Fantastic Four #98
Mystery on the Moon!
On the day of a manned mission to the moon, Reed Richards is examining what he learned from the Kree Sentry in order to determine if any others have been left on Earth. Explaining his search to his wife, Reed gets a result from his computer. It only says “tranquility” leaving him to wonder what this word could mean. Meanwhile, the Thing is reading the newspaper until he is interrupted by the return of the Human Torch. As the two squabbles, Reed sees the headline about the manned space mission and asks Ben to show him the paper. The paper has a story about how the mission to the moon is to explore “Sea of Tranquility”. Realizing that another Kree Sentry could be on the moon and may interfere with this mission, Reed scrambles the team to investigate. However, Reed is partially right, as the Kree Sentry is activated by the space shuttle’s proximity on to the moon. Stationed on a deserted Pacific island, this new Kree Sentry fears that the devices stored on the moon by his masters may be disturbed and prepares to destroy the astronauts.
Back in New York, Sue is leaving Franklin in the care of Alicia Masters when suddenly she feels the entire building vibrate. Just as she fears, Reed and the others have left for the moon without her, because Reed believes this mission is too dangerous for his wife to participate in. The group tracks the Kree signal to his secret island where the robot is preparing a weapon to blow up the American space shuttle.
After defeating the Kree Sentry, the three male members of the Fantastic Four enter its secret hideout and attempt to stop the weapon from destroying the space shuttle from space. Unfortunately, the device has a defense system that will sap their consciousness. Although the group is hit hard by the weapon, Reed manages to maintain enough will power to stretch his arm out and disable the device, allowing the space shuttle to successfully land.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Franklin Richards, Alicia Masters, Kree Sentry
Continuity Notes
The narrative of this story states that it is July 1969, during the days leading up to the first Apollo 11 manned moon landing which occurred on July 16, 1969. All references to this story occurring during the actual first moon landing should be considered topical references as per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. As such references to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin must be considered apocryphal in nature. Recent editions of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe generalize the events in this story stating that it was a manned mission to the moon, instead of the first one.
On Earth-616 the first manned moon landing was interfered with by the Skrulls, but this was stopped by the First Line a team of super-heroes who were active during the latter half of the 20th Century (in Marvel time) as seen in Marvel: The Lost Generation #6.
Sentry 9168 should not be confused with Sentry 459, last seen in Fantastic Four #64. At the time of this story, the 459 was inert and in the possession of NASA as seen in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 and would not be reactivated again until Captain Marvel #47.
