Fantastic Four (1961 series) #27

In the Baxter Building Reed Richards tries out his new thought-projector helmet, and the others see he's thinking of Sue Storm in a swimsuit. He lets Ben Grimm try it but he mentions Dr Doom which causes Thing to see Doom throwing a fancy grenade at him and he falls over nearly breaking the gadget. Sue stalks off and Ben asks Reed when he's going to propose to her. Reed says he's going to buy an engagement ring today, and Johnny Storm comments that his sister's only been waiting 2 years for that.

Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner's also thinking about Sue in his undersea castle. His Atlantean people left him because of his love for the surface woman (Annual #1), all except a few loyal warriors (as seen in Avengers #4). But he can't stop spying on her, and his remaining men quit when he tells them he's going to claim her as his bride.

Next we see him disguised in a suit and dark glasses using an air-powered electron-gun to open door locks to get him to where Thing is working out. He smashes some expensive gym equipment and then subdues his foe with a large sleeping-gas pellet from the multi-function gun. Next he uses it to fire a vacuum pellet to snuff out Human Torch's flame and knock him out. Susan walks in on him and is angry and concerned about her brother. But she's also conflicted about her feelings for Namor and doesn't want either him or Reed to get hurt. He asks for 24 hours to prove his love for her, and then sleep-gases her to make sure he gets it. They leave in his personal 2-seater air-sea speedster which is hovering outside a window.

Reed arrives with the ring to find his 2 teammates recovered but despondent. He's very unhappy to hear that they let Sub-Mariner abduct Sue, and they have to struggle to stop him storming off in anger. He calms down but insists that he's going to face Namor alone, and heads off to use his radar-sweep-ray to search the entire planet. Ben and Johnny have never seen him like this before and agree that they've got to get to SM before him. Johnny has an idea. He's heard rumours about a magic-guy called Dr Strange and zooms out to skywrite a message to him.

Stephen Strange in his Greenwich Village sanctuary detects the call and sends his astral form to visit their HQ. On the way he sees Richards leaving in the Fantasti-Copter (previously seen in #3 and #6). His astral body passes through the walls of the Baxter Building and he introduces himself to HT and Thing. They explain the situation and DrS immediately agrees to help. He heads off into the ocean and mentally scans the minds of fishes until he finds 1 that has seen Subby's home, and then he lets his Amulet Of Agamotto lead him to it. He recognises the architecture as having been built by a race older than men. Inside he and we witness Sue trapped in a shatter-proof glass bubble with Namor outside pleading for her to give him the day to show he loves her. She says that Reed will find her and then nothing can save SM. But he can't tell which of the 2 she's more concerned for. DrS decides to go back to tell Ben and Johnny what he's found, but on the way out he passes Richards walking in, and Reed's thoughts tell us he's taken a pill so that he can live without oxygen for an hour.

Mr Fantastic finds his way into the underwater castle and locates Sue and Namor. He wraps an elongated arm around the foe but Subby grabs it and whirls the hero around and then wraps him up in his own flexible limb. However MrF makes his body send out spikes which make SM let go. Then they lash out at each other and dodge each other's blows. Reed turns into a wheel and tries to lead Namor to the surface(!) but runs into Sub-Mariner's warriors who've thought better of leaving.

Strange's astral form returns to the Baxter Building and tells Ben and Johnny that he's found Subby's base but that Reed's got there already. The duo take the 60-minute pills so they can follow. DrS magically brings his mortal body to him so that he can cast a spell. He uses the Visionary Vapours of the Dread Dormammu to send the pair to join their leader.

The duo see Mr Fantastic as a bouncing ball evading shots from the Atlantean troops. Human Torch flames on to melt guns and Thing ploughs into the bodies, leaving Reed free to attack Namor. Ben grabs all the troops that are still moving and tells Johnny to go find his sister.

Her forcefield isn't strong enough to break her glass prison but HT melts a hole in it. But 2 Atlanteans who aren't in the fight are monitoring the scene and start to flood the chamber that the glass bubble was in. However Invisible Girl's forcefield *is* enough to hold water back until Torch can melt surrounding walls together into a permanent barrier. Then they see the flying camera that their watchers were using and HT melts its lens which also temporarily blinds them.

They return to the battle to see Thing juggling troopers while MrF and Subby continue mano-a-mano. But at last Namor triumphs and Thing leaves off juggling to take him on. However the troops now fire electro-stun guns. Thing wades through the crackling energy to get at them. But Reed recovers to continue their personal fight with no quarter until he forms himself into a human crossbow and fires the undersea monarch into his troops, knocking them over. Everybody gets their 2nd wind and then Namor leads his troops who have brought in an undersea blast gun which they fire. Thing steps in front of MrF to take the blast but it doesn't reach him. SM tries to hit Richards but that fails too. And IG reveals that she's keeping the foes apart with her invisible forcefield. Namor tells Sue to forget her loyalty to Reed but she replies that it's love not loyalty. Sub-Mariner protests that he's claimed her for his imperial bride, but she says what she felt for him was sympathy and a bit of affection, but never love.

Dr Strange is watching via the Orb Of Agamotto and worries what the angry monarch might do. So he magics the FF into their submarine and sends the palace zooming through the ocean away from them. Reed asks Sue if she meant what she said to Namor but she doesn't want to talk about it. Ben asks if she only said it to stop the fighting? Reed now doesn't want to know the answer and Sue thinks she'll never convince Reed that she loves only *him*.