Fantastic Four #11
Impossible Man is being annoying again
As the story starts, we see that the FF exist in the same world as FF comic books. It would be like Scrooge picking up a copy of The Christmas Carol. It’s a clever wink to the fans.
The team gets a lot of fan mail, and it’s delivered by Willie Lumpkin, who makes his first appearance here.
Once again, Thing turns back into normal Ben thanks to some new science weirdness cooked up by Reed. Then they reminisce about their college days.
Reed is a millionaire’s son. I admit I forgot about that factoid until I re-read this story. Ben is a college football star, which makes perfect sense.
Later, they fought in World War II. In 1962 we’re still in the shadow of WWII, and the veterans of that war (which ended 17 years ago) are now in full middle age. And that includes vets like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
That war flashback then morphs into another telling of the origin.
Then, as Sue gets weepy about not contributing enough, Ben gets steamed at her critics and becomes the Thing again. This whole Thing-to-Ben-to-Thing transformation shows up a lot (maybe too much) in the early issues.
Despite being featured on the cover, the main villain, the Impossible Man, shows up in this issue’s back-up story.
He's really goofy. He’s from the planet Poppup, and is a shape-shifter.
He’s all about mischief, so after the team realizes they can’t easily stop him from being annoying, Reed decides to simply ignore him. And the little weirdo hates that, so he blasts off . . . and that's the conclusion of the story. Huh.
He’s a pretty forgettable villain, but his Bronze Age appearance, in issue #176, was fantastic (pardon the pun).
Also on the stands (November, 1962):
Detective Comics #311: The Challenge of the Cat-Man
Magnus Robot Fighter #1
My Greatest Adventure #75 (Gene Colan cover)
Aquaman #7 (Nick Cardy cover)
