sonotadream

Fantastic Four (1962) #41-50, Annual #3 - Stan Lee/Jack Kirby

Doom has been defeated, but at what cost? Ben’s not happy about being turned back into the Thing and leaves the team, after telling Reed off. He climbs in the back of a random pick-up truck, but he’s so tired that he falls asleep and doesn’t wake up even when he falls down in the middle of the road, somewhere in New Jersey.

Near the house where the Frightful Four are currently hiding in.

The Wizard’s leadership is being questioned again, this time by Medusa. Who also decided to trade up from the Trapster to Sandman - he likes that she “plays rough.”

The Wizard uses an id-enhancer contraption on Ben, to inhibit his good traits and enhance his bad ones. He also uses hypnosis to put Ben under his control.

And then has him fight the other FF when they come looking for Ben.

Under Medusa’s orders, Johnny is strapped to a sprinkler device, Sue is in an expanding plastic bag and Reed is in a giant flytrap, covered in the Trapster’s glue.

The Wizard, to regain control of the group, has Ben remember that Reed is the reason he turned into the Thing and incites him to kill Reed.

Reed is trapped, but he still can expand and contract parts of his body to avoid Ben's punches, until he's angry enough to simply break the device trapping Reed.

Johnny also frees himself, by simply flaming on hot enough to melt the device before it turns on. He also frees his sister and the two have to contend with the Frightful Four, while Ben manages to trap Reed in a metal vase.

He's then free to go after Johnny. At Medusa's suggestion, the Wizard gives him the same mind control treatment, although the new Johnny might be more careless with his powers than expected.

Sue escapes with Reed and frees him. The two come up with a plan to get Johnny and Ben back.

First, they get everyone out of the house with some gas and then pellet them with some anti-grav discs. Only the Wizard and Johnny avoid them. They pursue Reed and Sue, who are dragging a floating Ben with them, but it seems the Id treatment made him clumsy.

Turns out, Sue tampered with the Id machine (she totally knew what it was when she found it) and Johnny has been pretending to be on the Frightful Four's side.

The others get suspicious. Medusa and the Wizard check the machine - she seems to be into him now - and surprise attack Johnny, making him their prisoner for real.

In the Baxter Building, Reed uses some sleeping gas to put Ben unconscious so he can work to revert the Id machine effects.

It's a delicate job and they won't know if it worked until Ben wakes up. In the meantime, the Frightful Four are invading the Baxter Building again. They have Johnny strapped to a giant anti-grav disc and Reed and Sue to submit to the Id treatment.

They refuse and Reed asks for more time, timing things so Ben wakes up, destroys the Wizard’s grav control and passes out again, but now the Fantastic Four have the advantage.

They apprehend the other FF - except Medusa, who escapes on their ship, after Johnny hesitates to stop her (she's really hot).

Ben wakes up and he's back to his old self, ready to be Reed’s best man.

Because it's wedding time and everyone's invited!

Except Doom, but that's okay, he’ll use his emotion charger machine to incite the hatred of the FF's enemies and get them to attack the wedding.

It starts with SHIELD stopping the Puppet Master and the X-Men fighting the Mole Man and his moloids, but soon it devolves into a free for all, especially after the Avengers villains join the fun.

Even Attuma tries to invade, but he's stopped when Daredevil sends a Hydra bomb into the Hudson.

Things aren’t looking good, but the Watcher decides to not-interfere by picking up Reed, letting him choose a weapon from his lab and returning to New York with a time displacer, that sends all the bad guys back in time to when they got compelled to go to the wedding and forget all about it.

Reed and Sue get married with all the costumed heroes in attendance.

The honey moon is a bit short-lived though.

Johnny is regretting not going to college if that means living with the two lovebirds.

He's going for a drive to visit Dorrie, when an unexpected passenger points a gun at him. It's Medusa, although she’s not trying to kidnap him, she just wants a lift out of town.

Johnny drives her to the State U campus. He demands an explanation, but all Medusa says is that Gorgon is after her. She and Johnny scuffle and awaken the Dragon Man - who was last seen under a lake, not slumbering underground. He takes a liking to Medusa - somehow reminded of how Sue had been kind to him because of Medusa’s hair (their hairstyles look nothing alike). He kidnaps her back to the city when Gorgon shows up, in a stolen FF helicopter.

Gorgon turns out to be a guy with an impressive step - he can cause sonic booms by walking or kicking; it’s very destructive. He walks up the side of the Baxter Building by kicking holes in the wall and destroys their other vehicles, before stealing the helicopter.

There's a confrontation atop a different building. Gorgon explains is coming after Medusa because they belong to the same race and are not allowed to mingle with the outside world. Medusa maintains she doesn't want to return, but Gorgon blackmails the FF, threatening to destroy the city.

Despite Reed being intrigued at the mention of another race, the FF are not about to deliver Medusa to Gorgon, despite them being enemies (I guess it's because she's a girl). Medusa tries to use the FF as shields, but Dragon Man swoops in and takes Sue away, while Gorgon grabs Medusa. He kicks the building for good measure, so the guys. can't follow him.

Johnny goes after Dragon Man, but it isn't necessary. Sue sees that he's like a child and only needs to feel safe to calm down.

While the others prepare a room for Dragon Man (with Ben feeling a bit sorry for himself, thinking Alicia thinks of him the same way Sue thinks of the dragon), Johnny goes for a walk.

He meets a beautiful girl, alone, who seems to have powers over the elements (don't worry about Dorrie, she had another date lined up). She runs from Johnny, until he reveals his powers and she asks if he’s “one of us.”

Johnny, of course, says yes, having no idea what he's getting himself into.

Crystal takes him to meet her family through a portal opened by her giant dog, Lockjaw, who has antennae and vanishes when he feels like it. There's Karnak, who can identify an object's weak spot and Triton, a fish-like creature who must wear a water-retaining suit to be able to breathe.

Gorgon and Medusa - who is Crystal's sister - are there and Medusa warns Johnny to get away. She also asks the others not to attack him, but her credibility with them is low.

Johnny escapes and signals the FF, who come to him in Reed's last invention, a flying, jet-powered bicycle.

A fight ensues, but then the mysterious, silent Black Bolt shows up. He’s a formidable fighter, who uses the antenna in his head to energize himself with electrons. He and Ben are matched, but Black Bolt runs out of energy before the fight it’s finished.

Triton runs out to the river when his suit gets destroyed, while Gorgon faces Reed and Sue. He’s convinced they’re enemies and they’ll sold his family out to the Seeker. When Crystal announces that Triton has disappeared, the Inhumans run away. Johnny and Crystal want to stay together, but she disappears into a portal before Johnny can reach her.

Meanwhile, the Seeker has captured Triton and the Dragon Man, who he kidnapped from the Baxter Building, believing he’s also an Inhuman (he was also under the effect of a tranquilliser).

The FF return home to find a big hole in the wall and Dragon Man missing, but they security footage and they track the Seeker.

He tells them their free to go and to take the dragon with them. But, before, he tells them about the Inhumans.

They are, in fact, a different species from humans. They were always more advanced and used their knowledge of genetics to breed individuals with superpowers. When humans become too numerous and dangerous for them, they retreated to the Great Refuge.

Unfortunately, Dragon Man wakes up before being released. He breaks off his shackles and escapes, breaking Triton’s water tank in the way - he seems happy to die free, at least.

The FF split up. Reed and Sue stay behind to help Triton. Sue encircles him with a force field that Reed fills with water. It holds long enough for the Seeker tot transfer him to another tank. They leave for the Great Refuge, but Reed puts a tracer in their ship.

Johnny and Ben go after Dragon Man. Ben tries to hold him down and Johnny finishes him off by bathing him with UV light until he gets sunstroke.

Dragon Man is sent to a sanctuary under heavy sedation.

The FF follow the Seeker to the Andes. They see a flying man and follow him to a hidden city.

The Inhumans are there already. As it turns out, Black Bolt should be the rightful ruler of the Inhumans, but his brother Maximus stole his crown after the “accident" that left Black Bolt speechless.

He also wants to take Medusa as his bride, which makes Black Bolt snap and… simply pick up the crown from Maximus' head and put it on his own.

Maximus pretends to be okay with it, but the truth is he has a weapon that'll destroy humanity by messing with the atmosphere with vibrations.

Black Bolt, speaking through Medusa, tells the FF them they can leave if they keep the secret.

The FF try to reason that the Inhumans are not that different from humans and there's no reason for them to hide.

Maximus is not willing to do any talking and turns on his machine. He brags that he has killed all humans and the other Inhumans will want him as king.

Black Bolt slaps him.

Also, his machine didn't kill anyone. Medusa says this proves that Inhumans and Humans are the same.

Unwilling to compromise, Maximus changes the machine settings and creates a Negative Zone - a type of barrier nothing can penetrate - around the Great Refuge. The FF escape in the nick of time and Johnny and Crystal are separated again, unless Reed can figure out how to break into the dome slowly sinking beneath the surface.

That'll have to wait, because the FF return to New York to discover the sky's on fire, and, later, covered in space debris.

The cause is the Watcher, who is definitely interfering this time, trying to hide the planet from the Silver Surfer, the herald of Galactus.

But no dice. The Surfer comes down to the surface, realizes it's the right kind of planet and signals Galactus from atop the Baxter Building.

Ben knocks him out, but it's too late.

Galactus comes down to Earth and announces that he's going to consume it. In practice, that means building a device on top of the Baxter Building capable to vaporizing Earth's mass into energy that Galactus can use.

The Watcher tries to dissuade him, but Galactus won't budge. He needs to eat and what does it matter to him that this planet happens to be inhabited?

The Watcher's power is well matched with Galactus'. Also, he can’t interfere with events. All he can do is tell the FF what is going on, what they have to do to delay Galactus and send Johnny in an interstellar trip to Galactus' ship, so he can steal the only weapon that can defeat him.

Meanwhile, the Silver Surfer comes to in the skylight above Alicia’s apartment. He falls inside and Alicia befriends him, giving him new insight in the lives of other beings - it seems like the Silver Surfer isn't accustomed to being around people.

Alicia helps the Silver Surfer grow a conscience and he decides to test his power against Galactus, hoping the cosmic being will reconsider sparing humanity.

Still, no delaying tactics from the FF nor attacks from the Silver Surfer are enough. What they need is the Ultimate Nullifier that Johnny stole from the other side of the galaxy.

It's a bluff, really. Will Galactus abandon Earth or risk the entire Universe being destroyed? Galactus agrees to leave, but he leaves the Silver Surfer behind without his cosmic powers.

It should be a happy ending, but…

Reed and Sue's marriage is off to a bad start, since it seems like he's spending even more time in the lab by himself.

Alicia wants to introduce the Silver Surfer to Ben, but he's convinced she's found someone she could love better. She didn't, and the Silver Surfer prefers to go explore the world before settling down.

Johnny, still reeling from the loss of Crystal and feeling the after-effects of his interstellar trip, decides a change of airs will do him good and enrols at Metro College. Who knows what dangers lurk in the future, but his new roommate seems cool.