The Guest Star:
      Captain America

The Villain:
      the Monster of Badoon; the Zoms

Guest Shots:
      Wundarr; Namorita; Mr. Fantastic; Medusa; Sharon Carter; Tarin

The Set Up:
      Ben's out taking Wundarr to the zoo, though griping unmercifully about it the whole way. When Ben stops to get some cotton candy, he turns back to discover Wundarr has freed several animals. While Ben subdues the animals, Captain America, out for a stroll in costume with his girlfriend on his arm, hears the screaming and comes to investigate. While he stops a couple petty thiefs who were taking advantage of the riot, Namorita (last seen in issue 2) arrives, and soothes Wundarr. Namorita volunteers to take care of Wundarr (thus relegating him from the series to subplot standing for many issues to come until finally disappearing entirely after about issue 9), and Ben and Captain America (and Sharon Carter, Cap's girlfriend) head back to the Baxter Building for a cup of coffee.
     Reed, with Medusa, is working on Dr. Doom's time machine, but both stop for a while to kick back with Ben and Cap. While leaving the lab, Ben accidentally bumps the 'On' switch. Soon, an alarm sounds, and all present rush to the lab to find a woman (Tarin) in futuristic clothing. She soon faints, and when she recovers she relates a story that she's from the future, from the year 3014. The earth has been conquered by aliens (the Badoon), and humanity has been enslaved. Captain America is revered there by the surviving humans as a symbol of liberty.
     Captain America decides he has to go to the future and help, or at least to investigate, and Ben volunteers to go with him. While Reed and Medusa stay to operate the machine, Ben, Cap, Sharon Carter, and Tarin all head for the future...

Clobberin' Time?:
      Page 26, Panel 5. Captain America, as the two are attacked by a Zom patrol: "There's no way out -- we'll have to meet them head-on." Ben: "Now yer talkin' my language, pal! It's Clobberin' Time!"

Petunia's Patch:
      Not in this issue.

Things of Interest:
      This is the first part of a two-parter, and is continued in MTIO 5.
     "Unca Ben-jee" is how Wundarr refers to his long-suffering and somewhat humiliated guardian here...
     Tarin, despite being nothing more than a frail girl in a flashy future-suit here in her first appearance, later goes on to become a major world personality as later revealed in the 1990s in the Guardians of the Galaxy series.
     The letters pages include Marvel Value Stamp #88: The Leader.
     The final letter in the letters page is from a Marc De Matteis of Brooklyn, NY. Though I don't know, I rather wonder if that person grew up to write for Marvel as J.M. DeMatteis?