Fantastic Four (1961 series) #40

In #38 the Frightful Four made the Fantastic Four lose their powers. Last issue our team used artificial substitutes for their powers but had to contend with Dr Doom who'd taken over their Baxter Building HQ. They had help from Daredevil. They've ditched the artificial aids but the conflict is still going on.

Doom continues to use Reed Richards' inventions against them. He sends out a remote-control flying TV eye to find them. It locates Mr Fantastic and Daredevil together. Reed recognises it and says they won't be able to lose it. But blind DD turns his billy club into a rifle and shoots it down, guided by his radar sense. And then he offers to act as a decoy to keep Doom occupied while MrF and the others sneak into the building. He leaps up and uses a flagpole to bounce him into the air.

Human Torch and Invisible Girl arrive in a taxi they commandeered last issue. Reed leaps in and says they've got to get to the Stimulator in the BB. When they get there they find the building surrounded by police but the Pentagon has told them to let the FF have 1st crack at the villain (not knowing that our heroes are powerless). They enter the lobby but Victor von Doom has set their own defences to attack them. It starts with electrical blasts but Reed remembers the programmed sequence and carries Sue Storm while telling Johnny Storm how to dodge them.

Meanwhile DD has entered their top-story base via a window and creeps up on Doom. He lashes out with the cable in his billy club but Doom has heard him and avoids it. He throws a metal device at him then uses another device to control a miniature 'flying saucer' which DD has to dodge. The villain ups the ante by switching on its liquid fuel exhaust jets. Ben Grimm, no longer the Thing, catches up with the others in the lobby and they all get in their private elevator. An alarm alerts Doom to this but DD tries to stop him pressing a destruct button. Doom repels him with a pressurised air blast and then sends the saucer to self-destruct at him. The hero triggers a flexi-shield at the base of the billy club which protects his head from shrapnel. The 4 feels the elevator car shake as Doom pushes the button, but Richards and Grimm break through the door before it bursts into flames. They are on the floor below their HQ and they start up the last staircase, but Doom self-destructs that. DD leaps on him but the villain's metal-shod hands can pry off his grip and then start to crush his wrists. The FF manage to use the remains of the stairway to get up to the next floor and they rush in to save DD. But his hands are completely numb so he's out of the fight and the rest is up to them.

Reed has gone to get the Stimulator so Ben punches Doom but of course hurts his human hands on Doom's armour. Victor brushes Ben and Johnny aside and demands to face Mr Fantastic and Thing (not recognising his human version). Reed enters carrying the Stimulator (last used, called the Power-Ray, to increase their powers against the Skrulls in #37). He's already used it on himself and now he turns it on Sue, and then uses his own power to form a cushion to catch Ben who Doom has thrown at him. Doom grabs Johnny but the device then gives him *his* power back and he flames on. As Human Torch he flies rings round the villain and then draws a fiery outline around him just to annoy him. But Doom activates a refrigeration unit in the floor which snuffs HT's flame out. Invisible Girl turns invisible but that doesn't save her. All 5 (including DD) are now frozen but MrF manages to extend his flexible arm to switch on a high-pressure steam jet which melts the ice.

Doom leaves, intending to destroy the building and New York with it. Ben asks what we're all wondering - why didn't Reed use the Stimulator before rather than have them using prosthetics. The answer apparently is that the device needed time to recharge. Now MrF turns to change Grimm back into the Thing. Ben protests that he wants to stay normal but Reed says they need him. His friend may hate him for it but we at last see Thing back in action.

Doom is turning 1 of Richards' nuclear devices into a bomb when Thing smashes through a wall, intent on taking his frustrations out on the mastervillain. This time it's his rocky fists that strike Doom, but they can't get through his personal forcefield which generates 100,000 megavolts of energy - which cause Thing's fists to sting a bit. This too needs some time to recharge so Doom uses a hypno-disc to make his foe lose his balance. Then he knocks him to the floor and plants a 'sensitizer' on his back which increase the force of gravity and also starts sapping his energy. But Thing fights against it and manages to stand. Next Doom fires intensified molecules at him which expand into large boulders that engulf him. However Thing smashes through them and throws the largest to shatter the atomic-bomb-in-the-making. Then he grabs Doomsie but his forcefield is back up and he repels him with another 100,000 megavolts. Thing forces his way through everything Doom can throw at him until he can grasp his gauntlets and crush them, destroying the many devices they contain and damaging the hands within. Then he rips the wiring out of his chestplate, completing the job.

Reed stops Ben from killing Doom, reminding them that he has diplomatic immunity as ruler of Latveria. So they let Doom limp away. Ben asks them where *they* were while he was fighting Doom alone. Sue says they treated Daredevil's wounds and helped him leave. But also they kept out of the fight because they thought he wouldn't want them to interfere. Reed says Victor will be humiliated that he was beaten by raw strength. But the sight of Reed and Sue in each others arms increases Ben's anger at losing his chance for a normal life with Alicia. And he quits the team.

Still to be continued.