Fantastic Four Annual #2: Sue's Force Fields Of Awesome 14

Fantastic Four Annual #2, page 14, panel 5

Fantastic Four Annual #2: Sue's Force Fields Of Awesome 14

A Stan Lee Story Spectacular

A Jack Kirby Illustrative Idyll

A Chic Stone Delineation Delight

A Sam Rosen Lettering Landmark

The gimmick of this story is that, aided by a spiked drink which increases their susceptibility, Doctor Doom has been creating illusions of the team to foster distrust amongst them, tipping them into a place where they will fight each other. Just how this illusion managed to trip Johnny is a bit beyond me, but we'll move on.

Although the panel doesn't do the greatest job of portraying it, Sue is happy to use her force-field to extinguish Johnny's flame. In my mind, she'd do this by encasing his body in the field momentarily, starving his flame of oxygen without suffocating him. Here, Kirby depicts it more as a winding, the force of the impact into his stomach knocking the flame out.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four Annual #2 on our thirty-fourth episode: The Doomcast, with special guest host Alan Middleton