Fantastic Four #8

 "Sufferin' snakes... what's that?"

I'm happy to say that, while being utterly mad as one would expect for 1962, this issue was a rather fun read, even if I did raise an eyebrow at Reed being able to use his elasticity to absorb bullets... and fire them back!

This is the first appearance of long-running FF villain the Puppet Master, whose bonkers voodoo abilities have come about because of... radioactive clay. Of course. What else? His puppetry skills are highly impressive, though, to say the least. He even makes a little model prison governor grab a key ring from a little model desk drawer, which is positively superhuman/

We also meet Alicia, shown here as a very naive damsel. From her first appearance she likes Ben, but (Yet again, Reed briefly turns the Thing human again) prefers him on the rockier side. a surprising amount of their eventual dynamic is here already.

Puppet Master himself is surprisingly one note here, and his apparent death makes it seem as though he may not necessarily have been intended as a recurring villain at this point. But it's a good, solid story with lots of set pieces and the team feeling very well-established at this point. A huge improvement from last issue.