First Look at Fantastic Four #17

In the last issue, the team took on Doctor Doom in the micro world that he took over after they thought they had shrunk him down to nothingness in issue #10. They defeated him with the help of Ant-Man but Doom got away by enlarging back into the regular world. Fantastic Four #17 takes a look at how the villain tries to overcome our heroes by assaulting a major weakness…Ben Grimm’s girlfriend, Alicia.

Issue: Fantastic Four #17

Name:In the Clutches of Doctor Doom!
Published: 1963 by Marvel Comics

Blurb:

Creators:

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Inker: Dick Ayers
Colorist: Stan Goldberg
Letterer: Artie Simek

Characters:

The Good: Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, The Thing, Alicia Masters, Ant-Man
The Bad: Doctor Doom
The Undecided:

My Reading:

After a brief description of what went on in the previous issue and fond farewells to their ally Ant-Man, the Fantastic Four get down to the business of searching for Doctor Doom. Each member goes about their own method of tying to find the villain…Reed uses a radar that can distinguish human flesh covered by steel, Johnny uses sonar heat waves, while Ben and Sue hoof it around the city looking for suspicious individuals. No one finds any indication that Doom is still in the city so they head back to HQ.

We soon learn he’s still around though as he’s sent lighter-than-air robots to follow each of our heroes to gather information. Although annoying, the robots are easily dispatched, but the intel Doom gathers points him to a weakness of the team – Alicia Masters. Doom kidnaps Alicia and warns the team that he has disintegration rays attuned to the heroes that will fire if they get close to try to save her. He then demands a seat on the President’s cabinet so he can amass power and if not arranged, he threatens war. Of course the President doesn’t give in so Doom basically hacks all factories and electronics and brings the country to a standstill.

Reed comes up with an idea to temporarily ‘cure’ Ben which would prevent the disintegration rays from recognizing him. As a normal human, Ben sneaks onto Doom’s ship and then turns back into the Thing and busts up the guns so the rest of the team can get on board. Doom soon realized that they are all aboard and launched his next phase of attack…customized for each member of the team – a whirlwind for Johnny, cement for Reed, and a disappearing floor that threatens to send the Thing hurling to the ground far below. They all overcome their traps and it’s Sue who gets close to Doom and not only frees Alicia, she kick Dooms butt with judo moves that Reed taught her.

In the end, Doom gets away once again but the team rescued Alicia and everyone was happy to be rid of him for the moment at least.

What did I learn:

• The Human Torch can use his flames as sonar heat waves.
• Doctor Doom has a ‘sanctum sanctorum’
• Reed has a radar that can focus on flesh covered by steel (surprised he didn’t fins Iron Man).
• Johnny can make flame inages.
• Reed Richards is one if he world’s greatest judo experts.

My Thoughts:

Doctor Doom truly gets ruthless in this issue by attacking and kidnapping Alicia Masters. As any good terrorist would tell you, it’s the civilians that are vulnerable so target them rather than the heroes. Fortunately we see Sue come into her own in this issue. She’s really the star of the show and I enjoyed seeing her out-judo the Doctor. While each of the team shines on their own, the teamwork and Sue in particular really make this a fun issue to read. Sure, I could have done without the recap of the last issue and the whole bit about the sonar heat waves and special radar that Reed made was a bit over the top, but they were not enough to drag this issue down. I actually think this is one of the better issues of the Fantastic Four in 1963 that I’ve read so far. I think part of that also has to do with the fact that this really was a followup to issue 16.

My Rating: A-

This comic can be found on Marvel Unlimited, Comixology or at your local comic book shop.

Daily Ramble 245.2 | Comics – Marvel 1963 – Fantastic Four #17