#a friend recently sent me the Human Torch Song and now I hear that whenever I read one of Torch's lines in these comics

[hautsreadsmarvel]

Back-to-back issues of “the Fantastic Four”! (1961, issues 8-9)

Issue 8 is basically about the Thing, and that means it’s a delight.

Reed is working on a project and refuses to let the Thing get near or learn anything about it; this spate of apparent ostracization pushes Thing over the edge and makes him desert the Four briefly.

Villain is a guy who can hypnotize others by making effigies of them from radioactive clay and then maneuvering them like puppets. Not going to bother with most of the plot, but the Puppet Master has a blind daughter, Alicia, whose sharp senses can not only pick out the Invisible Girl’s heartbeat, but also can sense the personality of a person thru touch. She “can sense a gentleness to [the Thing]--there is something tragic--something sensitive!”

Of course, by law of irony, the project Reed was working on was a way to restore the Thing’s cherished human form. The Thing is still the only way to squeeze any personality out of Reed, but I’m starting to enjoy their interactions.

And this is the point at which Thing becomes more than just one of the few multi-dimensional characters - he starts to change! He’s willing to show his heart in this moment, expressing worry that under the Puppet Master’s spell he might’ve hurt the same kid he often threatens to smack around during their spats.

Obviously, Alicia’s attracted to him, and her acceptance of and affability towards him will likely change him up some more, too.

The action is alright. It turns out that Reed is immune to bullets (if eventually exhausted by the deformations they cause on impact), which tragically means that beloved Reedball was meaningless.

Similarly tragic is the high likelihood that Johnny Storm has mesothelioma. The explanation from the next issue on “how” he flies only really explains how he rises into the air (once again I assert his thrust must come from pyrokinesis) but it’s full of a lot of other nifty explanations re: him training, studying, and managing his time to optimize use of his power. Love that shit.

In Issue 9, Reed (presumably) buys high and sells low, rendering the F4 so broke they sell off their headquarters and have their vehicles rendered down to parts sold as memorabilia. It’s so funny to me that the guy who is regularly proclaimed as one of Marvel’s “smartest people in the world” apparently sucks at stock market. Also interestingly, Reed brings up the notion that there is a cost of operations for the F4, which, obviously duh, but I didn’t think that’d ever come up (maybe because these early comics are obviously targeted at kids and logistics don’t seem like a good match for that, or maybe because it’s a “realistic” subject and that doesn’t seem to be a high priority for these mags).

Immeasurably “based”, Thing. Horrid showerthought - if these comics were just coming out today, the Torch would absolutely be speaking contemporary teenslang.

Alicia really is causing character change! Thing and Spider-Man, the only two beings in this universe who have experienced any evolution so far. Speaking of, our next Spider-Man issue is… TWENTY TWO ISSUES AWAY? NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo (spoiler: Spider-Man continues being peak)

They get an offer from Hollywood to star in a movie about themselves for $1M (equivalent to $10.6M USD today). The producer turns out to be Namor (who looks simultaneously uncanny and sharp asf in a suit), who legitimately funds the film via recovered sunken treasure, and fuck me the love triangle is back

Anyways this is all just a ploy to put everyone who isn’t Sue in mortal peril. Much as I liked the earlier parts of this issue, there is a fantastically racist depiction of a “tribe” (think Zulu stereotype, I’m not snapping a picture of that shit)

Aw c'mon Namor. Why you gotta be so sexism. Don't say "female" like that, Namor.

Anyways at the end of the story, he does give them the money, as promised. A little weird since he patently expected his schemes would kill three of them off, but that kind of honor redeems Namor a little from the earlier genderisms. Great first half to issue 9, prejudicial content bogs down the second half. Hoping to see more Thing growth (and other character developments in general), less Reed-Sue-Namor affection contest (unless it resolves into a throuple, which obviously won't happen), and less -isms.