Fantastic Four #296

Fantastic Four 296-“Homecoming”
Nov 1986 $1.50 (Dang! For 1986, it better be worth it!)
Writer/ Artist- Jim Shooter/ Stan Lee/ Barry Windsor-Smith/Kerry Gammill/ Ron Frenz/ Al Milgrom/ John Buscema/ Marc Silvestri / Jerry Ordway
Cover Tagline: “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine”
Number of issues since last box pull: 5

(Editor’s Note- Today’s review will continue the trend of chronicling my journey through a box of 163 Fantastic Four comics. Unlike the “staying current” or “Thinking outside the box” posts, this comic was included in my original set purchased from eBay. The box is not one complete run, in fact there are some large gaps between issues. But part of the fun of randomly skipping through continuity is seeing just how much the FF has changed over the years!)

What happened: This 25th anniversary issue opens with Benjamin Grimm doing his best “Ninja Turtles Disguise” impression and walking around in the pouring rain in the city of Stockton.As the gargantuan figures stalks the night like some kind of emo version of Andre the Giant, a car accidentally runs into him due to the low visibility. The driver checks on Ben to see if he’s okay, and the Thing tells the driver to scram. Once again, nobody writes The Thing like Stan Lee:

Anyway, we find out that the Thing is back in Stockton because that’s where the FF’s ship originally crash landed after it was hit with cosmic rays. If you’ve never seen the FF’s origin, than this is a comic for you (and you probably haven’t been paying attention to superhero culture anytime in the past 60 years).

After he finishes reminiscing, Ben bemoans his fate as the monstrous Thing, and decides that his best course of action is to flee humanity and go live on Monster Island. Accordingly, he has his pilot buddy drop him off in the middle of the ocean, and he makes his way ashore.

We cut to the sunny setting of Los Angeles California, where Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Johnny Storm are hot on Ben’s trail (after scanning for his brain waves!), trying to find out what happened to him. The “tremendous three” ambush the pilot that dropped Ben in the middle of the sea, and we find out the man’s name is Hopper Hertnecky. Old Hopper tells Reed and co. that they’ve never really cared about Ben, and that the Thing finally decided that he couldn’t live among men anymore. Man, that pilot sure doesn’t mince words…

Skipping over the b-story of the issue, Reed decides that if Ben wants to live with monsters, that’s fine. He just wants to have one last “man-to-man” talk with his friend, and then he can let go of the guilt of not being able to cure the Thing of his rocky form. Reed, Sue, and Johnny get ready for adventure, all while telling the very dismayed She-Hulk and Alicia Masters to sit this one out.

The F3 make it to Monster Island and land the Fantasti-Car by the mouth of the cave. As they get out they are ambushed by (you guessed it!) monsters. The Fantasti-Car is literally smashed to bits by a giant creature and the F3 escape into the cave. I guess they’ll be staying at Monster Island for a while too!

The 3 continue to fight monsters until they are overwhelmed within the bowels of the island. Their only saving grace….Ben Grimm, dressed like an unholy hybrid the Mole Man and 80’s pop icon Prince!

“Purple Rain Thing” explains that the Mole Man and he are now best friends, and that he serves as a security officer of sorts for Monster Island. The Mole Man, acting very much like a jealous lover, is distrusting of the appearance of the 3, and tells the Thing not to trust his former teammates. The Mole Man then leaves to go get some “treatments” and Ben shows the F3 around the island. After showing them the Koi pond and Jamba Juice kiosk, Ben reveals the grand finale: the Mole Man’s burrowing machine!

If you didn’t know where this comic was going before, you should now…

Anyway, Mole Man finds out about the “unauthorized” tour Ben gave the F3, and once again throws a “jealous girlfriend” sized hissy. Thankfully the MM’s whining is interrupted by some guards who have captured a spy. The spy turns out to be none other than Alicia Masters. If you’re not laughing right now, you should be.

Apparently everyone’s favorite surly pilot Hopper dropped off Alicia so she could “explore” the island. I mean, what kind of man wouldn’t say no to dropping a blind chick off on an island full of monsters? Alicia is injured (probably from monster bites, running into walls, and falling into chasms), so the MM sets her up in sick bay.

In a scene that should quall some of the recent debate here at FF Plaza, Alicia and Ben finally talk about the fact that she’s shacking up with Johnny. While I’m a big fan of “Team Benlicia”, (which sounds way more family friendly than "Team AlJohnny") Ms. Masters herself tells the Thing that he is too self-loathing for her, and that Johnny makes her feel special. Although Alicia might be a Skrull at this point in continuity, we’ll count this as a possible rational for her getting it on with her “lil Stormy boy.”

Cutting to the chase, Reed discovers the Mole Man’s burrowing machine is going to shift the tectonic plates, cause a giant weather related catastrophe, and kill lots of people. The Mole creatures attack the F3, and in one of the best scenes ever, turn Johnny into a complete uggo:

The F3 try and leave the island, and the Thing goes to find the Mole Man for some answers. When Ben finds MM, he sees that his “treatments” have been trips to a holographic dream world full of tall martinis and sexy dames. This leaves the Thing to question the Mole Man’s true loyalties.

The Thing decides that the MM ain’t all he cracked up to be, and goes back to help the F3. The reunited Fantastic Four destroy the drill, repel the monsters, and reverse Johnny’s mutation. The story ends with the team, along with Alicia and Hopper, adrift in the middle of the sea.


What I Thought: This comic was a really mixed bag. The fact that it was ANOTHER oversized issue made for quite a harrowing experience to read through at times. Seeing the FF’s origin rehashed over and over again is starting to grate on this reviewer, but it will be forgiven this time around due to the comic’s purpose as a milestone marker.

I think the weakest part of this issue overall was the plotting by Jim Shooter. The story was pretty standard, and though it was kind of shocking to see the FF get truly snippy with the Thing, it was pretty clear how it would all turn out. And while the whole part with Johnny getting disfigured was shoehorned into a cool moment of realization for the thing, I for one wish he could have stayed a monster for a while longer.

And then there’s the whole idea of Alicia sneaking onto the island to try and find Ben. It was just hilariously idiotic, and yes, that’s coming from a grown man talking about a comic book. Seriously, with her superior exploration skills, maybe Alicia Masters could take over for the blind hero Daredevil if he ever quits (that’s a photoshopped picture waiting to happen).

As you can see from the info at the beginning of the review, there were quite a few artists brought in for this issue. With some of the biggest names in comics at the time (and all of whom could now be considered “ modern legends”), the art is the high point of this issue. Even though each artist has his own undeniable style, the transitions between pages are never jarring, and a smooth look is maintained throughout the book. The complete absence of advertisements (hence the outrageous price) helps to maintain the integrity of the art as well.

And finally, it comes as no surprise that a majority of this issue focuses on the ever-lovin blue eyed Thing. We finally get some kind of resolution to the Ben/Alicia/Johnny drama, and the seeds for She-Hulk exiting so the Thing can come back to the team are sown. This issue also marks the point in my “box” adventures that I’ve moved beyond the John Byrne material, as he had gone to DC at this time to work on the relaunch of Superman. I for one will miss Byrne’s issues, and recommend his run to anyone who has an interest in the FF.

So until Johnny becomes the ugly one on the team, vive le fantastique!

That makes two of us, Ben.

Fantastic Four #291

Fantastic Four #291-"The Times They Are A' Changing!"

Cover Date: June 1986 Price $.75

Cover Tagline :"The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!"

Writer/Artist: John Byrne

What Happened: The story opens with the image of a flying car touching down in a dark alley in Greenwich Village . The car is from the spy organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D, which is an acronym for some technical sounding branch of the government. Suffice it to say, S.H.I.E.L.D is like the F.B.I , C.I.A., Department of Homeland Security, and Star Trek all rolled into one. Those in the car include Sue and Johnny Storm, the jade skinned powerhouse known as the She-Hulk, and the gruff war veteran Nick Fury. The foursome get out of the delori--I mean hover car, and explore their surroundings, trying to get a bead on the differences they sense. Fury tells the others that he is all too familiar with the area, because they have landed in his old neighborhood...in the year 1936!!!

While the team stands in a bit of astonishment, Johnny mentions that Sue is in charge, as Reed Richards is now dead. Geez, what happened?! It's only been 3 issues since my last trip to "the box." Anyway, Sue says that Reed would indeed know what to do, and who to contact. As anyone whose seen Time Cop knows, it can cause irreparable damage to the time stream to interact with anything the past. As Sue talks, Fury alerts her to the presence of a dreaded garbageman, who will assuredly be startled at their appearances as he turns the corner. Sue deftly handles the situation by cloaking everyone and the S.H.I.E.L.D car with her invisibility powers. That garbageman could have forever altered the Marvel Universe....

Thanks to some quick thinking, Fury then uses an imaging device in the S.H.I.E.L.D car's internal computer to make it stand out less. While the images available do not include 30's models, Fury makes the car look like a U.P.S. truck ,which is inconspicuous in the 1930's landscape apparently. She- Hulk even makes a snide comment, revealing John Byrne's politics underlying attitude about U.P.S' aesthetic choices. Man, this is comics, get off your soapbox.

As the team drives through the streets trying to think of some contacts they could meet with to solve their chronological predicament, a police car turns on its siren behind them. In a clear case of time based profiling, Fury states that the cops must have seen the truck's unchanged license plate from 50 years in the future. As Fury speeds away, he evades the police and is startled as he turns the corner and finds that he and his passengers have gone back...back to the future!

Yes, for some inexplicable reason, the team appears to be back in their own era. Johnny "worst teammate ever" Storm immediately jumps out of the car and tells everyone that he has to go make sure his fiance Alicia's okay. He flies to her apartment, and she says everything's fine. Johnny asks her what she has been doing since all the time warp stuff happened, and she tells him its only been 3 hours since they last spoke. Johnny is confused, since he believes he has been gone a long time, what with all fighting in the Negative Zone and watching Reed die and such.

As Johnny goes to explain his whereabouts, he suddenly finds himself back in the past, with Alicia nowhere to be found. Johnny takes to the skies in flame form, and forgets that whole "don't mess with the past" rule. But it's okay, because he has "air brakes", a la Willie E. Coyote. Just don't look down, matchstick.

On the other side of town, we find that Nick Fury has crashed the S.H.I.E.L.D car into a wall, seemingly on purpose. It seems that S.H.I.E.L.D. often uses holograms to mask secret entry ways around town, and as Fury drove towards one in the future, the timeline switched back to the 30's. Fury's knocked out cold, and in need of a doctor. Sue tells She-Hulk to watch over ol-one eye, while she gets help. As she leaves, Fury's radio pipes up with a message from agents who are aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite called Space Platform One. As She-Hulk talks to the agents, they are a bit surprised to find out they're calling 1936.

We cut to a scene with Sue wandering the streets of New York, the places she's familiar with all but unrecognizable now due to the time travel. As Sue explores, she ponders the gravity of her new responsibility as team leader of the FF, as well as the reality that her husband is dead. We get a nice "when Sue met Reed" history lesson, and my theory that John Byrne must have had a Fantastic Four "origin recap quota" written into his contract gains more validity as we see another small flashback to that event.

As Sue continues to worry, we jump back to the She-Hulk, who is still on the horn with the satellite. She explains to the agents that her team is stuck in 1936, and they tell her it must be a localized issue, because all their instruments scan a normal Manhattan setting. Shulkie tells the agents to hold on, as she sees a car about to run over a guy in a trench coat.

Knowing the lesson that she shouldn't trifle with the past, the She-Hulk decides to intervene anyway, and stops the car from running down its intended victim. His attackers call the She-Hulk a devil and flee the scene, and she asks the smooth looking gentleman she just saved to tell her his story. He obliges, and tells her that he's "Licorice" Calhoun, a Clarinet player from a local jazz club.

It seems Licorice's dreams always come to fruition, and this was a trait which his boss was trying to exploit by making him dream of riches. Licorice explains the men in the car wanted to run him down because he didn't dream of riches, but blood and fire. The blood and fire, he found out, were the bosses horse stables, which burned to the ground.

While the deaths of horses makes for pleasant conversation between She Hulk and Licorice, Nick Fury awakens in the hover car and tunes in the radio. After hearing a report about something in "a German leader in Berlin", Fury flips out and takes off in the flying car. She-Hulk tries to stop him just as Sue returns. The women, along with "Licorice", watch Fury fly away, and Sue says they have to stop Fury. Because Sue knows that Fury is going to try and kill Adolf Hitler, an action which could severely disrupt time and space. Didn't they learn anything from Time Cop!?

What I Thought:It's getting harder to judge these issues for quality. Coming in from the standpoint of not knowing what happened to Reed, how the team got the past, and why they were with Nick Fury in the first place, I actually felt as discombobulated as some of the characters in the comic. I'm not saying that as a criticism though, it was actually kind of fun to try and decipher what happened. I think as usual some of this issue feels stretched out, especially scenes like the team almost getting discovered by the garbageman. But still, that kind of "story stretching" beats the heck out of some of the offenses found in modern comics, where whole issues could be axed without losing any of the story.

As far as the plot, I was intrigued by the whole switching back and forth between eras concept. The time travel bit with the "should we save Hitler?" question is cliche, but for a character like Fury it at least has a little bit of relevancy. I would like to think Fury would know better nowadays and just leave the timestream be. To give this issue a little more credit, I was curious enough about what would happen next that I went online and bought issue 292. I'm actually a bit saddened that I'll soon be reviewing FF books that aren't by John Byrne.

And while I rag on Byrne for including the FF's origin so much, I understand that comics and related bits of information were not as readily available at the time as they are now. The fact that Byrne so masterfully recaps Sue's whole life in one page either says a lot about his abilities, or very little about Sue's personal life outside of Reed.

So until Marty McFly joins the FF, vive le fantastique!

Fantastic Four #288

Fantastic Four #288-"Full Circle"

Cover Date: Mar 1986 Price $.75

Cover Tagline: "Doctor Doom vs The Beyonder"
Writer/Artist: John Byrne

(Editor's Note- Have you ever had one of those tasks on your "to do" list that you hate to do so much that you'll put off forever? Well consider this review one of them. It has literally been a goal of mine to "review FF #288" for about a month. Seriously, I need some closure from this issue, and continue moving on with my life. So for the good of my sanity,this blog, and the world at large, here we go....)

Story: This issue quickly picks up right where the last one left off, with Johnny "I'll shack up with my best friend's girl the minute he's out of the picture" Storm literally torching his way through some of Dr. Doom's mindless robot drones. You see, at the end of last issue, Johnny received a distress signal from his sister, the Invisible Woman, indicating she was in danger at the Latverian Embassy. As if anything good could ever come of having a Latverian Embassy anywhere....

As Johnny flies around burning things, he thinks aloud that it's strange that the doombots are so active, considering their master is dead. As the Human Torch turns to fry his next victim, he finds not an automaton, but an old lady. This "harmless old lady" is Sarah, the next door neighbor of Peggy McArthur, who we learned last issue was the simple housewife whose husband's body had been taken over by the consciousness of Dr. Doom. In one 8 panel page, good old Sarah pours on the exposition with a shot-for-shot retelling of Peggy's story, thereby rendering the purchase of the previous issue moot. Ah, the eighties, when writers retold you everything you needed to know EVERY issue.

As Sarah finishes telling Johnny her tale of neighborly woe, he stands in seeming disbelief. But he gives her the "geriatric benefit-of-the-doubt" pass and goes on to find Doom and Peggy, along with his sister. Spotting a melee in the next room, the Torch spots She-Hulk and her fellow superheroine friend Wasp slagging some more doombots. Once again, I must reiterate, there is something disturbingly gratifying with the way the Doombots cry out in agony as they're destroyed: "Squeeeee!"

Not since the Power Rangers used to destroy the nearly endless hoards of puddys by punching the "Z's" on their chests have I so enjoyed the deaths of mindless foot soldiers.

As the Wasp and She-Hulk continue to rip through Doombots, Reed Richards comes out of pretty much thin air to congratulate them on the way they can beat on mindless droids. Reed tells the two lovely ladies that he was there responding to the Invisible Woman's distress signal (ahh, the old distress signal plot device. Where the heck would the FF be without it?), and he asks them where Susan is. The heroines tell Richards that his wife is off with the Invincible Man, who we as readers learned was actually Dr. Doom. Well, he's Dr. Doom in the body of Mr. McArthur, in the garb of the Invincible Man. Mom always said to dress in layers, but that's just ridiculous.

As Reed and the super hotties chat it up, Johnny joins the scene . And with their reunion, Dr. Doom also makes his presence known. Hitting the group with a sonic disruptor, Dr. Doom then proceeds to place each of the heroes in a cage that matches and disrupts their powers. Reed and the Wasp are in some kind of giant bubble, Susan Richards is in a cage that has the same frequencies as her own force field, Johnny Storm is in an inert fluid that allows him to breathe but not flame on, and the She Hulk is in a web of invisible unbreakable molecular chains. I'll take Doom's word for it as far the actual scientific explanations of his contraptions go, but She-Hulk has to go and call his bluff. She soons learn not to trifle with Doom, as she cuts her skin on the invisible force field. Wenches be triflin, yo.

It seems as if Doom has everyone where he wants them, and Reed asks if it really is Doom in the flesh, or another cheap Doombot. Doom assures everyone that it is him, and takes off his mask to reveal the face of Peggy McArthur's husband Norm. Peggy yells to Mr. Fantastic that he is the most brilliant man on earth, and that he needs to get her husband back. "Norm Doom" goes a little nuts and grabs Peggy, lifting her in the air and telling her that no one is smarter than him. This scene looks familiar,hmmmmm. Maybe because if you replace Peggy with the little Latverian boy Kristoff from issue #258 you would have the exact same panel. But like I said in that review, if you can't trust a megalomaniac dictator to be consistent, who can you trust?

Anyway, in making his point that he really is smart, Norm Doom points Peg's attention to a flaming energy pit on the floor. Apparently, aside from looking like a great place to make a S'more, the pit is full of black magic that is calling forth the most powerful being in the universe. As Doom mentions this, everyone gasps in horror, because they know who the "living embodiment" of energy in the 1986 Marvel Universe is.... The Beyonder! Did I mention that this issue is an insufferable tie-in to the completely unnecessary Marvel company-wide storyline called "Secret Wars II"? The Beyonder appears, in his Saturday Night Fever Best, perm and all.

Well, the Beyonder is not too keen on being summoned, and asks Doom who he is and what he wants. This is a bit odd, considering the two had met before. Doom takes advantage of this confusion by blasting the Beyonder. You gotta admit, shooting the most powerful being in the universe with anything is pretty impressive. It seems that when Doom and the Beyonder met during "Secret Wars I", Doom actually stole the Beyonder's omnipotent powers, so there is a glimmer of hope that he can do so again. But the tables are quickly turned as the Beyonder begins to blast Doom, and lectures him on the depravity of mankind. As the Beyonder begins to go into full lecture mode (we're talking graduation commencement levels), someone yells "No!!"

The Beyonder turns to find that it was Reed who was yelling, and asks him why he of all people would want to save Doom's life. Reed explains that the Beyonder had met Doom before, so there must be something wrong since he does not remember him. Reed then goes into a 3 page history lesson about what Doom did during the first "Secret Wars" series, which in a nutshell was that Doom stole the Beyonder's powers, got killed, and was then reborn and banished to who knows where. The Beyonder still claims that he doesn't know this guy, and Reed figures out that it's because the Beyonder is looking at Doom's aura crossed with that of Norm McArthur. The Beyonder looks closer, and realizes that it is the same jerk's aura residing in the body of someone new. The Beyonder goes in to make the kill, but Reed once again yells "No!" Man, I thought his catch phrase was "great scott!"

Reed explains to the Beyonder that when all the heroes and villains were plucked from earth and put on an alien world to fight in the first "Secret Wars", the Doom that was there had his own body, with it's own aura (not the Norm Doom aura he has now, but the original flavor Victor Von Doom aura). At the time of the first Secret Wars, Doom's regular body had been destroyed, so for him to have his original flavor aura during the time of "Secret Wars I" must have meant that the Beyonder pulled Doom from a different part of the time stream.

Richards goes on to tell the Beyonder that this means that when the Beyonder pulled Doom out of the time stream, he created a self fulfilling time loop, wherein everyone else's pasts became the new Doom's future. If the Beyonder were to erase what the Doom from the past was going to do, it would erase what had already happened for the others, creating a collapse in time and space. Well, the beyonder is taken aback by this possibility, and does what any self-respecting surprised god would do: he separates Norm McArthur and Doom, banishes Doom to the first "Secret Wars", and then leaves.

Well, just when you thought it couldn't get anymore convoluted, Reed tells the gang that now that the Beyonder banished Doom from this time period back to the beginning of Secret Wars, it means that the Doom from the end of the Secret Wars is now going to reappear to complete the time loop and right the universe's sense of balance. The FF high-tail it out of there so they don't have to face Doom when he appears, and as they leave, the last panel shows Doom starting to come back to reality. Maybe someday the FF will face Doom again...maybe.

What I thought: You already know I hate this issue. It took forever to read, understand, and write about all the garbage in this issue. I could have lived with the Norm Doom storyline, but once the Beyonder showed up, and we got into the whole "time loop" fiasco, it became one giant headache. I will applaud the amount of exposition and ground that Byrne had to cover here. He had to retell the events of last issue, move the story along, introduce the Beyonder, recount the first Secret Wars series, and then explain how Doom had come back to life again.

I had some fine folks comment that Byrne was just doing stories that fit what was being dictated to him by editorial at the time, and after giving that consideration, I could see that type of reality come to life in this issue. If anything, this issue taught me a little comics equation. Event comics+time travel headaches+ Jerry curl velour suit Beyonder= Totally Bad Issue. It can be any comic, not just Fantastic Four, and that equation would still hold true. So until "Secret Wars III" comes out and totally blows my mind, vive le Fantastique!

Only Doom would commend someone on their sensuality before trying to murder them.

Fantastic Four #287

Fantastic Four #287-"Prisoner of the Flesh"

Cover Date: Feb 1986 Price $.75 (only 5 issues from last time and it's 10 cents more!)

Cover Tagline: "This is Peggy McArthur, average American housewife. In ten seconds, she will make a decision-- if it's the wrong one it will mean the end of the Fantastic Four!"

Writer/Artist: John Byrne

Story: We start this issue with the Amazing Reed Richards, leader of the world famous Fantastic Four, wearing cybernetic earmuff headgear. Reed is talking to Janet Van Dyne, the superheroine known as the Wasp. Richards and his family have been staying in the mansion headquarters of the Wasp's team, the Avengers, because Richards' base got blowed up real good. It would seem Reed has begun tinkering with the technology lying around Avengers mansion. The Wasp reminds Reed that the last place he built machines in is now a smoking crater, but apparently he doesn't see the humor in the situation. There's a fine line between wet blanket and totally aloof, and for as smart as Reed is, he can't see it....

Anyway, Reed explains that the machine he's working on has mapped out Dr. Doom's brain wave patterns, and can pick up his trail should the mad despot return. As Doom is supposedly dead at this point in history, Richards is proving why he's totally smart by preparing for the eventuality that Doom WILL indeed come back to life. That's some genius level foreshadowing!

As Mr. Fantastic and the Wasp finish doling out exposition, the ever dashing Susan Storm enters, claiming she's ready to hit the town. Apparently the Wasp made it a point to get Sue a hair appointment. The She-Hulk also enters the scene, and what started as a simple issue of Fantastic Four quickly begins to resemble a G-rated episode of "Sex and the City." As the lovely ladies and the seemingly pimp-like Reed Richards walk towards the foyer of the Avengers mansion, the aforementioned Doom Brainwave detector kicks on. Ah, it's like that old proverb: if a Doom Brainwave machine comes on, and no one's around to hear it, does it really detect anything?

We cut to the least manly scene ever, as the Wasp introduces Susan Storm to her hair stylist, Andre. In a convenient-to-the-plot detail, Andre is not only flamboyant, but he is also the personal stylist to the French Ambassador, leading them to have the hair appointment in the French Embassy. As the woman sing Andre's praises for cutting Sue's hair shorter than her brother Johnny's, there is a loud BOOM. It seems the embassy across the street, the Latverian Embassy, is under attack. In a strange twist, the attacker appears to be none other than the Invincible Man, a man who was originally the Super Skrull masquerading as Sue Storm's late father. Geez, how many people do you need to be masquerading as before it's just unnecessary? Seeing the Invincible Man is quite jarring for the 3 heroines, so they enact a perfectly executed masterpiece of tactics and battlefield strategy...yeah, they jump and punch him.

As Sue captures the Invincible Man in a force field, he bids her to stop, because he's only trying to help save lives. Sue relents, and the Invincible Man explains that he's attacking the Latverian Embassy because Dr. Doom is alive and well inside, and Doom is responsible for the deaths of his wife and baby. To gain Sue's trust, the Invincible Man points up to the window of the embassy, where a shadowy figure looms. It appears to be none other than Doom, so the 3 woman fall back to carefully plan their next move. Okay, not really they just rush the doors of the Embassy.

The scene shifts to a suburban neighborhood setting, where an old maid type woman is busy watching her "stories." As she's deeply engrossed, the door bell frantically begins to ring. The old lady opens up to find her exasperated neighbor, a young woman named Peggy (from the cover of the book!), clutching her baby and asking to come in. The old lady invites Peggy in, and asks why she's so frazzled. Peggy recounts the story that landed her the coveted spot on the very cover of this issue, saying that her husband Norm recently came home acting strange.

It seems Norm came home late and in a funk on the same day it was reported that Dr. Doom had attacked a Shop-Rite. The Norm that came home had a weird European accent and began tinkering with things in the basement. Norm tells his wife that she's a prisoner until further notice, which in this reviewers eyes isn't really that different from most suburban marriages. Norm makes a purple costume with a green hood, and it turns out that he is the one masquerading as the Invincible Man. Peggy sees her husband on TV in the costume he was making, and she and her elderly friend head for the Latverian Embassy.

The scene shifts back to the Embassy, as the Wasp, She-Hulk, and Invisible Woman bust in and fight a bunch of robots. Sue Storm follows the Invincible Man up the stairs as he tries to escape during the commotion. Stealthily following the Invincible Man, she stumbles upon none other than Doom himself. The two have a short conversation about how Sue is insolent for breaking in, and then Doom tries to blast her. Sue explodes the Doc, and it turns out that it wasn't really Doom, but one of his patented Doombots. In one of the more sadly funny scenes from the book, the Doombot yells "Squeee!" as it explodes from the inside out. Sue stands over the remains, saying out loud that the real Doom is dead. Of course stopping to talk to herself only leads her to getting shot in the back by the Invincible Man, who yells out "Doom never dies!" Are you starting pick up on the Norm/ the Invincible Man's real identity?

Sue uses her invisible powers to look under Norm's mask, and she doesn't recognize him, but she attacks him nonetheless. She drops a bunch of bricks on him, and as she is busy battling her purple foe, Norm's wife Peggy comes up from behind and ponders what she can do to help her husband. Peggy has an ethical dilemma, given her husband's recent actions and Sue Storm's heroic reputation, but decides to bash the Invisible Woman over the head with a vase. Storm gets knocked out, and Peggy goes over to comfort Norm, who reveals himself to be neither the Invincible Man or Norm, but actually THE REAL DR. DOOM!

Doom goes on to tell Peggy that he sent his evil consciousness into Norm's body before his own body was incinerated back in issue 260. Apparently Doom has the ability to send his consciousness into other beings, as we the editor's note tells us we learned from Fantastic Four #10. ...remember that? Come on, it was only like 20-some odd years before this. Peggy realizes she has made a mistake, and Doom says this was all his plan to lure the FF to the embassy. We end the issue with Johnny Storm trying to mack on Alicia Masters in a horse drawn carriage, only to be called away by his emergency signal watch. Man, can't a player catch a break?

What I Thought: I'm still utterly amazed by the fact that Byrne can write an issue of Fantastic Four that really only features one true member of the team, and has her in a situation where she goes from getting her hair done to fighting a dictator, and still he makes it feel like a normal FF comic. The variety that Byrne offers forth for the heroes in his run on this book is pretty imaginative, and I can see that many creators since have tried to duplicate his sense of scope. Of course, the part with Doom transferring his mind was a little lame, only because it didn't seem like a power he had used all that often. Having Doom use a power he hadn't mentioned in the last two hundred and sixty issues is kind of like Batman referencing some thing he did once in an old adventure from the 50's. Yeah, technically it happened in continuity at some point, but it doesn't mean it's still worth coming back to. Anyway, I've already gone and read the next issue, and from what I remember, it has a really confusing resolution. Be forewarned, it involves Secret Wars II and some type of time paradox. Until that French stylist Andre straightens up his act, Vive le Fantastique!