Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Uncredited Inker: Dick Ayers
Uncredited Letterer: Art Simek
I've been reading far ahead in the Fantastic Four (in fact, I've just started the first issue of John Byrne's run), and today's panel is an example of something that you pretty much assume happens a lot in the book. And yet in 230-odd issues, I'm struggling to remember another instance of when it happened.
So, today's panel is the first definite example of Reed being bulletproof (Ben Grimm fans would have to wait until issue 26 and the letter's column to find out that he was bulletproof). His powers work pretty much as anyone would expect - the elastic properties of his body and uniform negate the momentum of the bullets, before hurling them back at his attackers (at, presumably, non-lethal speeds).
As with many uses of Reed's powers, this lends itself to a wonderful visual of Reed turning into some sort of weird porcupine creature (no, not the one that appears in that episode of Fringe). Love the sound effect as well, especially how it bursts out of the panel borders into the gutters.
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]