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Fantastic Four 24
“The Infant Terrible”
Published: December 1963
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Pencils: Kirby
Script: Lee
Inks: George Roussos
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Roussos

Synopsis

While posing for photographers from Life magazine, the Fantastic Four are drawn away by a commotion in Times Square (because all such events take place in Times Square in this comic). There, the FF are befuddled by strange phenomena: a giant bottle, an enormous spinning top, giant robots that multiply. Eventually Reed deduces they are created by a childlike but enormously powerful alien he dubs “the Infant Terrible.”

As the FF retreat to the Baxter Building to plan their next move, word gets out and gangsters under orders from Big Joe lure the Infant Terrible with candy and entice it steal an armored car. Meanwhile, the FF appreciate what disasters could befall Earth if the alien isn’t restrained and Reed orders the rest of the team to locate it while he conducts an experiment.

The team find the alien outside the city just as the gangsters lose their patience with its antics, and after subduing the criminals, the FF (minus Reed) attempts to corral the alien. Instead, the alien imprisons them in an energy bubble and returns to New York, causing a panic that stampedes Alicia Masters. As the Infant Terrible solidifies clouds, bringing them to earth, the now-escaped team rescues Alicia. By this point, Reed’s plan has worked: He has summoned the alien’s parents, who come to collect their child.

What’s going on here?

This story feels like a throw-back to earlier, pre-superhero science fiction comics, where rampaging aliens are defeated through some twist. As a Fantastic Four story it works well enough. There are the usual plot beats: antics in the Baxter Building, a confrontation with a bad guy, the FF is trapped, and Reed saving the day. Even though Reed (and Stan) insist the stakes have never been greater, they don’t feel particularly dire. Maybe because the Infant Terrible looks so ridiculous it’s hard to accept that it’s a real threat.

This story doesn’t have much impact on future FF stories. The Infant Terrible reappears a few times over the years, as a character in Power Pack, which makes sense, and in FF Annual 19, where he comes to warn the FF about a Skrull invasion (and yet more evidence of John Byrne’s deep love of these early FFs).

Then, implausibly, in the 2006 Annihilation mini-series he reappears. There, he is re-named the Delinquent and fights alongside Terrax, Paibok, and other baddies as an agent of Annhilus. This turn of events can be viewed as a metaphor for Marvel’s evolution if you are so inclined. Here, he’s being stabbed by Drax:

One to grow on

Stan and Jack offer a little homily at the end, via Reed

The incredible Mr. Fantastic

An almost-yoga like pose on this splash page. Note the even more hyperbolic blurbs than usual:

They’re fighting again

This time it’s Ben chafing under Reed’s leadership

The sexist sixties

Poor Alicia

In what’s becoming a regular occurrence, Alicia is in a pitiable situation

Dig that Kirby Krackle

A nifty panel of the chaos caused by the Infant Terrible

For sale

Fantastic Four 24 in mint condition (9.8) will run you an almost-reasonable $9,750.

Next issue: The return of the Hulk!