Written by Stan Lee – Pencils by Jack Kirby – Inks by Dick Ayers – Letters by Artie Simek

We start out in familiar territory. Reed is studying something in his lab, Ben is making a few jokes, and a new scientific discovery is about to send the Fantastic Four into another adventure.

This time, Reed discovers a dehydrated, acorn-looking thing inside a meteor and declares it proof of alien life. Which is a little strange, considering the Fantastic Four have already encountered several aliens. You’d think they’d have enough evidence by now.

We don’t get too much time to dwell on that, though, because the FF soon find themselves battling a glowing blue orb.

The orb turns out to be the Watcher, one of those aliens Reed apparently doesn’t know exists. He warns the team about a new threat: the Molecule Man.

We get a quick origin story. A nameless laboratory technician is exposed to radiation during an accident and gains the ability to manipulate matter. Nobody knows who he is or what he’s capable of, and he decides to use his newfound powers to get revenge on a world that has never paid attention to him.

The Molecule Man can create and reshape matter almost at will. Those powers make this issue a showcase for Kirby. We get spectacular views of crowds in Manhattan, inventive action involving the Fantastic Four’s powers, and pages of the Molecule Man reshaping the world around him as he battles the team.

Eventually, Reed figures out a limitation to the Molecule Man’s powers: he can’t manipulate organic molecules. The Fantastic Four exploit this weakness by disguising themselves as statues made by Alicia Masters. When the Molecule Man is startled, the resulting disruption gives the team an opportunity to subdue him.

The Watcher then steps in and takes the Molecule Man away from Earth.

Which raises a few questions.

The Molecule Man’s powers come from a radiation accident, but he also has a power wand. The Watcher is supposedly forbidden from interfering in the affairs of other worlds, yet here he is directly intervening and removing a threat from Earth. And Reed is still looking for proof of alien life.

None of these contradictions completely derails the story. They’re just little reminders that Lee and Kirby are still working things out as they go.

The Fantastic Four’s world is expanding with every adventure, and Kirby keeps finding new ways to visualize things that would have been unimaginable in the earlier anthology stories.

But the continuity hasn’t quite caught up with the ambition.

Right now, the story seems to matter more than keeping every detail consistent.

Soon, though, the Fantastic Four’s history will become too large to ignore.

Marvel in the 60s – Entry #91