I: Feature Story: Chapter Titles:
Part 1: The Fantastic Four
Part 2: The Fantastic Four Meet the Mole Man!
Part 3: The Mole Man's Secret
Pages: 25
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Unknown
Letters: Artie Simek
First Appearance: Fantastic Four: Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic,
Sue Storm/Invisible Girl, Johnny Storm/Human Torch, Benjamin Grimm/The Thing; Mole Man, Monster Isle monsters; French Foreign
Legionnaire Pierre
Villains: Mole Man, Mole monsters
Origin: Fantastic Four, Mole Man
Cameo Appearance: Pierre
Marvel Milestones: Cosmic Rays, heroes with no costumes or secret identities, heroes that squabble amongst themselves
Gadgets & Technology: FF signal flare
Setting: Central City, Monster Isle, Valley of Diamonds
Synopsis: As the day fades to a close,
the bang of a signal flare is heard, and a signal up in the sky reads
announcing The Fantastic Four! Sue Storm sees the signal and
disappears from a tea party and bumps into the crowd
on the street, hailing a taxi and handing the driver a bill while invisible.
Ben Grimm leaves a mens clothing store by crashing through the wall and
dives into the sewer when police fire at him in a state of fear.
Johnny Storm, working on a car repair with a friend, accidentally melts the car
while taking
off into the sky, where he is pursued by fighter jets scrambled to take
care of this "UFO." They fire a nuclear
missile at the Torch, but Reed Richards catches it with his stretched arms and
throws
it into the river.
When all four members have gathered, and before Reed fills them in on the
why he has fired the signal flare, they reminisce on their origin. Here's how the
story goes: Reed had big plans to fly "to the stars"- and before "the Commies
beat us to it,"- but his pilot Ben Grimm thinks that it is too dangerous. He backs
down immediately when Sue refers to him as a coward. They steal a rocket that
Reed had helped develop in the shadows of night, racing past a soldier with a
rifle, guarding the gantry. They take off!
In orbit, the ship is hit by a stream of ticking cosmic rays, passing through
the ship's hull and absorbing into the human's physiology: Ben's warnings were not
heeded, and they are now paying the price! Johnny begins
to steam through his suit and Ben passes out. The ship crashes back to Earth,
taking out a tree in a hard landing. All four stagger outside the ship to
safety. Sue feels strange and vanishes into thin air! She reappears
but mentions that she seems to have no control over the power.
Ben changes into the Thing- a massive, orange, rocky creature- and his first
reaction is to tear a tree in half and try to hit Reed. Reed ducks the swing
by stretching his limbs into fantastic shapes. Johnny is the only one who seems happy
about the change, as he's been given the power of flight when he turns into a searing-hot
flaming creature!
The four band together with the idea that they will control these fantastic powers
and use them for good as a team, and they adopt codenames: Human Torch, Invisible
Girl, the Thing and Mister Fantastic!
After remembering their origin, Reed shows the team
black and white photographs of atomic installations. All over
the globe, huge holes replace the atomic plants that used to stand there.
At that time, in French Africa, some Foreign Legionnaires are standing
guard when the ground trembles beneat their feet. Pierre and his men fire at the
giant green creature that crawls from below, but they are unable to deter the
monster from destroying the atomic plant.
Reed surmises that the midpoint between all these cave-ins must be the location
of the perpetrator.
Oddly enough, that point is Monster Isle. Ben doesn't believe the island
exists but they fly there in their private plane. They are beset by a
three-headed creature and Reed throws it into the ocean.
Another cave-in takes Reed and
Johnny by surprise, and they fall to the depths below. There, they awake
after a period of unconsciousness when they are blinded
by an intense light. They are clad in blue
pajamas with visors to protect them from the eye-piercing glow of
the Valley of Diamonds. All this is explained to them by their captor: the Mole Man!
Meanwhile, on the surface, Sue is attacked by a blue rock monster.
Thing throws it into ocean and they race to find their friends.
Down below, Reed and Johnny listen to the Mole Man to tell of his origin.
As he tells it,the misfit Mole Man wass just so ugly and abused by his fellow
man that he had to leave
civilization and the people that taunt him to cross the Arctic. He
fell into a cave, which left him blind, but introduced him to a new world where he
was ruler. He shows off his skill at fighting with a staff. He challenges either
Reed or Johnny to a duel (we don't know which since they're wearing identical masks
and suits) and bests him easily. He then lays out his master plan to destroy
every atomic plant with his giant monsters, and then attack the surface world once
and for all.
Suddenly, Ben and Sue arrive on the scene and Mole Man unleashes the
biggest monster of all. Johnny buzzes around him and Reed grabs Mole Man. The
Mole Man pulls a curtain which unleashes all types of monsters at them. The
Fantastic Four are forced to retreat and Johnny causes a cave in by melting
the rock. Mole Man then unleashes a nuclear blast, sealing Monster Isle off from
civilization once again.
--synopsis by Jonathan Clarke aka doesitmatter, with Gormuu
Issues Reprinted
Fantastic Four #1-10
Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.