Fantastic Four (1961 series) #43

Ben Grimm was angry that Reed Richards 'forced' him to become Thing again to defeat Dr Doom (#40) so he quit the Fantastic Four. Wizard of the Frightful Four amplified his anger with his ID Machine and turned him against his teammates (#41). The 2 teams fought and last issue Human Torch (seemed to be) turned evil too. Invisible Girl and Mr Fantastic were alone but they managed to attach 1 of Wizard's anti-grave discs to Thing ...

... and they're now running away with floating Thing tethered by 1 of MrF's flexible arms, followed by flying Torch and Wizard. Wiz complains that HT is burning them an escape route but he says he just trying to avoid hitting their ally Thing. The Fantastic 3 reach Johnny Storm's open top car and drive off. Sue Storm explains that her brother *won't* hurt them because he's only pretending to be evil. She took the fuse out of the ID machine (last issue) therefore it can't have worked on him. (And Wizard didn't notice!)

Meanwhile Torch has stopped trying to catch them, claiming that he has to preserve his flame. He and Wizard return to where Medusa, Sandman and Trapster are anchoring themselves to stop themselves from floating away because they too have anti-grav discs stuck on them with Trapster's paste courtesy of MrF. Wiz uses the master disc on his chest to switch off the other discs and then HT carefully burns them off. But the evil FF are beginning to suspect him.

The F3 have got back to their Baxter Building HQ but Thing is still trying to attack MrF while still floating helplessly. Sue uses her force-field to protect Reed until he sets Ben spinning fast to make him dizzy, and then they toss him into an escape-proof room and fill it with sleep gas. Reed tells his fiancee that he'll have to find away to reverse the effects of the ID Machine but if he makes a mistake he could kill his friend.

Back at the eFF's place (looking amazingly good after the trashing it got) Sandman and Trapster are keeping an eye on Torch while Medusa and Wizard are examining the IDM and discover that it's been sabotaged. Medusa suggests they don't tip off HT that they're on to him. They join the others and Medusa uses her hair to secretly pick up Trapster's paste-pistol and fire it at Torch. They all try to stop him flaming on and T succeeds by shooting a 'resonance cap' that explodes and snuffs his flame out and knocks him out.

Reed Richards has built an equivalent of Wizard's ID machine and they lower it over sleeping Ben's head, while he and Sue worry about what might be happening to Johnny. Just as Wizard did Reed tries to influence Ben's thoughts, but he starts to wake up before there is any effect. He starts to break free of the machine but that causes it to overload while he's still inside. Shielded as much as possible by Sue's force-field Reed drags his friend free until Sue thinks of the obvious and switches the main power off. Reed dons a protective suit to carry radiating Ben to his bed. Then they can only stand and wait.

We spend the time looking in the Latverian embassy in New York where Dr Doom's hands have nearly recovered from when Thing crushed them (#40 again). He's planning revenge on the FF with his Emotion Changer Ray. But now he notes Wizards anti-grav craft landing on the roof of the Baxter Building.

The evil Four exit their craft and Sandman trickles down through micro-cracks in the roof, and when inside punches up through the ceiling to let the others in. Medusa uses her hair to short-circuit alarms ...

... but it turns out that they really get in safely because Sue forgot to turn the power back on. Reed uses a battery-powered brain-wave detector which shows that Ben's mind *has* changed but they won't know the result until he wakes up. The evil-Four enter and the good-Two prepare for a fight but Wizard directs their attention to Torch attached to a man-size anti-grav disc outside. Mr Fantastic extends an arm to grab him but Wiz sends the disc out of reach, and threatens to send it into space unless they let him submit them to the ID-machine.

MrF tells IG to execute Plan R. She knocks Medusa over with invisible force-field spheres, but Wizard reminds them about HT. MrF tells him they'll surrender but only if he brings Torch back to the window. Trapster suggests he's stalling, and Reed's thoughts tell us he's right. Wiz brings Johnny into sight ...

... and Ben wakes up and his hand reaches out to crush a telephone by his bed. Wizard gloats ... until that hand reaches out again to crush the anti-grav master control on the villain's chest. MrF strikes Trapster as IG traps Sandman in her force-field. The giant disc outside loses power and Torch is free to come in through the window as MrF takes away Trapster's paste gun. The 3 bad guys are cowed but Medusa's hair swings her out of the window and up onto the roof. HT follows her and sees her enter their aircraft. He doesn't know why he hesitates but it's long enough for her to escape.

When he returns he sees his sister holding the villains trapped in her force-field while Reed rings the local police precinct ... who think he's a hoax caller. So Torch agrees to take them down to the cops personally. Reed and Sue gaze on their weakened friend Ben who they can tell is back to normal mentally. He apologises for what he did but they assure him that it was the fault of Wizard's machine. They're just glad to have their best man back for the wedding. And Ben wonders if 1 day they'll come to his wedding if he ever *does* get back to being just human.