The Return of the Wizard!

In prison, the The Wizard is allowed to work in the prison hospital due to his good behavior. However this plays into the Wizard's plan as he collects a series of chemicals that allow him to melt a hole in his jail cell and escape from prison.

When he hears news of the Wizard's escape, Johnny wants to go after him but his sister Sue won't let him. Johnny creates a duplicate Torch out of flame to trick his sister while he goes after his old foe. Johnny is able to easily fight off the Wizard's weapons. Realizing what Johnny has done, Sue goes after him and ends up getting captured by the Wizard, and Johnny is also captured shortly after.

The two work together and free themselves from the Wizard's trap and capture him, and take him back into custody. Later Sue scolds Johnny for going off on his own.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Human Torch, Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Thing), The Wizard

Continuity Notes

• The Wizard's previous defeat occurred in Strange Tales #102.

• This story states that Johnny's public identity is secret. This was a pretense that the Torch put up for himself as revealed in Human Torch (vol. 2) #1 Johnny did this to cover his bruised ego when nobody in Glenville initially believed he was the Human Torch. The Fantastic Four publicly revealed themselves just prior to Fantastic Four #3 as explained in Fantastic Four #543. Strange Tales #106 reveals that everyone knew about Johnny's "double identity" and were just humoring him.