Fantastic Four #309
Danger on the Air!
On the trail of their new foe, the television broadcasted villain known as Fasaud, the Thing and Ms. Marvel have arrived in his native country of Aqiria to investigate things further. As they land at the airport in Aquiria, Sharon thinks back to how her fear of men prevented her from saving Johnny's life, forcing Crystal to step in and save him instead, and how Ben warned her to get over her fears or she is out of the Fantastic Four. However, this proves to be difficult to follow as her mind continues to shift back to the night she was raped by the Power Broker's minions. As they exit the plane, Ben notes that Sharon has been quiet most of the trip and hopes she is getting her act together.
They soon meet King Khafir the ruler of Aqaria as well as Winsor Raynes, the American ambassador. They warmly welcome the two members of the Fantastic Four and agree to try and assist them in their investigation to find Fasaud and put a stop to him. Raynes even goes far to state that until he witnessed Fasaud first hand he shared the opinions of his fellow government liaison Henry Gyrich about super-heroes. Before they go further, King Khafir tells Ms. Marvel that she is going to have to cover up her body due to the cultural norms of his country. At first, Ms. Marvel is insulted, but Ben calms her down and she agrees to honor the king's requests, even if she thinks that it’s sexist.
Ms. Marvel is not the only one angry at men, as back in the United States, Alicia is upset at the amount of time her husband Johnny Storm is spending away from their new apartment and her. Johnny apologizes saying that he and Crystal were working hard to ensure the safety of reporter Gregory Dunbar. Johnny tells her that instead of having Crystal have dinner alone at the Four Freedoms Plaza, he's invited her to join both him and Alicia for supper at their home instead. This upsets Alicia as she was hoping for a more intimate dinner alone with her husband. When Johnny decides to raincheck his idea, Alicia tells him to bring Crystal over anyway. After she hangs up, Alicia resigns to the fact that when she married Johnny it was like marrying the Fantastic Four as well and reminds herself to get used to it.
Back in Aqiria, Ms. Marvel is entirely uncomfortable having to wear a burqa, while they are on-site at the television studio where Gregory Dunbar had his fight with Fasaud the night he was transformed into a living television signal. Ben looks at the damage done but is convinced that should Fasaud need to return he might appear here. As they leave, Ben makes note of all the oil derricks in the area and the king reminds them that Aqiria is an oil-rich country. When Ben later spots a tanker carrying liquid oxygen. When Ben asks what that has to do with oil, and when he starts suspecting that it is being used for space travel, Winsor reminds the Thing that Aqiria is a sovereign country that has its rights to secrecy. They quickly change the subject and suggest searching Fasaud's former residence, but both Ben and Sharon know that they are onto something with the liquid oxygen.
Back in the States, Johnny returns home for supper with Crystal. Things start off pretty well with Crystal taking time to marvel Alicia's latest sculptures. Soon the trio is sitting down to dinner and are toasting to friendship. While that evening in Aquaria, Ben and Ms. Marvel have sneaked into the facility where they saw the liquid oxygen being shipped. State-side, Johnny and Crystal recall how they first met so many years ago when the Inhumans were hiding out in the Bowery. Hearing this story, Alicia recalls how she and Johnny really connected when she took him out to Fire Island where she had him run across the beach with his eyes closed so he could get a feeling what it's like being blind.
When the conversation turns to Crystal's marriage to Quicksilver, Alicia makes the assumption that Crystal started that relationship on the rebound. Things start to get tense when Crystal corrects her, telling Alicia that she left Johnny, not the other way around. As Johnny begins to interject they are interrupted by the arrival of Fasaud, who challenges the two members of the Fantastic Four to battle him outside. Initially, Fasaud's powers are able to resist the attacks of the two heroes. But when he grabs Crystal she causes a build-up of humidity causing a mini-rainfall, briefly shorting Fasaud out. Getting an idea, Crystal tells Johnny to keep their foe busy while she concentrates. As Johnny darts around trying to keep away from their foe, Crystal pushes her elemental powers to their limits, gathering storm clouds overhead.
Once she completes making large enough clouds, she then has Johnny fire a heat-blast into them causing a lightning storm to come pouring down. This time not only does the water begin shorting Fasaud out, but a lightning strike hits their enemy causing his signal to be cut off. As Johnny praises Crystal on her teamwork, Alicia listens from inside their home, deeply concerned by what she is hearing.
While back in Aqaria, Ben and Sharon have discovered that there is a space shuttle being readied for launch. Before they can find out if it has anything to do with Fasaud, they are ambushed by their foe, who knocks them both out with a powerful electric jolt. Fasaud is then congratulated by both Winsor Rayne and King Khafir, who have been in league with Fasaud the entire time.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Thing, Human Torch, Ms. Marvel, Crystal), “Alicia Masters”, Fasaud
Continuity Notes
Ben mentions how he used to be a test pilot and that is how he flew the ship that gave the Fantastic Four their powers. This, of course, is a reference to the events of Fantastic Four #1.
Sharon recounts the events of last issue as well as the fact that she was raped by the minions of Karl Malus while his prisoner in Captain America #330-331. The fact that she was raped is not specifically stated, but heavily implied due to the censorship and content limitations imposed by the Comics Code Authority that was enforced at the time of publication.
Winsor Raynes mentions the anti-super-human sentiments of government agent Henry Gyrich. The footnote to this comment states that Gyrich has "harassed" both the Avengers and the X-Men. This is a vague comment on the fact that Gyrich was a combative government liaison for the Avengers from Avengers #165. He was replaced by Raymond Sikorski in Avengers #235. He also was a part of the anti-mutant agency called Project: Wideawake since New Mutants #1 and, at the time of this story, he was a part of the Commission on Superhuman Activities since Uncanny X-Men #199.
Throughout this issue, the tensions between Ben, Johnny, Crystal and "Alicia" are frequently mentioned or hinted at. For those paying attention at home, these are the facts:
Ben and the real Alicia Masters dated for a long time, since Fantastic Four #9.
Meanwhile, Johnny and Crystal dated between Fantastic Four #65-105 until the outside world's pollution forced her to return home to Attilan.
Crystal ended up rescuing Quicksilver along the way and the two fell in love as seen in Fantastic Four #131-132. Crystal and Quicksilver later got married in Fantastic Four #150. Johnny had a series of failed relationships while Ben and Alicia remained together over the years.
When most of the Fantastic Four were among those kidnapped by the Beyonder to battle in the first Secret Wars on Battleworld, Ben discovered he could change back and forth and believe it was because of Battleworld itself. He decided to stay there in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #12.
Ben remained in Battleworld between Thing #11-22 where he eventually lost his ability to change back into Ben Grimm and returned to Earth.
When he arrived in Fantastic Four #257 he discovered that Johnny was now in a relationship with "Alicia". In Thing #23 the truth of what Reed had known came out and the Thing quit the Fantastic Four.
Ben ended up joining the Mole Man's society Fantastic Four #296, where he still held a grudge against Reed and the Fantastic Four for everything that happened to him. Despite this he grudgingly rejoined the team when they later came looking for him.
Johnny recently married "Alicia" in Fantastic Four #300.
Meanwhile, Crystal had and affair with Norm Webster and was eventually caught during the events ofVision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #6 through 12.
In Fantastic Four #303 Ben realized that he still loved Alicia Masters.
Reed elected Ben to replace him as leader of the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #304.
Ben then asked Crystal to join the Fantastic Four in issue #307.
Johnny went so far as to accuse Crystal of trying to break up his marriage in Fantastic Four Annual #20.
Ben mentions that he and Ms. Marvel used to be wrestlers. The pair were both briefly members of the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, Ben joining in Thing #28 and Sharon in Thing #35. Ben abruptly quit when the Power Broker injected him with a virus that caused him to mutate even more (although he was eventually cured in Fantastic Four #296). Sharon helped Captain America take down the Power Broker in Captain America #330-331 ending her involvement with the league.
Crystal recounts the first time she met Johnny, the flashback is a recounting of those events as they were originally depicted in Fantastic Four #45. Inhumans Special #1 identified that area the Inhumans were hiding out in was the Bowery.
In the flashback, Triton is depicted wearing a massive diving suit. He was required to wear this as a "reverse scuba suit" to keep himself alive on the surface. This was eventually replaced with his rebreathers invented by Maximus in Fantastic Four #54.
Johnny and Alicia's trip to Fire Beach is previously untold flashback likely happened around when Johnny and "Alicia" first started dating circa Fantastic Four #275.
