Fantastic Four 22

FANTASTIC FOUR #22 (1964)
by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

We often take for granted that the Invisible Girl can make forcefields, but it took her 22 issues before she developed her most useful power.

And it all starts with her wearing a strange hat!

Next page, while the Human Torch and the Thing are busy goofing around, she creates her first invisible forcefield.

Reed says she gets this power because of the radiation emitted by his Nuclear Measuring Device ™ but thankfully this was later forgotten.
And she doesn’t waste time to demonstrate that she can manipulate its shape at will…

…and to demonstrate it’s strong enough to withstand blows from the Thing…

…AND the Human Torch’s flame.

Stan Lee is going out of his way to show how powerful she is, with Reed even pointing out that she may become the star of the team.
Which isn’t far from what will actually happen: it’ll take a long time, but these days Susan is often called the most powerful one.

The team then receives several complains about their actions as heroes.
They vary in nature: from the perfectly justified worry about them HAVING INTERCONTINENTAL MISSILES…

…to the reasonable ones, like shooting flares and making the entire building shake…

…to ridiculous ones like the Think scaring a cat…

…and accusations of being communists.

Well. I’m glad we got the important scenes out of the way, because we’re going back to the Invisible Girl demonstrating another power: making other things invisible.

Note the Thing is the one pointing out that when she uses this powers she has to stay visible.
A fact that she repeats to him two panels later, with the Thing pointing out that he was the one to tell her in the first place!

Remember this was written with the Marvel Method ™: the writer gives the plot, the artist draws, and the balloons are added later.
Since Kirby shows two panels with the Invisible Girl using her power while the Thing is talking to her, and since it would make sense that they would only talk about her discovering her powers, Lee must’ve thought it would be funny to have the Thing’s first sentence to be ignored.
Or maybe he thought it was necessary to hammer on this detail, which seems odd since it’s not used much (and in fact Susan will later learn to turn both herself and other things invisible simultaneously).

Apparently we needed at least another comedic complain, this time by the Women’s Canasta and Mah Jong Society.

Odd to see anyone call Reed Richards “young man”, but not as odd as how they’re scared away.

YOU HAVE WITNESSED THE FACE OF MADNESS.

Or a silly prank by an invisible Thing.

But enough about that! The Fantastic Four are going on vacation to a random island because they received a pamphlet in the mail!

Once they get on the island, however, their so-called “U-Car” sinks.

Now stranded in the island, they find someone leading into a cave…

…who turns out to be the Mole Man, leading them into a trap.

Yes, he was the one sending them the pamphlet. No comment.

He’s built a device that will sink both New York and Moscow underground, triggering World War III and allowing him to take over the surface world.

Unfortunately he can’t hit the button that will set off the device!

The Invisible Girl is able to keep the field around the button, AND to protect the entire team from the deadly radiations that were trapping them.

Also… the first time EVER the Thing says “It’s clobberin time” !!!!

But they just fall into more traps. In particular, the Thing is trapped under sand in a scene that might have been the inspiration to move the Sandman from a Spider-Man villain to a Fantastic Four villain for a while.

I know it doesn’t mean much since he could draw ANYTHING, but Jack Kirby really knows how to draw sand.

That makes sense as a trap by the Mole Man.

Trapping the Invisible Girl in a holographic room where she only has thirty seconds to find an escape before she’s exposed to nerve gas, not so much.

She escapes by figuring out another application of her powers: making invisible things visible.

Susan is on a roll today!!!

A note informs us that when she does this she becomes invisible.

I don’t think this has ever been applied again.

Once everyone has escaped, the Mole Man is finally able to activate his weapon… but the very last panel informs us that Reed sabotaged it off-panel.

 

Fantastic Four significance: 10/10
Not only we establish the Invisible Girl’s forcefield, but we also explore the many applications of her powers, turning her from a damsel in distress to a real powerhouse. She, and by extension the Fantastic Four, would simply not be the same without the invisible forcefield.
And we get the first occurrence of one of the best catchphrases in comics!

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
The Mole Man traps the Fantastic Four by sending them a pamphlet.
This would barely qualify as a 1/10 for DC Silver Age, but for Marvel this is unbelievably silly.
The complaining neighbors bring up several legitimate points (it WOULD be a nightmare to live next to someone shooting ICBMs), but then they’re turned into complete jokes.

Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
Once they get to the Mole Man’s island it’s timeless superhero fun, and Susan experimenting with her powers can be pretty fun. The quick dismissal of the neighbors, not so much.