Fantastic Four (1961 series) #23

The Fantastic Four have moved Dr Doom's time machine from his abandoned American castle to their Baxter Building HQ and Reed Richards is checking that it still works. The other 3 were supposed to keep an eye on the time platform and switch it off if anything started to come through. Now a baby dinosaur is rampaging around and Ben Grimm blames Johnny Storm. The pair fail to catch it but Sue Storm surrounds it with her new forcefield ability (discovered last issue) and Reed pumps in ether to sedate it. Thing carries it to the time platform and Mr Fantastic sends it back home. But he lambasts the others for dereliction of duty and they decide it's time for a new leader.

Meanwhile a strangely expressionless man pays bail for a petty criminal and takes him to meet his boss. It turns out there are 2 others in the same situation. Then the 'man' collapses and is revealed to be a robot whose boss Dr Doom introduces himself. He also introduces the 3 to each other:- Bull Brogin the brawn of the trio. Con man 'Handsome' Harry Phillips. Yogi Dakor the fireproof man. He's picked them to help him destroy the FF.

The 3 unhappy FFers vote for who should replace Reed as leader, but they each vote for themself. Human Torch and Thing as usual start to fight until Invisible Girl creates another forcefield to separate them. Reed leaves his lab to shout at them again because he's been trying very hard to locate Dr Doom. He apologises to Sue for including her in his diatribe but gives the other 2 brooms to tidy up the mess they've made.

Doom uses an XZ-12 device on his minions which multiplies 1 ability of each 12 times. He enhances Phillips' hearing so he can always tell where Invisible Girl is. He increases Brogin's strength, but still not as much as Thing's. He upgrades Dakor from fire-resistant to completely fireproof. He intends to send each of them after their specific target while he himself deals with Mr Fantastic.

Next day the local papers carry the news that a Maharajah will give Human Torch a hi-tech new car. Johnny sees it and rushes out to get it, for various reasons not telling any of his teammates (who of course don't read the same papers). Yogi Dakor is the representative of the 'Maharajah' and takes Storm for a spin in the car, showing him how it works and declaring that his master is even brainier than Mr Fantastic. But then he tells Torch that he is a prisoner. Johnny discovers that the doors won't unlock. He flames on but finds he can't burn his way out either. So he gradually increases his heat expecting that the man will surrender. But when he dials his flame down Dakor is completely unaffected. And he dons a gas mask as the car is flooded with a nerve-gas.

Ben gets another insulting letter from the Yancy Street Gang and goes there to have it out with them. But all he sees is a young lad with his hand caught in a grating. Thing (destructively) frees him but the lad kicks him in the knee because his neighbours won't like it if they find out he was helped by the Thing. Then Bull Brogin turns up and they have a fight. Bull is able to do some Thing-like moves but is still loosing until he fires a Cosmic-Beam gun which reverses the effects of the cosmic rays in the team's origin and turns Thing human. Ben is about to work out who's behind this when Brogin KO's him.

Sue has been practising making herself partially invisible and using her forcefield to pick things up. MrF sneaks up on her and wraps his pliable body around her, saying he's testing her reflexes  and warning her to always be on guard in case Doom strikes. So she creates a force-blast to free herself, but she's still not ready to forgive him for shouting at her earlier. Sue goes home to Glenville (still in costume) where Handsome Harry knocks on her door and gives her flowers. She briefly considers making Reed jealous until Harry tells her the scent of the flowers she's sniffed will put her to sleep. However Reed's warning meant that she didn't inhale, so she turns invisible to evade the man. But she finds he can always track her, and he fires gas from a backup gun which sends her to sleep anyway.

Reed answers a flare gun signal and rushes to its source where he sees the Thing. But when he joins him his friend and Dr Doom trap him in a plexi-glass box and seal it shut. Doom then reveals that this 'Thing' is another robot.

They take MrF to Doom's current warehouse base where the Thing robot carries the box to a room containing the other 3. The real Thing is attached to a wall by an electrified shackle. Human Torch is similarly shackled by asbestos handcuffs and rope. And Invisible Girl is still asleep. Doom destroys the robot because it's no use anymore. Then he goes to give his 3 minions their reward. Each gets a box which he says contains $5,000. But when they try to open the boxes they are transported to another dimension until he needs them again.

Sue wakes up and they realise they have an ace up their sleeve that Doom doesn't know about - her forcefield power. She uses it to shield Ben from the electric current and he breaks free. Then he smashes open Reed's plexi-glass box. But Doom enters the room and triggers a large battering ram that pins Thing against a wall. He prepares to fire more sleep gas at Invisible Girl who's too weakened to use her forcefield again. But Mr Fantastic grabs him with a flexi-arm and spins him like a top. Thing buckles the battering ram to escape and then crumbles HT's handcuffs. But Doom has frozen MrF's arm that enwraps him and escapes as the freezing spreads to the rest of the hero. Then he tries to lasso HT with a frozen rope but Thing intervenes and Torch goes to thaw MrF.

The 4 attack Dr Doom but he evades them all using his flying belt and then escapes through a hatchway that only he knew about. Outside the room he prepares to enact the real point of his plan. This warehouse was chosen because it is in the path of a solar wave that sweeps the Earth at this time each day. Inside the room they see part of the floor 'dissolving' and they can see outer space through the gap! Reed immediately works out what's happening. He's read about a solar wave that passed over an abandoned weather station whose roof was covered in ionic dust. That roof got somehow transported to space. Doom must have coated this room with the same dust.

IG has recovered enough to use her forcefield again. She projects it *through* the wall and traps Doom against it on the other side. If they're going to die in space then so is he. More of the floor and walls are gone and they still can't find a way out. But Doom panics because 'the world must not lose his magnificent brain'. He opens the hatch and reaches through to disrupt the wiring that keeps the ionic dust in place. But Thing yanks him into the room with them and Doom backs up to get away from him and falls into space. The 4 escape through the hatch just in time and they all agree to keep Reed as leader.