The Man in the Mystery Mask!

On their way back from the Baxter Building, Reed, Ben, and Johnny are attacked by the Mystery Villain. This is an impossible sight for them to believe at first because Reed himself was the Mystery Villain in the past.

Johnny begins recalling the time that Reed had tricked them.

What follows is a reprint of Strange Tales #127

... With his recollection over, Johnny watches and Reed and Ben scramble to get the Fantasti-Car back under control, and they just narrowly avoid a crash landing. Their mystery foe comes bearing down on them on his hover device. Johnny races up to meet him but has his flames doused by the mystery enemy's weapon. Not willing to go down alone, Johnny still manages to blast the hover platform with his flame powers, sending his unknown attacker falling as well. Both are caught by Reed, who gets blasted by the enemy. When Ben steps up to fight their foe, the man in the question mark mask unleashes massive balls with spikes that grow in size. While Ben manages to smash one of them, Reed uses his body like a slingshot to launch the second one back. forcing their foe to use his gun to blow his weapon to pieces. Johnny then blasts his gun, but when their foe tries to escape in a smoke screen, Reed melds his body into a net to capture their foe.

With their enemy tied up, Reed unmasks him, revealing their foe to be none other than Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD. Fury explains that SHIELD needed to test out some new weapons and this was the only way he could do so, offering to pay for all damages done. The Thing is unhappy at being used as a guinea pig and tries to strike Fury, but Nick teleports away. Reed tells Ben to calm down suggesting that they might look back on the situation and agree with Fury's standpoint, but as Reed surveys the damage, he admits that he doubts it.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, Thing), Nick Fury

Continuity Notes

• This story states that after the events of last issue, Thundra stormed off after Ben mentions his girlfriend Alicia Masters and that Sue and Medusa went after them.

• Nick Fury is using the "Mystery Villain" costume worn by Reed Richards in Strange Tales #127, which is reprinted in this issue.