Fantastic Four (1961 series) #29

The Fantastic Four have gone to Yancy Street to investigate reports of an increase in crimes. As usual when Thing gets involved with the YS Gang they harass him but now they turn on his partners too. And the FF flee because Mr Fantastic likens their  position as trying to swat a fly with an atom bomb. But a flying camera follows their Fantasti-Car back to their Baxter Building base and snoops on them while Reed Richards looks through their old foes to see if any of them could be behind the Gang. Ben Grimm gets upset at the thought of the Puppet Master being the stepfather of his girlfriend Alicia, but he reveals that he intends to tell her that she deserves better than himself. The woman herself joins them and it seems she thinks they should break up too. But it turns out she thinks *she*'s not worthy of *him*, and he only stays with her out of pity (because of her stepfather and her blindness). However he assures her it's not so and they make up. Then Ben gets a package in the post which the flying eye triggers to 'explode' when he picks it up. And a note says it's from the YSG daring the team to meet them at midnight. The camera leaves, its job done.

The FF are back on Yancy Street at midnight, and Thing dimly spots a bulky figure who seems worth fighting. But it's a gorilla which MrF corrals in his flexible arms. Then an orangutan appears and magnetically pulls car parts from a junkyard towards Invisible Girl, which Human Torch melts. Then a baboon smothers Johnny Storm in an asbestos sack, and pulls out a blast gun to fire at Thing who rips up some sidewalk as a defence. The he leaps on the baboon which whirls like a top to transform into a pile of bricks. Meanwhile the gorilla stretches his Fantastic bonds and hooks them on to a passing truck. Stretched between truck and gorilla MrF has to let the ape go. Sue Storm shields him and herself from the gorilla with her forcefield as Reed tells her he's worked out who their real foe must be ...

...and the Red Ghost materialises to confirm it. The FF fought him and his Super-Apes in #13 and now he's back for revenge. With the trapped HT as hostage the other 3 surrender. The magnetic orangutan summons down RG's (new) spaceship and everyone enters, with the gorilla carrying the asbestos-enclosed Torch. Once inside Johnny is freed, but doesn't flame on. Ivan Kragoff warns the heroes that the ship is magnetically-controlled and only the orangutan can drive it. Then they settle down for a 2-day journey.

When they arrive above the Moon the FF deem their surrender void and attack the other 3 (the orangutan's still in the control room). But Red Ghost phases through a wall and escapes. Our heroes have a bit of a fight with the gorilla and the shape-shifting baboon until the pair drop through trapdoors. And then RG ejects the room the FF are in from his ship and it breaks apart when it hits the Moon's airless surface.

But quick-thinking IG had used her forcefield to enclose some of the air from the room which should keep them alive for a short while. Reed reminds them that there's air in the Blue Area of the Moon (where the Watcher's house is - see #13). Sue extends the forcefield upwards so MrF can extend himself until he spots the target on the other side of a peak. Then Thing uses his strength to dig a tunnel through the mountain. They're almost out of air when 1 last punch has them in a corridor in the Watcher's place. (An editorial comment reminds us that the Watcher is now starring in regular backups in Tales Of Suspense.)

A spectro-image (hologram to you and me) of the big guy appears to welcome them but warn them not to tamper with any of the devices they may find. But Reed has already picked 1 up and it starts to evolve him into a big-brained (and big-eared) denizen of 20,000 years ahead. He drops it just in time before the effect becomes permanent. Watcher points to a glass globe with a planet orbiting a sun inside, and explains that the real planet is 30 times larger than Earth's sun but he shrank it to study it. And he claims that he has no idea what another complicated object is even though he's been studying it for centuries. He then leaves them to return to a far distant galaxy where he's observing events that are beyond their comprehension. But Reed claims that there are *some* objects here that he *can* understand.

In his spaceship Kragoff is about to broadcast a message to his Soviet masters and the rest of the world announcing his defeat of the Fantastic Four. But before he can something drags his ship down to the Blue Area He and his Super-Apes exit the crashed craft and find the Four very much alive. Thing hurls a chunk of Moon rock at them but the gorilla bats it back at him. Human Torch melts through it and surrounds Red Ghost with fire, but Kragoff just goes unsolid and walks through it and fires an electron disintegrator pellet at him. However HT just melts his way underground and comes up behind his foe. But the intelligence-boosted orangutan aims 1 of the ship's jet-rotor fans at him and blows his flame out. Invisible Sue creeps up and grabs RG's gun (but throws it away), but the hyper-sensed baboon can tell where she is and shoots at her with *his* gun. She defends herself with her forcefield but has to turn visible to do that.

Now Ghost picks up his disintegrator, turns insubstantial and ghosts through a wall of the Watcher's house where he confronts the 4th member of the still-alive team. He explains to Reed (and us) that while MrF can't touch *him* he can still fire his gun and his foe will feel the effect. The other 3 drive off the apes and run into the building, whose clear wall parts to let *them* in. Sue surrounds RG with her forcefield which will contain his gunfire and also makes *him* visible (and solid). She also dives forward and pushes him towards a screen showing a spiral. He falls into it and dwindles down into the spiral as though it is taking him far away.

Reed surmises that it is a matter transmitter. He also shows them/us the small power ray which brought the spaceship down. Thing looks out and sees the red spaceship leaving - the intelligent apes must have fixed it. Then the Watcher's face appears and he teleports them back to Yancy Street.