The Fantastic Four finally regain their footing as editor Roy Thomas and writer Gerry Conway wrap up their long-running storyline about Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Girl’s marital troubles. However, they otherwise maintain the book’s new status quo by keeping Medusa on the team and shuttling the Invisible Girl off to the sidelines. With Mister Fantastic back on an even keel and the Thing starring in his own team-up book, Marvel Two-in-One, the focus of most issues of Fantastic Four during this period shifts to the Human Torch. Intent on outgrowing his “hot-headed teen hero” persona, the Torch becomes a bit more introspective and independent. The character’s popularity led to him being periodically featured in the lead role in Marvel Team-Up. Additionally, Marvel was experimenting with large-format quarterly titles at this time, such as Giant-Size Fantastic Four. Despite these extra storytelling opportunities, though, most of the villains encountered over the next twelve months in the characters’ lives proved to be rather minor additions to the Fantastic Four’s rogues’ gallery.
Note: The following timeline depicts the Original Marvel Universe (anchored to November 1961 as the first appearance of the Fantastic Four and proceeding forward from there. See previous posts for a detailed explanation of my rationale.) Some information presented on the timeline is speculative and some is based on historical accounts. See the Notes section at the end for clarifications.
Let us continue with… The True History of the Fantastic Four!
January 1967 – At their Baxter Building headquarters, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, and Medusa work out in one of the gymnasiums. Johnny tries playing a prank on Ben but goes too far and makes him really angry. Complaining about the way Johnny treats him, Ben storms out and goes to help Alicia Masters look after Wundarr, the alien superman with the mind of an infant. When Medusa confronts Johnny about his recent obnoxious behavior, he admits that the thought of Crystal marrying Quicksilver is driving him nuts. He just can’t understand where he and Crystal went wrong or why she dumped him. Medusa is about to respond when they are interrupted by Reed Richards, who conveys a message from Black Bolt asking Medusa to report back to the Inhumans’ Great Refuge to discuss something called “Project Revival.” Reed is curious as to what that is, but Medusa is evasive. She invites Johnny to accompany her, and though he is reluctant—not wanting to see his ex-girlfriend and her fiancé—he eventually agrees to go. About ten hours later, though, the Fantastic Four’s Pogo Plane is shot down some fifty miles out from the Great Refuge and crash-lands on a remote peak in the Himalayas. Johnny flames on, grabs Medusa, and flies her to safety. Unfortunately, they soon realize that, with the ship’s radio destroyed, they are trapped on the mountain and could freeze to death if Johnny’s flame gives out. To make matters worse, they are ambushed by several “abominable snowmen” with ice-cold skin. Their leader, Ternak, demands to know why the two strangers have invaded his domain, suspecting they’ve come to steal his new secret weapon. After a struggle, Johnny manages to drive Ternak off with a heat blast to the face, but the exertion causes him to pass out. With the other “abominable snowmen” in retreat, Medusa drags Johnny to a place of shelter under an outcropping of rock. It isn’t long before the sun sets, plunging them into near-total darkness, and she worries they might not survive.
Luckily, Johnny soon revives and provides some light and heat with a small flame he generates in his hands as they huddle together against the rock. Hearing someone lurking in the darkness, Johnny creates a flare to illuminate the area, allowing Medusa to grab the elderly “abominable snowman” who’s spying on them. He begs for mercy, insisting that he owes no allegiance to Ternak, and tells them of the history of his people, who call themselves the Chosen. Five centuries ago, he reveals, a terrible storm wiped out a party of monks from a monastery that had once been nearby, leaving a sole survivor. The man took refuge in a cave, where he discovered their race of “abominable snowmen.” Despite his kung fu skills, the monk was badly outnumbered by the savage beast-men. However, when he produced a mirrored amulet from under his cloak, the beast-men were awestruck and worshiped him. Stranded there, the monk started teaching the beast-men to build rudimentary huts and other skills. Within a couple decades, they were constructing sophisticated towers and learned much of the outside world from the monk, whom they called the Master. For sixty years, he remained among them until finally dying of old age. Ever since, the Chosen have sought to live out the Master’s teachings, but when Ternak recently rose to power, he turned them to his lust for conquest. Suddenly, an energy beam disintegrates the elderly creature, and Johnny and Medusa spin around to see that Ternak and his troops have found them. The beast-men pounce on them and quickly knock the two heroes unconscious.
When he comes to, Johnny finds himself shackled in a dungeon. Ternak attempts to interrogate him, but Johnny refuses to cooperate. Once Ternak has left, Johnny realizes he and Medusa will be executed as spies unless they escape. Thus, he quickly burns through his shackles and melts the door to his cell. Finding Medusa imprisoned nearby, he releases her as well. They then fight their way through Ternak’s troops while looking for a way out. Unfortunately, they stumble upon Ternak’s secret weapon instead, a “climate cannon” meant to freeze the world, making it cold enough for the Chosen to leave their mountain stronghold. Ternak turns the weapon on the two outworlders, but Johnny manages to flame on just in time and overcomes its effects. In the ensuing battle with Ternak and his troops, Medusa throws an icy boulder at the climate cannon, damaging it. While their foes are thus distracted, Johnny and Medusa slip into a side tunnel, where a more human-looking female member of the Chosen leads them away into a series of enormous ice caverns—an awe-inspiring twilight world of glittering colors, stunning ice formations, and almost overpowering silence. After walking for quite a while, Johnny admits to Medusa that his feelings toward Reed have grown more sympathetic in the four months since Franklin lapsed into a coma. Medusa agrees that, in his anger, Johnny treated Reed unfairly, for Reed had no choice but to shut down his son’s mind before his runaway mutant powers destroyed the world. Their guide then leads them through a dark tunnel into a vast chamber humming with bizarre electronic machinery. Johnny and Medusa are shocked to find the incredibly ancient figure of the Master—still very much alive. The Master explains that when he died some 440 years ago, a secret sect of the Chosen placed him within the “entropy globe” surrounding him, which brought him back to a semblance of life. They have tended to his needs and followed his teachings ever since, but he is saddened to see that the rest of the Chosen have descended back into savagery under Ternak. With the outworlders’ help, he reveals, he can ensure that Ternak’s dreams of conquest are brought to an end once and for all, though it will come at a terrible cost. He provides the pair with a weapon, which Medusa assumes will end the threat posed by the Chosen by wiping them out. But not being one for empathy, she takes the weapon and heads out, convinced that Johnny, young and idealistic as he is, has missed the dark portent in the Master’s words.
Returning to Ternak’s citadel, Johnny attacks the tyrant and his troops, finding that they have already repaired the damage to the climate cannon. His plan to keep their foes busy while Medusa sets up the Master’s weapon begins to unravel, though, as he is badly outnumbered by the Chosen. Luckily, the Thing charges into the fray, having tracked his teammates down after losing contact with the Pogo Plane, and turns the tide of the battle. Glad to see his old friend, Johnny apologizes to Ben for his bad behavior of late. Just as Medusa activates the weapon, Ternak pulls a gun on Ben, prompting Ben to knock him into the climate cannon. The machine explodes and Ternak is killed in the blast. However, Medusa finds there is no way to shut off the strange rays emanating from the Master’s weapon. To the outworlders’ astonishment, the “abominable snowmen” suddenly transform into ordinary men. The girl, who had apparently already been transformed, steps forward and explains that this was the Master’s plan all along—the Chosen will no longer be a threat to the world since they must now leave their icy domain and become part of the world. The terrible cost the Master foresaw, she reveals, is the loss of their unique culture. With Ternak dead, the Chosen wish the strangers well and escort them back to the surface. Ben leads Johnny and Medusa to his aircraft and flies them the rest of the way to the Great Refuge.
When they arrive in Attilan, Black Bolt seems a bit irritated that Medusa has brought both the Human Torch and the Thing along and decides that they should not be privy to their discussions regarding “Project Revival.” Thus, Black Bolt, Medusa, and Triton retire to a private chamber, leaving Karnak and Gorgon to attend to their guests. While Ben plays with Lockjaw, Johnny has a brief, awkward encounter with Crystal, who tells him about the preparations for her wedding in June. Quicksilver, however, is busy with other matters and does not make an appearance. The next day, Ben, Johnny, and Medusa fly back to New York together, though she refuses to divulge anything about “Project Revival.”
February 1967 – Ben, Alicia, and Wundarr are alone in the Baxter Building when Bruce Banner pays an unexpected visit, hoping to work with Reed on a cure for the Hulk. Ben wishes him luck, noting ruefully that Reed has had no success in curing him of being the Thing despite constant attempts. Though Reed, Johnny, and Medusa are off testing a new aircraft design for the Black Panther, Banner is excited when Ben mentions a “psi-amplifier” that Reed invented last week, since he’d been thinking along the same lines. Ben leads Banner to the laboratory where the psi-amplifier is located, and the scientist works through the night modifying the device. In the morning, he’s ready to test his theory that the reconfigured psi-amplifier will be able to cure both himself and Ben by harnessing the different forms of radiation in their bodies (cosmic rays versus gamma rays) to cancel each other out. Unfortunately, something goes terribly wrong, the machine explodes, and when the smoke clears, Ben finds that his mind has somehow been transferred into the Hulk’s body. To make matters worse, the Thing’s body is now inhabited by the Hulk’s consciousness. Barely comprehending what’s happened to him, Hulk lashes out in a blind rage, wrecking the laboratory. Finding it difficult to adjust to being in the Hulk’s body, Ben tries to restrain his rampaging rival. When their clash carries them into an alley outside, the situation gets more complicated when Thundra turns up and naturally mistakes Ben for the Hulk. Intent on defending Ben from the green monster, Thundra leaves herself open to a sucker-punch from “the Thing” and is knocked out. The brawl between the two behemoths continues for several minutes, until they crash through the sidewalk and land in the path of an oncoming subway train. Ben is stunned, and the Hulk seems heedless of the danger. At the last moment, Thundra leaps down through the hole and stops the train, causing a huge wreck that injures most of the passengers and crew. Wanting to be left alone, “the Thing” slams his fists into the ground, creating a shockwave that knocks Thundra off her feet and causes further damage to the train. Ben tries again to subdue the Hulk, but their running battle takes them to Madison Square Garden in Hell’s Kitchen, where they interrupt a boxing match. The audience panics and bolts for the exits, creating a human stampede. Luckily, Mister Fantastic, the Human Torch, and Medusa arrive on the scene, having returned to New York and tracked the combatants to the arena. When “the Thing” attacks the Human Torch with unbridled savagery, Mister Fantastic quickly deduces what’s really going on. Using a nearby first-aid kit, Reed prepares a powerful tranquilizer and injects it into the Hulk’s body. Ben at first fears Reed has made a terrible mistake, but a moment later he finds himself back in his own body, the mind-swap reversed when the drug caused the Hulk to change back into Bruce Banner. Though the crisis has ended, Thundra comes charging into the arena and whacks Ben with her chain, knocking him down. She castigates him for his apparent treachery and storms out. Ben is outraged, but Reed reminds him that Thundra has no idea what’s going on. Swallowing his pride, Ben catches up to Thundra, explains the situation, and apologizes. She assures him there’s no hard feelings—after all, he’s only a man. They chat a bit and part on friendly terms. When Banner regains consciousness, he confirms Reed’s assumptions about what happened and elects to leave the city before he causes any more destruction. Feeling bad that he’s been too depressed to make any headway in finding a cure for the Hulk, Reed gives Banner some warm clothes to wear.
Returning to the Baxter Building, Reed is annoyed to have to once again deal with the angry property manager, Walter Collins, who’s upset about the damage to the skyscraper caused by the Thing and the Hulk’s rampage. Reed knows Collins wants to break the Fantastic Four’s lease to be free of the rent-control limitations on their headquarters complex, but he skillfully outmaneuvers the irate man. Johnny is impressed, having had to avoid dealing with Collins himself earlier.
March 1967 – Susan Richards continues to live at the horse farm in rural Pennsylvania with her childhood friend Carol Landers and her husband Bob. Sue spends most of her time caring for her comatose toddler, Franklin. Carol and Bob hold out hope that Sue will reconcile with Reed, but Sue is ready to move on with her life. Though this causes some tension in the house, Carol and Bob remain supportive. When needed, Sue uses her invisibility and force-field powers to help the couple with their horses. Towards the end of the month, Sue is surprised when Prince Namor of Atlantis, a.k.a. the Sub-Mariner, reaches out to her, offering a sympathetic ear. Unbeknownst to Carol and Bob, Sue and Namor meet a few times to talk. She describes how Reed broke her heart by being so cold and distant after Franklin was born and then plotted for months to strip away the boy’s mutant powers. Namor is incensed by Reed’s behavior and offers Sue his full support.
April 1967 – Ben, Johnny, and Medusa are shocked when Reed receives a summons from the divorce court—Sue has started official proceedings against him. Reed is utterly devastated, so Medusa does her best to behave compassionately, offering him her unconditional support. Johnny is surprised that things have gone this far, but Ben is overcome with rage and storms out, determined to confront Sue. Ignoring Reed’s protests, Ben launches the Jet-Cycle and flies west toward Pennsylvania. Johnny quickly catches up to Ben and joins him, insisting that, after nearly a year and a half of separation, Sue has good reason to end her marriage if that’s what she wants to do. Their argument is cut short when the Sub-Mariner suddenly bursts out of Lake Wallenpaupack and smashes the Jet-Cycle. Johnny flames on and takes to the air, but Ben falls to a large rock in the middle of the lake. After fighting with Ben and Johnny for several minutes, Namor declares that Sue is his woman now and that she and Franklin are under his royal protection. Warning the pair not to come looking for Sue, the Sub-Mariner flies off. Remembering that Sue had a crush on Namor before she and Reed were married, Ben and Johnny wonder if she could really have run off to live with him in his undersea kingdom.
They make their way to the Landers’ horse farm, where Carol and Bob report that the Sub-Mariner abducted Sue and Franklin earlier that day. Worried, Ben and Johnny return to the Baxter Building, although, since the Jet-Cycle has been destroyed, it takes them over three hours to get back. Medusa asks if what they have to tell Reed can wait until morning, but Ben says no. He marches into Reed’s laboratory and announces that Sue and Franklin have been taken captive by Namor. Enraged, Reed spends the next five hours tracking the low-level energy emissions from the black costume he designed for Namor last year, finally locating him at an outpost in the South Atlantic, some 600 miles off the African coast. Since the Pogo Plane hasn’t been replaced yet, they take the Fantasti-Car and arrive on the scene about ten hours later. Converting the Fantasti-Car into submarine mode, the Fantastic Four soon encounter Namor atop an ornate tower built on the ocean floor and attack him, having prepared themselves for underwater combat. While Reed, Johnny, and Medusa keep Namor busy, Ben slips inside the tower and soon finds Sue inside a pressurized chamber. Watching the fight on a large viewscreen, Sue insists they’ve made a terrible mistake. She dons an oxygen helmet and leads Ben back outside, where she stops the fight and announces that she and Franklin weren’t kidnapped—she went with Namor willingly and intends to stay with him in Atlantis forever. Reed is heartbroken and orders his team to withdraw.
Ten hours later, the Fantasti-Car returns to the Baxter Building. The whole way, Reed has fixated on Namor’s cruel accusations that he betrayed Sue and practically drove her into Namor’s arms. He finally collapses in despair, forcing Ben to take over the controls and bring the Fantasti-Car in for a safe landing. Humiliated and exhausted, Reed demands that Ben and Johnny stop talking about it; he just wants to go to bed. Unfortunately, they are ambushed by the Wizard, the Sandman, and the Trapster, who quickly gain the upper hand against their distraught foes. Medusa seems uncharacteristically frustrated and impatient with the battle, causing her teammates to wonder if it’s because she was a founding member of the villains’ team, the Frightful Four. Reed, Johnny, and Medusa have all been captured when Thundra—who has also quit the Frightful Four—suddenly comes crashing in to rescue Ben. Though Thundra seems motivated primarily by the idea that no one will defeat the Thing except her, Ben is still glad to see her. Together, they knock out the Sandman while Johnny overcomes the Trapster and captures the Wizard. Once Reed and Medusa have been freed from the Wizard’s anti-gravity disks, the villains are tossed into a containment cell to await the arrival of the police. Reed is curious whether Thundra had advanced knowledge of the ambush, but before she can answer, Johnny calls them all over to the window. Out in the harbor, they can see gigantic sea monsters surfacing, being directed by a sinister masked figure. Next to him stands the Sub-Mariner, with Sue at his side, apparently intent on invading New York City.
Enraged by Namor’s effrontery, Reed vows to make him pay and storms off to the vehicle hangar. Medusa suggests to Johnny that there’s something strange about the way the Sub-Mariner is acting and decides to stay behind to consider the matter. Annoyed, Johnny hurries to catch up with the others and finds Reed launching the Fantasti-Car with both Ben and Thundra aboard. When they reach the harbor, they see the sea monsters smashing up some docks as an NYPD riot squad tries to drive them off with small-arms fire. Reed attacks Namor but is nearly debilitated by the guilt and shame that Namor’s barrage of criticism stirs up within him. Ignoring Sue’s objections, Namor fights with Johnny and Ben as well, insisting that they’ve obviously taken Reed’s side. Angry over the way Namor is being treated, Sue suddenly creates an invisible force field in the Fantasti-Car’s path. The vehicle slams into it and is completely demolished, sending its passengers plunging into the water. The Sub-Mariner immediately declares victory and orders his sea monsters to destroy the city. Finding their guns useless, the police riot squad retreats as Namor, Sue, and their masked compatriot alight on the docks. Ben swims to the dock and tries to drive the sea monsters back, followed by Thundra, who brawls with the Sub-Mariner. Overcoming a few of the creatures, Ben confronts Sue and insists that she’s the only one who can stop the fighting, since neither Reed nor Namor will ever surrender. Seeing how determined Reed is not to lose her without a fight, Sue begins to doubt her conviction that her husband never really loved her. Ben encourages her to rethink her position, prompting Sue to realize that what she and Reed had was real love—complicated and messy and as full of heartache as joy—unlike the romantic fantasy that Namor has to offer. She rushes up to Reed and embraces him, saying they can forgive each other for everything that’s happened. As Reed and Sue kiss passionately, Ben tells the Sub-Mariner that he’s clearly not wanted around there anymore. Smiling, Namor says he’ll gladly depart now that he is no longer needed. He flies off to join the sinister masked figure, who has guided the sea monsters back into the harbor, whereupon Ben and Johnny decide that Namor must be crazy. As the invaders retreat beneath the waves, Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny, and Thundra head back to the Baxter Building, where Medusa seems unusually satisfied with herself.
In the days that follow, Sue brings the comatose Franklin back home to the Baxter Building, and Reed invents a battery of devices to monitor the boy’s condition while also working on rebuilding the Fantasti-Car, the Pogo Plane, and the Jet-Cycle, as well as developing new vehicle designs and other projects. However, Reed makes sure to spend as much time as possible with Sue, intent on rebuilding their relationship. The couple finally talks in depth about the underlying issues that led to their separation and Sue’s frustrations with Reed as a husband and father. Reed comes to realize that his approach to fatherhood had been unconsciously patterned after his own father, himself a remote and distracted scientist, and he resolves to do better. Hoping that his new perspective has not come too late, Reed promises to do everything he can to bring Franklin safely back to consciousness. At the same time, Sue is intrigued by the enigma of Wundarr and offers to help Ben and Alicia look after him. She learns that Wundarr’s intellect has developed significantly since he came to live with them late last year, and he seems to now have the mind of a toddler. Though Medusa shows no interest in either Wundarr or Franklin, she seems genuinely glad to have Sue around again. Medusa and Johnny start spending more time together, with each gaining genuine insight into the other’s peculiar culture.
May 1967 – Johnny is annoyed when Spider-Man swings through the window of the Baxter Building, assuming that the Spider-Mobile needs maintenance. However, he quickly learns that the web-slinger is on a life-or-death mission and needs to borrow an aircraft to intercept an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic. Johnny gives Spider-Man a quick tutorial on piloting a brand-new compact aircraft and sends him on his way. Before departing, Spider-Man suggests Johnny check out a peculiar burglary that just occurred at E. 47th Street and Park Avenue. With nothing better to do, Johnny decides to follow up on it and flies over to Faversham’s jewelry store, where he finds a large patch of ice on the sidewalk despite the air temperature being above 60°. Suddenly, he is hit in the back of the head with a large ball of ice and decides the mutant known as Iceman must be responsible. Flaming on again, Johnny flies off and finds Iceman about five blocks away, moving along the rooftops on one of his ice-slides. Accusing Iceman of robbing the jewelry store, the Human Torch starts a fight with the brash young mutant, and they trade punches for a couple minutes until a Rolls-Royce pulls up to the curb. Cyclops, Marvel Girl, and Angel get out of the car and break up the fight, revealing that Iceman was with them when Faversham’s was burglarized. The X-Men insist that Iceman return to their headquarters for an important mission, but he refuses, intent on finding out who framed him. Johnny sheepishly offers to help Iceman track down the impostor, which Iceman accepts with no hard feelings. They set off together as the rest of the X-Men drive away.
The two heroes return to Faversham’s to see an explosion tear a hole in the side of the building. Taking a closer look, they are surprised to see the edges of the hole have been fused smooth, as if they were melted, and wonder if they’re dealing with a phony Human Torch as well. The burglar, wearing some kind of all-concealing metallic bodysuit, tries to make a break for it, but Johnny tackles him. The thief’s bodysuit gets torn at the shoulder, so he rips it off, revealing himself to have a body that alternates waves of ice and fire. Calling himself “Equinox, the Thermodynamic Man,” he vows to kill the two heroes for interfering with his plans. Equinox staggers them with a barrage of alternating blasts of fire and ice. Then, hearing police sirens approaching, Equinox leaps atop a passing city bus, but the heroes pursue him. When conventional fisticuffs fail to stop Equinox, the Human Torch and Iceman decide to try hitting him with fire and ice blasts simultaneously. Equinox cries out that it has caused his internal energies to reach critical mass, whereupon there is a massive explosion that leaves a smoking crater in the street. Thinking their foe blown to bits, the Human Torch and Iceman unwrap the package he was attempting to steal and are surprised to find only an atomic clock. Curious as to why Equinox was so desperate to get his hands on something not particularly valuable, the Torch notices the bottom of the crater opens up into the sewer system and wonders if the crook managed to get away after all. Later that night, Spider-Man returns the Fantastic Four’s aircraft undamaged.
Several days later, Charles Xavier pays a visit to Reed Richards and reveals himself to be the mysterious leader of the X-Men known only as Professor X. He has come hoping to obtain the formula for unstable molecules in order to create costumes for some newly recruited members of his mutant taskforce. Appreciating the trust Xavier has placed in him, Reed agrees to share the formula and helps him produce about half a dozen individualized outfits. Reed also consults with Xavier about the dangerous potential of Franklin’s mutant powers, and Xavier offers whatever assistance he can provide going forward.
Mister Fantastic, the Thing, the Human Torch, and Medusa are finishing up a test flight of a sub-orbital shuttlecraft for NASA when a bright flash sweeps across the planet. Temporarily blinded, the Thing brings the ship down for a rough crash-landing in a wilderness area near Cape Kennedy in Florida. Emerging from the wreck, the Human Torch scouts around the area but finds no trace of civilization, prompting Mister Fantastic to assume they are somewhere in the Everglades. Suddenly, they are attacked by a group of primitives wielding Stone-Age weapons, though the savages are easily defeated. The Human Torch wonders if they’ve traveled through time, but then Uatu, the Watcher materializes and explains that they haven’t—the rest of the world has been regressed to a primordial state by an unknown time meddler using the team’s copy of Doctor Doom’s time machine. Noting that he is willfully violating his oath of non-interference, the Watcher agrees to send the Fantastic Four back in time to repair the damage to the timestream. Thus, Reed and Johnny find themselves transported to a small town in upstate New York in the fall of 1777, where they rescue General George Washington from the stockade at a British fort. Washington reveals that he had been captured by Hessian mercenaries after the sudden appearance of the time meddler caused his horse to throw him to the ground. Meanwhile, Ben and Medusa travel to Chicago in 1928, where Ben finds himself temporarily restored to human form. Medusa breaks into a clothing store, where they take some period outfits as well as cash from the register. At a nearby speakeasy, they find the time meddler talking to some gangsters, warning them about the coming stock market crash. Ben recognizes him as the Baxter Building’s mailman, Willie Lumpkin, and interrupts. The gangsters object to Ben dragging Lumpkin out, precipitating a fistfight. With Medusa’s help, Ben hustles Lumpkin into a car parked outside and speeds off, but the gangsters pursue them with guns blazing. Ben loses control of the car and crashes into an apartment building. However, he then transforms back into the Thing and chases off the gangsters. The five time-travelers are then reunited in a bizarre landscape straight out of a Salvador Dali painting, where they are confronted by a crystalline giant calling himself Tempus. Having existed in that unchanging limbo for countless eons, Tempus longs for death and admits having lured Lumpkin to the Fantastic Four’s time machine in the hope that his bumbling through the time continuum would cause it to collapse. Angered by the Fantastic Four’s interference, Tempus hits them with eye-beams that cause them to age rapidly, though the effect proves transitory. Working together, the Fantastic Four cause Tempus to topple over, and his massive crystalline form shatters when he hits the floor. The fabric of reality immediately begins to unravel around them, but the time-travelers are rescued by the Watcher and returned to the Baxter Building. Uatu admits he knew about Tempus all along but claims his oath prevented him from saying any more than he did. Even so, he erases Lumpkin’s memory of the entire affair before dematerializing again. As the confused mailman makes his exit, Ben wonders who will have to foot the bill for NASA’s wrecked spacecraft.
Running a series of tests on Wundarr, Reed determines that the young man’s superhuman abilities derive from the background radiation his cells are constantly absorbing. However, he is at a loss to explain why Wundarr has the intellect of a toddler—as though he spent his entire life inside a sensory-deprivation chamber—since there are no signs of brain damage. Suddenly, Wundarr’s body releases an explosive burst of pure energy that wrecks the lab, sending rubble raining down on the street below. As Ben heads down to see if anyone was injured, Reed realizes that the energy in Wundarr’s cells must have built up to the maximum level that could be stored there, resulting in a violent, unfocused discharge. Thus, he quickly designs a special costume for Wundarr to wear which will keep the energy in his body circulating safely and allow it to be released harmlessly through a device in the belt buckle. Ben soon returns with Daredevil, who was passing by when the explosion occurred. Reed helps Daredevil retrieve his billy club, which is dangling from the Baxter Building by its grappling hook, and apologizes. As Ben leads Wundarr out to change into his new outfit, Daredevil continues on his way.
A little while later, Ben catches Daredevil trying to steal the new Fantasti-Car from its rooftop hangar. Hurriedly, Daredevil explains that he’s been on the trail of the terrorist organization known as Black Spectre since they tried to assassinate New York District Attorney Franklin Nelson last Christmas. Now, it seems his erstwhile partner, the Black Widow, has fallen in with the terrorists aboard their blimp, and he needs to go after her. Ben immediately fires up the Fantasti-Car’s engines and flies Daredevil to the villains’ airship, which turns out to be a jet aircraft disguised as a blimp. Smashing through the craft’s electrified hull, the Thing comes face-to-face with the hypnotized Black Widow; a strange-looking woman calling herself Nekra, Priestess of Darkness; and numerous uniformed Black Spectre agents. The Thing shrugs off their attacks and breaks into an adjoining chamber, where he finds the organization’s hooded leader standing on a gigantic baboon-like idol amidst an artificial jungle. Grabbing the leader, the Thing rips off his hood and is so shocked by his mandrill-like face that he leaves himself open to a hypnotic whammy. Paralyzed, Ben is carried out by several agents and dumped into the Fantasti-Car alongside the unconscious Daredevil. The Fantasti-Car is then sent plummeting toward the ground, but Daredevil comes to in time to restart the engines and pull the craft out of its nose-dive. Ben finally shakes off the hypnotic effect and lands the Fantasti-Car safely on the New Jersey Palisades. He is ready to go back for round two, but Daredevil decides to continue the fight on his own. Thus, Ben flies Daredevil back to Manhattan while attempting to describe the terrorist leader’s animal-like face. Daredevil thanks Ben for the information and swings off on his billy-club cable.
The next day, the Fantastic Four receive a message from Black Spectre claiming that they have an atomic bomb hidden somewhere under Manhattan, which they threaten to detonate if the Fantastic Four interfere in their overthrow of the U.S. government. Soon after, the terrorist group invades Washington, D.C. and storms the White House, only to be defeated by Daredevil and the Black Widow. The Fantastic Four are relieved when the bomb threat turns out to be a hoax.
Ben takes Wundarr out for a day at the Central Park Zoo, but while he is distracted buying some cotton candy, Wundarr uses his super-strength to free a number of large animals from their cages. As the crowd panics, Wundarr bursts into tears, but Ben is too busy helping the zookeepers round up the animals. When he is finished, Ben finds Wundarr being comforted by Namorita and her college roommate Annie Christopher. Namorita tells the frustrated Ben not to yell at Wundarr, since the childlike alien clearly has no understanding of the consequences of his actions. Annoyed, Ben accuses Namorita and her cousin, the Sub-Mariner, of abandoning Wundarr last November, leaving the Fantastic Four to look after him. Namorita insists that she had no choice then but offers to take charge of Wundarr now that her circumstances have changed. Learning that Namorita is attending college out on Long Island, Ben agrees to give her custody of Wundarr and takes her contact information. As Namorita and Annie lead Wundarr away, Captain America comes charging up, along with his girlfriend, former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter. Having seen the commotion caused by the escaped animals, Cap demands to know why Ben is letting the perpetrator walk away. Ben invites the couple to the Baxter Building for coffee, and on the way, he explains about Wundarr and his strange situation.
When they arrive, they find Reed and Medusa performing maintenance on the team’s time machine. An accident causes a young woman named Tarin to materialize from the year 3014. Everyone is horrified by Tarin’s tale of how she has spent the last seven years as a slave of the Badoon, vicious aliens who conquered the solar system, wiping out most of the human race in the process. The few humans who survive in slavery remember Captain America, she reveals, as a symbol of liberty and hope. In fact, the leaders of the resistance movement, known as “the Guardians of the Galaxy,” have even named their spaceship after him. Obviously feeling personally invested in Tarin’s plight, Cap asks to accompany her back to the future. Ben and Sharon eagerly volunteer as well. Uncertain of the dangers involved, Reed offers them 24 hours in the future for a scouting mission. After briefing them on the time machine’s operation, Reed sends the Thing, Cap, Sharon, and Tarin to the New York City of the 31st century. Unfortunately, the three time-travelers are almost immediately captured by an armed patrol of zombie-like police—humans altered by the Badoon so they can neither feel pain nor be knocked unconscious—and a semi-armored creature known as the Monster of Badoon. Tarin manages to escape in the chaos, but the others are dragged before the alien leader, Sovereign Drang, and his sadistic aide, Inquisitor Ebor. The Thing soon rescues Cap from a painful mind-probe, and with help from Sharon, they fight their way out of the palace and lose themselves in the darkened streets.
After several perilous hours, the trio finally makes contact with the Guardians of the Galaxy when Vance Astro, Charlie-27, Martinex, and Yondu rescue them from a Badoon patrol. Ben is interested in Astro’s tale of his own years spent in suspended animation, having left Earth in the late 1980s bound for Alpha Centauri aboard a sleeper ship. When he finally arrived a millennium later, Astro found himself a “man out of time,” much like Captain America, as technological advances had allowed later human colonists to get there ahead of him. Given all that, Ben is not surprised to learn that it was Astro who named the Guardians’ spaceship the Captain America, to honor his boyhood hero. They soon rendezvous with Tarin and the rest of the human resistance movement, whereupon they stage a daring raid on the imperial palace and manage to capture Sovereign Drang despite sustaining heavy losses. Drang remains defiant, pointing out that the Badoon have conquered the entire solar system, so one rebel victory is inconsequential. The Thing and Captain America insist that the human war for independence is just beginning, a sentiment echoed by the Guardians of the Galaxy. A few hours later, the time machine’s glowing platform reappears and the Thing, Cap, and Sharon wish their new allies good luck before returning to the present day. Back in the Baxter Building, Ben complains that humanity will be nearly wiped out by lizard people in a little over a thousand years, but Reed assures him that that scenario is just one of many possible futures.
June 1967 – The Fantastic Four are saddened by the announcement that Captain America has retired. Ben insists that Cap didn’t seem quite like himself during their trip to the 31st century. Reed wonders if Cap was disillusioned by the bitterness and cynicism of the administration of former U.S. president Morris N. Richardson, whose death was reported recently. Johnny then teams up with Thor to stop the Lava Men from causing every volcano on earth to erupt simultaneously using the Mole Man’s laser-cannon, which Reed thought he had destroyed last October. However, the Mole Man’s Subterranean servants had dutifully repaired the weapon, only to have the Lava Men wrest it from them. Luckily, Thor had a friend among the Lava Men, Molto, who sacrificed his life to warn him what their witch-doctor Jinku was planning. Johnny boasts about how he and the thunder god saved a village at the foot of Mauna Loa in Hawaii from being inundated with lava and then led the Subterraneans in a pitched battle against the Lava Men, estimating there may have been as many as half-a-million combatants. With the Human Torch and Thor against them, he brags, the Lava Men soon surrendered.
Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny, and Medusa fly the Fantasti-Car to the Great Refuge of the Inhumans, accompanied by Agatha Harkness and the comatose Franklin, to attend the wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver. Upon arrival, they are welcomed by Black Bolt, Gorgon, Karnak, Triton, and Crystal, though Quicksilver is, as usual, conspicuously absent. Reed introduces them to Agatha, who has come along to take care of Franklin so Sue can relax and enjoy the festivities. The Fantastic Four are then escorted to sumptuous guest quarters and treated to a delicious breakfast. Several hours later, they are joined by Thor, Iron Man, the Scarlet Witch, the Vision, the Swordsman, and Mantis. Gorgon is annoyed that Lockjaw had to teleport him to New York to fetch the Avengers, since Quicksilver apparently neglected to send them their invitations, and that the Avengers then insisted on flying halfway around the world in one of their Quinjets. When Mantis asks about the inert Omega android standing in the center of the city, Medusa explains how Black Bolt’s brother, Maximus the Mad, created it in order to weaponize the Inhumans’ prejudice against their servant class, the Alpha Primitives. After being deactivated, the android was left in a public square as a memorial. Triton insists that Black Bolt has instituted many reforms since that fateful day.
A few hours later, a royal banquet is held in a large stadium, but Quicksilver has insisted that he is too busy with wedding preparations to attend. To cheer up Crystal and entertain the crowds, the Thing, the Human Torch, Medusa, Thor, and Iron Man put on an impromptu exhibition of their superhuman powers. However, Medusa and Iron Man fall under some form of mind control and attack the section of the stands where the Alpha Primitives are seated. The pair is quickly subdued and then lapses into unconsciousness. The Alpha Primitives start yelling accusations at Black Bolt, only to be shouted down by the Inhumans around them. Reed realizes the situation in the Great Refuge is less rosy than the royal family made it seem. Later, he meets with Thor and Black Bolt to discuss the situation, with Triton interpreting for his silent king. Meanwhile, Johnny is hanging out in a plaza where he can hear Quicksilver arguing with his sister, the Scarlet Witch. When Crystal passes by looking glum, Johnny musters his courage and strikes up a conversation. Ignoring the knots in his stomach, he tells her that he wishes her all the best, and though he’ll never forget the romance they once had, he’s happy that she’s happy. Then, feeling like an inarticulate fool, Johnny flames on and flies off. He is shocked when, minutes later, the Swordsman and Mantis raise the alarm—Omega has come to life and kidnapped Crystal.
Mister Fantastic, Thor, Black Bolt, and Triton rejoin the others and see that Quicksilver has finally deigned to make an appearance now that his bride is in danger, Through Triton, Black Bolt suggests that the Avengers, being impartial observers, may have better luck questioning the Alpha Primitives about Omega’s reactivation. Thor concurs, so Quicksilver leads his former teammates into the caverns where the Alpha Primitives live. Black Bolt then takes Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny, Karnak, and Triton to the cell where Maximus is being held. They are surprised to find him in a coma as well, just like Medusa and Iron Man. They carry Maximus back to the city on a stretcher, where they come upon the Avengers retreating from the Alpha Primitives’ caverns and see that both Quicksilver and Mantis have lapsed into comas as well. As a rampaging mob of Alpha Primitives comes storming out behind the Avengers, Maximus suddenly leaps up, grabs a blaster, and opens fire on them. In the ensuing melee, the Human Torch, Gorgon, Karnak, Triton, Maximus, and the Swordsman abruptly fall unconscious like the others. Finally, Omega strides across the plaza to the remaining heroes and reveals himself to be Ultron-7 in disguise.
The murderous robot explains that Maximus brought the severed head of Ultron-6 to the Great Refuge after the Vision defeated him a few years ago and eventually fused his circuits with the Omega android, giving him Omega’s psychic abilities, which he has used to incapacitate the unconscious heroes. Ultron-7 then turns those abilities against all his enemies, intent on destroying their minds. His scheme backfires, though, as his psychic energies inadvertently awaken Franklin from his coma. The boy lashes out at the source of the attack with his mysterious mutant powers, obliterating Ultron-7’s computerized brain. Omega’s body topples over then as all the heroes regain their senses. Agatha sends the groggy Franklin toddling over to his father. Ecstatic, Reed lifts his son into his arms as Sue comes running over to join them, and they embrace. Reed deduces that the discharge of psychic energy has drained off the excess mutant power that had built up in Franklin’s body over the last two years, leaving him once again an ordinary child. Ben and Johnny are simply happy to see that Franklin is back to normal after nine months in a coma.
In the morning, Lockjaw teleports Alicia to the Great Refuge so she can attend the ceremony. As heralds fly over the city blowing their horns to summon the guests to the palace, Alicia asks Ben to describe the scene to her, but all he can think to compare it to is the Rose Bowl Parade. She luxuriates in the elaborate gown provided to her, which she is assured is the latest in Attilan fashion, but Ben gets grumpy when some attendants try to dress him in a formal cloak. Elsewhere, Reed and Sue watch the heralds wheeling in the sky and reminisce about their own wedding day four years ago and all the trouble Doctor Doom caused. As they joke around, Reed stretches his arm across the street to snatch a bouquet of flowers for his wife. Soon, as the guests start arriving at the temple, Medusa finds Johnny moping around in a corridor. He says ruefully that he now accepts that Crystal never really loved him, but Medusa insists that what they had was real; it’s just that sometimes people change. Seeing how upset Johnny is, Medusa offers to stay by his side throughout the ceremony, having come to a better understanding of human empathy. Then, in a large hall, Black Bolt escorts Crystal to the altar, where Quicksilver and the officiant are waiting. The ceremony proves to be a curious mixture of human and Inhuman customs, at the conclusion of which Black Bolt offers his royal blessing to the couple. Lockjaw then teleports the newlyweds off to their honeymoon. A huge celebration follows, and Johnny finds himself swept up in the pageantry of the day and enjoying himself despite the pain of a broken heart.
Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny, Medusa, Alicia, Agatha, and Franklin then head back to New York, stopping at Avengers Mansion shortly after midnight to say goodnight to their friends, whose Quinjet has accompanied them on the return journey. However, a sudden storm forms overhead, unleashing a series of deadly lightning bolts that strike the roof. While the other heroes dodge the lightning, Thor launches himself into the sky and tries to dispel the storm, without success. To the Avengers’ surprise, Agatha succeeds in dissipating the storm with a magical incantation, revealing that it was actually an attack on her. Reed assures Agatha that the Fantastic Four stand ready to help if she’s in danger. Agatha thanks him but insists they don’t owe her anything—she helped them take care of Franklin when he was a baby, but now that his mutant powers are no longer a threat, Sue is perfectly capable of raising the boy without her. And in any case, she says, it is time for her to take on a new charge—the Scarlet Witch. The Avengers are shocked, but the Scarlet Witch admits that she has long wanted to study true witchcraft and accepts Agatha as her tutor. Knowing she will be in good hands at Avengers Mansion, the Fantastic Four bid Agatha a fond farewell and fly on to the Baxter Building.
In the days that follow, Reed conducts a series of tests on Franklin to confirm his hypothesis. He is relieved when it seems that Franklin is indeed no longer in danger from his mutant powers. Throughout, Reed and Sue focus on spending time with Franklin as they continue to rebuild their marital relationship. Meanwhile, Ben celebrates his 42nd birthday by taking Alicia out on the town for a night of dinner and dancing.
July 1967 – Receiving a late-night call for help from Mrs. Coogan, an old neighbor from Yancy Street who was like a second mother to him growing up, Ben heads over to her tenement apartment. There, he meets her grandson, Duff Coogan, and his friend Nick Cromer, who are clearly shaken by a bizarre experience they had earlier on a nearby subway platform. Hearing about a harmonica-playing girl who exploded into a shower of multicolored sparks that drifted like snowflakes through the station until being absorbed into the bodies of several bystanders, Ben assumes that Coogan and Cromer are high on drugs, but out of loyalty to Mrs. Coogan, he agrees to hang around for a few hours to make sure there are no uncanny aftereffects. Telling the others to go to bed, Ben goes back down to the street, where he fumes about how Coogan and Cromer are clearly a couple of punks who make life difficult for a sweet old lady. He is further angered when he sees the Yancy Street Gang has already sprayed graffiti all over his aero-car. However, Doctor Strange then appears and corroborates Coogan’s weird tale, explaining that he witnessed it himself and is trying to track down the people from the subway platform. Suddenly, a gigantic rat scrambles up the wall of the tenement building and drags Duff Coogan out of his bedroom window. Strange frees Coogan with some magical fire, but Ben’s blows have little effect on the creature until Strange convinces Coogan to stop thinking of himself as a victim and to seize control of his own destiny. The giant rat then disintegrates, prompting the onlookers to credit the Thing with its destruction. When Strange says there is more to the matter that bears investigating, Ben decides to accompany the sorcerer back to his house in Greenwich Village.
Arriving at the Sanctum Sanctorum, Ben is greeted by Strange’s girlfriend, Clea, and his manservant Wong. Strange is taken aback when Clea informs him that their houseguest, the Valkyrie, just left with the magical harmonica. He consults his large crystal ball, which he calls the Orb of Agamotto, and it reveals that the Valkyrie is at that moment sleeping under a tree in Cobbler’s Roost, Vermont. Ben is confused, so Strange explains that the harmonica-playing girl had appeared to him again and revealed herself to be a manifestation of destiny. The people who absorbed her sparks, such as Duff Coogan, would soon face manifestations of their own personal destinies—the giant rat was an embodiment of Coogan’s bitterness and despair, for example. Only one person remains to be contacted, a drunken derelict who had taken shelter in the subway station, but he is somehow invisible to the sorcerer’s mystic scans. As for the Valkyrie, Strange continues, she was apparently created fully-formed by the Enchantress and, having no memory of a former life, has gone to Vermont in search of the identity of the woman whose body she inhabits, a woman known only as Barbara. Seeing that Ben is more confused than he was before, Strange suggests he meet up with the Valkyrie in Vermont and try to retrieve the harmonica. Happy to have something to do, Ben sets off in his aero-car, leaving Strange to continue his search for the drunken old man.
In upstate New York, Ben stops at a gas station to buy a map of Vermont, only to be attacked by the station attendant, who speaks in an archaic manner reminiscent of Thor. They trade punches for a minute or two, but then Ben is shot in the back with a bolt of mystic force and blacks out. When Ben comes to, the gas station has disappeared along with his assailants, but an old man has been left tied to a chair. Doctor Strange’s astral form suddenly appears and tells Ben that the hapless man is the one he’s been searching for. The gas station was an illusion, he reveals, and Ben’s attackers were none other than the Enchantress and the Executioner, notorious enemies of Thor and the Avengers. Strange advises Ben to return to New York, but when the old man asks him to take him home to Cobbler’s Roost, where his daughter Barbara may be in danger, Ben decides to do that instead. Along the way, the old man introduces himself as Alvin Denton and says his life fell apart after his wife died in a car crash and Barbara and her fiancé fell in with a group of occultists and disappeared. Arriving in Cobbler’s Roost, they soon find Barbara, but as Ben suspected, she turns out to be the Valkyrie and does not recognize the old man. Suddenly, the Executioner materializes again alongside the Enchantress, who immediately breaks the spell she had placed on Barbara. The Valkyrie persona disappears, leaving Barbara shrieking in insane terror. Denton is horrified, but the Enchantress only chuckles and says she has returned his daughter to him, thereby fulfilling his destiny. As such, the Enchantress is now free to use the magical harmonica and conjures it up. However, Denton snatches the harmonica from her and blows into it, hoping it will cure Barbara. Instead, it destroys the planet.
Amidst the drifting rubble of Earth, Ben realizes “the end of the world” must be the manifestation of Denton’s destiny, since the old man has lost everything he ever valued. Desperate, the Enchantress changes Barbara back into the Valkyrie, hoping that will induce Denton to blow into the harmonica again. Unfortunately, Denton suffers a massive heart attack and drops the harmonica. Ben and the Executioner both lunge for the instrument and fight over it. Not wanting to get shot in the back again, Ben tells the Valkyrie to deal with the Enchantress, but she is prevented from doing so by a protective spell. The Valkyrie attacks the Executioner instead, allowing Ben to overcome the Enchantress’s magical defenses and knock her out. He then grabs the harmonica and blows into it, restoring the planet exactly as it was before. Relieved, Ben takes down the Executioner with a haymaker, freeing the Valkyrie to rush to Denton’s side. Sadly, the old man has already died of heart failure, and she mourns the loss of her only link to Barbara’s identity. Ben tries to comfort her, only to be assaulted by the Executioner again. However, the Enchantress decides that continuing to fight over the harmonica is pointless, so she teleports herself and her partner away. Ben then suggests they take Denton’s body into town, but the Valkyrie insists on doing it herself. A bit put out, Ben is ready to return to New York, but Doctor Strange’s astral form appears again and asks him to wait for him there, since the harmonica may still pose a threat. Exhausted, the grumbling Ben agrees, tucks the harmonica into his belt, and settles down under a tree for a nap. He is woken up a little while later by Strange and another superhero called Nighthawk and learns that they and the Valkyrie are members of a loose-knit team called the Defenders. Strange seems a bit touchy on the subject and suggests they focus on locating the Valkyrie, since his magic amulet has detected a sinister presence in the area.
The amulet leads them to a grand house on the outskirts of town, where Ben and Nighthawk fall through a trap door into an underground chamber with electrified walls. While trying to escape, Ben loses the harmonica, but he and Nighthawk eventually find a hidden passageway that leads them into a large chamber full of weirdly dressed cultists, led by a high priest and a hideous old high priestess. Doctor Strange and the Valkyrie are lying unconscious on a low altar with the high priest’s two-pronged staff magically phased into their foreheads. The staff is drawing out their life-force to open a portal to another dimension, where a two-headed arch-demon is starting to cross over to Earth. Ben charges at the demon and tries to push it back into its own realm while Nighthawk brawls with the cultists. Nighthawk then warns Ben that the high priestess is about to blow into the harmonica, so he breaks away from the demon, grabs the harmonica, and crushes it in his hand. The dimensional portal immediately collapses, leaving the demon trapped on the other side, and the high priestess crumbles to ash. Yanking the staff out of his friends’ foreheads, Ben is surprised that it leaves no wound. Doctor Strange and the Valkyrie recover immediately, though they’re a bit disoriented. Strange puts the cultists and their high priest into a trance so he can deal with them later. Relieved that the crisis has passed, Ben says goodbye to the Defenders and flies his aero-car back to the Baxter Building, where he cleans off all the Yancy Street Gang’s graffiti.
While out clothes shopping, Ben and Johnny are alarmed when they see lightning-like energy coruscating around the top floors of the Baxter Building. Johnny immediately flames on and flies over to investigate. When he arrives, he finds a brutish intruder calling himself Mahkizmo and demanding that Thundra be surrendered to him. Mahkizmo catches Johnny off guard by grabbing his flaming legs and slamming him into a wall. Calling Johnny effeminate, Mahkizmo beats on him until Ben arrives. Unexpectedly, Mahkizmo then beats Ben into submission as well, using devastating “nuclear-powered” punches. Just then, Reed returns from celebrating Sue’s 28th birthday at the Landers’ horse farm in Pennsylvania. He is so happy to have his wife and son back that he doesn’t mind that Sue and Franklin have decided to stay at the farm for a few more days. His mood becomes deadly serious, though, when he sees a hole blown in the side of the Baxter Building and detects radioactive particles on the Jet-Cycle’s sensors. Landing his vehicle on the roof, Reed stretches down and looks through the hole. Mahkizmo immediately attacks him with his “nuclear-powered” punches, again demanding that Thundra be turned over to him. Losing consciousness, Reed tumbles off the building and falls toward the street some thirty-odd stories down. Luckily, he is caught by Thundra, who is just arriving at the building with Medusa. Thundra goes to confront Mahkizmo while Reed recovers. When he and Medusa reach the scene of the battle, they learn from Ben and Johnny that Thundra and Mahkizmo had only begun to fight when they suddenly vanished in a nimbus of energy.
Medusa then reports that she ran into Thundra following a high-level meeting at the United Nations to discuss the official status of the Inhumans in the global community. Thundra revealed to her that she comes from a future world where militaristic women, who call themselves Femizons, ruthlessly dominate men. However, her world began interphasing with an alternate timeline where men ruthlessly dominate women—Mahkizmo’s empire of Machus. After leading a successful attack on an army from Machus, Thundra was chosen to cross the dimensional boundary and defeat Mahkizmo in single combat. Something went wrong, though, and Thundra ended up stranded hundreds of years in the past. In an attempt to prevent the Machus timeline from ever coming about, Thundra decided to publicly defeat the 20th century’s most powerful man. She chose the Thing for various reasons, but their big fight a year and a half ago proved inconclusive. Since then, Thundra admitted, living among the men and women of the mid-20th century caused her to change her views. No longer believing that the Femizons represent the best future for the human race, Thundra has abandoned her mission to humiliate the Thing. Ben is glad to finally understand what Thundra’s deal is and is flattered that she considers him to be “the world’s most powerful man.” Determined to rescue Thundra, Reed starts modifying their time machine so they can travel to specific alternate futures. When Reed calls Sue to inform her of the situation, she insists on returning to the city with Franklin. Reed makes sure to tell Sue how much he appreciates her presence on the eve of such a dangerous mission.
The modifications to the time machine are completed shortly after dawn the next morning. Reed asks Sue to stand by in the lab to operate the device’s remote-control panel in case something should go wrong with the portable control stand. Reed, Ben, Johnny, and Medusa then gather on the glowing platform. To the team’s surprise, the modifications to the time machine allow them to witness time passing around them at high speed. They are startled when the Baxter Building suddenly disappears a few years in the future, and then New York City is destroyed in some kind of cataclysm roughly two centuries later. Reed then directs them sideways in time, and they flash past Thundra’s native timeline to materialize in Mahkizmo’s desolate realm of Machus. Johnny flames on and flies off to scout around and soon comes upon a gang of men using bullwhips to torment some defenseless women. As the Human Torch swoops down, the men open fire on him with handguns. Mister Fantastic, the Thing, and Medusa come running up to join the fray, only for Mahkizmo to materialize in their midst. After beating up Ben with his “nuclear-powered” punches, Mahkizmo turns his fury on Reed and Johnny. When Medusa is hit in the back with a stun-blast, Ben goes berserk and tears into the gang of men. However, Mahkizmo forces Ben to surrender by threatening to kill the unconscious Reed. As Ben allows himself to be chained up, Mahkizmo mocks him for giving up over something so insignificant as the life of a friend. Later, as they approach Mahkizmo’s capital city, Reed theorizes that they are being affected by some kind of will-sapping ray that prevents them from resisting. Even so, when they come upon Thundra being savagely whipped in a public square, Ben snaps his chains and charges in to rescue her, only to be stopped cold when Mahkizmo punches him in the face. Reed, Ben, and Johnny are then locked in a “stasis cage” suspended above the ground as Medusa is led off to the palace to await Mahkizmo’s pleasure.
As darkness falls a few hours later, Medusa comes running out of the palace and passes by the cage. Reed calls to her to free them, but she refuses. Insisting there’s no time to explain, Medusa flees from the city, heading back to the time machine’s control stand. Ben yells after her, calling her a traitor, and tries to break out of the cage, only to receive a nasty jolt of electricity. Having analyzed how the stasis cage functions, Reed instructs Johnny to slowly heat up the coupling that keeps it suspended, reasoning that a gradual approach may work where an aggressive action would be thwarted. Several minutes later, the metal becomes soft enough that it gives way, sending the cage crashing to the street, where it breaks open. Unfortunately, several guards appear and shoot the trio with their stun guns. When they come to, Reed, Ben, and Johnny find themselves sprawled on the floor of Mahkizmo’s throne room. Thundra is ignominiously chained up next to the throne, from which Mahkizmo gloats that the Femizons will soon provide new blood in his kingdom’s breeding stables and sculleries. He then orders all four prisoners thrown into his gladiatorial arena, where they face some hideous monsters that prove no match for their superhuman powers. Frustrated, Mahkizmo leaps into the arena to do the job himself, but Ben calls him a coward for refusing to face them without his will-sapping ray. Insulted, the tyrant tears into them with his “nuclear-powered” punches. Suddenly, an interdimensional portal opens behind Mahkizmo, and an army of Femizons charges out, led by Medusa, who is apparently immune to the effects of the will-sapping ray due to her Inhuman physiognomy. Reed deduces that the ray is emanating from a large, phallic tower in the center of the city and sends Johnny to destroy it before it affects the Femizons. Johnny flies over to the tower and releases a nova-intensity flame blast that melts it to slag. Ben is ready to give Mahkizmo a taste of his own medicine, but Thundra intervenes, unwilling to allow any man to do her fighting for her. Beset on both sides, Mahkizmo summons up his full “nuclear” power, but when Ben and Thundra strike him simultaneously, Mahkizmo’s power runs wild and causes him to explode. The release of his radioactive energy so close to the portal stabilizes the dimensional merger, leaving the men of Machus and the women of Femizonia to live together as equals. Reed, Ben, Johnny, and Medusa are surprised when Thundra accompanies them back to the 20th century. Ben admits he’s kind of glad that Thundra will be hanging around. She gives him a kiss on the cheek, saying he’s the kindest man she’s ever met. Reed does not miss the opportunity to tease his old friend about it.
A few days later, Reed, Ben, and Johnny are flying over the city in the Fantasti-Car when they are attacked by a figure in a green “mystery man” costume. They recognize the costume as the same one Reed wore over four years ago when he engaged Ben and Johnny in mock battle. This time, the mystery man appears to be in earnest, bringing a weird “multi-gun” to bear against them, which produces a variety of different effects and causes the Fantasti-Car to crash to the street. After some back-and-forth, Johnny melts the multi-gun to slag and Reed captures the mystery man. Unmasked, the mystery man proves to be S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, who wanted to test some of the new ordnance created after Tony Stark stopped providing weapons to his agency. Disappointed, Fury admits the designs need more work. Reed, Ben, and Johnny are annoyed, but Fury merely teleports away after promising to pay for the damage to their vehicle. Not long after, the Fantastic Four are baffled by a midsummer snowstorm in New York. Reports of bizarre weather phenomena come in from around the globe, but the cause remains unknown.
The Fantastic Four wake up one morning to discover that everyone in Manhattan has been in a coma for the last 48 hours. Exiting the Baxter Building, they find the streets descending into chaos as people try to deal with the after-effects. The cause is soon revealed to be an alien horseman on a nearby rooftop, calling himself “Pestilence.” He explains that he and his three compatriots had conquered Earth long before the rise of humanity, due to its strategic location relative to their star empire. However, a more powerful race eventually overcame them, and they were forced to retreat to their home planet. There, they were branded cowards and sentenced to permanent exile. Having wandered the galaxy for countless eons, the quartet has returned to Earth to conquer it again, thereby redeeming themselves in the eyes of their people. Having heard enough, Ben attacks Pestilence, who renders him weak and diseased with a mere gesture. Nevertheless, Ben perseveres and knocks the alien off the roof with all the strength he can muster. Pestilence vanishes into thin air, whereupon Ben quickly recovers. Back in their headquarters, the Fantastic Four decide to split up into two teams to track down “War” and “Famine” before regrouping to take on the remaining horseman.
The Human Torch and Medusa track the “War” horseman to Africa, where they find a full-scale armed conflict raging with the world’s most advanced weaponry. Their airship is destroyed by a surface-to-air missile, but Johnny flies Medusa safely to the ground, where they are quickly taken prisoner by African soldiers. The soldiers reveal that War promised them victory over their colonial oppressors in exchange for 76 hours of total obedience. Johnny insists that War is an alien and will betray them after he’s conquered the planet, but the soldiers refuse to listen and form a firing squad. Johnny and Medusa break free and overcome the soldiers, only to have War materialize nearby, wearing a fearsome helmet and brandishing a sword that emits devastating energy blasts. Medusa is stunned by one of the blasts, enraging Johnny. He shoots streams of flame at the ground beneath War’s mount, causing the horse to throw its rider. Johnny then grabs his fallen foe, but the alien goads him into removing his helmet to look upon “the true face of war.” When he does so, Johnny is shocked to see his own face staring back at him. Curiously, Medusa sees her own face instead. War then apparently disintegrates, so the confused heroes head off to rendezvous with their teammates.
Meanwhile, Mister Fantastic and the Thing locate the “Famine” horseman in Cambodia, which is suffering from the effects of the conflict in neighboring Vietnam. The alien horseman is causing villagers at the edge of a rice paddy to believe they are starving to death despite their food supply being plentiful. Reed and Ben realize that the villagers are either completely oblivious to the food around them or believe it to be spoiled and are thus growing crazed with hunger. When Famine mentions an ancient curse placed on him and his compatriots, Reed begins to develop a theory of what’s going on. He wraps Famine up in his elastic body, causing the alien to suddenly dematerialize. The two old friends then return to their vehicle and fly to Africa to pick up Johnny and Medusa for their confrontation with the final horseman—“Death.”
The Fantastic Four find the “Death” horseman on Mount Everest in the Himalayas and attack him. Rather than fight back, Death conjures up skull-faced doppelgängers of the Fantastic Four to defend him. Reed warns his teammates not to battle their own counterparts, believing that would lead to mutual annihilation, like matter meeting antimatter. As such, Ben destroys the Human Torch doppelgänger with a huge snowball, Reed throws Medusa’s doppelgänger off a cliff, and Johnny buries the Mister Fantastic doppelgänger in an avalanche. Medusa is insulted when Death calls her the “weak link” in the Fantastic Four, so she picks up the Thing doppelgänger with her hair and hurls it at the surprised horseman. Colliding, both creatures disappear in a massive discharge of energy. Reed then speculates that the ancient curse mentioned by Famine was placed on the quartet by the “mightier race” that banished them from Earth eons ago, to protect the planet should they ever return. When each of the Four Horsemen were defeated, Reed believes, they were teleported back to their home planet and are unlikely to pose any further threat. Tired out, the Fantastic Four spend the night in the nearby Great Refuge of the Inhumans before heading home to New York.
August 1967 – Reed and Sue throw a lavish party at the Baxter Building to celebrate Franklin’s third birthday. Johnny, Ben, Alicia, and Medusa also attend, as well as Carol and Bob Landers. Namorita and Annie Christopher bring Wundarr, whose intellect is now roughly on the same level as Franklin’s. Reed and Sue have continued to work on their marital issues and are in a good place; Sue takes Franklin for frequent visits to the Landers’ horse farm in Pennsylvania, giving Reed the space he needs for his laboratory research. For his part, Reed is much more engaged and attentive during the time they spend together. Johnny, Ben, and Alicia are greatly relieved that the old tensions have not returned, and Medusa is happy that Sue seems to have no interest in rejoining the team.
When Manhattan is rocked by a series of unnatural earthquakes, the Fantastic Four head out to help rescue people from damaged buildings. Since the quakes seem to have two epicenters—one in Washington Heights at the north end of the island and the other in the Financial District on the island’s southern tip—Reed decides to split the team up. Thus, the Human Torch and Medusa head north, where they meet up with Thor and a new recruit to the Avengers called Moondragon. Johnny is immediately struck by Moondragon’s exotic beauty, and though she is bald as an egg, he finds her almost irresistibly attractive. Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Mister Fantastic and the Thing coordinate their efforts with Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Daredevil.
At Reed’s request, Johnny flies to Detroit, Michigan to answer a call for help from Tony Stark. Knowing that Detroit is a hub for automobile manufacturing, Johnny is excited to go. When he arrives at the local Stark International facility, though, he quickly becomes annoyed with Stark’s bodyguard Iron Man, who treats him like a kid. Stark then informs Johnny of a series of suspicious technology-related deaths over the past few weeks that the media has dubbed “the techno-murders.” The prime suspect is a costumed saboteur calling himself Infinitus, who, during a fight with Iron Man yesterday, claimed to be the reincarnation of Pharoah Amenemhet III of Egypt’s 11th dynasty, out to destroy his ancient enemies. Suddenly, Infinitus strikes again, nearly killing Stark and an engineer named Rodgers by blowing up the office. Johnny saves the two men and goes after Infinitus, but the villain incapacitates him with his heat ray and escapes. When Iron Man arrives on the scene, his patronizing attitude drives Johnny to hunt down and capture their foe on his own. After visiting a local psychotherapist to learn more about delusions and identity crises, Johnny heads over to the Detroit Public Library, where he spends many hours poring over books on Egyptology. He starts to regret having dropped out of college since he is so unaccustomed to intense study, but once he finds what he’s looking for, he returns to Stark International. There, Johnny meets with Rodgers, and they realize that Infinitus is really the engineer’s brother Michael, who is faking his mental illness—Amenemhet III was of Egypt’s 12th dynasty, Johnny has discovered, rather than the 11th, not the sort of mistake either the real pharaoh or a true delusional would likely make. They track Infinitus to a nondescript building on the outskirts of Detroit’s factory district, where Johnny saves Iron Man from the villain’s heat ray. The two superheroes then team up to defeat Infinitus and unmask him, confirming that he is indeed Michael Rodgers. Iron Man is surprised, so Johnny boasts of how he figured out the entire scheme. Feeling pretty smug, Johnny flies home, leaving Iron Man to hand Infinitus over to the authorities.
Ben gets upset when he sees a TV news report about the capture of the Man-Thing in the Florida Everglades, remembering his encounter with the swamp creature last summer. He knows that the Man-Thing is not just some mindless monster but is, on some level, a human being. He tries to talk to Reed about it, but Reed is rushing out to a meeting of the trustees of the American Museum of Natural History to discuss the situation. At the museum, Reed is given the opportunity to observe the Man-Thing in the artificial environment created for it by Stark International. He is fascinated by the relatively humanoid creature, which appears to be composed entirely of vegetable matter and to possess minimal intellectual capacity. He then joins Tony Stark and the other board members in a conference room, where they meet Dr. Dane Gavin, the scientist who captured the monster. They are also introduced to the woman who financed the operation, Vivian Schist, and her daughter, Carolyn Schist. Several of the board members are eager to put the Man-Thing on public display, seeing it as a huge windfall for the museum. Gavin is opposed to the idea but has no scientific evidence to back up his misgivings. Thus, the board votes to set up a special exhibit, to open in one week. Reed joins Stark in assuring Gavin that they will personally supervise the preparations.
A week later, the museum hosts a formal opening for a select crowd of its most generous patrons. Reed attends in his tuxedo, as does Tony Stark. After some initial remarks from the chairman of the board, the heavy velvet curtains part, revealing the Man-Thing to the audience. The creature seems stunned as a wave of shock and fear washes over the crowd, then it suddenly goes berserk and smashes through the transparent wall of its enclosure. In a panic, the guests bolt for the exits, which seems to agitate the Man-Thing even more. Shoving Stark out of the way, Reed tries to restrain the creature using his elastic arm as a lasso, but it merely oozes out of his grip and shambles off through the museum. Armed guards have no better luck stopping the Man-Thing, but Reed is kept busy dealing with the panicking crowd. After wreaking havoc in the dinosaur exhibit, the Man-Thing escapes into the streets, where it makes it all the way to Columbus Circle, shrugging off the NYPD’s attempts to capture it. When it collapses into the fountain, Gavin insists that the creature must be returned to the Everglades immediately, and Carolyn Schist concurs, overruling her revenge-seeking mother. Fearing a public-relations disaster, the board quickly reverses its decision, and Stark provides a vehicle to take the Man-Thing back to its swamp.
Reed, Ben, Johnny, and Medusa are taking a stroll through Central Park when they are attacked by the Silver Surfer, who easily overcomes them with the power cosmic. Reed demands to know why the enigmatic alien has betrayed them, so the Surfer explains that, after a period spent meditating on Mount Everest, he tried again to penetrate the barrier Galactus erected around the planet to keep him exiled there. He failed, and as he plummeted back to Earth, he was drawn via tractor beam to a small village in the Balkans, where he was astonished to see posters announcing that the love of his life, Shalla Bal, was their new queen. He soon found her in an ancient castle overlooking the town, but she did not recognize him and threatened to summon her palace guard. It was then that Doctor Doom appeared, and the Surfer realized he was in Latveria. Doom revealed that Shalla Bal was now his wife, but he would release her from her marriage vows and restore her memory if the Surfer agreed to kill the Fantastic Four. Asking for their forgiveness, the Silver Surfer then blasts the quartet into unconsciousness.
When Ben, Johnny, and Medusa come to, they find themselves in one of Doctor Doom’s high-tech dungeons, their powers neutralized by fiendish devices. Reed is likewise imprisoned nearby but remains in a comatose state. Doctor Doom pays them a brief visit, accompanied by the Silver Surfer and Shalla Bal, to gloat over his triumph. After they’ve left, Ben manages to free Johnny, who smashes open the plastic pod keeping Reed unconscious. Though groggy, Reed is able to free Ben and Medusa. Out in the corridor, the Fantastic Four easily overcome a dozen androids led by one of Doom’s robot doppelgängers, destroying them all. As they make their way through the shadowy corridors beneath the castle, Reed is convinced that Doom is toying with them. Indeed, they soon find themselves in another death-trap, and no sooner have they escaped than they are ambushed by a new “Doomsman” android. Clearly having been imbued with the Silver Surfer’s power, the Doomsman shrugs off the Fantastic Four’s counterattacks. Luckily, the Silver Surfer arrives and joins the fight against the Doomsman, quickly turning the tide of the battle. The wrecked Doomsman crashes through a wall into a laboratory where Doctor Doom is at work. Ben and Johnny attack the villain but are unable to penetrate his personal force field. Before the battle can escalate further, Shalla Bal runs in and demands that they all stop fighting before they destroy the castle and the priceless treasures of Latverian history and culture it contains. The Silver Surfer concurs, saying they’ve no right to endanger a nation’s archives, even if they mean little to Doom. Stung by the Surfer’s insult, Doom tells them all to get out of his sight, claiming to have lost interest in the conflict now that his Doomsman android has been destroyed.
Outside the castle, the Silver Surfer explains that “Shalla Bal” is apparently just a Latverian peasant named Helena, whom Doom used to bait a trap for him in order to siphon his power into the Doomsman android. Clearly disappointed, the Surfer streaks off into the sky. Johnny asks Reed if they should take Helena back to New York with them, but Reed says she belongs in Latveria and is unlikely to face any reprisals from Doom. As the dark-haired woman walks off back to her village, the Fantastic Four set off for home. Not long after, Reed celebrates his 45th birthday by spending it with Sue and Franklin. Reed tells Sue all about their latest encounter with Doctor Doom, wondering how their foe could have known anything about the Silver Surfer’s old girlfriend in the first place, since she lives on the far-distant planet of Zenn-La.
September 1967 – Ben and Alicia decide to catch the New York Jets’ season opener, but on their way to Shea Stadium, they are delayed when a young man stands on an elevated section of the tracks, forcing the train to stop. Impatient to get to the stadium, Ben decides to deal with the situation personally. Expecting a juvenile delinquent, Ben is surprised to find a teenager in a strange, high-tech bodysuit, glowing with a weird aura. The teen identifies himself as “Madrox” and seems confused and disoriented. When Ben tries to forcibly move the young man off the tracks, Madrox suddenly splits into two identical versions of himself. Both of them punch Ben and knock him off the tracks, revealing that they possess super-strength. Angered, Ben throws a couple of trash cans at the duo, knocking them off the tracks as well. When they hit the sidewalk, though, they multiply again. Ben then punches one of the duplicates, causing him to split into another pair. All six duplicates then punch Ben, knocking him out. When he comes to, Ben finds himself back at the Baxter Building. Reed has been tracking a series of mysterious power failures for Consolidated Edison, for which he believes Madrox is responsible. A little while later, the power fails in the Baxter Building, including Reed’s backup generators. Johnny soon finds Madrox on the roof, and they get into a fight. The mentally unstable Madrox manages to knock Johnny out before Reed, Ben, and Medusa reach the roof. As they battle, Madrox continues to duplicate himself every time he is struck, and Reed notices that the entire city of New York is now blacked out. He suspects the power is being siphoned into Madrox’s bodysuit, granting him super-strength, though he’s not sure whether his ability to create duplicates of himself comes naturally or is derived from the suit. Reed tells Ben to stop hitting the numerous Madroxes and to try to restrain them instead, but that proves to be easier said than done.
Fortunately, Charles Xavier arrives on the scene via helicopter and takes charge of the situation. He explains that the young man, Jamie Madrox, is a mutant whose power manifested at birth. Years ago, he had suggested that the Madrox family relocate to a remote farm in Kansas, where Jamie could wear the high-tech bodysuit that is meant to help him control his duplicating power. However, Jamie’s parents died a few years ago, and he suspects the suit has not been properly serviced since and is now malfunctioning. When his mutant-detecting device, CEREBRO, registered that Jamie was in New York, Xavier realized something must be very wrong. Determined to shut down Madrox’s suit, the Fantastic Four move in on the army of duplicates, but they react violently. Suddenly, the Madroxes collapse and coalesce into one body, enabling Reed to accomplish his task. Reed asks Xavier if he was responsible for Madrox losing consciousness, and Xavier admits that he was, though he is evasive about the precise nature of his own mutant powers. Xavier assures the Fantastic Four that he will help Madrox recover his wits and learn to control his abilities. As they depart in the helicopter, the lights of the city start to come back on. Reed wonders what it was about the Baxter Building that drew Madrox there.
Johnny celebrates his 23rd birthday with a small party organized by Sue, who is worried that her brother hasn’t tried dating anyone since he broke up with Crystal. Johnny insists that he’s fine, but Sue can tell that he’s lonely.
October–November 1967 – The Fantastic Four enjoy a peaceful couple of months at the Baxter Building. They note that it seems to be an unusually quiet period in terms of super-villain activity, an observation with which the Avengers agree. Reed follows up with Xavier about Madrox and learns that the young man has been sent to live with Xavier’s colleague Moira MacTaggert at her Mutant Research Centre on Muir Isle, off the coast of Scotland. Reed is relieved to know that not every mutant Xavier works with necessarily becomes a member of the X-Men.
December 1967 – For about 18 hours, the Baxter Building is completely surrounded by an impenetrable force field. Try as they might, the Fantastic Four are unable to escape. Finally, the force field vanishes as mysteriously as it appeared. They then learn that while they were trapped, Loki led an invasion force of Asgardian warriors against Washington, D.C., only to be repelled by Thor and the U.S. Army.
On Christmas Eve, Sue throws a party at the Baxter Building, to which Namorita and Annie Christopher bring Wundarr, as he and Franklin really enjoy playing together. Ben is annoyed with Reed, who has set up a high-powered telescope on the roof to observe what appears to be a new star in the sky. After failing to convince Reed to come down to the party, Ben joins Alicia and the others for the lighting of the Christmas tree. Ben is surprised to see Medusa giving Johnny a kiss beneath the mistletoe and assumes she is trying out another of their “human” customs. Telling the others that Reed decorated the Christmas tree all by himself this year, Johnny activates a small transmitter Reed had given him. Immediately, the Christmas tree erupts in a gaudy fireworks display that takes everyone by surprise. Ben busts up laughing, realizing that Reed got so into designing the electronics for the display that he didn’t realize he’d gone completely overboard. Shortly afterward, Reed enters, but instead of joining the party, he heads grimly to the team’s map room. Ben follows and is surprised to see Reed poring over a detailed map of the United States. Reed reveals that most of the energy emitted by the new star seems directed at the Keewazi Indian Reservation in Oklahoma, where their old friend Wyatt Wingfoot lives. Concerned about Wyatt and his family, Ben volunteers to check it out—so long as Reed gets his butt into the Christmas party. Reed is grateful, admitting that he really does want to spend Christmas at home with Sue and Franklin. After saying goodnight to Alicia, Ben takes off in the Pogo Plane and flies out west.
When he reaches the site of the Keewazi Indian Reservation, Ben is startled to find instead what appears to be a first-century settlement in Judea. Spotting what looks like a flare in the hills outside of town, Ben lands there, only to discover that the flare is actually the blazing skull of the Ghost Rider, stage name of the notorious motorcycle stunt performer Johnny Blaze. Ghost Rider claims that he can’t remove his flaming helmet and apologizes. He then reports that, in spite of appearances, the village seems to be populated entirely by American Indians, and among them is a young couple staying in the stables behind the inn with their newborn baby, who is wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. A shadowy figure calling himself “the Creator” evicted Ghost Rider from the village by summoning up a whirlwind that carried him and his motorcycle out into the desert. In light of this, Ben decides they need some way to disguise themselves if they’re going to get to the bottom of this mystery, at which point they spot three magi coming over a rise on camels. Ghost Rider rides up to the trio and surrounds them with a wall of flame, demanding their surrender. Ben is impressed, assuming Blaze must have some kind of flame-thrower rigged up beneath his leather suit. One of the magi then leads Ben and Ghost Rider into the village disguised as his companions. They approach the stables behind the inn and present gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the young couple. Suddenly, “the Creator” steps out of the shadows, enraged that his plans are being disrupted. Ben immediately recognizes him as the Miracle Man.
Turning two nearby farm animals into semi-humanoid monsters to attack the Thing and Ghost Rider, the Miracle Man brags about how he overcame the ghostly Cheemuzwa Indians after listening to their insipid teachings for a year and a half and returned to Earth, where he trapped the four Cheemuzwa elders in mortal forms. He then used his powers of mind-over-matter to create the new star, the Bethlehem-like village, and even the baby messiah, reasoning that doing so would make him the equal of God. Offended, Ben breaks free of the grip of the creature restraining him and charges at the Miracle Man, only to be blasted into unconsciousness. When he comes to, Ben finds that the villain has set the entire village on fire and fled into the hills. Insisting that the flames pose no danger to him, Ghost Rider offers to get the villagers to safety while Ben pursues the Miracle Man. Ben agrees and soon finds his foe standing on a ridge, gleefully watching the inferno he created. Shrugging off a blow from the Miracle Man, Ben knocks him out with a real haymaker. Instantly, the flames are extinguished and the Indian reservation returns to normal. All but one of the Cheemuzwa elders materialize and take the Miracle Man back into their custody. Their leader, Light Horse, explains that the fourth will remain within the human infant the Miracle Man created, to provide its life-force. Ben hikes back to the Keewazi settlement, where he is met by Wyatt Wingfoot, who assures him that the baby will be made a ward of the tribe and raised as one of them. Ghost Rider says goodbye and rides off into the desert on his motorcycle. After wishing Wyatt a merry Christmas, Ben returns to the Pogo Plane and flies back to New York.
A week later, on New Year’s Eve, Johnny decides to give Wyatt a call, realizing it’s been months since they’ve talked. However, no sooner has Wyatt appeared on the video-phone screen than he starts screaming and laughing maniacally, speaking in verse, and referring to himself in the third person. After Wyatt smashes his camera, filling the screen with static, the voice of his grandfather, Silent Fox, the Keewazi chief, comes over the speakers and informs Johnny that Wyatt has been possessed by a demon. Johnny vows to help and takes the Fantasti-Car to Gateway University in St. Louis, Missouri, to meet with renowned demonologist Daimon Hellstrom and his associate, Dr. Katherine Reynolds. Agreeing that Wyatt’s situation sounds like a classic case of demonic possession, Hellstrom offers to accompany Johnny to Oklahoma. He then makes an arcane gesture, conjuring up a column of flame around himself. When it dissipates, Hellstrom is dressed in a sort of costume and holding a large golden trident. Johnny is surprised and feels a little uncomfortable about the large pentagram branded on Hellstrom’s chest, having thought he was more of a run-of-the-mill exorcist. Even so, they get into the Fantasti-Car and fly out to the Keewazi Indian Reservation.
When they arrive, the two men are greeted by Silent Fox and other members of the tribe. Suddenly, Wyatt crashes through the wall of a building and tries to strangle Johnny to death, now immune to his flame. Hellstrom knocks Wyatt away from Johnny, then blasts him with fire from his trident that causes Wyatt to scream in agony and collapse into unconsciousness. Johnny is confused, as he felt no heat from the flames and sees that Wyatt is not burned. Hellstrom assures Johnny that Wyatt has now been cleansed of demonic influence. However, the demonologist warns, the danger has not passed, for the whole area is infused with evil. Sure enough, the other members of the tribe fall under the sway of the evil force and close in on them. While fighting off the mob, Hellstrom suddenly goes berserk and tries to strangle Johnny but quickly comes to his senses. He tells Johnny that their enemy is a demon from Hell and can only be defeated with intense light. Thus, Johnny generates a blast of nearly blinding radiance, which causes all but one of the Indians to collapse. The remaining one screams and curses Hellstrom, identifying himself as “Dryminextes.” Hellstrom then uses his trident to exorcise the inhabiting demon. Wyatt, Silent Fox, and the other members of the tribe recover immediately and are grateful to Hellstrom for saving them. However, Hellstrom ignores them and merely walks back to the Fantasti-Car. Thoroughly creeped out by the experience, Johnny decides he’d better get the unstable Hellstrom back home as soon as possible. He says a hurried goodbye to Wyatt, then launches the Fantasti-Car into the night sky. After dropping the demonologist off in St. Louis, Johnny flies on to New York alone. He’s not sure his teammates would even believe what he’s just witnessed.
Notes:
January 1967 – The Fantastic Four’s adventures resume in Fantastic Four #145 and following. The meeting in Attilan regarding “Project Revival” occurs behind the scenes.
February 1967 – The Thing and the Hulk switch bodies in Giant-Size Super-Stars #1.
March–April 1967 – “Project Revival” proved to be the Inhumans’ scheme to get Reed and Sue back together before Crystal’s wedding. Black Bolt apparently decided that they couldn’t trust Ben and Johnny with the secret or worried that they would object to the plan, so they were kept in the dark. The sinister masked figure directing the sea monsters was actually Triton, who recruited the Sub-Mariner into the plot and had him reach out to Sue without Carol and Bob’s knowledge. The Inhumans did not foresee that talking with Namor would prompt Sue to file divorce papers, which impelled them to put their plan into action somewhat ahead of schedule. Namor destroying the Jet-Cycle and stranding Ben and Johnny in Pennsylvania bought them a few hours, as did taking Sue and Franklin to a remote Atlantean outpost. Medusa tried to cause some delays as well, although she was frustrated by the interference from the Frightful Four, since Sue and Namor were then already on their way to New York. It seems clear Medusa was trying to plant seeds of doubt in Johnny’s mind by suggesting that Namor’s behavior was out of character, presumably so the Fantastic Four would be more likely to pull their punches. Medusa and Triton were in radio contact with each other throughout, but Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny had no idea what was really going on. Thundra’s involvement in the battle on the waterfront was unexpected, but everything worked out all right in the end, to the Inhumans’ immense relief.
May 1967 – Spider-Man stops by the Baxter Building in Giant-Size Spider-Man #1. The story continues in Marvel Team-Up #23, where the Human Torch and Iceman battle Equinox—who does, of course, escape into the sewers. Professor X mentions obtaining unstable molecules from Mister Fantastic in Giant-Size X-Men #1. The Fantastic Four deal with the machinations of Tempus in Giant-Size Fantastic Four #2. The Thing’s “team-up” adventures then continue in Marvel Two-in-One #3 and following. Ben makes a brief crossover appearance in Daredevil #110 and is behind the scenes when Black Spectre is finally defeated two issues later.
June 1967 – The public learns of Captain America’s retirement in Captain America #177. The Human Torch and Thor fight the Lava Men in Marvel Team-Up #26. All concerned remain unaware that Jinku’s vision of world conquest was projected into his mind by They Who Wield Power. The Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the Inhumans join forces against Ultron-7 in a story that crosses over into Avengers #127–128.
July 1967 – The Thing’s team-up with Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, and Nighthawk crosses over into Defenders #20–21. While traveling through time, the Fantastic Four witness the destruction of the Baxter Building, which will occur in Fantastic Four #278. The bizarre weather phenomena result from Dormammu imprisoning Gaea in Doctor Strange v.2 #8–9. The extraterrestrial Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, members of the Axi-Tun race, menace Earth in Giant-Size Fantastic Four #3.
August 1967 – Earthquakes strike Manhattan in Marvel Team-Up #28, courtesy of a pair of disgruntled scientists being manipulated by They Who Wield Power. The Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and Daredevil remain behind the scenes. The Human Torch and Iron Man then join forces against Infinitus in the next issue. The Man-Thing makes his New York debut in Giant-Size Man-Thing #2. The battle with Doctor Doom brings us up to Fantastic Four #157. “Helena” is actually Shalla Bal, transported to Earth by the demon Mephisto to torment the Silver Surfer and play a joke on Doom, who insists on fighting Mephisto’s champion every year—even though he always loses—in an attempt to free his mother’s soul from eternal damnation. The Fantastic Four are as yet unaware of Mephisto’s existence, though the Silver Surfer mentions him in passing.
September 1967 – Madrox the Multiple Man is introduced in Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4.
December 1967 – The Fantastic Four are trapped in the Baxter Building during Loki’s attempted invasion of Earth in Thor #232–234. The return of the Miracle Man brings us up to Marvel Two-in-One #8. The Human Torch then joins forces with Daimon Hellstrom, the so-called “Son of Satan,” to save Wyatt Wingfoot in Marvel Team-Up #32. Interestingly, Katherine Reynolds notes that incidents of occult phenomena seem to be up quite a bit from recent years, confirming the Ancient One’s warning to Doctor Strange in Marvel Premiere #4.
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