To Battle On Yancy Street!

Before we learned that the Human Torch was behind the gag gifts that the irritated Thing used to receive in the mail from the Yancy Street Gang, it was the general assumption that it was the Thing who was the sole target of the Gang's humiliating pranks. But when the Thing called for some back-up from his famous partners, and the entire Fantastic Four take a stroll through their neighborhood, it looks like Ben's nemeses have it in for the entire FF--as the Yancy Street Gang attacks!

As only they can.

It doesn't take long before the FF realize they've been soundly licked--and they race, not toward their foes, but their Fantasti-Car.

(All right, you and I know that the Thing could stub his toe on a building without suffering injury. But let's give Yancy Street its due--it's not every day the FF gets sent packing by a group of hooligans.)

Thankfully, this next scene takes place out of earshot of the Gang--because if they found out the FF were seriously giving thought to the notion that the Gang was doing the bidding of one of their enemies, they'd probably attack the Baxter Building in force.

Sue makes good sense--the FF should just file this under "lessons learned" and move on. But no, they're actually going to pursue this, though they'll reach a dead end fairly quickly.

Get a load of that filing system! What are those, index cards? Way to use the ol' noggin, Reed! No problem building a Fantasti-Car or finding a way to enter sub-space, but still sorting through your records by hand. And eight years later, your intelligence files have only advanced to a "visi-file" (which we non-inventive types might call a slideshow):

Obviously a few cross-referencing bugs to work out--neither the Mole Man nor even Doom fall under the heading of "super-strong."  At any rate, perhaps we should give Reed the benefit of the doubt. Considering how well the Yancy Street Gang did against the FF with just the tools at hand, maybe Reed swallowed his pride and consulted with them on how to take advantage of the resources he already has available to him.

BONUS! Artist Jack Kirby's pinup of a very wary FF in the 'hood.