing ray. A lot of that going around. Ant-Man has his reducing gas, and Reed invented a reducing gas on Planet X– so we’re not impressed, Doom!

Dr. Doom is my favorite villain. I first encountered him 30 years after this comic was published. He is famous for a very distinctive manner of speaking: elegant, refined. “All right, sister! You’re asking for it!” That is not yet the voice of the Dr. Doom that I know.

Early in our story, Thing fires the fantastiflare into the sky. This causes the rest of the FF to use their powers to hurry to his location, thinking the emergency flare meant it was an emergency. It wasn’t an emergency; he just wanted to show them Alicia’s new sculptures. Reed says no harm was done, but their panicked dash across town led to at least one car crash, plus general disorder. This story is set almost 60 years ago, but I’m pretty sure telephones were common enough then.

What is the relationship between Reed and Sue? In issue 1, they seemed to be an item. Sue described herself as his fiancée. Ben called Reed her boyfriend. Issues 2-9 show minimal signs of romantic affection between them. Granted, Reed is perhaps the stoic-scientist type. Any romantic fawning on Sue’s part has been for Namor. Reed hasn’t even expressed much jealousy. What concern he has expressed seems to be that she’s consorting with the enemy, not another man. This scene is the first real time Reed tries to express something, what he describes as “an understanding”. She rebuffs him, saying she is uncertain about her feelings. I think the implication is that Reed and Sue expected to be married, though had perhaps not gotten explicitly engaged. But then Namor came along and Sue is no longer certain what she wants.

In other romantic news, it’s not yet clear what the relationship between Ben and Alicia is. Johnny describes her as Ben’s girlfriend. And they definitely seem close.

Johnny notes he’s glad to not be old enough for “mushy problems”. But he’s been seen flirting with girls in Hollywood, and seemed quite taken recently with the interdimensional Valeria.

I wasn’t expecting to see Dr. Doom ever again after he got hurtled into space. But now that he’s shrunken into nothingness, I’m confident that’s the last of him.

I have no idea how Johnny’s powers create a mirage like that. Help from any science whizzes out there?

It’s still not obvious to me that Dr. Doom is Marvel’s greatest villain. But we’ll get there. I mean, he’s the best so far. But that’s just because we haven’t met Paste-Pot Pete…

The comic features an Invisible Girl pin-up. The letters pages have some information: there are no back issues available; and, the letters pages will now be 2 pages long. Also, the results of two polls are given: by nearly unanimous vote, Sue will stay on the team, despite the griping of an apparently tiny but vocal minority; the team will not get new members, according to a poll with a much narrower margin. What’s interesting is that Stan seemed to take these polls seriously. I suspect that if the fans had voted otherwise, there would soon have been a roster change. He’s letting the fans help shape the series.

Rating: ★★★☆☆, 51/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆

Characters:

• Mr. Fantastic
• Invisible Girl
• Human Torch
• Thing
• Alicia
• Stan Lee
• Jack Kirby
• Ovoids

Story notes:

• Reed has an electronic x-ray camera with radioactive film to photograph Sue while invisible. The vibra-light process was able to capture Sue’s outline even while invisible.
• Reed finds limits to his stretching ability
• Alicia brilliant sculptor; life-like miniatures of all the FF villains: Mole-Man, Miracle Man, Skrulls, Dr. Doom, Sub-Mariner
• Sue objects to Namor being called a villain
• Kirby and Lee studio on Madison Ave.
• The narrator makes it explicit that he is Stan Lee with first person pronoun
• Kirby proposes a villain called False-Face.
• Dr. Doom removes mask and we learn his face is repulsive. We don’t see it; we also don’t see Stan’s face or Jack’s.
• Dr. Doom uses “mystic science” to teleport himself and Reed away; “mental teleporter”; described as one of his “marvels”.
• Ovoids immortal by means of switching mind to a new body
• Reed-Doom trapped in cell with one hour of air
• Within the comic, short time passes
• Doom-Reed invents reducing ray (Reed had already invented that on Planet X; And of course Ant-Man has such)
• Doom-Reed claims reducing ray will increase powers; Torch could fly faster and maintain his flame longer; Sue could render any part of her body invisible and remain invisible longer; Thing could turn human at will
• Doom has yet another castle
• Alicia senses goodness of Reed-Doom
• Johnny uses powers to create mirage
• Doom shrinks into nothingness
• Comic features Invisible Girl pin-up
• Letters page notes: Now two-page mail sections; no back issues available; poll results; overwhelming– Sue should stay on team; slight lead– team should not get new members

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Tales to Astonish #39	Reading order	Strange Tales #104
Fantastic Four #9	Fantastic Four	Fantastic Four #11

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