File:Fantastic Four Vol 1 165 001.jpg

Description
As Reed Richards strides on extended legs toward Washington Square Park near Greenwich Village, he is dismayed that the effort leaves him somewhat fatigued, but he feels lucky that he only has to stretch his legs in a straight line, which is not particularly tiring. When Reed arrives, he sees an ambulance taking away Calvin McClary, who is still alive, so he descends to the street, where a police sergeant tells him to "just buzz off to outer space." When McClary's wife hears the words outer space, she recalls an incident years ago that could shed some light on why her husband was attacked. Just before the start of World War II, she explains, her husband was approached by a Dr. Horace Grayson for a loan. Grayson claimed he had invented a rocket capable of reaching outer space, and he needed money to complete his work. The much younger McClary, already head of the bank, denied Grayson the loan because Grayson had no collateral. Grayson then vowed to find a way to escape from Earth anyway, which he said he must do for his young son Robert's sake. Weeks later, continues Mrs. McClary, Grayson vanished with his infant boy. When the sergeant asks Mrs. McClary what this story has to do with what happened, she replies that the Crusader had Dr. Grayson's voice, although younger and stronger. The next day, at the Franklin Pierce National Bank, of which Calvin McClary is president, a guard notices molten metal falling from the ceiling. He looks up and sees a hole melted through the roof, and then there is a blinding flash and the Crusader drops to the floor in front of him. Another guard, Charlie, runs up with drawn pistol, but the Crusader knocks one of the guards away with a slap and melts the weapon of the other, shouting that all that is evil is found within the four walls of McClary's bank. Then he fires energy bolts from his hands and wrecks the building. During the days that follow, the Crusader destroys two more branches of McClary's bank, and each time the Fantastic Four arrive too late. Ben stomps around the Baxter Building headquarters in frustration, wishing he could get his hands on the Crusader. Sue asks Ben to tone down the violence in front of Franklin, and Johnny complains that this Crusader business is greatly interfering with his relationship with Frankie, who hangs up the phone every time he calls because she thinks he is "a flaming freak." Finally, Reed suggests viewing some bank films for clues. It is interesting, he continues, that the Crusader invariably attacks at mid-day, only when it is sunny. Ben comments that the Crusader seems to have started a reign of terror that is keeping the people away from the banks in droves, and Johnny wonders why the Fantastic Four are not out on patrol. But just then one of Reed's devices signals that his radiation-grid is about to be activated—the Crusader is striking again. The primary radiation source is in Sector 3, coordinates 10-54, that is, the Bronx, so Reed tells his three teammates to head uptown, and this they do after briefly stopping at Alicia's to drop off Franklin. Soon the Thing lands the Fantasticar on a roof near the Grover Cleveland National Bank, where the manager, Pearson P. Morgan, is raging about the lack of customers. Suddenly Morgan sees a hole melt in the wall, and the Crusader enters. Quickly identifying Morgan as the manager of "this institution of oppression," the Crusader hurls him through the air. Fortunately, Sue's force field cushions Morgan's impact. Then the Crusader sees Ben, Sue, and Johnny advancing ominously toward him, and he tries to blind them with the lights from his wristband, but they are wearing special contact lenses that Reed made and are not affected. Seeing that they are prepared for him, the Crusader uses his light to bore a hole through the bank's ceiling and soars through. Johnny follows him, leaving his two teammates to make their way to the roof however they can. When Johnny confronts the Crusader on the roof, he asks him what the son of Dr. Horace Grayson is doing turning into a murderer. Johnny's hunch pays off and the Crusader tells him that he seeks not murder but justice for what the banks did to his father three decades ago. Just before World War II began, says the Crusader, his father invented a way to harness certain gravitational forces, and he launched a spaceship in an attempt to escape the increasingly unsafe world with his infant son. They eventually arrived on Uranus, a giant planet nearly two billion miles from Earth, where they found an ancient civilization with a peaceful government and a highly advanced science. Sheltered within a huge omni-dome from the harsh methane winds outside, the people of Uranus welcomed the scientist and his son, and the boy grew up. As a young man, he returned to Earth and fought evil with a set of primitive wrist-bands that blinded his foes. Then, on his final trip to Earth, Marvel Boy approached Calvin McClary for a loan, this time for medical supplies badly needed by the people of Uranus. McClary was amazed to learn that Horace Grayson was still alive on another world, but he denied the loan again. Marvel Boy eventually acquired the needed supplies, but he was delayed in reaching Uranus, and when he returned, he discovered the dome city in "icy-flamed ruins." Marvel Boy found his father, and the Uranian girl he loved, all frozen, the victims of natural forces that had destroyed the omni-dome. Had he been there on time, he would surely have been able to help. At least, he would have perished by their side. But instead, detained on Earth by a hard-hearted banker's rubber stamp, Marvel Boy lost everything that was dear to him. Then he headed back to Earth intent on vengeance, but his spaceship, strayed into the tail of Comet Kohoutek, which, by a freakish accident, left him in suspended animation for several years until he crash-landed on Earth about a year ago. The Crusader concludes by stating that he has since prepared a campaign of terror that has culminated in the death of Calvin McClary and the destruction of McClary's financial empire. Johnny realizes that the Crusader is quite deranged, and he is glad that Reed persuaded the police to pretend that McClary is dead, for the Crusader would have wrecked Metro General Hospital to finish the job. Then the Thing and Sue, who in the meantime made their way to the roof and heard the Crusader's story, attack. The Thing shatters the wall the Crusader is standing on, and the Crusader bowls the Thing over with his powerful light beams. But then Johnny points to a dense cloud that has suddenly blocked the sun. The Crusader is surprised that his secret has been discovered, and Reed, who is in an air-car overhead with a special cloud generator, explains that some of the debris he examined from the destroyed banks showed that the Crusader's powers were derived from solar radiation. Then the Thing knocks the Crusader over with a single punch. Sue uses her force field to keep the artificial cloudbank from dispersing, while the Thing continues to pummel the Crusader. But although the Crusader's energy source has been cut off, he still possesses a considerable amount of power, and he fights back fiercely. Suddenly the roof gives way, and Ben and the Crusader fall through, narrowly missing Morgan, the bank manager. Ben can sense that the Crusader's blows are weakening, but the Crusader suddenly runs toward the vault, tears off the door, and slams the Thing in the head with it. Morgan shudders at the destruction, but Ben simply shrugs off the blow and punches the Crusader so hard that all the money in the vault is scattered. The Crusader then turns up the settings on his wrist dials and knocks the Thing away with a final punch. Then, weak but bluffing the guards into not shooting him, he walks out of the bank. Unfortunately, he is confronted by Reed, Johnny, and Sue, and he desperately tries to extract the last bit of energy from his wristbands. But just then, Reed's artificial cloudbank disperses, and the sun shines on the Crusader with all its strength. Almost instantly the wristbands overload, and screaming that he did it all for his father, the Crusader vanishes in a blinding flash. Reed picks up the wristbands, which are all that is left of the insane former hero. Then Morgan emerges from the bank demanding to know why the Fantastic Four have not caught the Crusader yet. Irritated, Ben carries the manager back into the building and stuffs him into the pile of money from the bank vault. Anybody who digs him out of there before closing time, says Ben angrily to the guards, is going to answer to him. As the Fantastic Four depart, they wonder whether the Crusader was really destroyed, and Reed replies that he has no way of knowing for certain.