Fantastic Four 20 | Percival Henry: The Fantastic Four and more

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1963, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 20, jack Kirby, Molecule Man, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 20
“The Mysterious Molecule Man”
Published: August 1963
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Pencils: Kirby
Script: Lee
Inks: Dick Ayers
Letters: Art Simek
Cover: Kirby and George Roussos

Synopsis

As the Fantastic Four help Mr. Fantastic in his lab, a glowing ball of energy appears on the streets of New York. The team is eventually drawn within it, and it’s revealed to be a gateway sent by the Watcher, who violates his oath of non-interference (again) to alert the team of a new threat to earth. An employee of a nuclear plant suffered an accident, he tells them, and was transformed into Molecule Man, a villain capable of manipulating matter.

The team returns to New York to find the Baxter Building has been moved to Times Square, where the Molecule Man declares he is now ruler of the earth. After a long battle, the FF is unable to subdue him. They retreats into hiding after the Molecule Man announces he will hold Manhattan hostage unless the FF are delivered to him. The FF are rescued by a member of the Yancy Street gang, who delivers them to the apartment of Alicia Masters. There, Reed is inspired by Alicia’s sculptures and devises a trap for the Molecule Man. Deducing he can’t manipulate organic molecules, Reed and the team cover themselves in plaster and pretend to be statues. After he is lured to Alicia’s by a flare, the Molecule Man is overcome with feedback after trying to alter the “statues.” Then the Watcher reappears, and after determining the FF defeated the Molecule Man, he disappears with him after returning the Baxter Building to its normal location.

What’s going on here

Fantastic Four 20 repeats the same basic plot points of earlier issues, such as FF 16, when they battled the Super-Skrull. As in that issue, after an unsuccessful battle with an overpowering villain, the team relies on Reed to outwit the bad guy.

Owen Reece, as the Molecule Man is later identified, goes on to occupy an interesting niche in the Marvel Universe. Although he made occasional appearances as a standard-issue bad guy, he really is too powerful for normal comic purposes and is instead deployed in Marvel’s big events, like Secret Wars and its various sequels, where his power matches the magnitude of the stories.

Here he is in Fantastic Four 188 (written by Len Wein), one his last appearances as an ordinary bad guy (he has taken over Reed’s body in this issue):

FF 188 (1977), art by George Perez and Joe Sinnott

In the first Secret Wars, where earth’s heroes confront the all-powerful Beyonder, writer Jim Shooter writes him as a neurotic nebbish who’s true potential is revealed to him by Dr. Doom (who at this point as stolen the Beyonder’s power):

Secret Wars (1984), art by Mike Zeck and John Beatty

By Secret Wars II, the almost-unreadable sequel about the Beyonder’s sojourn on earth, Reece is now living comfortable in suburbia when he realizes he must confront the Beyonder.

Secret Wars II (1985), art by Al Milgrom and Steve Leialoha

Three decades later, in a new Secret Wars, Johnathan Hickman redeploys the Molecule Man, this time as a human battery powering Doom’s Battle World.

Weird science

Throughout FF 20, Stan and Jack toss around various notions about molecules, some of which may surprise chemistry teachers:

I guess newspaper ink contains zinc and lead, but mostly I think they’re paper, ie., carbon (this may be Stan working around Jack’s pencils, since later in the issue it’s revealed that the Molecule man can’t affect “organic” molecules, which presumably includes carbon).

We also have this odd moment of Reed finding proof of life in outer space, as if they hadn’t been to an alien plant in FF 7, much less encountered Skrulls and the Watcher.