Fantastic Four #292
The Man Who Dreamed the World
Apparently trapped in the year 1936, the Human Torch, Invisible Woman, and She-Hulk are rushing to Berlin, Germany, in order to prevent Nick Fury from assassinating Hitler and altering history in a potentially catastrophic way. With Sue and Johnny using their powers in tandem to create a make-shift flying craft, the group recounts the events leading up to this moment. Along with them is jazz musician "Licorice" Calhoun, who is frightened out of his mind seeing super-humans in his own time period. As they rocket across the Atlantic, Sue hopes that they are not too late.
Fury has quite the head start on the FF, as he is already inside Hitler's mansion searching for the leader of Nazi party. Finding Hitler among his staff, Fury tries to strafe them, but Hitler's men manage to push him out of harm’s way. Fury fights through the Nazi soldiers and gets face to face with the Fuhrer himself, preparing to assassinate him for the death of eight-million people including his old squadmate Junior Juniper and his lover Pamela Hawley. However before Fury can pull the trigger, more guards come in startling him and he takes full rounds to the chest.
At that very moment, the Fantastic Four arrive outside Hitler's home. They enter the building and Sue reminds them how important that nobody can die, or else it could have a dire impact on history. As they search they stumble upon a massive Nazi battle robot being constructed. The Nazis working on it try to test it out on the three heroes, but the Fantastic Four make short work of it and continue their search for Fury. Elsewhere in the building, Hitler has had Fury stripped of his uniform and put through a brutal interrogation. However, as much as they try to beat him, Fury refuses to talk or reveal any of his secrets. When Hitler calls another beating, his men are knocked back by Sue's force-field. Sue then slams the door shut, trapping Hitler in the room with them. After she frees Fury, he tries to shoot Adolf, but she tells him that there is no way of knowing if killing Hitler in the past will have any positive effect on the future. At first, Fury seems to break down and accept the facts, but as they walk away he hears Hitler cocking his own gun, Nick suddenly whirls around and shoots Hitler dead....
.... Suddenly, Fury and the other members of the Fantastic Four awaken inside the SHIELD space satellite. Much to their surprise, Reed is also there, alive and well. Sue rushes to her husband who quickly explains how he survived: He explains that when he was battling Annihilus in the distortion area between the positive universe and the Negative Zone. Knowing contact with his spacesuit and Annihilus would cause a matter/anti-matter explosion, Reed ditched his suit at the last moment, leaving Annihilus to be destroyed in the explosion. Reed then inflated his body like a balloon in the hopes of the pressure keeping him alive long enough for SHIELD to find and pick him up, a gamble that worked out after all. With the explanation of Reed's survival out of the way, Fury demands explanations for how they managed to be in 1936.
Reed then shows them the comatose body of Joseph Calhoun, who Reed reveals is a mutant who was put into a coma after being beaten by Mr. Cleveland's men in 1936. Reed explains that Calhoun was beginning to come out of his coma and his mind created the "time warps" replaying the days leading up to his injury. When She-Hulk rescued him, he latched onto the group, pulling them deeper into his "time warp" until Fury "assassinated" Hitler, causing reality to snap back to normal, and that the entire group was living in someone else's dream.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, She-Hulk, Human Torch), SHIELD (Nick Fury), Joseph Calhoun
Continuity Notes
Sue states that her glider in this story is based on similar principals of the one she constructed to help the Fantastic Four get back to Earth from space in Fantastic Four #279.
The Fantastic Four recap of events summarizes events from Fantastic Four #290-291.
Fury mentions his old military unit the Howling Commandos, first seen in Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos #1. Fury mentions that they were in Berlin during the fall of Nazi Germany. Twelve #1 shows Fury and the Howlers as part of the Battle of Berlin circa April 1945.
Fury states that he is avenging the deaths of two people in particular:
Junior Juniper who served with the Howling Commandos from Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos #1-4, was killed in action during an operation in Germany circa 1942.
Pamela Hawley, a British nurse with the Red Cross during the war. Fury began courting her in Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos #4. She was killed in a Nazi air raid of England in Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos #18 circa 1943.
Sue explains a time paradox could be created by killing Hitler that could destroy everything. Likening it to one they narrowly avoided involving the Beyonder and Doctor Doom. Some facts about that:
Doctor Doom was seemingly killed in a battle between the Fantastic Four and Tyros the Tamer in Fantastic Four #260, but as revealed in Fantastic Four #288 he actually used a technique to swap bodies with a by-standard named Norman McArthur.
Later when Reed, Johnny, and Ben were kidnapped by the Beyonder in the Secret Wars they encountered and defeated a seemingly revived Doctor Doom in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1-12, at the end of that story the Beyonder banished Doom to points unknown for briefly usurping his power.
Fantastic Four #288 revealed that the Beyonder had plucked Doom from a time after his body was restored. In that same story, Reed convinced the present Beyonder to restore Doom to normal, erase his memories of recent events and send him back in time to take place in the Secret Wars in order to stop a time paradox. When the past Beyonder banished Doom, he returned him to moments after he was sent back in time.
Although the Hitler seen here was a product of Joseph Calhoun's mind, the real Hitler of Earth-616 was killed in 1945 by the original Human Torch as seen in Young Men #24.
Reed's conflict with Annihilus was heard but not seen during Fantastic Four #290.
Reed states that it has been 50 years since 1936 and this story and that the year they are in is 1986. Both of these statements should be considered topical references per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.
