Okay, so there’s quite a bit that happens in this issue. It starts with The Thing getting teased by the Yancy Street Gang, in their first appearance.
We don’t actually see them up close, we just see them making Ben Grimm really, really mad by calling him a “sissy” and drawing a picture of him in a tutu.
Yeah, it’s a bit homophobic, but back in the 1960s this was considered funny.
Reed Richards assembles the team with his “4” flare…
…And what’s incongruent about this scene is that in his solo appearances in Strange Tales, we’re told that Johnny Storm and his sister are trying to maintain secret identities. But Johnny (who gives up a sure thing to answer the distress call) is clearly using his hero status to get laid, and Sue wears her costume to the hairdresser.
The main story is about The Mad Thinker, in his first appearance. I love that panel above. It looks so scientific, even though it’s complete nonsense.
The Mad Thinker creates the Awesome Android–based on science he stole from Reed Richards. Reed is quick to throw that in, even though the “monster” is bearing down on him.
Maybe not “bearing down.” It actually looks more like lumbering.
I love the Awesome Android. He only gets about two pages of screen time in this issue, but he’ll be back. Like in Dan Slott’s magnificent and underrated She Hulk comic, in which Andy (that’s what Android is called there) gets a job at a law firm and becomes a total sweetheart. He falls in love, has a white board to speak with….If you haven’t read Slott’s work on that book, you’re truly missing out.
