I: Feature Story: "The Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android!"
Pages: 22
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Dick Ayers
Letters: Artie Simek
First Appearance: The Mad Thinker, the Awesome Android, Yancy Street Gang, Peggy, Pierre, Higgens, General Electronics' Roger, Cartwright & Van Dorn, Bones & Shorty
Villain: The Mad Thinker, the Awesome Android
Origin: The Mad Thinker, the Awesome Android
Guest Appearance: Peggy, Pierre, Higgens, General Electronics' Roger, Cartwright & Van Dorn, Bones & Shorty
Cameo Appearance: Alicia Masters, Willie Lumpkin, Yancy Street Gang
Marvel Milestones: Bones 'n Bailey Circus, first "pin-up" splash page with no story content
Gadgets & Technology: Vibra-Guns
Synopsis: The signal flare explodes over the Baxter Building.
Johnny abandons his date, Sue runs out of the hairdresser in curlers and Thing is denied his revenge on
the Yancy Street gang. They complain to Reed for the inconvenience on their lives,
but he says he doesn't like it anymore than they do, as he has been called away from his own
experiments
researching DNA. However, it's an FF emergency, Reed says. The chief of police has called him because
gangs around the country
are flocking to New York in some unknown plot.
The gangs are flocked around the Mad Thinker. Between his intellect and his computers, he declares
that he can
outsmart anyone on earth, even the Fantastic Four! Nothing is left to chance in the Mad
Thinker's plans. He has already escaped
robberies by knowing the precise moment when a water main would break or a hot dog vendor would
block the police pursuit. With this method of intuition, he will break into the Baxter Building and steal
Reed's
inventions, in order to take control of New York City and declare it its own city state, with himself
as king. One of the gang lords doubts his powers and leaves, precisely at the moment the Thinker
predicted. The gang lord is picked up outside by the police, as the Thinker knew he would. The assembled
gangsters are impressed by this show of knowledge and foresight.
The first phase of his plan involves disbanding the Fantastic Four. Right on the Thinker's
schedule, two of Johnny's
cousins- Bones and Shorty- arrive from the circus looking for a way to boost business. They ask
Johnny if he will agree to
perform with them, guaranteeing a boffo box office. The board at General Electronics, Ltd need a top
research specialist when, by sheer coincidence, a janitor drops a copy of the Fantastic Four comic on
the table. The CEO sees the comic and it inspires him to call Reed.
Thing is given an offer (again!) to join the pro wrestling circuit. An agent tries to persuade him
to face off against Fatal
Finnegan, the idol of the Yancy Street Gang. Sue is approached by an agent who wants to cast her in a
Broadway show. After getting on each other's nerves in the Baxter Building, they decide to take a
vacation and pursue their outside interests.
Once the Fantastic Four have gone, the Mad Thinker waits for a meteor to hit the bay and uses the
chaos to break into the Baxter Building. With the FF gone, it is easy for him to take advantage
of the chaos created by the meteor crash. He finds Reed's notes on DNA and decides to create a new
form of life.
Later, in their newfound private lives, the Fantastic Four realize they are bored. Johnny is tired of doing
the same act every day for the Bones 'n Bailey Circus, Sue is embarrassed to be
in a shlocky science fiction film in Hollywood, Reed realizes he can't work for anyone but himself,
and Thing learns professional wrestling really
is rigged. He tosses his opponent out of the ring and ties him to a pole with a note that reads "DO NOT
OPEN TILL XMAS."
They return to Manhattan to find the Baxter Building has been transformed into crystal! No one on the
street seems to notice the crystal building or the projection of the Mad Thinker. He has modified
his "hypno ray" so that only the Fantastic Four know the truth of what they see. The crystal opens to
allow them inside,
but the Torch is wary of traps, and he tosses a fireball inside that sets off the Thinker's booby trap.
They enter and
are attacked by a gang using Reed's own vibra-sound weapons. Thing wraps the gang within the walls.
They climb the elevator shaft but the Thinker gasses them. They become disoriented until Thing twists
Reed up and lets him go. As Reed unwinds creating the air propulsion of a giant fan, he blows the gas
out of the shaft.
Suddenly, the Awesome Android appears, created by the Mad Thinker from Reed's DNA research.
He
blows out Johnny's flame with a tornado wind and changes his skin to match the rocky hide of Thing.
Reed wraps himself around the Android while Sue, invisible, hits his "off" switch. They reach the Mad
Thinker who aims anti-matter shells, at them. Suddenly the Mad Thinker's
weapons short out and the team nabs him. The Mad Thinker is astonished that his plan could go awry,
but Reed explains that he also had a plan! Not knowing what to
expect inside his crystallized Baxter Building home, he asked their mailman-Willie Lumpkin- to ring
a special doorbell at 4 o'clock on the dot. The
signal from the doorbell would send a surge through Reed's equipment and render it useless, and the
Mad Thinker helpless.
II: Pinup: "The Fantastic Four Pin-Up Page"
Pages: 1
The Fantastic Four pose inside the Baxter Building. "Sincerely, Ben, Reed, Sue & Johnny"
--synopsis by Jonathan Clarke, aka doesitmatter, with Gormuu
Issues Reprinted
Fantastic Four #11-20 and Fantastic Four Annual #1
Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.