Fantastic Honeymooners

Reading Fantastic Four became a little more fun when marriage entered the picture for Reed and Sue--not only for the effect it had on themselves and the entire team, but also on we readers who enjoyed seeing this mag and these people evolve from issue to issue, rather than remain stagnant as other comics characters did and do. The team has had its flare-ups, and Reed and Sue in particular--but when wedding bells peeled and for some time thereafter, we saw some very nice moments featuring this famous New York couple.

Not that they didn't have their share of growing pains.

Of course, a marriage proposal works wonders for making two people put aside the quibbles of the past and focus on the things that bring them together.

(Yikes!  It's that easy capturing the Invisible Girl? Sue remaining quiet would have perhaps let her evade these guys and have a little more fun with her teasing--but who are we to horn in here?)

Later, as a honeymooner, Sue still knew how to shake things up with her family--and with a certain scientist, whom she concludes looks really funny when he's made to look like a klutz.

Not that Reed doesn't know how to unbutton the lab coat and have a little fun with his wife on the spur of the moment, though in this case with an ulterior motive--to help his best friend get past his brooding. At the same time, we also get to see the (pardon the pun) brief debut of Sue's mini-skirt costume--which, for Sue, must be the equivalent of June Cleaver getting the urge to breakdance in the Mayfield town square.

It's not really clear why Sue's legs were bare only for this issue, and then were swiftly covered up thereafter.  Sue is also more modest with the skirt's design on the issue's cover:

The skirt would return in the next few issues, but with her legs remaining clothed in her costume as usual. We could assume one of three reasons for the about-face: (a) Sue did say she wasn't finished with the design, so maybe the final look was what she intended all along; (b) Stan Lee took a look at Jack Kirby's (or the colorist's) new look for Sue and said, "Nah."; or (c) Reed put his foot down and decided he didn't want his wife parading around like that. Though option (c) would mean that Reed doesn't have half the brains we thought he did.