Featuring: Human Torch and Thing
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Written by: Word-slingin’ Stan Lee
Drawn by: Picture-sketchin’ Dick Ayers
Inked by: Ink-splatterin’ Paul Reinman
Lettered by: Pen-pushin’ S. Rosen
13 pages
Dr. Strange gets a mention, but the cover real estate is again mostly devoted to Human Torch and Thing.
Thing and Human Torch battle Namor at sea, where they really are completely outmatched.
This turns out to be an issue of misunderstandings.
Johnny and Ben drove away some Life Magazine reporters, jealous they had come to interview Reed and Sue, only to later learn the article was going to be about them. This would not be the first FF feature in Life. We saw them posing for a Life photoshoot in Fantastic Four #24.
Johnny and Ben also went off to confront Namor without contacting Reed, and thus didn’t learn that Namor was invited to New York by Reed. They had plans to discuss a truce. The issue ends with Namor convinced the truce invitation was a ruse and a trap. And so does the path to war between the surface and the sea continue…
Rating: ★★½, 46/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Human Torch vol. 2. You can also find it in The Human Torch & The Thing: Strange Tales – The Complete Collection. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Human Torch
- Thing
- Namor
- Mr. Fantastic
- Invisible Girl
Story notes:
- Thing referred to as “Ever-lovin’ Thing” in title.
- Beatles reference.
- Emergency alarm tele-scanner shows picture of Namor approaching from sea.
- Defense alert audio receiver tunes into alert to coastal defense units.
- Recap of events of FF Annual 1, previous Sub-Mariner invasion.
- Thing references Aunt Petunia.
#246 story in reading order
Next: Strange Tales #125, Story B
Previous: Sgt. Fury #10
