In Fantastic Four #6 (June 1962), while we get some light-hearted ribbing of the Thing by Johnny Storm about his Yancy Street Gang hate mail, we also get a nice cross-section view of the finally-named Baxter Building, the Fantastic Four headquarters. This headquarters “cutout” far out-classes the old cross-section view of the Bat-Cave from 1942.
After a few pages of hanging out at headquarters reminding the readers who the two main villains the FF have confronted so far, we cut to Doctor Doom, who has not been idle since last ish. In fact, he’s decided to manipulate Namor, the Sub-Mariner into teaming up to defeat the FF.
However, after planting a “Grabber” device from Doctor Doom in the Baxter building, all doesn’t go well for Namor when he confronts the Fantastic Four, because Doctor Doom uses his Grabber to fling the entire building out into space. In true super-villain form, Doctor Doom uses this opportunity to gloat out loud that he tricked Namor.
Seemingly helpless in space, Namor finds a vat of water to restore his strength, then has the FF rocket him out into space towards Doctor Doom’s ship for a little showdown. I like the dramatic scenes of Namor launching himself.
Those eyebrows are pretty wild, but it’s nowhere near peak Namor head shape.
Doctor Doom defends himself against Namor’s attack with electricity and some nice Kirby Krackle:
But Namor fights back, absorbing the electricity like an electric eel to send it back and overload Doctor Doom’s ship.
And with that, Doctor Doom flees his spaceship, grabbing a runaway meteor as it streaks off into space. I wonder if we’ll be seeing him again?
Not a bad issue for Namor to flex both his powers and his personality. The members of the Fantastic Four did not do much this episode other than their bickering amongst each other and with Namor.