I: Feature Story: "The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls From Outer Space!"
Part 2: Prisoner of the Skrulls
Part 3: The Fantastic Four Fight Back!
Part 4: "The Fantastic Four...Captured!"
Pages: 24
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: George Klein (uncredited)
Letters: John Duffy
First Appearance: Skrulls, Skrull Supreme Majesty
Villain: Skrulls
Guest Appearance: Central City Chief of Police
Origin Retelling: Fantastic Four
Marvel Milestones: shape changing aliens, first Daily Bugle & Daily Globe headlines
Setting: Central City
Synopsis: The Fantastic Four appear
to be on a crime rampage. The Thing swims towards an offshore Texas oilrig,
punches out
one of the supports, capsizes the rig and swims away; Sue is in a jewelry store,
steals a huge and expensive diamond and disappeares; Johnny melts a marble Civil War
monument at its dedication; and, at the city power plant,
a hand stretches in and pulls a switch causing a blackout across the entire
city.
The Fantastic Four gather and reveal they are not the Fantastic Four at all!
They are alien Skrulls planning a full-scale invasion of Earth. Their only
opposition is the Fantastic Four so they've taken their places in attempt to
ruin
their good name, in the hopes that the human race will destroy the FF for them!
The real Fantastic Four are in a remote cabin in the woods when they hear the
news of their supposed rampage. Reed is certain someone is impersonating them.
As they try to calm the Thing down, the military arrive to arrest them.
The Fantastic Four surrenders without a fight.
They are placed in four separate cells but aren't held long. Johnny is locked
in an asbestos room but finds a concealed air vent to fuel his flame. The
Thing bashes at his door until it gives way. Reed searches his walls for any
sign of weakness until he squeezes through a loose rivet. Sue turns invisible and
pushes past the guards when they open the door at mealtime. They regroup,
steal a helicopter and
escape.
At one of their "secret apartment hideouts," they discuss their counterattack.
Johnny offers to sabotage a rocket-launch platform and trick the Skrulls into taking
him in. Thing objects and the two get into a heated argument. Sue comes
between them and the Thing bitterly mentions the world would be better off
without his grotesque self.
The Human Torch sabotages the launch platform, and sure enough he is picked up
by the Skrulls.
They take him back to their hideout, thinking he is one of their own,
but discover his secret. Johnny fires a
flare gun and then surrounds the Skrulls with flame to hold them. The "Skrull
Torch" arrives and they collide in mid-air. Johnny is left exhausted but as
the Skrulls move in for the kill, the Thing tears the wall down and charges.
Reed grabs a Skrull from outside the window as Thing tosses another. Sue,
invisible, trips the third. Reed holds them at bay with their weapon and
Thing, out of control grabs a desk to smash them. The terrified Skrull tells
all he knows: that they are an advance team prepping a full-scale Skrull invasion.
The Fantastic Four have stopped their imposters, but not the
invasion. Reed hatches a plan in which the FF will return to the mother ship posing as the Skrulls.
They fly the Skrull's rocket, camouflaged as a water tower, to the mother
ship. Greeted by their leader, Reed announces that the Skrulls will be
defeated by Earth's defenses. As proof, he offers panels from Strange Tales and Journey Into Mystery, which depict the sights of giant monsters, space mines and
huge
insects, which
horrifies the Skrulls and they withdraw. The Skrull leader orders Reed to
unmask and join them but Reed offers to return to Earth and erase all evidence
of the Skrulls there. The leader, still taken in by Reed's ruse, awards them
with a medal for their bravery.
Returning to Earth, they travel back through the radiation belt and Thing changes
back to Ben Grimm. After they land, they are caught in the floodlights of the
police. Reed
tries to explain to the Police Chief what is going on, but when Ben
interrupts, he realizes he is human again.
Unfortunately, a moment later he transforms back into the grotesque and
sullen Thing.
Reed leads the police to their apartment to prove their innocence. Upon
arriving, they find the Skrulls transformed into giant animals: one, a giant
snake; the second,
a spiky monster; and the third, a small bird. The Skrulls are all rounded up
by the Fantastic
Four*.
The Skrulls change back to their natural state and the police chief, now convinced
of the FF's innocence, is stumped on the question of
how to confine them. Reed decides to hypnotize them and erase their minds
after one last transformation. The Skrulls become the most contented creatures
on Earth- three cows, grazing in an open field.
(* NOTE: The disappearance of the fourth Skrull, most likely a Kirby
mistake, has been a topic of much debate in later Marvel stories. He finally
turned up in the Avengers later in the decade, during the Kree/Skrull war!)
II: Pinup: "The Thing"
Pages: 1
Image of Ben Grimm inset against the Thing ripping apart a light pole.
--synopsis by Jonathan Clarke, aka doesitmatter, with Gormuu
Issues Reprinted
Fantastic Four #1-10
Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.