Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: May 11, 1965
Cover: August 1965
12 cents
Story by: Stan Lee, who has never lost his touch!
Art by: Jack Kirby, who has never lost his magic!
Inking by: Vince Colletta, who has never lost his flair!
Lettering by: Sam Rosen, who has never lost Artie Simek!
20 pages
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| Avengers #18 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #42 |
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You did this to me, Richards!! You turned me into somethin’ so ugly that they can only call me… a Thing!
I appreciate that they use Ben’s real name in the title, rather than his superhero name. It adds a certain something, though I suspect Stan did it for alliterative purposes: brutal, betrayal, Ben.
Notice this picks up right where the last issue left off, so no time has passed. Yet we’ve read 7 other comics in the meantime. The idea is all this stuff is happening close to concurrently.
Ben had been turned human again, but Reed felt they needed him to be super strong again to defeat Dr. Doom, so without permission, Reed fired a ray to turn him back into the Thing.
Ben is justifiably angry and quitting the Fantastic Four.
Thing’s monologue is interesting. He recaps events, but says he “hadda let Reed turn me into the Thing again”, whereas it was pretty clear last issue that he was turned into the Thing over his objections.
He hitchhikes in a pick-up truck, then falls off. The shot of his tired body lying in the road has a sad and even pathetic quality to it.
We meet Mr. Curtis, the leasing agent for the Baxter Building, not pleased with all the damage. The relationship of the Fantastic Four to the building is a little confusing. General interpretation seems to be that they lease the top several (likely 4) floors of the building, but the evidence is contradictory. For example, some evidence suggests the FF occupy floors 34-37, while other evidence suggrsts there are only 35 floors.
Fantastic Four #9 offers contradictory evidence on the ownership of the building. Reed considers selling the building to pay bills, which suggests he owns it. But it’s also noted he owes rent on the same page. I choose to infer that I misunderstood Reed’s line about selling the skyscraper, and that they are tenants of the Baxter Building. All other references suggest they rent their floors. They hire Matt Murdock to work on their lease renewal in Daredevil #2. We learn Mr. Gideon owns the building in issue 34, though it is quite plausible he would have sold the building after the events of that issue.
Mr. Curtis recommends they move somewhere less crowded, and Reed says they hadn’t considered that. Of course, he had considered setting up his lab on an isolated island for exactly these reasons in #22, but the island under consideration was an elaborate trap by the Mole Man, and he’s not returned to the idea.
The main plot of the issue is that the Frightful Four capture the Thing and use a machine to turn him evil.
He then readily defeats the rest of the Fantastic Four for them.
Just why does Medusa want to kill the Fantastic Four so much?
She thinks she’s not safe while they live? Why not? She picked the fight with them, not the other way around.
The dynamic of Thing fighting his teammates is a good one. That the conflict comes from a silly plot device like the Wizard’s brainwashing machine takes away a little, but it remains rooted in genuine anger and resentment that Ben feels over his situation, that he is now free to express and act out. It’s that emotional layer to this conflict which will carry us through this arc.
The story doesn’t end here. This is in fact the first proper 3-part story in the FF. They’ll only get longer from here. Arguably, we are still in the middle of the extended arc which began in issue 38, their last battle with the Frightful Four. As we are still dealing with the fallout. They lost the powers in that battle, then immediately had to battle Dr. Doom and regained their powers, but Ben turning back into the Thing caused him to resign and fall into the trap of the Frightful Four. So while there are 3 distinctive stories from issues 38-43, major plot threads carry us through all of them.
Stan Lee is doing his best to be more feminist, by showing how strong Medusa is, and portraying her as a potential leader of the Frightful Four.
But other dialogue continues to undermine his best efforts.
Rating: ★★★½, 61/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 2.
Characters:
- Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards)
- Invisible Girl (Sue Storm)
- Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
- Thing (Benjamin “Ben” Grimm)
- Mr. Curtis
- Alicia
- Wizard
- Trapster
- Sandman
- Madam Medusa
Story notes:
- Ben quits team.
- Mr. Curtis is the leasing agent for the Baxter Building.
- Trapster emphasizes not to call him Paste-Pot Pete anymore.
- Madam Medusa can whirl her hair like a fan; claims this makes her most powerful member of Frightful Four.
- Ben is Best Man at upcoming wedding.
- Ben sighted on Route 4 in New Jersey.
- FF search for him in Johnny’s modified S.S. Excalibur racer.
- Wizard uses Id Machine to make Ben bad and obey him.
- Lots of fighting amongst Frightful Four. Medusa and Wizard both claim leadership. Trapster and Sandman fight over Medusa.
| Previous | #372 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Avengers #18 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #42 |
| Fantastic Four #40 | Fantastic Four | Fantastic Four #42 |
