Alicia Masters
1st Appearance: The Fantastic Four #8, November 1962
Place of Origin: Watershed Lake
Profession: Sculptor
Affiliations: The Fantastic Four
Partnerships: Ben Grimm (Girl Friend, Fiancé, Wife)
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Abilities: Blind, talented representational sculptor
Synopsis of First Appearance: “Prisoners of the Puppet Master!”
Reed Richards, “Mister Fantastic,” is working to create a formula which will turn Ben Grimm, “The Thing,” back into his human form permanently. To keep Ben from interfering, he has asked the other two members of the Fantastic Four, Sue Storm, “The Invisible Girl,” and Johnny Storm, “The Human Torch,” to bar the ever-lovin’ blue eyed Thing from entering his lab. Fed up with the situation, Ben puts on his hat and coat and heads out to the streets of New York City. Sue is worried about Ben and turns invisible to see if he is ok. Ben becomes aware of Sue’s presence and asks her to leave him be. Moments later, Sue sees someone climbing the Queensborough Bridge and fires up the Fantastic Four signal flare to alert Reed and Johnny. Reed attempts to save the climber with his stretching powers, but the distance is too far, so Johnny flames on to save the climber.
Nearby the bridge, the Puppet Master is testing out his new radioactive clay which has the ability to control the people it is modeled after. Before the Puppet Master can get the man to jump, the climber is saved by Johnny and his flame burns one of the Puppet Master’s fingers. Incensed that the Fantastic Four have intervened in his plans, the Puppet Master swears he will destroy them before they intervene in his plans again. His step-daughter, Alicia Masters, enters the room and asks what is going on. He tells her to be a good step-daughter and be silent. The Puppet Master begins to put his revenge in motion by creating a puppet of The Thing and ordering Ben to make his way to the villain’s apartment. However, the Puppet Master does not know that Sue is in the same room as Ben. Once Ben is under the villain’s sway and begins to leave his location, Sue turns invisible and follows him.
As Ben and Sue enter the Puppet Master’s apartment, Sue’s invisibility is betrayed by Alicia’s extremely sensitive hearing. The villain knows the Invisible Girl is in his apartment and gives Alicia and Ben gas masks as he increases the ether in the apartment to knock Sue out. Noticing that Alicia and Sue are very similar in appearance, the Puppet Master dresses his step-daughter up like the Invisible Girl and orders her to escort the mind-controlled Thing to the Baxter Building. Next, the Puppet Master takes control of the warden of the state prison. Meanwhile, Reed and Johnny have no clue that the Invisible Girl is not Sue and that Ben is entranced until he begins attacking them.
The scuffle of teammates ends quickly as Ben slams into Reed’s chemistry experiment which turns him back into his human form and has the effect of breaking the Puppet Master’s control over him. Ben explains what happened and Alicia finds comfort in Ben. Alicia finds him different but when Ben returns to his Thing form she recognizes him upon touch. Ben is saddened by the fact the only woman interested him is his Thing form which is a blind woman. Meanwhile the warden at the state jail declares all prisoners free.
Back at the Puppet Master’s apartment, Sue wakes up from the ether and tries to escape and warn her teammates but a creaking board blows her cover and she finds that the Puppet Masters has made a puppet of her. However, Sue manages to get a flare into the sky and alert her team to her location. Reed, Johnny, Ben, and Alicia make their way to the Puppet Master’s apartment only to be greeted by a robotic puppet that wants a throw down with the male members of the world’s greatest super team. The team saves Sue but the Puppet Master escapes. At the same time, the heroes hear of the escape at the state prison and speedily head to the scene to stop it.
The Fantastic Four’s powers make the prison escape a non-issue and easily stop it. Meanwhile, the Puppet Master has returned to his apartment and utilizes a puppet of himself that he believes will grant him global domination. Before he can put his plan into motion Alicia attempts to stop him and knocks the puppet out of his hand. The villain jumps after his step-daughter but trips on his own puppet and falls out a window and lands on streets below. The Fantastic Four arrive convinced the Puppet Master has met his demise and go to comfort Alicia. The team wonders what caused the villain to fall out the window that led to his death.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Masters
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Alicia_Masters_(Earth-616)/Expanded_History
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_8
Lee, S., & Kirby, J. (2003). Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four. Volume 1 (Barnes and Noble ed.). Marvel Comics.