Fantastic Four Fridays: Puppet Subby

There are so many things wrong with that cover, starting with the fact that I really don't need to see the Sub-Mariner's butt so prominently featured. Note that Sue, who's a little closer to us than Subby, looks about three feet tall.

As the story begins, the FF is returning from their trip to the moon, as shown in FF #13. They're mobbed by the public and the media, giving Stan and Jack their usual opportunity to show us their powers on the fly:

After they get back to the Baxter Building, Reed catches Sue mooning over the Sub-Mariner.

And it turns out that she's not the only one thinking about Prince Namor. The Puppet Master, who apparently died at the end of FF #8 is still alive and is planning to use Subby as his weapon against the FF. Namor summons Sue to meet him via a "Mentofish" which can communicate via telepathy with any person on Earth.

Here's a little clue, Sue. If you're sneaking around on your fiance to see somebody, odds are you really do care for that somebody.

When she meets him at the docks, he gains control of her with a hypnofish, and sends her to his undersea lair. Of course, it's really the Puppet Master pulling the strings:

A classic "evil genius" moment if ever there was one.

An apparition of the Sub-Mariner appears in FF HQ to inform them of Sue's capture. Reed, Ben and Johnny head off in search of Prince Namor, with the convenient-for-plot-purposes addition of Alicia. Subby captures them with the aid of yet another improbable form of sea life:



Mentofish, hypnofish, and chloroclams; Namor's got them all! And another to help him handle the Torch:

Meanwhile, Sue is being menaced by a giant octopus, which gives Reed the clue that Namor is being controlled by another. Ben attacks the beast and hurls it off into the depths, where it encounters... you guessed it:

But he discovers that the octopus is mindless, and thus immune to his control. It apparently kills him, releasing Namor from his mental control.

Comments: A sub-par issue. I never cared much for the Puppet Master, and the Sub-Mariner's convenient sea creatures get less and less believable as the story goes on.

Fantastic Four Fridays: Bankruptcy!

In a story torn from today's headlines, the Fantastic Four went belly-up in Fantastic Four #9. The simple truth is that Reed Richards may have been a scientific genius, but when it comes to the markets he was a raw amateur:

Hmmm, wonder what Reed invested in that could have cratered in 1962? Doo-wop music? Black and white TV? A church fire hazard insurance company in Mississippi?

Of course there was some history. Detective #105 posited a similar theme for Batman:

Although in Bruce (Batman) Wayne's case it was embezzlement by a shady treasurer.

The FF members suggest that they should use their abilities to make money, but Reed's unimpressed by their talents, suggesting that they would only be useful in a carnival sideshow. Way to add insult to injury, Stretcho!

In fact, if you think about it, there probably would be quite some value to the Thing; I'd assume he'd have no trouble becoming the heavyweight champion; the Great Orange Hope, they could call him. Johnny could race cars and do some spot-welding on high-rises. Sue would have no trouble getting on TV with her fabulous looks. Reed could become the alltime dunking and blocking leader of the NBA.

But as it happens they get a sudden offer of a million bucks to star in a Hollywood movie. Hilariously, they have no option but to try to hitch a ride:

The scene conveniently changes to their arrival on the West Coast. As was typical in DC, Marvel put a lot of stars in the shot; James Arness and Amanda Blake from Gunsmoke, Alfred Hitchcock, Bing Crosby and Jackie Gleason are obvious. Eventually they are introduced to their new producer:

Subby explains that he has all the treasures of the sea, so he's independently wealthy:

"He's so masterful--so confident. And he has a big... wallet!"

There follow some amusing scenes with Johnny impressing some starlets, and the Thing showing the pumpers at Muscle Beach what real strength looks like. Oh, and Sue goes out to dinner with the Sub-Mariner. The next day filming begins. Mr Fantastic is assigned to battle what's supposed to be a Cyclops robot, but instead turns out to be the real deal. And it looks like the whole "movie" bit is just a dodge to kill off Reed:

Beware of Altanteans bearing gifts! Reed manages to defeat Cyclops. Meanwhile Johnny is supposed to battle with some natives in a village. But it turns out they are immune to fire, and thus they capture him. But he later escapes and destroys their immunity potion.

Ben is supposed to fight the Sub-Mariner along the shoreline. He quickly realizes that the Atlantean draws his power from the water, and drags him away from it. But then a bolt of lightning hits him and turns him back into Ben Grimm, whom Subby quickly kayos. Flush with victory, he heads back to claim his prize:

Subby shows he's no gentleman:

As you can probably guess, it's the rest of the FF come to save Sue from a fate worse than death. But she won't let them gang up on him, so they reach an agreement: the film will be made and released and the FF will get their money.

Comments: An entertaining and engrossing story with some real humor (and not just at fickle Sue's expense). The trick of offering a superhero money to appear in a supposed film (but it's really just a trap) was also used in Spiderman #14 a year or so later by the Green Goblin, and I think also by Pluto against Hercules in a Thor story a little after that.

A side note: I had to change the comments system from Haloscan and hence the old posts' comments aren't showing. I may be able to get them back manually, but it's going to take some time and effort with 700+ posts and about 18,000 comments here and on my other blogs. Your patience is appreciated!

Fantastic Four Fridays: Let The Supervillain Team-Ups Begin!

Supervillain team-ups had been rare in the DC Golden Age. Batman had two that I'm aware of; in Batman #2, The Joker Meets the Catwoman was published. However, it was not really a team-up as such, just a story with two different villains. Then, in Batman #25, came Knights of Knavery, featuring the Joker and the Penguin. This was a real supervillain team-up; oddly it was not repeated. Superman #77 had a story featuring Luthor, the Toyman and the Prankster, and of course there were several supervillain team-up stories in All-Star Comics tales of the Justice Society of America. The famed Flash of Two Worlds (published exactly one year before FF #6) had featured the talents of the Fiddler, the Shade, and the Thinker.

So team-ups were not unheard of, but they were uncommon. Of course, Marvel changed all that. As the story begins, the FF is reading their fan mail. Reed discovers that a young fan is recuperating in a hospital nearby, and stretches over to meet him. This gives Stan the opportunity to explain how Mr Fantastic's uniform elongates with him (some mumbo-jumbo about unstable molecules).

The fan mail segment also features the first mention of the Yancy Street Gang, a long-running gag in the series. As you can see, they specialized in tormenting the Thing:

This gives Ben the opportunity to muse that he longs for a villain worthy of his great strength, like Dr Doom or the Sub-Mariner. And speaking of that duo, Dr Doom is, at the same time, encountering Subby:

Doom is determined to goad the Sub-Mariner into resuming his campaign against the surface world:

We also learn that the Sub-Mariner is still sweet on Sue, and that his feelings for her are returned:

But almost at that moment, Namor enters their quarters, having flown through an open window. We know from an earlier scene that Namor is carrying a device that Dr Doom will be able to use to pull virtually anything on Earth to him, and that anything in this case is the entire Baxter Building:

But this is a double-cross on the Sub-Mariner, too, as we learn here:

Dr Doom tugs them out into space, apparently intending to suffocate them. The FF put on a bunch of fishbowls (although there are no apparent oxygen tanks attached to them), as does Subby. The Torch is unable to fly, and Mr Fantastic finds that the cold of space reduces his stretching power. Ben's strength and Sue's invisibility are useless. So what can be done?

Well, not to spoil the drama, but the Sub-Mariner swims around in a pool of water for a bit, then makes a leap through a meteor shower to Doom's ship. Doom tries to electrocute him, but:

In his haste to escape, Doom hitches a ride on a passing meteor, to his (apparent) death in the vastness of space. The Sub-Mariner returns the Baxter Building to its original position. Namor flies off in Doom's craft, leaving the FF in something of an awkward position:

Comments: Something of an offbeat story; the FF only survives because one of the "villains" prevents the other villain from winning. This became a common theme in the Marvel team-ups.

Fantastic Four Fridays: Return of Subby

In the Golden Age of Comics, Marvel (or Timely as it was known back then) had three major heroes: The Human Torch, The Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. Having brought back the first as a significantly different character (a teenager, not an adult, and a human, not an android), Stan and Jack decided to resuscitate the Sub-Mariner pretty much as he had been back in the 1940s: an anti-hero who, despite positive qualities always had an ambivalent relationship with the land people.

As the story begins, the remaining members of the Fantastic Four are searching for the Human Torch. This results in some comical moments as Sue drinks a soda while invisible, spooking the customer on the next stool. And Mr Fantastic, spotting some motorcyclists, decides to ask one if he's seen Johnny in his own way:

But Ben comes up with the correct idea of checking one of Johnny's usual hangouts; a garage where he likes to work on hot rods. Only his idea of how to handle the situation when he finds the Torch there isn't quite as brilliant:

But in the middle of the fight, Thing is startled to note that he's changing back into Ben Grimm, and Johnny flies off while he's distracted. But the reversion to a normal human only lasts briefly.
The Torch heads for the Bowery and spends the night at a flophouse. While there, he notices an old comic mag:

Noticing Johnny reading the old comic, one of the bums mentions that there's another guy in the flophouse who's as strong as the Sub-Mariner used to be. After a brief skirmish, the strong man laments that he can't remember who he used to be, so Johnny plays a little flame-barber:

Johnny flies the Sub-Mariner to the ocean and drops him in the salt-water. Sure enough, that restores his memory. But when he returns to fair Atlantis:

He visits Johnny just long enough to let him know that he's declaring war on the humans. Faced with this threat, the Torch has no alternative to summon his former teammates and alert them.

Using an ancient horn, Namor summons a creature from the depths that looks something like a whale with giant arms and legs. It attacks New York City, but the Thing manages to destroy it by strapping a nuclear bomb to his back and doing a Jonah imitation. Meanwhile, Sue tries to steal the horn, and Namor catches her:

Namor seems genuinely surprised she doesn't eagerly accept his offer; but if he really felt his love was so desirable, why would he attempt blackmail right off the bat? But Johnny, using his flame power summons up a whirlwind that deposits the Sub-Mariner back in the water, while the horn that gave him such power is lost forever in the deeps. But Namor vows to return.

Comments: This is the issue where it becomes obvious that something special is going on with the Marvel line. Namor is the first of the villains with some admirable qualities, although by no means the last (as we shall see in the next issue).

As a reminder, Silver Age Gold is doing a similar series on the Thor stories in Journey into Mystery. And here's another blogger doing the same thing with the Doctor Strange stories.

Single Issue Review: Tales to Astonish #80

Tales to Astonish was one of Marvel's anthology magazines, with two features, much like Tales of Suspense. Initially, of course, it had been a (tame) "horror" magazine, but in issue #27 it carried a story called The Man in the Ant-Hill, featuring Dr. Hank Pym. Dr Pym would go on to become Ant-Man, and later Giant Man (later called Goliath and Yellowjacket, although that was in the Avengers). Effective with TTA #60, the Incredible Hulk was added as the second feature, and with #70 the Sub-Mariner replaced Giant-Man.

Because of the short (10-12 pages) amount of space given to each character, the stories tend to go on for even more issues than even the regular Marvel mags. The Subby story picks up from the prior issue, with old wingfoot facing a creature from out of the Schiff-era Batman:



The creature is being controlled by Warlord Krang (with an assist from the Puppet Master), Namor's rival for the throne and Lady Dorma. The electric eels do not succeed in destroying the behemoth, but they do shock Krang into losing control of the beast, so that the Sub-Mariner is able to defeat it. But before Dorma can learn this, Krang insists that she agree to marry him if she wants to save Namor. So the story ends with Krang departing with Dorma.

Comments: Mediocre monster, but excellent art by Colan. Pretty standard Marvel plot by Stan.

The Hulk story follows, oddly enough drawn by Bill Everett (the creator of Namor back in the Golden Age). Tyrannus (who last appeared in the Hulk #5) transports ol' Greenskin to his underground lair. Since we last saw Tyrannus, he's aged quite a bit, but there's a fountain of youth that he can gain control of if he can wrest it from the Mole Man.

Tyrannus convinces the Hulk to help him in his battle. But the Hulk is tired and wants to rest a bit before fighting (huh?). So Tyrannus uses a threat:



But the Mole Man attacks first, and although the Hulk defeats easily his army, old Moley has a surprise weapon:



But the Hulk defeats the robot by crashing it into the Fountain of Youth, short-circuiting its delicate circuits. As the issue ends, Bruce Banner emerges from the water (complete with his glasses).

Comments: Excellent story, featuring the return of one of the Hulk's earliest villains and the very first Marvel villain of all. Add in the gorgeous artwork by Everett (from layouts by Kirby), and you have a terrific 10 pages.