Fantastic Four #8

Prisoners of the Puppet Master!/The Hands of the Puppet Maker/The Lady and the Monster!/Face-to-face with the Puppet Master!/Death of a puppet!
Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: August 9, 1962
Cover: November 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inker: Dick Ayers
23 pages

I read this issue in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1. The comic has the signatures of Lee and Kirby. The collection lists Ayers as the inker.

We begin now the second year of adventures of the Fantastic Four.

I’ve found it weird the whole series that they always refer to him as ‘Thing’ instead of ‘Ben’. In later comics, they will mostly call him Ben. The writers seemed to have noticed it’s odd as they make a thing of it here. Sue calls him Ben, and he complains about how it’s only ‘Ben’ when they want something.

I’m very interested in figuring out a timeline for all this stuff as I go, as consistently as I can, knowing there will be contradictions. Johnny notes it’s 1962. That’s also the year the comic came out and the first explicit reference to the year I’m aware of. Despite its publication date, I choose to believe the FF spaceflight predates Gagarin’s flight in 1961, and that was the cause of the urgency. In truth, when comics offer to name the year, they usually act like it is the current year, which often doesn’t make sense. Marvel calls this its “sliding timescale”. Their idea is that it’s always the present and they are constantly altering their own history to make it the present. I reject that idea and will try to ground this in time as much as possible. I choose to believe this story takes place in 1962, around a year after the Fantastic Four got their powers.

Thing quits the team in anger this issue. Human Torch was the last one to do so. Thing will be back by issue’s end. As is common, Thing throws a temper tantrum this issue and fights with the Torch. The only oddity is that Mr. Fantastic does NOT try to tie up the Thing with his arms.

There are a few good things about this issue. Puppet Master is a good villain, controlling people with his radioactive clay. But more importantly, it introduces his niece Alicia. She is blind and shows affection to the Thing.

Ben also changes briefly to human this issue. That’s already happened a few times by now. Again, it doesn’t last. But what makes this transformation more touching is that Alicia seems to prefer him in his rocky form.

It’s not quite obvious how the clay works. He makes a clay puppet, and the likeness of that puppet is now under his control. That’s all fine. So he directs a person to climb a bridge and the person does. What’s confusing is when he makes the Thing puppet– he puts the puppet in his living room, compelling Thing to come to his living room. But I don’t understand how Thing knows the address. How does he know whose living room his puppet is in? Eh, science. Over my head sometimes.

A weaker part of the comic is when Puppet Master has Alicia disguise herself as Sue to set a trap. It’s not clear why she’d go along with it, or why Puppet Master thought simply putting a wig on someone would fool Sue’s brother or fiancee. There is perhaps some subtext here in noting that Alicia resembles Sue, given Ben’s forthcoming romance with her. Does this imply feelings for Sue on Ben’s part?

The story has a good ending. Puppet Master boasts of his plans for world domination, so Alicia turns on him and throws his puppet to the floor. He trips and falls out a window. Did he trip because his puppet fell? It’s a rare subtle ending for a series not known for subtlety. One of the best FF pages yet.

Superhero comics are well known for their onomatopoeia sound effects popularized by the ’60s Batman TV series. While we’ve seen other sound effects (‘HISSSSS, ‘RREEEE’) I haven’t yet noticed any ‘BAM’s or ‘POW’s before now. It’s possible one slipped by me, though. But here’s a good one. It’s an unusual effect as it isn’t there to augment the art directly, but rather as a substitute. Rather than showing Thing throw a punch and having a corresponding sound effect, they remove the second panel entirely in favor of the sound effect.

The issue includes a pin-up that gives us details of Human Torch and how his powers work. Science!

Rating: ★★★½, 62/100
Significance: ★★★★☆

Strong art. Strong character work with Alicia and Ben. Introduces a good villain in Puppet Master. Good, subtle ending.

Characters:

• Mr. Fantastic
• Human Torch
• Thing
• Invisible Girl
• Puppet Master
• Alicia

Minor characters:

• Warden Williams
• Charlie (prison guard)
• Joe (prison guard)
• Rocco (prisoner)

Story notes:

• Human Torch notes it’s 1962. First explicit reference to a year, I believe.
• When Torch grabs man under control, the puppet gets hot
• Puppet Master is Alicia’s step-father. He does not like to be called “Father”.
• Alicia is blind
• Puppet Master’s power comes from radioactive clay which makes the puppets
• Alicia detected Invisible Girl’s breathing and heartbeat
• Ben turns human. Transformation short-lived. Alicia seems to prefer Ben’s rocky face
• Puppets include large robot and flying horse
• Puppet Master has warden release prisoners from jail; FF contain the jailbreak
• Puppet Master plans to rule world
• Alicia betrays step-father and takes puppet
• Strong implication Puppet Master is dead after fall from window; Mr. Fantastic notes they saw him on the ground.
• Human Torch pinup explains powers
• Puppet Master or Puppet-Master? The issue is inconsistent in the spelling.
• I think we have our first “Pow”

#26 story in reading order
Next: Journey Into Mystery #86
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