Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: George Roussos
Lettered by: Sam Rosen
The Mole Man is clearly one of those villains who has no confidence in his own schemes and who over-prepares for any eventuality. Despite having no way of predicting that the Fantastic Four would purchase the island above his secret lair, he has individual death traps prepared just in case they should discover him, fall into a group trap, and escape that trap. Contingency plans are all very well, but contingencies for the contingency suggests that you should probably prepare the original contingency a bit more.
Reed decides to put his powers to good use to escape his gas-filled death trap. It's nice to see him using his powers to test the structural integrity of the trap, although his line of reasoning - flexing his muscles - seems to be at odds with the fact that his entire body can change size and shape.
Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #22 on our twenty-second episode: Going Underground.
[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffcast/FF_Episode_22.mp3]