Fantastic Four 4

The Coming of... Sub-Mariner!
by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

"Nowadays, nothing is impossible!" -New York Mayor

The Fantastic Four search for Johnny. Making good on his vow last issue, the Human Torch has quit the team and has been in hiding ever since. In the FF headquarters Reed Richards berates the Thing for causing the Torch to quit after they beat the Miracle Man. The three members split in the Fantasticar to search for their teammate. Sue begins the search for her brother at a local Diner, but is quickly overcome with a great thirst and invisibly drinks a soda, scaring off a customer. Reed is as unsuccessful as his fiancée, he stalks a road and surprises a couple of motorcycling youths who haven't seen Johnny anywhere. The Thing, being more streetwise than his teammate, finds Johnny at a garage where he's working on a car with his friends. Thing is ready to confront the teen since Johnny can't use his powers around all the spilt gasoline. Stuck in a corner from a rampaging Thing, Johnny gets a reprieve when Thing's body suddenly reverts back to his normal human form of Ben Grimm. Johnny runs out of the garage and flames on to fly off, leaving Ben behind who quickly gets stuck back into the rocky, orange, Thing form.

After leaving Thing behind, Johnny finds himself in a poor district of the city called The Bowery. He hides himself among the derelicts and rents a cot in a rundown hotel. There he finds a comic book of the Sub-Mariner from the 40's. He recalls his sister talking about him, he lives underwater and has the strength of ten men. One of the bums notices Johnny and tells him there's another bum there who is as strong as that comic character. The bum tries to get the heavily bearded bum's attention, but he doesn't want to be disturbed. The bearded bum bats him and several others away. Johnny gets them all to stop so he can reveal who this bum really is. Igniting his finger, the Torch smolders his beard off to reveal Namor, the Sub-Mariner underneath.

Reed and Sue continue their search. Reed asks a helicopter pilot to no luck and Sue just misses her brother in the Bowery district. Johnny takes the confused Namor and flies him out over the ocean. Once there, he tosses Namor down into the ocean. With the ocean water filling his senses, Namor remembers who he is and sheds his old clothes down to his trunks. Namor quickly swims to his undersea kingdom of Atlantis only to find it completely in ruins. Noticing a faint glow over the area, Namor realizes it must be a result of the humans atomic testing. He returns to Johnny at the docks and vows revenge on all mankind.

As Johnny fires his flare to summon his teammates, Namor searches the ocean for his own ally. He uses a horn to awake a huge whale beast he calls Giganto. Namor guides the whale creature towards the coast of New York with his horn. The authorities quickly call for the evacuation of New York City and with no one else to be endangered the military and Fantastic Four are ready for battle. As the military fires missiles at Giganto, Reed flies up in his part of the Fantasticar to blast smoke around it's head to slow it down. Johnny flames on and attempts to confront it, but is quickly dowsed by the water from it's blow hole. After the Torch is rescued by Reed's stretchy arms, Thing comes up with a plan.

Rushing through military depots, the Thing gets them to strap a hydrogen bomb onto his back. He walks into the now beached Giganto's mouth and carefully strides deep into the cavern of it's body. As he searches for a place to set the bomb, a living creature the beast swallowed starts attacking the Thing. As he sets the bomb down to subdue the creature the bomb starts ticking down. With seconds to spare, the Thing quickly subdues the creature and runs for the exit. He makes it just in time as he leaps out of Giganto's mouth, the bomb detonates inside. Johnny and Reed rescue their teammate and Johnny seems to have some newfound respect for Thing.

Namor, having witnessed all of this, goes to summon more monsters with his horn when an invisible hand snatches it from his grasp. Sue races off with Namor quick at her heels. He grabs her up in his arms forcing her to become visible and is immediately taken aback by her beauty. Namor promises he will stop his attacks if she will join him and become his bride. The rest of the FF arrive to confront Namor before Sue can make a choice. Namor quickly snatches his horn back and angrily States he will now do both. Johnny gets his powers back and flames on. He flies up high over Namor's location in circles. Faster and faster until his heat and speed create a huge tornado. The vortex sucks up Namor, Giganto's large body and the horn, scattering them throughout the sea. The four are left wondering when they'll have to face Namor again.


Notes:

1st appearance of Namor the Sub-Mariner in the silver age, one of my particular favorites

Atlantis is established as a place that exists

Sue & Namor's infatuation with one another is established

Incredible Hulk 1

The Hulk
by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

"Fan out, men! We've got to find that -- That Hulk!!" -US soldier

In a military installation somewhere in the American Southwest, a team of scientists is hard at work on a new experiment. Spearheaded by Doctor Bruce Banner, under the duress of General Thunderbolt Ross and his own assistant Igor, Banner has created a gamma bomb for the military. Today is the day of the dates test. General Ross's lovely daughter is there accompanying her father and flirting with doctor Banner. As the countdown begins, a car speeds out onto the site of the detonating gamma bomb. Banner tells his assistant Igor to delay the countdown until he can get motorist off the grounds. Igor has more malicious intent. As Banner races through the test site in a jeep, Igor ignores Banner's instructions. Just as Banner explains to the teenage driver that the area is forbidden, the bomb reaches it's final seconds. Bruce shoves teenager Rick Jones down into a ditch where he is safe, but the scientist has no such luck. The bomb goes off and Banner is caught in it's wake. He does not die, he becomes stuck in a panicked, screaming pose for hours. 

When he finally comes to, Bruce and Rick find themselves in a military infirmary. Rick explains to Banner that he is an orphan, he tells him that nobody has ever risked their life for his, so he decided he'd do the same. As the day starts turning to night, a Geiger counter left in their room starts going off wildly. Banner suddenly starts panicking as the counter increases louder and louder, he keels over and his body starts changing, becoming bigger, stronger and gray. He has changed into a monster soon to be known as the Hulk. As Rick points this out, Hulk casually bats him away which knocks the boy hard onto the ground. Desiring freedom, Hulk smashing the wall of their room down and makes his way out of the military installation and is quickly confronted by army men that he smashes and frightens away.

As Hulk runs off into the night, Rick Jones chases carefully behind him. Somewhere in the Hulk's brain a trace of Banner' guides him to his off-site cabin to secure the Gamma Bomb formula. When he reaches the place, he finds his assistant Igor rifling through his things. Igor attempts to shoot Hulk, but the grey monster yanks the gun out of his hands and crumbles it in his fist. Hulk knocks Igor out, in the process he knocks over the notes of the Gamma Bomb that he was looking for. Rick takes them and mentions Banner's name which irritates the Hulk to hear. The monster then sees a picture of Banner. Rick tried to make Hulk understand that he is Banner, but this drives the Hulk even madder. Before Hulk can do something to quiet Rick, the first rays of dawn peak through the window and the Hulk turns back into puny scientist Banner. Just in time for the police and military to arrive.

The police question Bruce and Rick, who act dumbfounded about anything regarding the Hulk. They confiscate Banner's notes for safe keeping and take the unconscious Igor into custody. Betty arrives, greatly concerned about Bruce. Bruce begins to break down a little at all of the events. Rick, who is growing irritated at the relationship developing between Betty & Bruce, quickly shows her the way out as Bruce expresses his desire to rest and his fear of becoming the Hulk again to Rick.

Igor, who is now awake and in prison, contacts his comrades behind the iron curtain. He has a very tiny micro-transistor embedded on his fingernail that allows him to transmit a signal to them. The message quickly gets sent up the commie chain until it reaches a small, somewhat grotesque looking man called the Gargoyle. The Gargoyle immediately becomes obsessed with find the Hulk. He gets a submarine ready and only hours later fires a rocket from it with himself inside in order to reach the location in which the Hulk was seen in America. As the late afternoon sun goes down, Rick & Banner are driving a jeep through the desert. Banner explains that if he is going to turn into the Hulk again, he'd rather do it outside where he'd potentially do less harm to people. Soon as the day turns to night, the transformation takes place and the Hulk & Rick emerge out of the wrecked jeep. The Hulk has a strong desire to find Betty as the Gargoyle looks on from a distance.

At the cabin on General Ross and his daughter, Betty seems incredibly anxious after the ordeal of the last couple of days. General Ross suggests she go outside to get some air. Taking his advice she goes out for awhile contemplating if the Hulk is even real after all. To make this pondering all the more ironic, the Hulk suddenly pops up out of nowhere which surprises Betty so much she faints. As Rick tries to reason with the Hulk to let her go, the Gargoyle lets his appearance be known.

The Gargoyle holds the monster and the teen at gunpoint. Upon firing it, he tells them that it is a gun which will make the two of them obey his will, which seems to be just that. They quickly recover and follow the small, ugly communist back to the submarine he arrived in. General Ross finds his daughter as she awakes from fainting and vows to her that he will hunt down the Hulk if it takes him forever.

From the Gargoyle's submarine, another rocket is launched. On board is Hulk, Rick and himself. As the three pass across the hemisphere night turns back into day because of different time zones. When they finally land, the Gargoyle is bewildered, but quickly figures out what happened. He becomes confused as to why the doctor would want to become that incredible monster. The Gargoyle begins to weep about his on plight, being stuck in this grotesque form. Banner decides he will help him to look more like a normal person using his scientific know-how. Banner quickly gets to work and before too long using radiation in some capacity, he turns the small man into average size, normal-looking person. The Gargoyle shouts at a picture of Khrushchev saying it was all his fault for the way he was. He then facilitates the escape of Bruce and Rick. He discharges some gas throughout the facility, cause a panic among the personnel. As this goes on he launch a rocket with Rick and Bruce on board back to the US. The Gargoyle remains where he is as the entire complex explodes.


Notes

1st appearance of Hulk/Bruce Banner, Rick Jones and Betty & General "Thunderbolt" Ross.

1st plot directly involving Soviets "behind the Iron Curtain"