Fantastic Four #43
Lo! There Shall be an Ending!
After rescuing the brainwashed Thing from the Frightful Four, Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Girl flee from the Wizard and his other seemingly brainwashed thrall, the Human Torch. When they escape in Johnny's car, the Wizard decides to break off pursuit and free his other Frightful Four teammates, who were taken out of the fight by his own anti-gravity discs. After the Wizard and the Torch get them down, the Frightful Four realize that the Torch had deliberately hampered them whenever they tried to harm one of his former teammates.
Reed and Sue return to the Baxter Building, where the Thing begins to fight back. They quickly subdue him with knockout gas, and Reed begins the long task of trying to find a cure for the Wizard's brainwashing process. Meanwhile, the Wizard and Medusa inspect the ID Machine, and confirm what the Wizard suspected: someone tampered with the machine during the battle, and the Human Torch has only been pretending to be under their control. They ambush the Torch and knock him out, so the Wizard can prepare the final phase of the revenge against the Fantastic Four.
At the Baxter Building, Reed has finished constructing a device that he hopes will revert Ben's personality to normal. But when Reed activates the device it overloads and explodes. Reed rushes in to pull the control helmet from Ben's head before he is permanently harmed, with Sue throwing a force field around him for protection. They then drag Ben into a nearby bed where they can only hope that he will awaken cured. At the Latverian Embassy, Doctor Doom inspects his hands and finds that they have healed after his last battle with the Fantastic Four. Doom is furious over such an ignominious defeat, but he has already planned a suitable revenge, as his Emotion Changer ray is complete and ready to use.
Back at the Baxter Building, the Frightful Four's anti-grav ship lands on the roof and the villains begin infiltrating the building. Reed completes his tests and concludes that the Thing has been cured, just as the Frightful Four ambush them. The Wizard shows Reed and Sue that he has Johnny trapped outside on a massive anti-gravity disc. The Wizard then threatens to send Johnny up into space to suffocate unless the Fantastic Four surrender. When Reed tries to save Johnny, the Wizard and his cohorts show that they mean business. The Wizard then gives Richards ten seconds to surrender. However, before this time is up the Thing awakes and attacks the Wizard, rending the villain's armor with his bare hands, destroying his anti-grav control unit. As Reed and Sue attack their foes, Johnny is able to break free from the now deactivated disc and join the fight.
As the battle rages, Medusa decides to retreat. The Torch sees her, but fails to prevent her escape in the Wizard's anti-grav ship. With Medusa's departure the survivors of the Frightful Four are easily subdued. But when Reed telephones the police to have them send an officer over to collect the prisoners, the officer on the phone thinks it's a prank call. After Johnny leaves to drop off their foes with the authorities, Reed and Sue check on Ben and welcome him back to the group. Ben is surprised by this, after the hatred he displayed earlier. But Reed points out that Ben couldn't help himself, and he is welcomed back to the team.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Frightful Four (The Wizard, Trapster, Sandman, Medusa), Doctor Doom
Continuity Notes
Doctor Doom's hands were crushed by the Thing at the end of Fantastic Four #40. Doom's scheme for revenge plays out in Fantastic Four Annual #3 by attacking Reed and Sue’s wedding.
