Wait, how does that work again?

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

Figure this one out. It's a sequence from "The Return of Doctor Doom!" in THE FANTASTIC FOUR# 10, January 1963. Script by Stan Lee, art by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers.




So. Alicia Masters is a talented sculptor (well, her father was the Puppet Master, so you can see how she grew up with the materials around her), despite the fact that she's blind. She touches people and things to get a sense of what they look like and carves statues that are quite accurate. So far, okay, not out of the limits of the possible and (by comic book standards, quite modest a claim).

Yet how does she create these little figurines of finks like Dr Doom, the Sub-Mariner, the Skrulls? The Fantastic Four had only met the Mole Man once at this point, certainly hadn't taken any photos of him.(The statuettes are in great poses, by the way, very expressive of the subjects' personalities). Did Ben talk her through the process? How long would that take? Weeks, months? ("Naw, honey, the Miracle Man's waist was slimmer...")

There's only one answer that makes sense to me. Despite the fact he had fingers as thick as cigars, with only three fingers and a thumb on each hand, Ben was actually the sculptor! He was using Alicia as a front, because he thought his artistic inclinations were too sissy for a guy in 1963...

Comments

[crinosg.insanejournal.com]

I like to think that Alicia is just a very empathic person, and is so scary talented that she can capture a persons true essence in clay just a little intel to go on.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

That sort of goes beyond talent to the supernatural, doesn't it?

It could make for an interesting character... a blind sculptor who creates statues which show the true nature of the subject, rather than the flesh and blood appearance. I could see this as a series of human interest dramas, with Alicia's statues affecting the lives of the people she is hird by.

[blake_reitz.insanejournal.com]

This was actually the explanation in Earth X, if memory serves. Her latent "mutation", a result of being born near all that highly radioactive clay, was the ability to "see" people as they would be without Celestial influence. It was a cool idea in a series that has several, and just went on wayyyy too long.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

Sounds interesting, but I'm lost with the part about Celestial influence (Earth X series were after my area of interest). You could have some surprising stories if she's not fully aware what her sculptures are revealing about people and just stirs thing up for good or ill without intending to.

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

In Earth X,

[perletwo.insanejournal.com]

So = tasty nougat center?

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

Essentially. And, I could be misremembering, but I think

[perletwo.insanejournal.com]

Ew. Ew. Ew.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

Wow. Quite a concept.

[arilou_skiff.insanejournal.com]

Nah, the Terrigan Mists were created by the kree for some reason or other, the inhumans were basically parasiting off the gestating celestial somehow.

I believe they called them a foreign virus while the native superheroes were the Celestial's immune system.

Or something.

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

I don't get it. How's the Celestial making people look different? Why? And what do they really look like--Alicia makes realistic statues..

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

It all sounds like my wondering how Daredevil recognizes supervillains he's never personally met.

But what you're talking about actually isn't that different from what her stepfather does--whose power, we must never forget, is magic from Wundagore!

By the by, have you ever seen the movie Eyes Without A Face? I was astonished to realize that a recent Alicia story had ripped the movie off pretty blatantly.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

You know, I never thought about it but you're right... the Puppet Master carves exact little figures of people he has never met. Even if he has a newspaper clipping or something to start with, that's still inexplicable.

I saw EYES WITHOUT A FACE so many years ago that it's become vague. A doctor trying to give his disfigured daughter a new face, her walking around with just sad eyes showing through an expressionless mask. Unless you mean another movie with the same title?

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

No, that's the one. Watched it recently, but its pretty obscure French horror.

There was a Alicia and Puppetmaster story (shortly before he was killed by Ms. Marvel) where he kept murdering people and surgically removing their eyes and putting them in Alicia. Really wierd to watch the movie and imagine the two characters in the actors places.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind seeing the movie again, I remember it as being atmospheric and moody. Face transplants have been in the news, too.

[randyripoff.insanejournal.com]

I don't think I buy Ben Grimm thinking that sculpting wasn't 'manly' enough. However, I could see him thinking that his work wasn't good enough, and being embarrassed about that.

I Think I See A Hole In Your Theory, Sadly

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

With those hands?

Re: I Think I See A Hole In Your Theory, Sadly

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

His first choice was to be a great pianist, but....

[perletwo.insanejournal.com]

Alicia looks remarkably like Crystal here.

[long_silence.insanejournal.com]

Is that better or worse than looking like Sue?

[perletwo.insanejournal.com]

Call it a draw. I wouldn't say no to looking like either of them, frankly.

[long_silence.insanejournal.com]

I just find it kinda creepy.

Alicia is supposed to look really similar to Sue. And now she looks like Crystal.

So Johnny married Lyja who looked like Alicia who looked like his ex-girlfriend and/or his sister.

The Human Torch has some issues.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

Alicia's looking like Crystal probably just shows one of Kirby's limitations, rather than a deliberate similarity. Some things (like birds) were trouble for him to get, and young female faces were an example.

[superfan1.insanejournal.com]

I recognize most of the sculptor figurines, but who the guy in green with his arm sticking out?

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

That's the Miracle Man, from FF# 3. He was supposed to have a wide range of powers but turned out to be a fraud, using hypnosis to make people think he could grow to be a hundred feet tall, shoot lightning, cause his enemies to sink into the ground. (A sort of evil Mandrake.)

[superfan1.insanejournal.com]

Thank you and is he still around to give the FF trouble? :)

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

I'm not sure. I think he was brought back with genuine powers at some point, but I'm mostly interested in comics before 1976 or so.

[newnumber6.insanejournal.com]

Or, I suppose, she's secretly been sneaking around to the most remote areas on Earth to feel up Ben's villains.

Or Reed uses a 3-d printer machine to create a base sculpture of some of them from his files and photos, and passes them off to alicia who gets an idea of what they look like and makes her own sculptures which are dynamic and artsy.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I can imagine Reed devising a thingie which will create 3d images from his and the other memories, for Alicia to work with. The different perceptions of the various people contributing, would allow her to create a balanced image.

I can also imagine Doom actually sending her all the 3D reference she would possibly want or need, his monumental ego, and admiration for her talent as an artist, would mean he would HAVE to ensure that his statue was perfect.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, the Miracle Man was a public figure and did end up arrested, so photos of him would be available. The Skrulls were captives for an indeterminate time while Reed hypnotized them into thinking they were cows, so it's almost certain he would have taken pictures, blood and skin samples, that sort of thing. Sub-Mariner of course was well documented.

At the end of FF# 5, Doom abandoned his castle in upstate New York, and I'm certain Reed would have looted it of weapons and dangerous devices (although he left the time machine for some reason). Spare armor left behind would be useful to Alicia.

That leaves the Mole Man, whom our heroes only saw for a brief time. But description might be enough, if his ears were too big or his hair too short, would anyone notice?

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

The thing to remember is that photos would have no meaning for Alicia, what with her being blind and all, so she'd need to get 3D reference from somewhere.

Doom might have abandoned the castle, but it would probably still legally be sovereign Latverian territory, no?

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

I don't think he had usurped the Latverian throne at the time. That came later. He was just a footlose mad scientist in the first few appearances.