Cover: Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko

Fantastic Four #14

May 1963 · Marvel · 0.12 USD

📊 ~28,679 copies sold its debut month

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“Once Again, The Fantastic Four Face the Threat of Sub-Mariner, and “The Merciless Puppet Master” Part 1”

About this Issue

Fantastic Four #14 is a pivotal chapter in the early Marvel Universe's serialized soap-opera storytelling: it is the fourth time Namor the Sub-Mariner confronts the Fantastic Four in just fourteen issues, cementing his status as one of the team's most durable and complex antagonists. The issue deepens the Reed-Sue-Namor romantic triangle that would define Sue Storm's characterization for years, showing Reed quietly devastated to find Sue scanning the world's oceans for Namor — an emotional beat that Marvel's Silver Age rivals simply weren't attempting. As the second appearance of the Puppet Master (who had seemingly died in issue #8), it also establishes Marvel's early habit of resurrecting 'dead' villains and building continuity across issues. Taken together, these threads mark the book as an early proof-of-concept for the interconnected, emotionally grounded Marvel Universe.

In "Once Again, The Fantastic Four Face the Threat of Sub-Mariner, and 'The Merciless Puppet Master' Part 1," the Puppet Master—recovered and vengeful—turns his cunning toward the Sub-Mariner, manipulating him to strike at the Fantastic Four. With Jack Kirby’s dynamic art and Stan Lee’s sharp storytelling, this 1963 issue sets a tense, high-stakes stage, where the team’s greatest challenge may come not from a monster or a madman, but from a mind controlling the ocean’s mightiest warrior. Cover by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.

writer Stan Lee · artist Jack Kirby · inker Dick Ayers · colorist Stan Goldberg · letterer Art Simek · cover Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VG) $126

CGC 9.8 · 3 in census $16,280

CGC 9.6 · 9 in census $7,724

CGC 9.4 · 24 in census $2,848

CGC 9.2 · 20 in census $1,989

CGC 9.0 · 37 in census $1,608

CGC 8.5 · 34 in census $761

Show all 22 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 57 in census $761

CGC 7.5 · 54 in census $597

CGC 7.0 · 54 in census $597

CGC 6.5 · 76 in census $391

CGC 6.0 · 61 in census $358

CGC 5.5 · 78 in census $248

CGC 5.0 · 56 in census $248

CGC 4.5 · 85 in census $206

CGC 4.0 · 92 in census $177

CGC 3.5 · 74 in census $163

CGC 3.0 · 53 in census $154

CGC 2.5 · 32 in census $120

CGC 2.0 · 15 in census $117

CGC 1.5 · 10 in census $76*

CGC 1.0 · 1 in census $62*

CGC 0.5 · 9 in census $57*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

The creative team of Stan Lee (writer) and Jack Kirby (penciller) produced this issue with Dick Ayers on interior inks and the unusual pairing of Steve Ditko on cover inks over Kirby's pencils — one of several Kirby-Ditko cover collaborations from this era. The book carried a cover date of May 1963 but was on sale by February 12, 1963, following the standard newsstand pre-dating practice of the period. Notably, this issue introduced the iconic corner box symbol — the small character-head insignia that would appear on Marvel covers for decades — a design invention credited to Steve Ditko and confirmed in the letters page of Fantastic Four #19.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published May 1963 (on-sale February 12, 1963); written by Stan Lee, pencilled by Jack Kirby, interior inks by Dick Ayers, cover inks by Steve Ditko; 22 pages at 12 cents cover price.
Second appearance of the Puppet Master (first was Fantastic Four #8), retconning his apparent death: he survived his fall from a window and was placed in a sanitarium before engineering his revenge.
The Puppet Master takes mind-control of Namor the Sub-Mariner, enslaving him to kidnap the Invisible Girl (Sue Storm) and lure the rest of the team to his undersea domain — the first time these two villains are pitted together against the FF.
Namor ultimately breaks the Puppet Master's mental hold because he cannot bring himself to harm Sue Storm, a story beat that crystallizes the Namor/Sue/Reed love triangle as an ongoing emotional engine of the series.
Features cameo appearances by Doctor Doom, the Mole Man, and a Skrull as the Puppet Master considers which enemy to weaponize — an early example of Marvel world-building through villain callbacks.
This issue introduces the Marvel corner box symbol (small character heads identifying the title on the cover), a design innovation credited to Steve Ditko that would become standard across Marvel's Silver Age line.
The story title is 'The Merciless Puppet Master' (also solicited as 'Once Again, The Fantastic Four Face the Threat of Sub-Mariner'); the cover caption reads 'The Sub-Mariner Strikes!'
Reprinted internationally and domestically: Los 4 Fantásticos #14 (Mexico, Oct. 1963), I Fantastici Quattro #10 (Italy, 1971), The Mighty World of Marvel #29 (Marvel UK, April 1973), and Marvel Masterworks #6 (1988), among others.