Sue Storm saves the team
But first, an example of the genius of Dr Doom.
I am floored. "Without oxygen, fire will not burn." What a mind, did he share this with the scientific community?
Anyway, back to the group's first encounter with Doom, waaay back in FANTASTIC FOUR# 5, July 1962. Sue has spent most of the issue not only a hostage but tied up, the sort of plot arrangement that feminists object to, but here she takes adavantage of Doom's inattention to blow up a console in his face and save Reed, Ben and Johnny from death. A couple of oddities come to mind looking at this page. When you activate the cut-off switch, you short-circuit the mechanism and the the closed-circuit television explodes like a bomb. Huh? Wha..? I dunno, that explanation needs some work. It's fifty years too late, but maybe some sort of overload could be mentioned or Sue could stick a penny in the fuse box or something.
Also, the origin of Dr Doom, mentioned in this very issue, involves his experiment that caused a device to blow up and horribly disfigure his face. You might think having this happen again might be something he'd be touchy about. His metal mask and armor protect him, but look at that blast. If he had been in civilian clothes with a cloth mask, he'd be lucky to survive that. You'd think he'd have more of a grudge against Sue than he showed. Maybe there's an untold story there.
For the first twenty issues, Sue Storm was in fact overshadowed by her teammates and some convolution was needed to give her something to do. Invisibility is not a bad power, especially back then when motion detectors and infra-red cameras were not common. But compared to the others, her ability was not nearly as useful in the typical super-powered brawls, so Lee and Kirby gave her the force field power. This came out of nowhere, with no foreshadowing or anything, so I guess it was an abrupt decision, and it left Sue on a par with the others (or possibly more powerful than they were).
I am floored. "Without oxygen, fire will not burn." What a mind, did he share this with the scientific community?
Anyway, back to the group's first encounter with Doom, waaay back in FANTASTIC FOUR# 5, July 1962. Sue has spent most of the issue not only a hostage but tied up, the sort of plot arrangement that feminists object to, but here she takes adavantage of Doom's inattention to blow up a console in his face and save Reed, Ben and Johnny from death. A couple of oddities come to mind looking at this page. When you activate the cut-off switch, you short-circuit the mechanism and the the closed-circuit television explodes like a bomb. Huh? Wha..? I dunno, that explanation needs some work. It's fifty years too late, but maybe some sort of overload could be mentioned or Sue could stick a penny in the fuse box or something.
Also, the origin of Dr Doom, mentioned in this very issue, involves his experiment that caused a device to blow up and horribly disfigure his face. You might think having this happen again might be something he'd be touchy about. His metal mask and armor protect him, but look at that blast. If he had been in civilian clothes with a cloth mask, he'd be lucky to survive that. You'd think he'd have more of a grudge against Sue than he showed. Maybe there's an untold story there.
For the first twenty issues, Sue Storm was in fact overshadowed by her teammates and some convolution was needed to give her something to do. Invisibility is not a bad power, especially back then when motion detectors and infra-red cameras were not common. But compared to the others, her ability was not nearly as useful in the typical super-powered brawls, so Lee and Kirby gave her the force field power. This came out of nowhere, with no foreshadowing or anything, so I guess it was an abrupt decision, and it left Sue on a par with the others (or possibly more powerful than they were).