Fantastic Four (1961 series) #42

Last issue Thing left the Fantastic Four angry because he'd been forced to change back from Ben Grimm to fight Dr Doom in #40. The Frightful Four captured him and brainwashed him with the Wizard's ID Machine into hating his teammates. They also captured the now Fantastic Three and the issue ended with Thing about to pulverise Mr Fantastic ...

... Reed Richards can't escape from the wooden board he's pasted too but he manages to inflate his arm to deflect Ben Grimm's mighty blow and make it break part of the board. Then he expands his whole body to push Thing and the evil FF away.

In another room Human Torch recovers consciousness to find that he's manacled to a device that will douse him with water if he tries to flame on. But Johnny Storm hopes that if he does it quickly enough he can melt the apparatus before it reacts. He tries that and it works, melting his manacles too. Now he flies around trying to find the others and comes across his sister Sue in a special plastic bag that her force-field can't break out of. So he melts that and Invisible Girl is free. Then they go find where MrF has now expanded so much he's pushed the 5 foes through a wall into another room. HT attacks Sandman and dodges his spray of sand to get to Medusa. Trapster erects bars of hardened paste to keep the flaming teen out while Medusa tangles Sue Storm in her living red hair.

The evilised Thing is still intent on beating up Reed who he blames for making him an ugly monster (in FF#1 and again in #40). But Mr Fantastic quickly retracts his body so Ben's blow misses again. Angry Thing moves forward and grabs the board MrF is pasted to. But that was Reed's plan because in Ben's rage he shatters the (already weakened) board freeing MrF. 2 elastic legs shoot out with enlarged feet to hit his friend in the chest. but Thing retaliates by grabbing the legs and whirling MrF's floppy body around the room. MrF hits both sides of Thing's head and then slams him into a wall. In response Thing tears down the wall and throws it at him. Reed curls himself into a ball to survive the impact but Ben squeezes and stretches the ball until Reed falls unconscious. Then he squeezes the body a lot more and stuffs it into a metal jar and jams the top on.

Torch is melting through the paste bars when Thing shows up and snaps them off to attack him with them. IG is using her force-field to keep Medusa trapped while fending of paste from Trapster's gun and making it rebound onto *him*. Thing, Sandman and the flying Wizard attack HT simultaneously but he doges and they run into each other. Sandman throws a load of sand but Torch melts it. He then whispers a plan to Sue and then creates a blinding burst of light that catches SM, Th and W by surprise, and Sue releases Medusa from her force-field to go find her fiance Reed. But M and Trapster overheard the whisper and closed their eyes. Now M sends tendrils of her hair to a nearby sink and turns the tap on. Soon her hair is soaking wet and she whips it at Torch dousing his flame. Then she uses her hair to toss him to Thing who KO's him with a finger tap.

Meanwhile invisible Sue is sneaking around looking for Reed. She passes the ID machine without knowing its significance. Then she sees the metal jar bouncing around a room and guesses MrF is inside. She tries to prose the lid off with her force-field but Ben distorted it when he jammed it in. So she invisibly exits via a window with the jar to find somewhere to think what to do.

Wizard attaches an anti-grav disc to HT's body to make him more portable. Trapster complains about being covered in his own paste so Thing hits him hard which dislodges the paste but knocks him out. Medusa suggests they put Torch under the ID machine so they'll have 2 of the FF working for them. Wizard agrees and takes him away to do just that. Thing wakes Trapster with a jug of water over his head. Medusa is attracted to him as the most macho man in the gang but this doesn't sit well with Sandman who fit the bill last issue. Medusa holds them apart and Wizard returns with an evil Johnny Storm.

Out in the woods Invisible Girl has jammed the metal jar in the fork of a tree and is now mentally straining with her force-field to pull the top off. Just before she blacks out it comes free and Mr Fantastic unfolds himself out of the jar, remarking that he'd very nearly run out of air. He checks that his love is OK, but unconscious. Then he leans back to recover.

In the cabin Johnny is demonstrating his vicious streak when tear gas comes pouring out of the fireplace. We see that MrF is emptying a canister down the chimney. Back in Wizard's storehouse IG hands him some of Wiz's anti-grav discs smeared with Trapster's paste. Reed forms his fingers into a catapult and fires them at the villains as they flee the house. He hits Medusa, Sandman and Trapster and they have to hold on to thongs to stop floating away. He also hit Thing and they run away dragging floating Ben behind them. Torch and Wizard give chase, and as he uses anti-g to fly he also uses it uproot the trees that the remaining FF are hiding in. This allows HT to dive down at them and surround them with a wall of flame.

To be continued ...