Nick Peron

View Original

Fantastic Four #322

Nick Peron

Between a Rock and a Hard Place!

Credits

On a giant boulder hurtling toward, Graviton reminisces about how the Avengers West Coast banished him there. He notices a large "gravitational anomaly" in New York City and decides to investigate.

On the streets of New York, common appliances have come alive and attack the people. The Fantastic Four arrive on the scene and help some people out. Thing and Ms. Marvel discuss Ms. Marvel's recently acquired Thing appearance, and Thing says there could be a way to change her back.

At their apartment, the Human Torch takes his wife, Alicia Storm, to safety while the city is still crazy. Watching them are Dragon Man and Aron, who plans on using scrapings from the Fantastic Four to obtain great power.

Graviton observes the demon invasion and gets ambushed by the Thing and Ms. Marvel. Graviton uses his gravitational powers to fend off the attack and push them into the ground. The Human Torch shows up, but Graviton creates a vacuum to force him to flame off. Graviton then makes Ms. Marvel and the Thing try to crush Johnny and finishes the job by crushing all three with a building.

The Thing and Ms. Marvel push away from each other to stop themselves from crushing Johnny, who wakes up and uses his flame to burn his way out of the building's ruins. Once again the Human Torch faces Graviton, but this time the Torch pushes his flame to a higher level, drawing in air to create a gale of fire. Graviton prepares to run, but the Thing emerges from the ruins and knocks him down. With the team reunited, Johnny flames off, but finds it needed a lot more effort than on previous occasions and much to his concern.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Thing, Ms. Marvel, Human Torch), “Alicia Masters”, Graviton, Dragon Man, Aron the Rogue Watcher

Continuity Notes

  • This story takes place during the Inferno event when New York City was being invaded by demons from Limbo led by N'Astirh. The primary battle against N'Astirh was taking place in the pages of Uncanny X-Men #239-243 and X-Factor #36-39.

  • Ben points out that Sharon has mutated into a rock-like being from her lizard-like hide just like he did. When the Thing first mutated in Fantastic Four #1 he had a lizard-like hide until he eventually evolved into his trademark rock-like appearance around Fantastic Four #10. It was explained in Marvel Two-In-One #50 that the Thing's form continued to mutate. Sharon's form has also followed this transition after she was mutated in Fantastic Four #310. Sharon mentions how this transformation began last issue, however, the artwork in that story showed no indication that such a transformation was taking place.

  • Ben mentions all the times he was changed back into human form. The most recent time being in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #2, when he discovered he could change back and forth between human and Thing forms. He lost this ability at the end of Thing #22.

  • Ben mentions how Mister Fantastic could change Sharon back to normal. He is referring to Fantastic Four #245 when Reed theorized that Ben's was locked into his "Thing" form due to a psychological problem, not a physical one.

  • The woman here claiming to be Alicia Masters is actually a Skrull spy named Lyja, as revealed in Fantastic Four #350. Lyja took Alicia's place during the events of Fantastic Four #265 in order to spy on the Fantastic Four.

  • The Thing recognizes Graviton as as they previously battled against each other in Marvel Two-In-One Annual #4.

Inferno Reading Order