Fantastic Four (1961 series) #45

Last issue Medusa, the villainess of the Frightful Four, was being pursued by a new char Gorgon. The Fantastic Four got involved and they woke the android Dragon Man up. They all wound up on the roof of a tall deserted building. Dragon Man flew off with Invisible Girl, Gorgon grabbed Medusa and used 1 of his mighty kicks to bring the building down beneath the 3 FF males (presumably escaping himself in the FF's helicopter that he stole earlier). Now read on.

Human Torch escapes by flying but Mr Fantastic and Thing are caught in the collapsing building. Reed Richards tells Johnny Storm to grab his hands and then he forms his elastic body into a large sling which Torch uses to scoop up Ben Grimm. The weight pulls HT down with them until MrF tells him to let go and they land on an awning which breaks Thing's fall and MrF forms himself into a ball to roll off. Reed's winded but he tells Johnny to fly after DM and Sue Richards (Reed and Sue got married in Annual #3, remember).

Torch spots them and tries to use his flame to force the android down, but he has to be careful not to harm his sister. IG tries to tell him that she's OK with DM but he can't hear her, and the Dragon breathes fire back at him. Johnny tries to tell her to close her eyes, and she either *does* hear or guesses what he's going to do because she covers her eyes. Torch glows Sun-bright, blinding DM who falls to the ground and lets his 'captive' go. HT thinks now he doesn't need to hold back but Sue tells him to back off because she can handle the android.

We take a break to see 2 more of the Frightful Four in prison. Sandman and Trapster are sharing a cell. Pete Petruski has had all his trap gadgets confiscated and the cell has been specially designed to be Sandman proof. Its thick plastic walls won't allow his sand to trickle through it, and if he smashes the observation window he's hit with a high-voltage electric shock and the glass is instantly replaced. They let us know that their 4th member Wizard is in the prison hospital after the beating Thing gave him (in #43). But they're angry that Medusa hasn't freed them.

MrF and Thing have gone back to their HQ and Reed is unhappy that he hasn't got his new invention the Airjet-Cycle working yet (Gorgon disabled all their other transport when he took their copter). But they're astonished to see HT and DM flying towards them with IG. Cue another rooftop meeting. Johnny tells them that Sue tamed the beast, and she claims that Dragon Man is like a child. He trusts her (from his 1st app in #35) and she persuaded him that her brother was a friend. Now they just have to figure out what to do with him.

Johnny leaves them with that problem and goes to his room. He decides to call his girlfriend Dorrie Evans who he hasn't seen for a while. He asks to see her and she replies that she's got another date. He can't believe he's been stood up and goes out to walk off his frustration. He wanders without plan until he finds himself in an abandoned neighbourhood that's going to be torn down for a new development. But he sees a beautiful girl sitting alone in the light from a streetlamp. He approaches but is beaten back by a sudden wind, and then she's gone.

Next day he can't stop thinking about her. He mopes around and isn't much help to the others preparing a large room for Dragon Man to live in. He leaves them to it and returns to where he saw her. She's there again but runs away saying that 'they' mustn't know she was seen by someone. This time a pile of wood bursts into flames between them, but of course Human Torch can deal with that. When she sees that he has powers she assumes that he must be 1 of 'us' so that makes it OK. Johnny plays along and they exchange names - hers is Crystal. Johnny flames off and she introduces him to her companion Lockjaw, a huge (bull?)dog with antennae on his head, who she says is "almost as powerful and wonderful as his master Black Bolt". Now the dog uses the antennae to open a hidden trapdoor and Crystal leads Johnny down into her home to meet her family. Lockjaw has "vanished himself" and she says he's always doing that. She adds that Black Bolt built this place to keep them safe from humans, but he isn't home at the moment. Johnny wonders who these people *are*. Not mutants or the X-Men would have found them (but how does he know about that?).

Back at HQ Thing is trying to push Dragon Man into the room but the android resists being manhandled and starts a fight which he seems to be winning. Reed sends Sue for a tranquilliser gun while he forms his body into a cube to stop the foes charging head-on into each other. Then Sue tranqs the beast and Thing carries the android over to the bed they've prepared for him. Sue continues to treat him with compassion, and Ben thinks his girlfriend Alicia is only with *him* out of pity for his monstrous appearance. He used to hope Reed could make him human again but he thinks he should just resign himself to his fate.

Crystal now takes Johnny to meet the family members who *are* here. They see Karnak who can sense the weak spot in any object and then destroy it. We see him practice his skill on a large block of marble. Johnny shakes hands with him but the guy just tosses him over his head to land behind him. When Johnny looks up he sees 3 other characters. 1 has green scaly skin mostly hidden in a hooded cloak, but the other 2 are Gorgon and Medusa. Crystal joyfully says Gorgon has brought her sister back. Medusa tells the green guy called Triton not to let the boy be harmed because he helped her. Triton enigmatically says "What will be will be". Medusa tells Torch to escape but Gorgon knocks him down with a shock wave from his foot and tells Triton to deal with his flame. T causes a glass wall to rise up and trap the youth and then water starts to flood his prison. But Torch finds that the roof isn't flameproof and melts his way up to the surface and into the air where he forms a flaming 4.

The FF3 see this signal and they get on the Airjet-Cycle (which Reed has completed since the start of the issue). The skeletal craft flies them across the city on jets of air (what else?) (and Jack Kirby devotes a full-page panel to this). They meet up with HT who tells them about Medusa's race of Inhumans (though nobody actually told him that name) and leads them to where the trapdoor entrance was. But Gorgon, Karnak and Triton are above them on a partially damaged building. Karnak uses his skill to break off a very large chunk of wall and then throws it at our gang, but Thing just clobbers it to bits. However Karnak calls for Black Bolt to show them his power, and the man himself smashes through another wall.

To be continued.