Fantastic Four 6
“Captives of the Deadly Duo!”
Published June 1962
Plot: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Script: Stan Lee
Inks: Dick Ayers (uncredited)
Cover: Kirby and Ayers

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four are unsuccessful at finding Dr. Doom, who escaped in the last issue. Meanwhile, Doom recruits the Sub Mariner to help him attack the FF, appealing to Namor’s desire for revenge. Namor plants a magnetic “grabber” in the the FF’s headquarters, which lifts the entire building into space. Doom, however, has double-crossed Namor, who is in the building as it leaves Earth and intends to send him into the sun with the FF. While the members of the FF are unable to reach Doom’s spaceship, Namor—revived by the FF’s water tank—successfully disables Doom’s ship, and returns the building to Earth. Doom, clinging to a meteor, is lost in space.

What’s going on here?

This is the best issue to date. The story is suspenseful, the plot is straightforward, and the villains have plausible motivations (revenge!). And Kirby delivers some gorgeous art.

Fantastic Four 6 establishes Dr. Doom as a recurring villain (oh, how he reoccurs!) and the Sub-Mariner as a more complex character, as he eventually joins forces with the FF to defeat Doom. The story also layers in more world-building, as we are introduced to various elements of the FF mythos that serve as touchstones over the years, such as the unstable molecules in their uniforms and the Yancy Street gang.

The main plot device— Dr. Doom lifts the team’s still-unnamed headquarters building into space—is delightfully absurd and Doom-ish. So delightful that John Byrne recreates the basic plot in FF 278:

What’s up with Sue?

Sue is revealed to have a crush on the Sub-Mariner, hiding away a photo of him in a book shelf. Where, exactly, she got an 8×10 glossy of Subby is unclear, but the plot device reveals that Stan and Jack view Sue as little more than a silly teenage girl, despite being engaged to Reed. (She also refers to her brother as “Torch” which seems a bit weird, while Johnny calls Namor the team’s “arch-enemy,” despite only facing him once).

Inside the (not yet) Baxter Building

For the second time in three issues, we are treated to a cutaway illustration of the FF’s headquarters. This one is a bit more in depth and shows four floors, not just three.

• 

• 

In this issue we are introduced to unstable molecules …

Want to know how Reed’s clothes stretch with him? So did a kid in a nearby hospital, whom Reed is more than happy to lecture while visiting.

… and elevator belt buckles …

FF 6 introduces another gee-whiz aspect of the team’s gear.

… and the Yancy Street Gang …

They don’t appear (well, they never really do) but they are first introduced here as Ben’s antagonists from his old neighborhood. “Yancy Street” is derived from Delancey Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, near where Kirby grew up.

and footnotes!

Long a staple of Marvel comics, Stan started using footnotes to remind readers about what happened in past issues. Even though there have been only six issues so far.

Mid-century modern

It’s never clear who decorated the FF’s headquarters, but they certainly had an eye for interesting objet d’art.

Kirby Krackle

Kirby drew some wonderful street scenes for this issue. I wonder who he used as models for the faces.

He also drew this amazing sequence of Namor leaping into space to attack Doom

The sexist sixties

In the thin air of our space, Sue is the only member to succumb from the last oxygen because of course she is. (The Sub-Mariner also wears red trunks in this issue, insead of his standard green).

Oops!

Jack draws the headquarters returning safely to its block in New York, while Stan is left to explain in a word balloon that it was Namor who somehow used Doom’s spaceship to maneuver it in place, all off-camera. It seems Stan may have had of explain just exactly how the building returned to Earth.

For sale

A mint (9.8) copy of FF 6 should cost you $98,000.

Next issue: The FF battle Kurrgo, master of Planet X!