I: Feature Story: "The Hate-Monger!"

Pages: 22

Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: George Roussos (credited as George Bell)
Letters: Artie Simek

First Appearance: Nick Fury (1st contemporary appearance), Hate Monger/Adolf Hitler

Villain: Hate Monger/Adolf Hitler

Origin: Hate Monger

Death: Hate Monger

Guest Appearance: Nick Fury

Gadgets & Technology: Tidescope, Spider-Man dartboard, Ben Grimm's heavy-duty punching bag, H-Ray, Sub-Surface Missile

Setting: Republic of San Gusto

Synopsis: Reed is using his Tidescope, measuring the tides in the planetarium room of the Baxter Building, when he feels a sudden jolt. This jolt knocks over Johnny, who is throwing flame darts at a picture of Spider-man. The vibrations also upset Sue as she tries on different wigs. The tremors are the work of the Thing, pounding his new hydraulic punching bag. He is infuriated after reading about the Hate-Monger in the papers, and has been working out his stress on his new heavy-duty toy. Apparently, the Hate-Monger has been inciting riots all over the country but has yet to break any laws himself.

They soon run into the Hate-Monger's rally on the street. The Hate-Monger, clad in a purple outfitwith a KKK-like hood, shouts intolerance against all foreigners and those who do not agree with him. The mob gathered around seems hypnotized and immediately chases down a man, who runs for his life. The Thing smashes the grandstand, trapping the Hate-Monger's foot soldiers.

The Hate-Monger pulls out his H-Ray gun and bathes them in its eerie green light, and they turn on one another! Thing takes a swipe at Reed as Johnny melts the street below his feet. Reed knocks Thing down into the tar while the Invisible Girl steals a bucket of water from a window washer and tosses it on Johnny’s hands, dousing his flame. Thing finally gets out of the tar and ties Reed’s arms to a fire hydrant. He tries to use Reed as a slingshot to fire Johnny but Sue unties Reed’s arms and the three snap backwards. Succumbing to the power ofthe H-Ray, they are filled with hatred for each other and they decide to disband.

Reed returns to the Baxter Building to find Nick Fury tussling with the staff. They had met years before in World War II (see Sgt. Fury #3) and Fury has come to ask the FF to investigate an uprising in the small Latin republic of San Gusto. Reed tells him there is no Fantastic Four anymore, and that he can handle the job himself. As Reed prepares to head to San Gusto, Nick senses that the Hate-Mongerhas reached the Fantastic Four! The other three FF members spot Reed taking off in the pogo plane and arrive together at the Baxter Building, angry that Reed has abandoned them, to "hog all the glory for himself." Nick Fury is waiting for them and baits them intofollowing him to San Gusto.

The Hate Monger witnesses the pogo plane and the passenger ICBM exiting New York and suspects the FF are headed for San Gusto. He follows in his sub-surface missile, a high-tech piece of machinery based on Russian designs!

Reed is already sabotaging the rebel forces in San Gusto. He places dynamite near their munitions and snatches missiles off passing planes. As a band of rebels approaches, he flattens himself into a road and scatters them with one snap of his flexible body. When he finds a strange machine in the jungle, he searches for its power source, leading him to a secret tunnel and he is captured by a paralyzing gas. He is trapped!

The Hate-Monger greets Reed in his lair. He plans to bounce his Hate-Ray off the moon and angle it to any place on Earth (which is why Reed noticed changes in the tide). The Hate Mongerovertaking San Gusto was merely a test. With his Hate-Ray machine, the Hate-Monger can topple any government on earth!

Just then, Nick Fury bursts in, his machine gun a-blazing. At gunpoint, he forces the Hate-Monger to give Reed the antidote to the Hate-Ray. The Hate-Monger slips away behind a screen of bulletproof glass and Reed grabs a vial of antidote to give to the rest of his team. He challenges Johnny to a fight but grabs him and forces the antidote down his throat. Johnny startles the Thing with his flame and Reed tosses the antidote down his slackened jaw. Sue is invisible so Reed blankets the area with his body and they net her. She is also given the antidote.

Nick Fury is fighting the Hate-Monger and his foot soldiers until the Fantastic Four come to the rescue. The Hate-Monger draws his Hate-Ray pistol but Sue throws off his aim so it hits the foot soldiers. They turn on the Hate-Monger and gun him down. Johnny rounds up the soldiers with his flame and Reed unmasks the dead Hate-Monger. He was Adolf Hitler! With Hitler dead, the Hate-Ray is mothballed.

--synopsis by Jonathan Clarke, aka doesitmatter, with Gormuu

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