![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
MRL - Strange Tales (1951) #126-128
May. 14th, 2026 04:57 pm Strange Tales (1951) #126-128 - Stan Lee/Dick Ayers
The Human Torch and the Thing face off against the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master.
The Mad Thinker has a new plan to defeat the Fantastic Four: take them out one by one, starting by the youngest. The Puppet Master has his doubts, but also keeps working with the Mad Thinker so 🤷♂️
Johnny, Ben, Dorrie and Alicia have a standing double date on Saturdays, so the Puppet Master creates a puppet of the Thing and orders him to strike Johnny and push him out of the Fantasticar - a new model.
As Johnny is falling, part of Ben keeps thinking there's something wrong. His subconscious takes over and he turns back human, which allows him to shrug off the Puppet Master’s mind control and rescue Johnny just in time.
The two return to the Baxter Building, where Reed uses his thought-projector to uncover the Puppet Master’s presence on Ben's mind. Reed has an idea and, when the Dreadful Duo realize their plan failed and try to take over Ben's mind again, this time with extra-strength radioactive clay, Reed invented a helmet the directs that power back to the Puppet Master, ending the duo's plans (for now?)
Johnny gets tired of Reed’s leadership - again. He and Ben go off on their own and immediately get tricked into participating in a charity race, that turns out to be a scheme to trap them in a couple of autonomous sports cars racing towards a mountain.
A door opens at the last second and they get trapped inside, along with a mysterious figure that brags about being the only one capable of defeating them.
And he's right, because the Mystery Villain is Reed, demonstrating why he's the leader of the Fantastic Four - again.
In the last issue, Ben and Johnny face off against Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. They’re both dissatisfied with being part of the Brotherhood of Mutants, but Wanda feels she can’t leave while she owes Magneto a debt of honour, while Pietro feels that following Magneto is dishonourable. However, they’re still mutants and have no one else to ask for advice.
Except, maybe the super-powered heroes with the public address?
Unfortunately, you can’t just walk up the Baxter Building to the FF’s private quarters, so the twins force their way inside, which immediately puts Ben and Johnny on the defensive.
Fighting ensues. Pietro is too quick for the other two and Wanda’s hex power basically does anything, so she’s conveniently conked out for most of it. She wakes up in time to release Pietro from the fire cage Johnny eventually made and the twins leave, once again convinced that Homo sapiens can’t be trusted.
The Human Torch and the Thing face off against the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master.
The Mad Thinker has a new plan to defeat the Fantastic Four: take them out one by one, starting by the youngest. The Puppet Master has his doubts, but also keeps working with the Mad Thinker so 🤷♂️
Johnny, Ben, Dorrie and Alicia have a standing double date on Saturdays, so the Puppet Master creates a puppet of the Thing and orders him to strike Johnny and push him out of the Fantasticar - a new model.
As Johnny is falling, part of Ben keeps thinking there's something wrong. His subconscious takes over and he turns back human, which allows him to shrug off the Puppet Master’s mind control and rescue Johnny just in time.
The two return to the Baxter Building, where Reed uses his thought-projector to uncover the Puppet Master’s presence on Ben's mind. Reed has an idea and, when the Dreadful Duo realize their plan failed and try to take over Ben's mind again, this time with extra-strength radioactive clay, Reed invented a helmet the directs that power back to the Puppet Master, ending the duo's plans (for now?)
Johnny gets tired of Reed’s leadership - again. He and Ben go off on their own and immediately get tricked into participating in a charity race, that turns out to be a scheme to trap them in a couple of autonomous sports cars racing towards a mountain.
A door opens at the last second and they get trapped inside, along with a mysterious figure that brags about being the only one capable of defeating them.
And he's right, because the Mystery Villain is Reed, demonstrating why he's the leader of the Fantastic Four - again.
In the last issue, Ben and Johnny face off against Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. They’re both dissatisfied with being part of the Brotherhood of Mutants, but Wanda feels she can’t leave while she owes Magneto a debt of honour, while Pietro feels that following Magneto is dishonourable. However, they’re still mutants and have no one else to ask for advice.
Except, maybe the super-powered heroes with the public address?
Unfortunately, you can’t just walk up the Baxter Building to the FF’s private quarters, so the twins force their way inside, which immediately puts Ben and Johnny on the defensive.
Fighting ensues. Pietro is too quick for the other two and Wanda’s hex power basically does anything, so she’s conveniently conked out for most of it. She wakes up in time to release Pietro from the fire cage Johnny eventually made and the twins leave, once again convinced that Homo sapiens can’t be trusted.
