Issue #6

 Issue #6

Right off the bat, this cover is insane. Two of the toughest opponents the F4 have ever faced on their own, teaming up. This is the first villain team up we have seen thus far from Marvel Comics. I also wonder if they are going to keep in the little Sub Mariner easter egg from the last issue, where the jewel that the F4 were forced by Doom to get crashed into the sea, and Torch asked Reed what they would do if Mariner ever got his hands on it. I guess we’ll see, in the Sep 1st, 1962 issue of the Fantastic Four. 

We open with a crowd marveling (get it) at Torch and eventually Sue as they use their powers. It seems like they’re just showing off, but really they are scouting for signs of Doctor Doom. Sue goes inside their building to find a mail delivery dude trying to figure out how to open an elevator. Sue explains to him that there is a secret scanner on her belt that opens it for her only. We get a bit of a tour of their home, which has been upgraded. Reed has added several new rooms to the building. We cut to Sue talking to Torch, who says there is no news on Doom. Reed is reading their fan mail, and they have one from the hospital nearby. He decides to stretch there for a little surprise. They also get threats in the mail, especially challenges for the Thing. Thing is happy to answer his challengers by bending metal and challenging them to send it back in its regular form. In the ocean, Sub Mariner is training dolphins as Doom finally is able to track him. Mariner jumps onto Doom’s aircraft to attack him, but Doom calms him down enough to say that they both want the same thing: destruction of the Fantastic Four. 

Mariner takes Doom to his home, where it seems Mariner has stopped his ramage to destroy the surface world. We figure out why: Sue. He is still enamored with her and doesn't want to have to fight her, so he has stopped trying to destroy the F4. Doom gives him a long monologue about giving up on taking revenge on the people that bombed his homeland, and eventually, Mariner agrees to help kill the men, but he won’t hurt Sue. Doom agrees and shows off some of his inventions. His main one is a magnetic grabber, which can launch the user in any direction, and use its magnetic ability to grab hold of an object, no matter how big, and bring it back. Mariner is told to put the parts in his belt, as part of a plan Doom has. 

Mariner streaks across the sky at lightning speeds to get to the F4 tower, where Torch finds a secret photograph of Sue’s hidden in a bookshelf. Turns out to be a photograph of Mariner himself. Torch and Sue fight over it briefly, and as Sue is giving an explanation, Mariner appears. Mariner says he is there for peace, for friendship, and Sue backs him up. Torch attacks but, before he is really able to do damage, he flames out. The F4 decided to hear him out after they checked their cameras for traps. Just as they decide to come back, Doom puts his plan into motion, to Mariners surprise. He explains to the others that Doom is taking the building to space, via the magnetic weapon Mariner had placed in the basement. Mariner is being double crossed. 

The F4 have a stash of space helmets that they put on before they suffocate, but Torch can’t fly without oxygen in space, so he’s not very helpful. Reed then attempts to stretch himself to Doom’s ship, but Doom sees him in the camera and burns a rocket at him, knocking him out. Thing then says he’s the only one left that can stop Doom, but decides to take Mariner out first. As they are fighting, Doom speaks over a loudspeaker. Doom says he’s planning to launch their ship into the sun. Mariner, knowing there is a water storage tank on the ship, jumps into it, which increases his power. He then jumps into a meteor shower, jumping from meteor to meteor until he gets to Doom’s ship. After breaking in, Mariner got electrocuted, with Doom thinking that he had killed him. Instead, we find Mariner had absorbed it and redirected it toward Doom’s ship. Doom escapes the ship, clutching onto a meteor to get away. Mariner uses Doom’s ship to guide them back to earth. We then end the issue with the F4 safe at home and Mariner returns to the sea. 

Overall, this was probably my least favorite issue so far. Almost no action, and we didn’t get a villain team up, instead Mariner was immediately betrayed.

6/10