Fantastic Four #15

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: March 12, 1963
Cover: June 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
20 pages

I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1

In general, the desire to be king of the city’s gangs is an uninteresting motivation. The FF villains are better when they think bigger than the Thinker seems to be thinking here. The lack of a good supervillain plot cheapens the new villain out of the box. Nonetheless, the Thinker (sometimes called the Mad Thinker) will become a major FF adversary.

He mostly seems to be another villain whose only shtick is that he’s a genius, like Wizard or Egghead. Like Wizard, he’s clad in a drab green jump suit, hardly a masterpiece of design on Kirby’s part. He doesn’t even yet have his distinctive long hair he will sport in later years.

The extra trick to the Thinker is that he’s so smart, he can basically predict the future with the aid of his machines. The comic shows cool examples of how he uses this in his schemes, timing when a hot dog vendor will walk by, when a water main will burst, the behavior of an organ grinder’s monkey…

This is related to an idea that Asimov once seemed fascinated with, using mathematics to predict the course of history. Most famously with his Foundation series. But even then, Asimov’s characters only claimed to be able to predict the general course of history, not the second-by-second actions of individuals. In End of Eternity, Asimov has a group of engineers who stand outside time and calculate a minimal change point, some slight alteration to time they can do that will have sweeping positive consequences, moving a book to make an empire collapse and the like.

In general, all of that seems unlikely to be possible. Too many variables create chaotic systems. The best one could hope to do is get a handle on probabilities.

For all his posturing, Thinker’s to-the-moment predictions of everything were in fact incorrect. He overlooked Reed having a failsafe system and the actions of the mailman.

Incidentally, the quote above instantly brought to mind the Marvel trading cards I collected in elementary school. Each card included a quote from the character, and Thinker’s quote is above: “The x-Factor– the unexpected! The human element! The one thing I didn’t count on!”

Johnny is on a date with a girl named Peggy. I think this is the first time we’ve met her. We’ve seen Johnny on dates with a few different girls. For example, we saw him go out with a girl named Ellen recently. We are told this is not his first outing with Peggy, as she’s quite cross with him that he keeps ditching her. But she falls easily for his charms nonetheless… until he has to ditch her again.

Thing’s rivalry with the Yancy Street Gang continues to the point where he almost throws a bulldozer at them. We still haven’t met the Gang. This is the issue where we come the closest, seeing the hands of the some of the members. The confrontation takes place on 10th Ave. and Yancy Street. I checked a map of Manhattan and can’t find any Yancy Street. I’ve seen it suggested that Yancy Street was a stand-in for Delancey Street, which Jack Kirby grew up just a couple blocks from. But Delancey does not intersect 10th.

It’s interesting to see what each character is up to when the call goes out. That has been a standard trope going back to the first issue. Though it always illustrates how much better the others are realized as characters than Sue is. Johnny is on a date; Ben is having a temper tantrum; Reed has created a new form of single-celled life… Sue is having her hair done.

This is somewhat new behavior for the FF, the police chief having them on call. They’ve mostly engaged larger-scale menaces than mobsters. We’ve seen hints in montages about them stopping crime, and it’s an activity Human Torch engages in during his solo adventures. But that a meeting of mobsters would concern the FF enough for Reed to interrupt his experiments is a bit tangential to what we’ve seen. And it hardly seems like an emergency that necessitated the others having to drop what they are doing immediately.

Especially as they seem to forget entirely about the mobsters when other life offers come their way. We get a hint into the goals for each member, though each member realizes their dreams aren’t as great as they seem. Human Torch follows his cousin Bones and partner Shorty to their circus. Thing heads Midwest to a wrestling circuit. Sue originally claims she’s going to Broadway, but actually goes to Hollywood to be in a film. She treats this like a dream come true, even though she’d just starred in a Hollywood movie 6 issues ago. Reed gets a job with a company, but quickly learns he hates having a boss.

The comic features a nice pin-up of the entire team.

Thing’s shape has become increasingly clear over the issues. We see he’s actually composed of several rocks forming a clean plated shell. He seemed mushier before. It can be hard to tell, as the lines are often skimped on in any given panel.

Rating: ★★★☆☆, 55/100

Characters:

• Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic
• (Mad) Thinker
• Susan Storm/Invisible Girl
• Awesome Android
• Ben Grimm/Thing
• Johnny Storm/Human Torch
• Yancy Street Gang
• Blackie Skarr
• Shorty
• Bones
• Alicia
• Mr. Lumpkin

Minor characters:

• Peggy (Johnny’s date)
• Pierre (Sue’s barber)
• Roger (Executive at General Electronics)
• Higgins (driver for show director)

Story notes:

• Johnny on date with Peggy; she is angry at how many dates he has broken; not clear we’ve met her before, though we’ve seen other dates of Johnny‘s.
• Pierre runs beauty parlor on 5th Avenue.
• Thing confronts gang on 10th Ave and Yancy Street; Yancy Street does not seem to be an actual street in New York.
• We see hands of Yancy Street Gang; most we’ve seen of them.
• Reed experimenting with DNA; created one-celled lifeform which briefly lived.
• Police chief alerts FF to meeting of mobsters.
• Thinker wants to be king of New York gangs.
• Thinker uses brain and array of computers to make predictions.
• Johnny’s cousin Bones visits New York to ask for help with his Bones ‘N Bailey Circus down South
• Reed offered job as head of electronic research division at General Electronics, Ltd. in New England.
• Thing offered career as wrestler in Midwest with “Grunt ‘N Groan” circuit.
• Mention of Fatal Finnegan, wrestler and idol of Yancy Street Gang.
• Invisible Girl entertaining children at orphanage.
• Sue to star in show; described as both Broadway and Hollywood, but then we see it’s clearly a Hollywood film
• Reed moving to New England.
• Team agrees to temporary separation.
• Alicia joins Ben on Midwest wrestling tour.
• Thinker’s men use Reed’s own vibra-guns.
• Thinker creates Living Android based on Reed’s notes.
• Android spews hurricane blast of wind.
• Android has power of mimicry; imitates Thing’s rockiness.
• Mr. Lumpkin presses button to render all Reed’s equipment useless.

#70 story in reading order
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