I: Feature Story: "Prisoners of Kurrgo, Master of Planet X"

Chapter Titles:
Part 1: "It Came from the Skies!"
Part 2: "Outlawed!"
Part 3: "Bound for Planet X!"
Part 4: "Twenty Four Hours Till Zero!"
Part 5: "The End of Planet X!"

Pages: 24

Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Dick Ayers
Letters: Unknown

First Appearance: Kurrgo, Mighty Robot of Kurrgo

Villain: Kurrgo

Death: Kurrgo

Marvel Milestones: First monthly issue of FF, The Fantastic Four as celebrities, Johnny's first use of "supernova" power

Gadgets & Inventions: hostility ray

Setting: Planet X

Synopsis: Somewhere in the distance expanse of the universe, an alien being named Kurrgo sits brooding over the fate of his planet, Planet X. A runaway asteroid is hurtling towards the planet and they have only two spaceships to escape, not nearly enough to hold the entire population. One ship is even now departing, piloted by Kurrgo's powerful robot, tasked to capture the Fantastic Four and force them to help.

Reed is trying to convince the team to attend a government dinner in their honor. The other three are apprehensive, worrying their powers will cause a disaster. Reed scoffs off their silly excuses and orders them to get dressed. The Thing, still annoyed at having to go, tortures Johnny by playing with the temperature in Johnny's shower. Johnny flames on and steams the entire floor. Reed stretches through the ventilation system to find the source of the steam, but finally realizes it was his teammates engaging in horseplay.

Meanwhile, a UFO enters Earth's atmosphere. The team has now dressed and Reed begins the flight Washington in the Fantasticar. En route, Thing notices a strange craft in the sky but mistakes it for a missile test. Not far away, this craft lands and the mighty robot of Kurrgo disembarks. He uses an atomic scanner to track the Fantastic Four, and somehow, the team senses it from a distance.

The Fantastic Four arrive for dinner at the capitol but the robot has activated a "hostility ray" which spurs people to be possessed by an inordinate feeling of anger. One woman dumps pink pudding over her husband's head, and in another location, a slap fight between two grown men starts from out of nowhere. It also causes a food fight at the gala dinner for the FF, after the host of the dinner calls on everyone there to attack the FF! The Fantastic Four flee the scene as the military arrives. They take off in the Fantasticar but are pursued by the robot's craft until they confront the robot on the roof of the Baxter Building.

The robot demonstrates to the Fantastic Four that by now the entire world has turned against them. There is nowhere on earth they can hide, so their only chance for asylum is Planet X. They leave with the robot, with Reed expressing an overwhelming sense of curiosity to explore other planets than to care about their self-preservation.

Reaching Planet X, they glide down on a beam of anti-gravity matter to meet the master of the planet. Kurrgo meets them on the ground and explains Planet X's plight. If Reed Richards cannot find a way to save the planet they will all die together, in 24 hours, when the rogue planet plows into Planet X! Thing demands the robot take him back to Earth, but his punches, as well as a near nova-blast from the Torch do nothing to sway it. Reed agrees to Kurrogo's demands as the runaway planet appears in the sky, causing massive shock waves to the planet.

The Fantastic Four emerges from the labs of Planet X hours later with a reducing gas. With it, Reed proposes, they can shrink the entire population to microscopic size, thus being able to fit them all onto one of Planet X's two spaceships. Kurrgo lends the Fantastic Four the second craft to return home and sends them on their way. The planet is giving way beneath them so Thing must protect them from falling boulders and Reed must stretch across wide chasms before they can reach the ship.

The reducing gas shrinks the entire population and they board one ship. Kurrgo greedily clutches a canister filled with "enlarging gas", provided by Reed to enlarge them back to normal size when they find a new home planet. Kurrgo decides in his arrogance and lust for power that he will keep the enlarging gas for himself, and sharing it with none of his citizens. He can then rule as a giant, ready to crush his insect subjects at any moment. Just then, the ground shudders and Kurrgo drops his canister. As he scrambles to reclaim it, the ship takes off without him and he is destroyed with Planet X.

As The Fantastic Four returns home, Reed admits the canister of enlarging gas was empty. He couldn't invent an enlarging gas, and felt he needed to lie in order to have them go along with the plan in a civil and orderly fashion. Further, he knows that they will become accustomed to their reduced size once they find their new home planet.

--synopsis by Jonathan Clarke, aka doesitmatter, with Gormuu