I: Feature Story: "A Visit With the Fantastic Four"

Pages: 11

Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Dick Ayers
Letters: Artie Simek

First Appearance: Willie Lumpkin

Origin: Reed Richards, Ben Grimm

Origin Retelling: Fantastic Four

Flashback Cameo: Skrulls, Dr. Doom

Gadgets & Technology: elevator signal belt

Synopsis: All of Manhattan is a buzz as the latest issue of Fantastic Four hits the stands. Kids in the street are pretending to be their favorite FF character as Thing strolls by. He gives the boy playing Thing a thrill by squeezing a lamppost. The rest of the team is behind them and demonstrate their powers for their tiny counterparts.

They arrive at the Baxter Building to find Willie Lumpkin, a mailman asks to join the FF because he can "wiggle his ears real good." He's dragging a heavy sack of fan mail behind him. He can't get up to the FF's headquarters and Sue demonstrates their special signal belt, which summons their private elevator.

The Fantastic Four dump the pile of fan mail onto the desk and begin to go through it. Thing finds a package from the Yancy Street Gang and a boxing glove springs out from inside and punches him in the face. Enraged, he crushes a 100-pound dumbbell. Reed calms him down with another version of the serum that changes him back to Ben Grimm. A bored Johnny Storm takes off to work on his "new TR-4."

Once Johnny's left, Reed and Ben reminisce about their origins. They think back on their college days, when Ben was an All-American football player and the two were roommates at State University. Then, they think back on their World War II careers, where Ben was an ace fighter pilot and Reed was an OSS fighter, working behind enemy lines. They also think back on the rocket launch and cosmic rays that gave the Fantastic Four their powers, as well as the crash when they first saw their powers in action, and where Reed had to stretch to wave at a passing plane for their rescue.

Sue reads one letter and starts to cry. She says many readers have told her she is useless to the team and that she should quit. Reed confronts the readers, defending Sue by drawing a comparison to Abraham Lincoln's mother, who was an inspiration to the 16th President in ways that most people don't even know about! They also mention moments in the past where she saved the rest of the team using her powers of invisibility. Ben gets irate at the readers and changes back into the Thing as he yells. Suddenly, the alarm bell rings and they rush to the spaceship they brought back home from Planet X. Johnny is waiting inside with a birthday cake for Sue. They cut the cake and relax until Thing sees Willie Lumpkin returning with more fan mail.