Fantastic Four (1961 series) #39

Last issue the Frightful Four left the Fantastic Four on a deserted island with an exploding atomic bomb. Invisible Girl kept them alive with her forcefield but they were left floating in the ocean and we saw that Thing had turned back into human Ben Grimm.

Now they are rescued by a passing US nuclear sub and taken to recuperate in its infirmary where Reed Richards' nightmare reminds us of what happened. Next morning at breakfast a sailor asks Mr Fantastic to demonstrate stretching his arm but Ben asks him to leave them.And then we learn that they've all lost their powers.

When they get back to New York and the Baxter Building Reed desperately tries to find a way of restoring their powers before their many enemies discover what's happening and attack them. But days later he's given up and resorted to supplying artificial replacements. Ben has a robot Thing to control (with a device looking like a joystick attached to a clunky early mobile phone (not invented yet). Johnny Storm has a suit to give him flaming and flying powers (not unlike the 1 used by Wizard in his 1st app in the Human Torch tale in Strange Tales #102). They both do badly at their 1st attempts. Sue Storm has an electro-vibra suit to simulate invisibility and also produce a forcefield, but neither are as good as the real thing.

Meanwhile Dr Doom is holding court in Latveria where he's being 'amused' by a stage magician. The act's not going well but the magician offers to hypnotise him, only to discover that Victor von Doom is hypnotised already! He removes the existing hypnosis and Doom now remembers that he didn't really win a battle of minds with Reed Richards (in FF Annual #2). The angry monarch declares that only the death of the FF will avenge this insult, and he thanks the mage by letting him live. Soon he's on his way in his new gyroscopic aircraft to New York ...

... where the FF have called in their blind lawyer Matt Murdoch (since Daredevil #2) to an abandoned warehouse to discuss what should happen if they're killed. We see that Richards has simulated at least his elastic arms with extendable flexible metal attachments (maybe plagiarising Dr Octopus). All 4 are continuing to practice but all 5 are knocked over by an explosion followed by a barrage of mini-blasts. Reed figures their mystery opponent is just toying with them for now. But Murdock has slipped away to switch to Daredevil and returns to help guide them out of the building where the lights have all gone out.

Outside they see the gyrocraft atop the Baxter Building and Dr Doom in their HQ projecting a message telling the world who is going to kill the FF. His 1st move is to send their flying Fantasti-Car at them which splits into its 4 parts. DD knocks Reed out of the way of 1 component and pulls Sue away from another and saves Ben from being crushed when the other 2 parts collide destructively. Then he leads them back into the warehouse where 1 of the remaining bits gets stuck in the doorway. DrD can't see them inside and wonders why the FF aren't fighting back, but he uses Reed's vortex machine to send a twister to demolish it. DD leads them outside again and the FF decide to split up and approach their HQ from different directions. MrF takes DD with him to a nearby construction site where they throw some gas canisters into the vortex which disrupts it.

Doom has at last reached the impossible conclusion that the FF must have lost their powers but he doesn't know who their new seeming-leader is. But anyway he'll use some more of Richards' 'toys' to pick them off 1 by 1. He sends a forcebeam projectile which will track Reed's heartbeat until it destroys him but DD lassos it with his billy club cable and swings to crash into 1 of the warehouse's remaining walls. Reed can't help but ask how he's doing all this without any superpowers. Matt gives a joking answer and then acrobatically leaps away to distract Doom's attention while the Four try to reach the BB. We next see him walking a very high wire and evading a large fragment grenade as the Four sneak towards their target.

To be continued ...