Fantastic Four Annual (1963 series) #3

The Fantastic Four are all together again with their powers intact (after a continuous run in #38-43). Now it's time for Reed Richards and Sue Storm to get married. And after his defeat by Thing in #40 Dr Doom is out for revenge. (Doom said his crushed hands were nearly cured in #43 but the way he's holding them this issue suggests that they're not yet fully functional.) He's determined to ruin their day and will use his Emotion Charger device, remotely from his Latverian castle, to convince all the other Marvel bad guys to attack them.

There are crowds outside the Baxter Building being kept in check by cops. And there are paparazzi snapping attending celebrities like Tony Stark with Stephanie de la Spiroza on his arm (currently seen together in Tales Of Suspense (Iron Man) #69-72). We see Patsy Walker and her friend/rival Hedy Wolfe in the crowd, looking for Millie Collins who they believe has an invitation. But we also see Puppet Master with 1 of his 'voodoo' puppets, and his thoughts tell us that he's controlling the next guest to be greeted by Thing. But SHIELD Agents Nick Fury and Gabe Jones waylay the guy because a brainwave camera detected 2 mental patterns in his head which means someone was controlling him. We see Puppet Master exiting the scene thinking that if Ben Grimm had shaken the man's hand he would have been injected with enough poison to kill him. But also claiming that he'd sworn never to attack the FF again (not in his most recent apps!), and something or someone made him do it.

On the way he passes Red Ghost & his 3 Super-Apes. Meanwhile Thing has gone inside the BB to warn Reed that something's up. He passes Prof Xavier in his wheelchair who senses danger as a large drilling machine bores up through the floor and disgorges Mole Man & his Subterranean minions. Prof X mentally calls for his X-Men who come running. Beast dodges MM's staff and Marvel Girl mentally lifts the villain with her TK. Cyclops pushes MM & Subterraneans with his optic blasts back into the hole they came from, flying Angel lands on them to stomp them down the hole as Thing adds more Subbies to the pile, and then Iceman seals them in with (what  else?) ice. Ben hears the scream of his girlfriend Alicia and rushes into a room to find Invisible Girl in her wedding dress using her force-field to protect them both from the gorilla of the Super-Apes. The baboon uses a gadget to give Thing a high-voltage shock. Mr Fantastic enters to see what's happening and grabs the orangutan with his super-extended arm, but the ape grabs *it* to leave him at the mercy of its master. Johnny Storm comes in too and attacks RG with a flaming hand but the Ghost just goes immaterial. RG prepares to fire an Electrode Scrambler gun but he and the apes are suddenly sent to another dimension by Dr Strange. Reed thanks him but Stephen Strange says he's just repaying a debt of help (but in their only previous encounter *he* helped the FF in their #27!). They all agree that all these attacks can't be coincidence.

We look in on DrD surveying the success of his plan as Mandarin, Black Knight, Kang, the Mad Thinker's android and Grey Gargoyle prepare to enter the fray. Super-Skrull also arrives in a spacecraft but he's spotted by Thor and so fires at him. The Thunder God falls from the sky but quickly sends his hammer Mjolnir to smash the spaceship. The FF spot that explosion and Human Torch flies out to investigate. Ben comments that maybe the happy couple should have just eloped. Reed swaps his wedding suit for his Mr Fantastic costume and asks their lawyer Matt Murdoch to inform the wedding guests of a delay. But Matt hands that job over to his associates Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, and he slips outside as Daredevil where he sees a truck driven by Hydra agents carrying a Vortex Bomb to destroy the Baxter Building. They leave it heading for the building but DD leaps in the cab to steer it away.

Meanwhile old and new Avengers Captain America, Iron Man and Quicksilver pitch in. Cobra leaps on Cap and the Asgardians Enchantress and Executioner join in. Cobra's frequent partner Mr Hyde heads towards them too but Hawkeye pins him to a wall with a Lock-Arrow around his wrist. Enchantress casts a spell which drops a large safe on the hero but Spider-Man stops it with a web-net. Mr Hyde breaks free but the villains get in each others' way trying to get at CA. Daredevil is still driving the big bomb to somewhere safe when he's attacked by Black Knight on his flying horse. But Angel attacks *him* until Mandarin zaps him with a blast from his nerve-ray ring (which isn't 1 of the official set of 10!). Agile Beast saves his teammate from hitting the ground while Iceman throws a large chunk of ice at an assembly of Mandarin, Beetle, Electro, Melter and Unicorn. They retaliate but Cyclops blasts back and the meeting of various rays causes a concussive explosion.

There is now a general melee involving HT, MrF and Thing plus Cap, IM, Thor and Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman vs the awesome android, Black Knight, Electro(?), Executioner, Mandarin, Melter, Super-Skrull, Unicorn plus Diablo, Eel and the Mad Thinker. Meanwhile Quicksilver outraces Human Top and KO's him. And Attuma leads his barbarian fleet into New York harbour. (Apparently he got the emotion charge meant for Sub-Mariner who was too deep in the ocean on a quest in his half of Tales To Astonish #72). But just then Daredevil drives the Vortex Bomb into the harbour (leaping clear himself) which explodes destroying the invasion fleet. Kang, Nick Fury and some Hydra troops have joined the big fight. MrF wishes Hulk was here, but then wonders which side he'd fight on. (An editorial caption tells us to find out what Hulk was doing in the other half of TTA#72. We'd find he was trapped by the Leader.)

Suddenly the Watcher appears and whisks Reed away (through a Kirby photo-collage depicting the 4th Dimension) to his laboratory where Richards sees many wondrous devices. Watcher reminds him that he is forbidden to help or interfere in any way. But that means he can't stop the scientific genius from examining the things here and taking anything he might think useful. Reed's intellect allows him to deduce the function of many of the objects and pick the 1 he needs. Watcher warns him that if used wrongly it could destroy him. Then he sends him back to Earth ...

... where the battle still rages. MrF switches the machine on and it sucks all the villains (now including Porcupine) into it. He tells us that it is a Sub-Atronic Time Displacer which has sent them all back to before the battle with no memory of it. And now it returns to the Watcher. Reed deduces that Dr Doom was the culprit but he won't remember any of it either.

All the heroes now finally attend the wedding of Reed and Sue. And Fury, Jones and Dum Dum Dugan bar entry to 2 latecomers named Stan and Jack.