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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Want a change of scenery? Vol. 3 issue #32 takes us out on the high seas.

We begin with Sue sinking to the bottom of the ocean. She tries to hold her breath for as long as she can, but eventually passes out. On the surface, the FF and the U.S. Coast Guard are investigating a missing yacht. Johnny dives into the water. His flames turn into steam, allowing him to “fly” underwater. The yacht is destroyed, but Johnny believes Sue (who was apparently on board) survived.

Aboard the Coast Guard helicopter, Reed provides the backstory. He explains that Sue is an experienced sailor (!) and that she and Reed designed the yacht together (!). Sue went sailing without Reed, needing some personal space after all they’d recently been through, only for an unexpected storm to wreck the yacht. At the bottom of the ocean, Sue wakes up discovering that she can breathe. This is thanks to the necklace Namor gave her back in issue #27 when he thought Sue was marrying Dr. Doom (it was Reed in disguise). The necklace allows her to breathe, see, and swim the ocean’s darkest depths.

The FF continue to investigate the wreckage, finding a trail that might lead them to Sue. In the ocean, Sue tries to reach the surface, but almost succumbs to exhaustion. She’s rescued by Namor. Before they can properly reunite, they’re attacked. The attackers are not Atlanteans but Atlans, which are the Atlanteans from the Heroes Reborn universe, a.k.a. Planet Doom. Sue and Namor flee to a nearby shipwreck. At the surface, the FF continue to investigate, deducing that the storm that destroyed the yacht was no accident but a deliberate attack.

Sue explains to Namor that the Atlans serve a queen of Atlantis from a parallel universe, who is still after Sue after Sue married “Dr. Doom.” She specifically doesn’t tell Namor that it was really Reed pretending to be Dr. Doom. Sue then drops the bomb that this otherworldly queen is a duplicate of Namor’s dead wife Dorma. On cue, Dorma then attacks with a giant sea monster. She threatens to bury Sue and Namor in an undersea avalanche, but Sue stops her with a force field strong enough to block the monster’s attack.

Sue and Dorma fight, while Namor is stunned to see Dorma (or at least a version of her) still alive. The Atlans warriors join the fight, and Sue is defeated now that she’s outnumbered. Namor snaps out of his funk and fights back. Then Johnny shows up with a deep-sea submersible and a specially made pressure suit (and water skis, oddly). His fire works underwater like depth charges, knocking back the Atlan warriors. Namor apprehends Dorma and wants to execute her, but Sue pleads with him to find another way. Namor says he will turn Dorma and the Atlans over the surface authorities for a fair trial, after which she will face further justice in an Atlantis jail.

Sue reunites with Reed, Ben and Johnny on the surface. Reed and Sue admit they were having second thoughts, but after this time apart, Sue says “Come what may, we stand together. The final panel is a dedication to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Unstable molecule: Reed’s deep-sea submersible is named the U.S.C.G. Nantucket and it has a big number 4 on it, suggesting that the FF and the Coast Guard have some sort of official partnership going.

Fade out: The fact that Sue is a world-class sailing expert comes out of nowhere, but then a lot of her history prior to meeting Reed remains an unknown. (The Before the Fantastic Four: The Storms miniseries takes place only one year before Fantastic Four #1.)

Clobberin’ time: The Coast Guard guys are amazed by Ben’s strength, saying he’s more impressive in person than on TV. Ben later dons a wetsuit for deep sea diving, and I’m baffled as to why he would need one.

Flame on: This issue really leans into how Johnny’s flame is no longer weak against water by giving him a whole new set of powers when he’s undersea. He’s also developing his new sensory abilities, able to expand his senses to follow Sue’s heat signature though the water.

Fantastic fifth wheel: While there’s a little hint of Sue and Namor’s romantic-tension past, they mostly stick to working together to repel Dorma’s attacks. He ends the issue content with him and Sue being from two different worlds.

Sue-per spy: The 2019 Invisible Woman mini-series established that Sue was secretly a S.H.I.E.L.D. spy this whole time. This issue has several pages of her demonstrating her hand-to-hand fighting skills, which is no doubt her spy training at work again.

Commercial break: Not just Pokemon, but Pokemon marbles! Catch ‘em all, etc.

Trivia time: Dorma apparently never went to trial, because the next time we see her in Exiles #81 she’s back in the Heroes Reborn/Planet Doom universe. That ended up being her final appearance to date.

Sue’s yacht is named the Claudia. I’ve no idea who this might refer to. The most well-known Claudia in the Marvel Universe is an early 1900s werewolf who menaced Sabretooth in his solo series. There’s also Peter Parker’s great aunt Claudia Reilly, and a wealthy socialite named Claudia who murdered her husband in an early issue of Uncanny Tales.

Fantastic or frightful? The ocean/Coast Guard setting gives the feel that these characters are scientists/adventurers rather than stock superheroes, which always great to see. A lot of the story is based on picking up the pieces from the previous issues’ stories, so it doesn’t work as a stand-alone. Always great to see Sue hold her own and kick butt in the fights, though.

Next: Yee-haw.

****

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Here’s annual 2000 (no number, just the year). Remember how the Reed-pretending-to-be-Dr.-Doom plot was about keeping Dr. Doom’s generals out of trouble. That story is over, so here come the generals.

Shortly after the events of vol. 3 issue #31, the FF are returning home to NYC in their pogo plane. Reed is still unconscious of being separated from Dr. Doom’s armor. Just as the plane flies by past the Statue of Liberty, it gets shot down. Ben pilots the ship to a safe splashdown near Pier 4. The team is immediately surrounded by reporters, as Sue tells them that Reed’s supposed death and the FF’s alliance with Dr. Doom were part of a necessary deception to defeat some villains.

Sue takes Reed inside while Ben and Johnny investigate the plane wreckage. They’re attacked by the robot Technarx, one of Dr. Doom’s generals. (Remember that when Reed was trapped inside Doom’s armor, Doom was sent off to the Heroes Reborn universe, now named Planet Doom, where he rounded up a team of super-powered generals to do his evil bidding.) Now that the FF’s alliance with Dr. Doom is over, nothing is stopping Technarx and the other generals from attempting to destroy the FF. Johnny drives Tecchnarx off, and Ben says they’ve got to find him before he attacks again or hurts someone else.

Inside the pier, Reed is suffering hallucinations due to the A.I. in Dr. Doom’s armor infecting his nervous system. Sue believes these are withdrawal symptoms and will wear off in time. She contacts Franklin, teenage Valeria, and interdimensional swordswoman Caledonia to inform them that Reed is alive. Sue then has a heart-to-heart with Ben, saying she feels guilty about working alongside Doom to rescue Reed. Ben says once the withdrawal wears off, Reed will come around.

An alarm goes off, and Sue and Ben join Johnny outside. They’re confronted by more of Doom’s generals, Queen Dorma of Atlantis, the ink-like creature Divinity, and the sorceress Shak’ti. Dorma has a different agenda than Technarx. She asks the FF to join them in returning to Planet Doom to overthrow and destroy Dr. Doom. Everybody fights for a while, but the three FFers drive the generals back into the ocean.

Sue checks back in with Reed, who is still suffering delusions. He’s fretting over how Sue married Dr. Doom, somehow forgetting that it was him trapped in Doom’s armor. Elsewhere, the four generals reunite and deduce that the FF’s weakness is their concern for others, so they go on a rampage where they endanger NYC citizens. Sue is conflicted again, blaming herself for the generals’ attacks. While Sue, Ben and Johnny search for the generals, Reed wanders the interior of Pier 4, trying to find some kind of pattern to his hallucinations.

The heroes find the generals at a construction site, and there’s another fight. This time the generals get the better of them. Shak’ti wraps up Sue in her magic ribbons (that’s her thing), Divinity mind-controls Ben, and Technarx uses sonic weapons to knock out Johnny. Next, Dorma breaks into Pier 4 with some Atlantean soldiers (called “Atlans” in this issue). She apprehends Reed to force him to build a teleporter to send the generals back to Planet Doom. Reed, still struggling with his memories, agrees to help them. Sue, being held hostage nearby, pleads with Reed to help them, but Reed argues that at least they’ll be off Earth and fighting the FF’s greatest enemy.

Turn the page and Reed has already built the teleporter. Shak’ti, Technarx and Divinity all go through the portal to the other side, while Sue argues that they’re going to cause havoc and destruction in the other universe. When Dorma steps up to the teleporter, she destroys it instead of going through. She suspects the teleporter is a trap, and that she’d rather conquer this Earth instead of Planet Doom. She and the Atlanteans escape into the ocean beneath Pier 4. Reed explains that the teleporter was indeed a trap. The three generals were teleported into a portable containment unit and then sent to Dr. Doom in Latveria to face their fates.

Then the story ends on something of an ambiguous note, in which Reed talks about regretting all the decisions he made while trapped in Dr. Doom’s armor. The others argue that the armor’s A.I. and sorcery had a corrupting effecting on him, and that it wasn’t really him. Then Reed argues that the world-conquering plan he almost set in motion is a plan he could still potentially set in motion, armor or no armor. The final panel has Reed saying, “I’m not worthy to be one of the Fantastic Four.”

Then we have the annual’s backup story, about teen Valeria, here going by the name Marvel Girl. This takes place in the alternate future where she came from, before she traveled to the present and joined the FF in vol.  3 issue #15. Remember that in this timeline, she’s the daughter of Sue and Dr. Doom (or is she?). The story starts out with her sneaking out of the house and going out into the city during the night of a big festival. She’s searching for Lancer, Doom’s fifth general and bodyguard to Valeria. Lancer has turned off all her tracking devices to venture into the city.

Valeria spots a bar fight inside a local dive and finds Lancer in the middle of it. Valeria joins the battle, where one baddie has a high-tech gun that’s able to shoot through Valeria’s force fields. The fight ends, and Lancer reveals a stash of illegal weapons in the bar. Lancer reveals that she once had a family. Once a year the night before her wedding anniversary, she hits the town to purge her rage so that she remembers who she once was before she became Lancer. Valeria says she and Lancer are now family, and families endure.

Unstable molecule: It’s ambiguous as to when and how Reed snaps out of his funk. Also, it’s crazy how fast he builds an interdimensional teleporter. Maybe we can surmise that this was tech he already had in his lab and merely modified it.

Fade out: Sue spends the entire issue feeling regret from having worked alongside Dr. Doom to free Reed. The previous issue insisted that she knew what she was doing, but this time she’s all conflicted about it.

Clobberin’ time: Divinity mind-controls Ben, and when they’re separated, Ben does not take it lightly. He breaks down and is clearly troubled from the experience.

Flame on: Technarx uses sonic weapons against Johnny, as something that Johnny has no defense against. We’ll have to see if this comes up again in the future.

Four and a half: We check in with Franklin for half a page, just to show he’s okay. We’re not going to learn where he’s at, though, until the upcoming Fantastic Fourth Voyage of Sinbad one-shot.

Our gal Val: Can we talk about Valeria’s background? Back in vol. 3 issue #15, we saw an alternate future where Sue was married to Dr. Doom, and they had a teen daughter, Valeria. Valeria later time-traveled to the present and joined the team, while everyone fretted over how her future could ever possibly come to pass. Then, when Reed was trapped in Dr. Doom’s armor, we all thought, “This is the twist. Valeria is really Reed’s daughter from Reed pretending to be Doom.” But now the Reed-as-Doom story had wrapped up, and Valeria’s alternate future is once again in question. An upcoming storyline will label Valeria as a “temporal anomaly,” but that’s not much an explanation. And then this version of Valeria will make way for the one we all now know. Therefore, as of this writing, the story behind Valeria’s alternate timeline has gone unexplained.

Commercial break: “What happens when a Toad action figure gets struck by lightning?”

Trivia time: This is pretty much it for generals Technarx, Divinity, and Shak’ti. They only appeared once more, in Exiles #81 ,when the dimension-hopping Exiles paid a quick visit to the remains of the Heroes Reborn universe.

The Marvel Wiki insists that the Pogo Plane in this issue is the original Pogo Plane the FF have had since way back in the ‘60s. There’s no mention as to how it survived the destruction of the original Baxter Building or any of the other adventures its been involved in.

Fantastic or frightful? I suppose it’s good that the series takes this time to deal with the consequences of the last few issues, and the four generals are written better here than they’ve been before. The Reed and Sue dynamic is confusing, though, and kind of drags the story down. The Valeria story gives us backstory for Lancer, but what we really need is backstory for Valeria. A mixed bag overall.

Next: Stay wet, y’all.

****

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. The Reed-pretending-to-be-Dr.-Doom storyline is notorious among comic fans, but it’s only a few short issues. It officially concludes in this one, vol. 3, issue #31.

Recap: Thanks to cosmic weirdness, Reed was trapped in Dr. Doom’s armor while Doom was banished to another universe. To avoid an international incident (sort of), Reed impersonates Doom, moving into Doom’s castle and naming Sue the new Baroness Von Doom. But then Sue was contacted via sorcery by the real Dr. Doom who told her that the armor is corrupting Reed, transforming him into another Dr. Doom. After seeing suspicious behavior from Reed, Sue does some subterfuge and brings Doom from his universe into theirs.

As this issue starts, two sides face off inside Castle Doom. It’s Sue and Dr. Doom versus Reed, Ben, and Johnny. Reed attacks first, revealing that the armor has adapted to his stretching powers. Doom, in his new Phantom of the Opera outfit, fights back with a sword. Ben and Johnny try to break it up, but Sue stops them with a force field. Sue and Doom disappear in a flash of light. Reed prepares his defenses, stating that Doom knows every inch of the castle. He also destroys the teleporter so Doom cannot call reinforcements from the other universe.

Sue and Doom are down in the catacombs deep beneath the castle. Doom says that armor has turned Reed into a second Dr. Doom, while Sue says she would rather die before she lets that happen. In Doom’s lab, Reed keeps acting more and more like Dr. Doom, alienating Ben and Johnny. Ben checks in on the castle foundry, where Reed has been manufacturing more and more Doombots. Sue and Doom suspect that Reed’s scanners are locked onto her, but Doom isn’t concerned. Flying outside the castle, Johnny remembers that every person has a distinct heat signature, and he can use this to find Sue and Doom.

Reed and Ben are then attacked by all the Doombots, which have now been programmed against them. To stop the Doombots, Reed must deactivate the castle’s defenses, which plays into Doom’s hands. Ben, meanwhile, does some safecracking (!) and finds hidden tunnels in the walls. Ben and Johnny both find their way to Sue and Doom, who surrender peacefully instead of more fighting.

Doom and Sue are taken before Reed (sitting on Doom’s throne, to be extra insulting), and Reed says it’s time to end their feud once and for all. He has Dr. Doom killed right in front of everyone. Sue breaks down, saying that Reed would never take a life, not even Dr. Doom’s.

Reed does a big dramatic speech, saying that as monarch, his subjects must take priority. He goes on to say his “subjects” include all the Earth, after Latveria spreads across the entire planet and then out into the stars. The others accuse Reed of merely using humans as pieces of some great machine, while he argues that he will make humanity safe.

Reed is then attacked, revealing that Dr. Doom is still alive. Turns out Reed and Ben joined Sue’s side, Johnny used his fire and Sue her invisibility to fake Doom’s death. Ben subdues Reed long enough for Doom to unlock the armor, which transfers itself from Reed to Doom, kind of like how Gizmoduck would put on his armor in DuckTales. Doom reactivates the teleporter to return to the other universe, where he says he has unfinished business. He promises they will meet again.

Unstable molecule: During the opening fight, the caption says Reed and Doom are alike in so many ways, “they might be brothers.” Make of that what you will.

Fade out: Sue says her family has always had an innate sense to know when there are “incoming storms.” I believe this is a reference to the then-recent Before the Fantastic Four: The Storms miniseries.

Clobberin’ time: Ben finds the hidden tunnels with a big stethoscope and safecracking gear? I’m not sure what’s happening in that panel.

Flame on: Johnny’s ability to find Sue and Doom via their heat signatures is a new ability, but it also shows that he can think with his head, just like Reed.

Fantastic fifth wheel: This issue has Dr. Doom working alongside Sue, Ben and Johnny, so I think we can count this as Doom acting in his role as an alternate member of the FF.

Commercial break: Viva Rock Vegas!

Trivia time: This issue name-drops “Shadow City,” the alternate timeline the team visited back in issues 17-18, a world where Dr. Doom ruled the Earth with Sue as his wife. This would appear to solve that mystery, except there’s still the question of where teen Valeria came from. We’ll get back to Valeria next week.

Fantastic or frightful? At its heart, this is a story about the Fantastic Four breaking up and then reuniting. But all this drama is condensed over just a few pages with a lot of fighting and running around in between. This is another case where the story could have been three or four issues instead of being rushed into one. Or, maybe Marvel editorial demanded that the Reed-pretending-to-be-Doom thing had to get wrapped up. The good news is, the next issue takes time to deal with the fallout of this story.

Next: General malfunction.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. The notorious Reed-pretending-to-be-Dr.-Doom storyline nears its climax in Vol. 3 #30.  

Recap: Thanks to cosmic weirdness, Reed has been trapped inside Dr. Doom’s armor while Doom was exiled to another universe. In an attempt to prevent an international incident, Reed is pretending to be Dr. Doom. Only the FF are in on the secret, and Reed and Sue have married (remarried?) which makes her the new Baroness Von Doom. At the end of the previous issue, however, Sue spotted Reed hacking into the FF’s computers and able to take off Doom’s mask. This issue begins with the FF arriving in Latveria to meet cheering crowds celebrating Doom’s (really Reed’s) return. While the FF greet the Latverians, Sue continues to be suspicious of Reed. But Sue remembers that Reed’s hacking the FF’s computers includes the FF’s unstable molecule uniforms, so she can’t tell the others about her concerns.

We meet a guy named Dieter, Dr. Doom’s chief of staff, who has a schedule of events for Sue, while Ben and Johnny have time to themselves. Johnny also expresses concerns about Reed, saying Reed is starting to act more and more like Doom. Reed watches them in secret, saying they acting as he anticipated, allowing his plan to unfold.

Reed presses a button and then contacts Ben and Johnny, saying a group of Doombots have gone rogue and must be stopped. Johnny and Ben fight the ‘bots. The Doombots start to win the battle, but then Sue joins the fray. With her help, they defeat the robots. Sue contacts Reed, demanding an explanation. Reed says it’s under investigation and that the faulty Doombot A.I. has been corrected. Ben wonders if something is up with Sue, thinking she looks worried.

Sue goes about her day, being tended to by the Castle Doom staff. She’s told over and over that Reed-as-Doom is unavailable to meet with her. At night, she goes to bed alone, again fearing the man she loves has become the one she fears the most.

Sue wakes up back in New York, only to find the city flooded. She believes she’s in what was once called the Heroes Reborn universe, but now we’re supposed to call Planet Doom. The real Dr. Doom appears, saying that Sue is dreaming, and he has used sorcery to contact her across two universes through “dreamtime.” Doom has a new look with wizard robes and a Phantom of the Opera-like mask. He says he must have armor to bring order to the chaos that has befallen Planet Doom. Further, he says the armor was built for Doom only, and that is starting to possess Reed. Doom has activated a teleporter between the two worlds, and he wants Sue’s help. Sue says this means she must now betray her husband.

Sue wakes, wondering if it was all a dream. The next day, she helps Ben and Johnny setting up a new science lab, while Reed, alone, extrapolates a futuristic Earth under his high-tech rule. He plans to rebuild whole cities, and to transform the world’s deserts into fertile farmland. He also plans to defeat the worlds’ armies with a semi-sentient computer virus. Over the next few nights, Dr. Doom continues to appear in Sue’s dreams. He argues that despite Reed’s good intentions, he will ultimately become as unyielding to defiance as Doom is.

After an awkward family dinner, Sue goes to bed alone again, not sure whether to trust Reed or Dr. Doom. She has another dream, where Dr. Doom says the dreamscape reveals one’s true feelings, and that Sue knows something is amiss with Reed. She wakes up, knowing that Reed is still at dinner with Ben and Johnny. Sue jumps into action, breaking into the science lab and stealing the teleporter. She’s apprehended by Doombots as well as Ben and Johnny. They take her to Reed, who uses Doom’s tech to shatter Sue’s force field. Reed grabs the teleporter, but not before Sue can activate it with a tiny force field. It works, and Dr. Doom returns, demanding his armor back.

Unstable molecule: Dr. Doom says he and Reed have the same goal of a perfect future Earth, but Doom is labeled as tyrannical because he’s the head of state. His argument that if Reed remains trapped in the armor, he will become just as tyrannical.

Fade out: Sue goes through quite a few outfit changes in this one. She has her regular FF uniform and her baroness outfit in a semi-Doom style. Plus there are fancy gowns, and then a stealthy black jacket for her thieving and sneaking around at night.

Clobberin’ time: Ben keeps challenging Reed to a game of chess throughout this issue, making it sound like this is something they do often. Reed defeats Ben with “ruthless” gameplay, making a lot of big sacrifices.

Flame on: Johnny is able to converse with Sue and follow her around while she’s invisible, reminding us that the FF has become so accustomed to each other’s powers that they tell by intuition when Sue is around even when they can’t see her.

Commercial break: If this is an ad for snowboarding gear, why the heck is Kool-Aid Man there?

Trivia time: Why are the FF so busy cleaning up the castle? Castle Doom had been trashed in some recent superhero activity while Doom was off in the other universe. The mutant villain Stryfe tried taking over Latveria only to be defeated by Cable and X-Man in a crossover between their two series. Then Spider-Man stopped a Doombot from taking over in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #15. Also Gambit had an adventure in the castle in a confusing issue of Gambit.

Fantastic or frightful? A fun little suspense story, with Reed getting more and more evil, while Sue gets more and more conflicted. I also like the little glimpses we get of daily life inside Castle Doom.

Next: Doom fist.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. In vol. 3 issue #29, we’re deep into the Reed-pretending-to-be-Dr.-Doom storyline, but how does that affect the usual superhero crimefighting?

Recap: Thanks to some cosmic weirdness, Reed is now trapped inside Dr. Doom’s armor while Doom was sent off to another universe. Reed is now forced to pretend to be Doom in some attempt to prevent an international war (or worse), and he has married Sue, naming her Baroness Von Doom. This issue begins with Sue out in the desert somewhere on her morning jog, with her pushing herself as hard as she can. Then, at Pier 4, mailwoman Willie Lumpkin is shocked to see Dr. Doom (really Reed) picking up the mail in person. Ben reveals he is reworking the FF’s Pogo Plane to give it stealth technology, because NYC officials are shutting down the FF’s flight privileges now that they’re aligned with Doom.

Then we see Johnny with his new girlfriend, Namorita of the New Warriors. Reed seems concerned about this, noting that Namorita is cousin to Namor the Submariner, adding that “Fire and water can be a volatile combination.” Sue joins Reed for breakfast, saying she has to “negotiate” with NYC officials following the disappearance of her husband and son. (Franklin was sent off to yet another alternate universe to keep him safe during all this.) Johnny gets a new CD-ROM video game from his old pal Wyatt Wingfoot, only to decrypt a hidden S.O.S. in it. Sue and Reed bicker about the FF’s chain of command while the others prepare for action.

Cut to Silver Springs, Oklahoma, home of the Keewazi tribe, which appears humble on the outside but hides a high-tech infrastructure. We’re in the middle of the action, where Wyatt and his sister Wynona have been captured by a brand-new Frightful Four. The Wizard is still leader, and Paste-Pot Pete, um, I mean the Trapster is also still with the group. The Wizard says he’s in search of a mythical storehouse located on Keewazi land, heightened by a mysterious spacecraft recently reported in the area.

Sue, Ben and Johnny burst into the place and fight the Wizard and the Trapster. Then Ben meets the third member of the new Frightful Four, the Punisher robot that once worked for Galactus. (This is the green and purple robot, not the guy with the skull T-shirt.) The Wizard then activates a device that shuts off the biological mechanisms that protect the FF from their own powers. Johnny is burned by his own flame, Ben can’t move under the weight of his own rockiness, and Sue can’t breathe because she draws oxygen out of the air to form her force fields. The Wizard says Reed’s heart will soon fail to pump blood through his own elastic body. Then Sue reminds the Wizard that there’s been a few changes.

Reed, pretending to be Doom, joins the fight. But he’s attacked by the fourth member of the new Frightful Four – Sharon Ventura! For those just catching up, Sharon was the second Ms. Marvel, who transformed into a She-Thing, romanced Ben, broke up with Ben, and then swore allegiance to Dr. Doom. Her mutating body went out of control, so Doom put her in suspended animation, and the Frightful Four rescued her back in the Fantastic Four Unlimited spinoff series, which was seven years earlier in real time. She’s currently mutated into a half-human, half-Thing musclebound form. Sharon is mad at Doom for betraying her, and she attacks Reed.

Reed-as-Doom fights the Frightful Four, using the Trapster’s glue traps to stop Sharon, and then going toe-to-toe with the Punisher. The Wizard electrocutes Reed. Sharon breaks free, wanting a second shot. Reed deduces that the Wizard’s biological blocks are only an illusion, and he gets Johnny to flame on and join him. The Punisher tosses Reed into a nearby factory, while Sue uses the Trapster’s glue to defeat the Punisher.

Sharon and Ben confront one another. She says the FF forgot about her once she was in suspended animation. Ben says that’s not true, and that sometimes, cures don’t come easy. Meanwhile, Reed-as-Doom and Wynona free the rest of the Keewazi, who were being held hostage inside the factory. Knowing he’s been beaten, the Wizard attempts to flee, but he’s stopped by Reed and surrenders.

Sharon and Ben continue to fight, as she says she’ll never stop because she has too much hate in her to be defeated. Wyatt steps between them, attempting to appeal to Sharon. He reminds her that she was once one of the FF, a bona fide hero, and that hate is not in her makeup. Wyatt says that if she wants to destroy the FF, she’ll have to kill him first. It works, and Sharon breaks down and embraces Wyatt.

After the battle three of the Frightful Four are apprehended, while Sharon is given refugee status among the Keewazi. Wyatt says that Sharon is a good person at heart, and hopefully her new life at the reservation will help her learn the truth of it. Sue, in turn, asks Wyatt to trust her with the whole “Baroness Von Doom” thing.

Later that night, Sue wakes up to find Reed trying to hack into the Pier 4 computer, which has rejected him as Dr. Doom this whole time. Sue turns invisible and spies on Reed. He successfully removes the Doom mask and gets the computer to accept Victor Von Doom as an authorized user to the FF’s computers. He then orders the computer to delete all records of this from his teammates. He then willingly puts the mask back on. Then we learn that the opening jogging scene was a flash-forward, where Sue suspects something is horribly wrong with Reed, but now she has to act like nothing is wrong.

Unstable molecule: Early on, Reed mentions that he’s close to deciphering the codes that keep him trapped in the armor, and that the Pier 4 computers will only recognize him as Dr. Doom as not as Reed. This foreshadows the issue’s cliffhanger.

Fade out: Since when does Sue create her force field from oxygen around her? In the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition, it’s established that her force fields are made of psionic force generated from within Sue’s brain. Since the Wizard’s defeat of Sue is based on illusion, I guess we can say these “oxygen force fields” are part of that illusion.

Clobberin’ time: Ben again acts as the team’s pilot in this issue. And just like last issue, he’s shown walking around with a bunch of gadgets attached to him, which a guess is a look for him during this era. (era)

Flame on: What’s going on with Johnny and Namorita? Johnny guest-starred in New Warriors vol 2 #3, where he and Namorita accidentally almost crash into each other while flying around NYC. He suggests they meet later, in private. The rest of their relationship between that issue and this one happened off-panel.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Round of applause to Chris Claremont for giving Sharon Ventura’s character arc some proper closure after all the hell she went through during her almost 100 issues with Fantastic Four. I guess she made a home for herself living on the reservation, because she won’t be seen again until the Secret Invasion crossover. She’s one of few Marvel characters who didn’t cameo in Civil War, so we’ll never know if Sharon was on Cap’s side or Iron Man’s side.  

Commercial break: You have to read the itty-bitty type at the bottom of the page to learn this is an ad for Bionic Commando.

Trivia time: This is the last of only two appearances of Wyatt Wingfoot’s sister Wynona. There’s a weird bit of continuity where she says her father is a man named Black Eagle, whereas back in vol. 1 issue #51 Wyatt said his father was dead. Most fans hand-wave this by saying that Wynona is actually Wyatt’s stepsister, but this isn’t explicitly stated in the comic.

What’s Galactus’ Punisher robot doing here? The last time we saw the robot was in Silver Surfer vol 3 #17, where it was destroyed after learning to talk (!). The Marvel Wiki says the Wizard “presumably” recovered the robot and rebuilt it. An alternate explanation is that we’ve seen a whole bunch of these robots running around the Marvel Universe, some of which are employed by Galactus and some employed by the alien Rigellians. (Tana Nile from the Daydreamers spinoff miniseries was a Rigellian.)

Fantastic or frightful? After so many overstuffed-plot issues, Chris Claremont writes an old-fashioned good guys versus bad guys superhero romp. It’s a breath of fresh air. And while I respect that a lot of readers dislike Sharon Ventura, I appreciate that Claremont gave the character her moment.

Next: Castle freak.

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