Issue(s): Fantastic Four #22
Published Date: Jan 64
Title: "The Return of the Mole Man!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Jack Kirby - Penciler
George Roussos - Inker

Review/plot: Sue vamps it up in a bizarre device Reed created to test Sue's powers.

Test... or enhance? He initially says it's to test her powers, but once Sue discovers she has the ability to do more than turn herself invisible, Reed takes credit for it, saying "The radiation from my nuclear measuring device must have increased your power, Sue!" So either he is taking credit for something he had nothing to do with or he is carelessly exposing his team mates to dangerous radiation. Either way, he's a dick.

But Sue now has the ability to turn other objects, or people, invisible, and she can create invisible force fields.

However, she can only perform one aspect of her power at a time, a fact that the Thing initially points out, and then Sue repeats to the Thing two panels later, an odd storytelling choice that even the Thing comments on.

Meanwhile, everyone and their mother is coming up to bother the Fantastic Four. First the police arrive to investigate complaints that the FF store an ICBM in their Manhattan building. They do, but they have a permit from the C.A.A.. Then other people start calling and showing up in person, complaining about all the disturbances that the FF cause.

It's played for laughs, but these would be real-life concerns. The Thing scares away the Women's Canasta and Mah Jong Society with a very trippy robot he created out of spare parts.

Little does the FF know that the complaints have all been orchestrated (how?) by the Mole Man, who also sent a pamphlet advertising a small island for sale off the coast of New Jersey. The FF go to check it out and find themselves caught in a trap orchestrated by the Mole Man, caught behind a radioactive wall (it's "only radio-active from the inside", says the Mole Man, leaning on it, but it is so radioactive that if the FF were to touch it, they would die instantly). The Mole Man has built hydraulic lifts under the largest cities on Earth, and with the push of a button, he plans to lower some of the cities into the ground, which he believes will trigger World War III.

The FF manage to climb over the wall thanks to the help of Sue's new forcefields...

...and they fight the Mole Man, who is now using moleoids similiar to Tyrannus' (in FF #1 he just had a bunch of monsters).

The FF are each captured in a trap tailored to their specific powers, but they all find a way to escape (Sue uses another new aspect of her power - the power to make invisible objects visible - to find a hidden door. ).

The Mole Man escapes and hits the button that's supposed to lower the cities, but instead it destroys his own lair because Reed re-configured the settings. To my understanding, all the major cities in the Marvel Universe are still sitting on hydraulic lifts, which could be a problem one day.

At this point the Thing is his standard rock-scale self, not a lumpy monster anymore. THe hostility between him and the Human Torch has been replaced with good natured pranks.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 9 - Invisible Woman gains ability to turn other objects or people invisible, ability to project invisible force fields.

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: Marvel Collectors' Item Classics #16