The Fantastic Four #8 (Aug 1962) introduces another classic FF villain: the creepy-looking Puppet Master, who moulds radioactive clay into the likeness of a person which then gives him the ability to control that person. He first tests his ability with a “nameless nobody”, commanding him to climb up to the top of a bridge and jump to his death. Luckily the FF become aware of this and the Human Torch rescues the man in the nick of time, causing the Puppet Master to burn his finger.
His poor blind step-daughter, Alicia, comes to find out why the Puppet Master cried out in pain. Cranky step-dad dismisses her and then monologues to the reader about how he found the radioactive clay and has been scheming to use it to gain power ever since, hiding it from his blind step-daughter. Now his plan is to defeat the Fantastic Four. Good idea.
The Puppet Master proceeds to mould a puppet of The Thing and forces him to walk to the Puppet Master’s apartment, while the Invisible Girl follows him covertly. Unfortunately, Alicia detects the Invisible Girl’s heart beat and warns her step-father that two people are present in the apartment. The fiendish Puppet Master gives everyone else gas masks and then floods the apartment with ether, knocking the Invisible Girl out. He then convinces Alicia to dress up as Invisible Girl and go with the Thing back to the FF headquarters. Alicia senses the Thing is noble, but a tortured spirit.
So why did the Puppet Master need the Thing to come all the way to his apartment if he just sent him back? And now he’s embroiled poor Alicia into it… Just what the heck is this guy’s plan?
We find out back at the FF headquarters that Reed has once again concocted a way to turn the Thing back into human Ben Grimm. It works once again, which breaks the Puppet Master’s spell. But like all other un-Thing moments, it quickly reverts itself and Ben gets all orange and rocky again. Meanwhile, Alicia is clearly falling in love with The Thing
Meanwhile the Puppet Master has been manipulating the warden of a prison on the side, causing those prisoners to be released and initiate a riot. The real Invisible Girl wakes up and fires her signal flare, causing the rest of the group to converge on the Puppet Master’s apartment. The Puppet Master has a giant robot (?!?) he sends to fight the trio, which they quickly defeat in a mere two panels. Then the Puppet Master flees on a winged horse (?!?) while the FF regroup.
Back to the prison to try and quash that riot the Fantastic Four go. Meanwhile the Puppet Master returns to his apartment, where Alicia Masters sits and worries about how evil her step-father is. There is an argument, he trips over Alicia’s out-stretched arm and appears to plummet to his death.
And that’s the end of this hot mess of a story. I really have no idea what kind of coherent plan the Puppet Master had to deal with the Fantastic Four. If you have the power of complete control and manipulation, it’s kind of hard to mess that one up unless you are truly scatter-brained and incompetent. So pull out a giant robot, a flying horse, and a prison riot I guess to fill up some panels?
The only redeeming part of the issue is the addition of Alicia Masters to the occasional supporting cast of the Fantastic Four. It’s pretty clear that after just eight issues, we can’t take much more of The Thing’s endless moping, un-Thing-ing, re-Thing-ing, etc so we need a reason for him to want to stay as The Thing going forward. Of course for now, Alicia herself is a one-dimensional damsel-in-distress who just happens to fall in love with The Thing at just that opportune moment.