Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Uncredited Inker: Dick Ayers
Uncredited Letterer: Art Simek
It's been a while since Ben's popped back into his human form, so we celebrate today with a twofer: A grand transition from rock to skin, and a handy plot-advancing breaking of mind control!The trigger for this latest change is a brief punchup in Reed's laboratory, which causes Ben to fall into a set of test tubes. They break, obviously, and the random combination of chemicals does what Reed has so far failed to do - bring Ben back.
But that isn't all! The punchup only happened because Ben was under the control of Phil The Puppet Master. He'd turned up with future girlfriend Alicia Masters (who was disguised as Sue) so that they could... er...
Anyway, Ben's transformation lasts for all of six panels before his monstrous form returns, but his sadness at the reversal of his fortunes was enough for Alicia to fall in love with him.
Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #8 - with special guest Joshua Lapin-Bertone - on our sixth episode: Like A Puppet On A String
[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_6.mp3]