Issue(s): Strange Tales #116 (Human Torch story only)
Cover Date: Jan 64
Title: "In the clutches of the Puppet Master!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Dick Ayers - Penciler
George Roussos - Inker

Review/plot:
This issue is "based upon an idea by Tommy and Jimmy Goodkind". If their idea was "you should use the Puppet Master to make two good guys fight each other", i hope they negotiated some royalties.

So yeah, this is an issue-long fight between the Human Torch and the Thing, thanks to the Puppet Master.

He's a bit of a sicko; he starts the fight by manipulating Johnny into making out with his daughter (maybe if Tom DeFalco had remembered this we wouldn't have had to go the Skrull route for poor Alicia after John Byrne's run).

Eventually Alicia remembers who her stepfather is and therefore why her friends are acting so crazy.

Interestingly, there's a scene in this story where the Human Torch flies right through a jet engine, and both he and the jet come out unscathed.

I always think of the Torch as being a solid person whose body is covered in flames, but that's not really accurate, is it? He's actually flame all the way through? But that can't be right because i've seen him "extinguished" by the water and he doesn't just turn into smoke; he turns into a soggy Johnny Storm.

The Fantastic Four don't yet seem to have any kind of emergency number established; at least nothing for poor Alicia who tries and fails to call Reed and Sue while Ben and Johnny are fighting (Probably just a wrong number anyway).

The coloring of the Thing on the cover of the original is interesting; he almost looks rendered and 3D.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP place this between FF #21-22 and before the FF's appearance in Avengers #3. As usual with these solo Torch stories, there's not really a lot actually dictating placement.

References:

• An extended flashback shows how the Puppet Master escaped the octopus that was crushing his sub in Fantastic Four #14.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Human Torch

Explaining that the Puppet Master was behind Alicia falling for Johnny wouldn't have worked- in FF 300, the Puppet Master thinks about how he could stop Alicia from marrying Johnny and wonders how she could have fallen for Johnny.
But yes, that sequence is ironic looking back at this issue.

The Thing's hide looks unbelievably jagged and uneven.

George Roussos' inks are really heavy in this issue. I don't know what the heck is going on with Thing, either. It's bad on the cover, as well.

I placed this one between FF#21 and 22.

I notice at one point you refer to the Puppet Master as Alicia's "uncle".

Thanks.