Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Issue #565 concludes this wholesome family holiday story with a tentacle monster, because of course it does.

The FF have traveled to Scotland to spend Christmas with Reed’s never-before-seen cousin Hamish and his family. There are hints that something strange is going on in this small town. Then, on Christmas morning, little Valeria goes missing in the woods. This issue begins with the search for her, as local law enforcement work with the FF and Hamish to find her. Johnny and Ben comb the forest while everyone else does a townwide door-to-door sweep. Hamish blames himself for what happened, but Reed says the FF are magnets for stuff like this. “Wherever we go, the madness just follows,” he says.

Johnny deduces (how?) that someone or something grabbed Valeria and dragged her under the water of a lake. He dives into it and swims through a tunnel, emerging into a spooky underground tunnel. He finds Valeria there, unharmed. He asks who abducted her, and she says, “It’s right behind you.” Turn the page and we’re right into the fight, as giant tentacles attack Johnny and he blasts them with flame. They’re immune to fire, though, so he grabs Valeria and flies her out of there.

In town, the FF and the cops come to the home of Rhona, the woman who nervously tried to give Sue a warning last issue. She says she’s not allowed to talk. Sue turns Rhona’s front door invisible to reveal Rhona has a black eye. Before we can find out what that’s about, Johnny returns with Valeria, being pursued by the gigantic tentacle monster.

More fighting, with Ben throwing Rhona’s car at the monster. The creature is fireproof, but Johnny slows it down by melting the ground under it. Franklin then comes up with a plan. Using Valeria as bait (!) he gets the monster to follow him into the FF’s new TARDIS-style bigger-on-the-inside Fantasti-carrier, which is big enough to contain it. It only works for a few minutes, though, as the monster breaks through the carrier and keeps rampaging. Sue then says she’s going to hit the monster with the heaviest thing in town. Using her force fields, she drops the town church on the beast.

With the fight over, the townsfolk gather. One local says, “They killed Korgo!” and another says, “What do we do then?” A cop explains that the town has no crime, sickness, or death, and that’s not a coincidence. Hamish adds that Korgo protected the town for thousands of years, and all it needed was the sacrifice of an innocent child one Christmas morning every twenty-five years.

Hamish says Korgo wanted to take his son Hamish, but he somehow arranged for Valeria to be the sacrifice instead. Reed responds by stretching his hand into a huge fist and punching Hamish unconscious. Ben’s fiancé Debbie, who’s been hanging back during all this, says, “We are so going to my parents next year.”

Cut to months later, and we see a letter Rhona has written to Sue, revealing that the last child taken by Korgo was hers. She’s moved to another town, gotten married, and has a new baby on the way. She says this one’s going to be safe. There’s a bit of foreshadowing when Rhona says she’s sorry about what happened with Dr. Doom and with Ben’s fiancé. She ends by saying “Just remember that your friends are praying for you.”

Unstable molecule: In her letter, Rhona says she heard that Reed built a special “nature preserve” for Korgo, and that Korgo was originally from another planet. We’ll never know whether these things are true, because Korgo never appeared again.

Fade out: What to make of Sue turning Rhona’s front door invisible to peek in on her? It seems like an invasion of privacy, but she was also searching for her missing daughter, so I guess we can call this a heightened situation.

Clobberin’ time: It has no effect when Ben throws Rhona’s car at Korgo. Later, he throws a bus at Korgo after Korgo is defeated, just because Ben wanted to get in the final blow.

Flame on: Johnny is eerily quiet during the search for Valeria. Ben says there’s nothing in the world Johnny cares about more than his niece.

Four and a half: Franklin gets a fun action hero moment by coming up with a plan, and then using his new flying backpack to get Korgo to chase him.

Our gal Val: This issue makes the point that, despite Valeria’s genius, she’s still a child. When trapped in Korgo’s lair, all she can think to do is hide until the FF come to rescue her.

Trivia time: In addition to Korgo, Hamish and his family never appeared again. I wonder if Hamish really was Reed’s cousin, or if that was all a ruse on his and Korgo’s part.

This issue mentions the neighboring Scottish town of Coatbridge. This is a real locale. It’s the birthplace of writer Mark Millar, who penned this issue.

Fantastic or frightful? This two-issue arc has the sense of “business as usual” for the Fantastic Four, but in an ongoing series, we need side episodes like these to be immersed in this world. It’s an excuse to visit a new location and a have a monster fight, and that’s all it needs to be.

Next: No day at the beach.

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