Reading The Multiverse: A Marvel Comics Journey

S1E6: Fantastic Four #20-23: Sue Storm's Power Upgrade & Doom's Master Plan

• Earth's Mightiest Nerds • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Send Joe a message through the Negative Zone

In this episode of Reading the Multiverse, I go over Fantastic Four #20-23, introducing Molecule Man, tackling Marvel’s most overtly political story yet with the Hatemonger, expanding Sue Storm’s powers in a big way, and bringing Doctor Doom back with another elaborate master plan.

Stories Covered In This Episode

Fantastic Four 20, The Mysterious Molecule Man!, written by Stan Lee, Penciled by Jack Kirby, Inked by Dick Ayers, Colored by Stan Goldberg, and Lettered by Artie Simek

Fantastic Four 21, The Hate-Monger!, written by Stan Lee, Penciled by Jack Kirby, Inked by George Roussos, and Lettered by Artie Simek

Fantastic Four 22, The Return of Mole Man!, written by Stan Lee, Penciled by Jack Kirby, Inked by George Bell, and Lettered by Sam Rosen

Fantastic Four 23, The Master Plan of Doctor Doom!, written by Stan Lee, Penciled by Jack Kirby, Inked by George Bell, and Lettered by Sam Rosen

Resources, Episodes, & Links Mentioned In This Episode:

Joe: What's going on Marvelites? Welcome to Reading the Multiverse, A Marvel Comics journey presented by Earth's Mightiest Nerds. I am your host. Joe, and if this is your first time listening or watching, we are exploring Marvel Comics one amazing run at a time. Starting at the beginning with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's.

Fantastic four, and we're making the connections to the MCU while we're doing it. This is my first time reading these. For the most part, I've read through like the first 32 issues, so I've read what we've read today, although I don't remember most of it, so it's like rereading it again for the first time.

With that mu. With that much said, we don't really need to cover much of what we went over in past episodes, and if we do have to talk about something, I will mention that in this episode. So without further ado, from August of 1963, fantastic four issue 20, the Mysterious Molecule Man, written by Stan Lee, penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by Dick Ayers, colored by Stan Goldberg and lettered by Artie Simek.

There is this floating blue fireball orb thing that appears outside of the Baxter building and the Fantastic four go to investigate, but that's when they get sucked inside and are transported to chat with the watcher. He tells them that he needs their help because there is someone out there who has the ability to destroy univers.

Now, this is the Watcher's second appearance, and we first met him in issue 13 when the Fantastic Four went up against the Red Ghost, and we covered that in episode four. And we learned in that issue that the watcher is not to intervene in any fear in any oh, is not to intervene in any affairs. But here we are once again intervening in these things that he deems necessary, that he wants to intervene in.

That's when we learn of this force who happens to be a regular guy who worked in a factory with atomic energy and unfortunately was preoccupied with something and he got into an accident with the atomic ray. This turned him into the molecule man. Now, in this specific issue, we don't actually learn his name, but this person, the molecule man is Owen Reece.

Now, we haven't gotten to meet him yet in MCU, but I have to believe. He is coming, at least more than likely, he plays a very large role in helping Dr. Doom set up his patchwork reality called Battle World in Secret Wars. So. I would imagine that at some point he is going to be within MCU, at least within the next few years as we're going to be getting, um, you know, doomsday and Secret Wars.

So, returning to our story, the Fantastic four, our return to New York City, and the molecule man is making demands in Times Square saying that there are no more rules and basically everyone must obey him. There is a good bit of fighting that ensues following this between him and the Fantastic Four, but clearly the Fantastic four are met with their greatest match as the molecule man can take the molecules of basically anything and rearrange them.

However he wants to thwart the Fantastic four. He then sets up this barrier around Manhattan and asks help from everyone in Manhattan to turn in the Fantastic Four, or the barrier stays in place, which means no one can leave or no one can come in. So the Fantastic four are obviously fleeing and are actually helped by the Yancy Street gang, which is Ben's uh, nemesis from what we know at this point.

And Ben can't believe that he's being helped by them. But the team ends up at Alicia's apartment. And it's there that Reed realizes that molecule man can only rearrange the molecules of organic materials. So knowing this Reed has devised this plan, and Alicia then alerts the molecule man of the Fantastic Fours location, which.

I have to share how he got there, by the way, which was basically creating a slide. And he's in like the most ridiculous pose. Like he has his arms crossed, like someone made him do, like, go via a slide. It's just so, so ridiculous. Like if you're so upset about using the slide, why did you use the slide? Uh, by the way, if you want to see that panel, if you're not watching on YouTube, you can join the Earth's Mightiest Nerds Discord.

It's completely free to join. I will put the link down below in the description of, uh, the podcast player. If you wanna join, if you're watching on YouTube, you can totally join as well. I will post that, uh, panel in the Discord channel so you can see what I'm actually talking about. But in the, the apartment, the Fantastic four artists skied as statues, uh, as the molecule man tries to rearrange their molecules.

It doesn't work, which is kind of confusing because they're not actually statues. So wouldn't he still be able to rearrange their molecules anyway? Our, our heroes are then able to knock the wand out of molecule, out of molecule man's hand, which apparently is the source of most of his power. And I'm not exactly sure how that actually happened, because that was never explained earlier.

He just happened to have it and that's what he used. Um, so we'll just roll with it. That's when, uh, the watcher shows up. And with his like blue orbi thingy and he takes molecule man away and once again, intervening when he's not supposed to be like, shouldn't he have left the Fantastic four to deal with that?

But basically that's the end. That's the end of that issue, and that's the end of molecule man as we know it. In my mind, this was an okay issue. I think the best part of it was that we got another new villain who is clearly the most powerful. Uh, villain that we've seen the Fantastic Four Face, and knowing what we know in later comic kind of history, he plays a large role.

I honestly don't know if and when we are going to see him again within this, uh, Lee and Kirby's run. So we will see where his story goes from here, maybe in Lee and Kirby's run again. I actually have no idea. I just, I like knowing what we know. The watcher just like butts in. I'm just like, man, you're supposed to like.

Follow this vow that you said you weren't going to to do that. And, uh, I mean, he, he did this to keep his himself safe, which I get, but like, come on man. You're not, you're not following your vow at all. I'm sure we all know someone who doesn't follow their vow or their word, and I can guarantee that you probably know someone like the villain.

In our next book from September of 1963, fantastic four issue 21, the Hatemonger, written by Stanley, penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by George Russos, and lettered by Artie Simek. Ben is letting off some steam at the Baxter Tower and the team finds out. He's been reading the news, but he's most upset about this guy called the Hatem Monger, who, as you can imagine.

Is a racist bigot. That's when we get a line from Sue and she's gonna learn real quick that this is some classic white lady privilege talk when she says this, but she says the Hatemonger, his activities don't concern the Fantastic Four. And I do realize that this is Stan and Jack poor portraying like what probably most people would think as well, but.

That's when we're gonna learn that that's not actually the case. So the team goes for a walk, and when they come across a hatemonger rally where he's talking about cleaning up the country, saying things like down with all foreigners, down with anyone who doesn't agree with the hatemonger, which again, this sounds very familiar to our current US scene.

Even though this was written back in 1963, and I know grossly speaking that honestly not much has changed since then. But you can see exactly who Stan and Jack are targeting as a villain, especially if you're watching on YouTube. It is a white supremacist because Hatemonger is dressed as a clan member, but his outfit.

Is purple and he's got this huge H on his chest, but the team even says, it looks like everyone is in a trance following this guy. And again, I couldn't agree more with the current state of the United States and how Mackin supporters just seem to be in a trance as they're following their, their, I don't even wanna call 'em a leader.

They're a person. I'll just say that. Uh, a riot breaks out at the rally. After they start to attack a man due to his ethnicity, and Ben goes to stop it, but the Hatem Monger shoots his H ray at the rest of the Fantastic Four who then start to fight amongst themselves. The team is so mad at each other that they decide to break up and go their own ways.

Reed heads back to the Baxter building and finds out that someone is being held back by security in the lobby. And I mean, barely, because like there are people beat up all over the place in, in these panels, and the person that they're holding back who's trying to get into the Fantastic Four headquarters is Nick Fury, which was totally unexpected, to be honest.

Uh, this is someone that apparently served with, uh, that Reed served with, or maybe under during his military days, I'm assuming in World War ii, which we learned Reid did that. I wanna say in issue nine, whichever one impossible man showed up, I want that was issue not, that's not issue nine. Uh, issue 11.

Issue 11. We did that in, uh, episode three. Um, so Fury tells Reed that there's unrest in the South American country, San Gusto or gusto, which is apparently important for American interests, probably to do, you know. Typical American shady stuff, but I digress. So Reid decides to go by himself telling Nick that the Fantastic four have disbanded.

Well, as Reid leaves with the Pogo plane, the other three members see this and they all rush back to the Baxter building. Very pissed off at Reid that, how could he just go ahead and do that? That's also their plane. Um. But Nick Fury is still there and he feeds into their jealousy and hate towards each other.

So they all go to San Gusto to help as well. And apparently as they're leaving it, it's alluded to that Nick knows that they've been hit by the hate mongers h Ray, although he wasn't there when that happened. So there's definitely some continuity issues with that. So while they are leaving and headed towards San Gusto, Reed is already there and he's doing his best to wreck.

Rebel weapons throughout the country, but is then knocked out by a gas attack by the hate monger. And it turns out that the hate monger is the one who's causing all of the unrest in San Gusto, as he's using a massive H ray device to bounce rays off the moon to be able to hit a target anywhere on Earth, basically to trance and hypnotize everyone to hate everyone else, so that he just follows.

So that they follow him. Well, the next thing you know, Nick Fury bust in like a madman to save Reed and forces the hatemonger to give Reed the antidote, and suddenly he's lifted of his hate, but the Hatemonger is able to escape while Reed and Fury have this little like moment together. I don't know. I don't know why they took their eyes off the Hatemonger, but it doesn't make, it's just.

Again, classic, classic silliness. So re then, uh, splits up from Fury. He goes after the rest of his teammates to give them the antidote. And Nick Fury is going after the hatemonger. So. I have to say that it's like really s silly how Reid found Sue because she was invisible and he just decided to make himself like a flat sheet.

And I guess Sue was walking around with her eyes closed because she walks right into him. S like, Sue, what are you doing, Sue? What? What are you doing? You're invisible. Open your eyes. No one can see you. Huh. Anyway, fury was able to stop the hate monger just in time, and Sue comes in clutch again, being invisible and hits the hate ray out of the Hatem monger's hand, which hits some of his guards, who then help to stop him.

And this is where the big reveal is. They pull off the mask of the hatemonger and it. I read Richard's double. No, no, no. I'm just, I'm totally kidding. I just, I wanted to, to kid you there. It's actually Adolf Hitler. Yes, that Adolf Hitler. And we do have a great line in the last panel of this issue that says, quote, until men truly love each other, regardless of race, creed, or color, the Hatem monger still.

We'll still be undefeated. Let's never forget that end quote. To me, that issue right there, let alone, let alone like all of the other issues that Marvel has been writing at this time, it is clearly evident that Marvel has always been woke. And I say that in a good way, meaning like, it's good to be woke because we've got people nowadays saying that Marvel is woke.

They're, you know, falling into DEI, pushing certain agendas, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Clearly Marvel, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby have always stood on business about equal rights and caring about everyone and fighting for those who weren't treated equally. So Marvel has always been woke. I don't wanna hear that Marvel has gone woke, but overall this was, uh, a good issue in terms of social context, like it still carries over today.

Again, I'll mention I feel like the Nick Fury like add in was weird, although it makes sense given his role, like being part of the CIA or whatever he is part of. Makes sense, you know, in being involved with another country. And I thought the reveal at the end of the issue was definitely unexpected, uh, to see Hitler under that mask.

I can see why they, they did it just as like a, a big thing. Uh, I will say though, that like the hate monger though isn't one of the most memorable rogues in the Fantastic four Gallery thus far, especially compared to the molecule man. Although I do feel like Molecule Man could have used some help from today's sponsor, the Gamma and Gavel Law Firm, the only law firm that understands sometimes a workplace accident is just an accident, and sometimes it's the first chapter of something weird.

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You know, give Gamma and Gavel a call and I'm sure that they would be happy to help you out. That leads us into our next issue from October of 1963. Fantastic four Issue 22, the Return of Moleman, written by Stan Lee, penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by George Bell, and lettered by Sam Rosen. This issue starts off with probably the most important aspect of this issue, and that is an expansion on Sue's powers.

Knowing what we know, Sue is easily the strongest and most powerful member of the Fantastic Four now, and from what we've seen thus far in these issues, she's only able to turn invisible. But after some testing and playing around, we learned that Sue can create invisible force fields and turn other objects invisible.

However, it is alluded to multiple times, or I should say, said multiple times. That if Sue is invisible and starts to turn another object invisible, she will start to become visible again and vice versa. So while the team is experimenting and learning all about Sue's new found abilities, they are getting complaints from people in the surrounding neighborhood about their machines and equipment not being safe, that reeds experiments are too dangerous and so forth.

And it just so happens that Reed got something in the mail that day about an island off of New Jersey for sale, and the team decides to go check it out with all of the recent complaints that they've been getting there, that they've been getting, and that they can maybe move some of their equipment and whatnot to this island.

So not long after the team gets to this deserted island, their ucar gets pulled down into the ocean and now they're stuck there. But it's not long after that that the team sees someone in the shadows and they go chase after them. Given the title of this book. As you can imagine, that person that they're chasing after is the Moleman.

The Moleman is the first villain that the Fantastic four ever faced in their first issue, which we covered back in episode one. If you didn't listen or watch to that, I highly recommend you do that. In that first issue, the last that we saw of Moleman was that he was trapped under Monster is, but we learned that Moleman has a vast tunnel system called Subterranean, which allowed him to survive and get to this deserted island.

Well, the Fantastic Four War of course, perfectly placed on a trap, which they then fall onto this circular platform that has radioactive energy all around it, preventing them from leaving. That's when we learn. Moleman has built these platforms underneath New York City and Moscow, and he's going to cause them both to go underground at the same time, making them think each other is responsible, hopefully inciting World War iii, which then he can rise to the surface and be the leader.

And I mean, that is a valid plan, but the world is much bigger than New York City and Moscow Mole Man. Just. Just saying. Um, so as the Mole man is about to push the button to make that happen, Sue has placed a force field around it and he's unable to press it. At that same time, Sue is able to create a force field around the team, and they're able to get past the radioactive ring.

That's when the Mole man releases traps for each of the Fantastic four members that are specifically designed to fight against their powers. And this was actually kind of cool to see each of them kind of. Separated and to use their own powers and kind of smarts individually to get out of these situations.

But while that's happening, the Mole man is able to escape into the dark and the Fantastic four have found their ucar and are then able to leave the island. We see the mole man returns to his throne. He pushes the button to make those cities fall under. Uh, in under the surface, but Reed had rewired some of the circuits which caused the deserted island that Moleman is on to sink underground.

This was honestly a good issue in my mind. Um, most importantly, again, it expanded upon Sue's powers at the beginning, and that's probably the most important aspect of this issue, and probably the best part of it, honestly. Um, but I also thought it was really good to see Moleman again. We've gotten recurring villains, mainly Namor and Dr.

Doom, which is, you know, two of the biggest villains for the Fantastic Four. So that makes sense at this point. Um, but it was good to see Moleman again. Um, and it was good to, to make some previous connections to previous issues being obviously the first issue. Um, but speaking of returning villains from November of 1963, fantastic four issue 23, the master Plan of Dr.

Doom, written by Stan Lee, penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by George Bell, and lettered by Sam Rosen. So this issue starts with a dinosaur getting into the Baxter Tower via Doom's time machine. And I gotta say, I don't know how dooms time machine got there because the last we saw it, uh, was in Doom's abandoned castle, which we last saw the team use in issue 19.

And we went over that in the last episode. So again, if you haven't listened to that or watch it. Make sure you go check that out. Now, supposedly Reed told Ben, Sue and Johnny to watch the opening for whatever reason, and he's livid that they were apparently not doing their jobs. And I mean, I'd say it's pretty hard to stop a dinosaur from running in through like a portal.

But even after sending the dinosaur back, Reid continues to berate the team. And I only point this out because it, it doesn't play that much of a, a role in the rest of this story, but. I only point this out because if you don't know, I'm not the biggest fan of Reid Richards, and he's done way worse than like yell at his teammates.

But this is kind of where it is starting to stem from. I mean like just yelling at his team multiple times over and over again for really something that they couldn't control is just kind of a little ridiculous. Like Reid, you're an adult. You're an adult. Get, get ahold of your feelings. And I get it sometimes.

Sometimes it's hard to do that. But I'm also just trying to persuade all of you to dislike Reid as much as I do. Um, but because of this, Ben, Sue and Johnny think that they should elect a new leader of the team. Well, they all vote for themselves, which obviously is pointless. And Reid says he needs to be the leader again.

I'm like, come on, Reid, you don't have any, no humble, no humbleness to you read. Um, because Dr. Doom is always looming in the background, so I guess no one else can, can take care of that. That's where our story takes us. Next, as we see Doom has gathered three criminals, Yogi Decor, bull Brogan, and handsome Harry Phillips, and gives each of them superpowers.

Harry is given enhanced hearing that will allow to hear Sue no matter how quiet she is. And I mean, while this is a good power specific to for Hearing Sue when she goes invisible. This is a terrible power. I, I would say I got, if I was handsome Harry Phillips, I would be upset about this 'cause you can't do anything else with that.

Um, bull is given enhanced strength to go up against the thing, and Yogi is given the power to resist fire, to be able to resist the human torch. So to lower the Fantastic four into a trap, doom has, uh, Yogi dressed up as a wealthy Maharaja and gifts Johnny a fireproof car, which out on a test drive, Johnny realizes he's trapped, but is then gassed and passes out.

Bull is able to take the thing as a prisoner after turning him back into Ben for a short moment. Harry is able to capture, Sue and Doom is able to capture Reed. So back at Doom's Hideout, we learn, of course, that Doom has strict his henchman into thinking that they were going to get paid, but ships them off to another dimension when he can use them whenever the time arises.

So while this is happening, the Fantastic Four able to start getting loose out of their traps. And they face Doom Malone, but he traps them in a room. And again, doom escapes this room by flying into an escape hatch, which is literally his like fail safe to get away every single time thus far. Uh, in any time that he's gone up against a Fantastic four, I laugh because it's just so ridiculous at this point that that's always how he gets away.

Uh. But supposedly, supposedly the room that our heroes are trapped in is in the path of a solar wave, which means that it opens up a, a hole into outer space. That's when Sue does some quick thinking and uses her force field to trap doom to the other side of the wall that they're trapped in, which means during the solar wave, he will also get transported into space.

Doom then opens up that escape hatch to disable the trap, which. I don't understand how that works, but Okay. Uh, because he doesn't wanna get tossed into space, but that's when the thing basically pulls him in and he falls into the hole that is being formed by the solar wave and falls into space. And the Fantastic Four are able to escape and supposedly as the Fantastic Four are leaving, that was enough for them to agree that Reed should be the leader.

But honestly he didn't really do anything special and in my mind, I don't think he did any leading in that whatsoever that he should be the leader. But you know, fantastic forward. Choose your own fate. Once again, I thought this was a good issue. It just shows the craziness of Dr. Doom. We talked, I didn't really go into the depths of like some of the stuff of how, uh, he gave the powers and how he found these henchmen, but.

Again, he's always thinking about himself. He sends them out to another dimension and he's always thinking ahead of time again. He always has an escape hatch ready to go. Um, but the, I don't understand why he just, why, why? Why would he stay around? Why didn't he just leave if he knew that that room was gonna be sucked into a solar wave?

Plus, if he was on the other side of that room, that also would've gone in, so like, why wouldn't you leave? I don't get it. He stuck around because that's just classic villain stuff, and because without heroes. What does Dr. Doom? Nothing really. What did you think of these issues? Let me know. If you're watching on YouTube, put it down in the comments.

Leave me some general feedback about the issue. Uh, sorry, not the issue, the episode. If you're listening on a podcast, you can text me and leave me your thoughts as well. That link is down below in the show notes, wherever you're listening. And, uh, while you're there, you know, give the show a rating. Hit that follow subscribe button wherever you're listening or watching.

And probably one of the best things you can do is, is share this episode with a friend. In the next episode, we have a Return of the Hulk. The Fantastic four are going to cross paths with the Avengers and that love triangle between Reed Sue and Namor continues. Even more in another issue. All of that and more in the next episode of Reading the Multiverse.

And until the next episode, Excelsior

Real, I, I just don't. I don't understand how people love Reed or like support Reed. I understand that he's done a lot of good stuff further down the line and even in some of these early on issues, but like he's just not a good person and I just, I just don't, I don't see how people can defend the man. I just don't get it.

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