Fantastic Four #361
Miracle on Yancy Street!
Following his battle against Dreadface, the Thing has broken his arm forcing Reed to reset the broken limb and set it in a specially constructed cast. With the plaster cast, Johnny uses his flame powers to harden it. Not long after, Ben is informed by Roberta, the Fantastic Four's robot receptionist, that there is someone here to see him. It turns out to be his old childhood friend William Sokolowski, who Ben grew up with on Yancy Street. Ben is happy to see his friend from the old neighborhood and they go out to a bar to have a few drinks and catch up. At the bar, William gets down to business and asks Ben's help trying to find his son Jimmy, who William believes has been getting into drugs, right at a period of time where drug addicts on Yancy Street have been going missing. He tell Ben that he came to him for help in the hopes that the Thing -- given that he grew up in Yancy Street and went on to be somebody -- could find his son and convince him to steer clear and remain in the straight and narrow. After hearing the appeal of his old childhood friend, Ben agrees to try and help in anyway he can.
Meanwhile, on Yancy Street, a young drug delivery boy becomes aware of a strange man following him and is convinced that he is either a narc or a thief. The boy is then surrounded by two identical men in an alley way and kidnapped. This kidnapping is witnessed by a young man watching from the rooftops. Seeing this abduction take place, he pulls out some drum sticks and begins drumming on the metal rooftop.
Back at the Four Freedoms Plaza, Johnny finds a present that he had bought "Alicia" for Christmas, a new pants suit. He then realizes that he bought it for the woman posing as Alicia, a Skrull spy named Lyja who had seemingly died helping them rescue the real Alicia. Johnny decides that he is going to try and give the gift to Alicia anyway. He changes his mind when he happens to overhear Sue and Alicia talking about her abduction. When he hears Alicia lament about how Lyja hijacked her life and tricked Johnny into marrying her, and later telling Sue to dispose of all the possessions her impostor accumulated in her absence, a heartbroken Johnny dumps the package in the garbage. Rounding the corner, Johnny comes across young Franklin who is struggling with a package of Christmas decorations. When seeing what's up with his nephew, he learns that Franklin is trying to set up the Christmas decorations because everyone's sad because Johnny and Alicia won't be married and Uncle Ben broke his arm. Seeing his nephew is in tears, Johnny hugs him and tells young Franklin that they are going to have the best Christmas they can manage.
At that moment on Yancy Street, the Thing is searching for young Jimmy Sokolowski when suddenly he is struck by a snowball. Seeing a kid run into an alleyway, he follows after the child, but slips on a patch of ice and goes sprawling in the garbage. Recovering from the spill, Ben soon finds himself face-to-face with the current incarnation of the Yancy Street Gang. They introduce themselves to him: The intelligent African-American youth called Dictionary Dawson, the obese "Little" Larry Lee, Smooth-talking Hispanic Manny Merengues, Mexican drumming enthusiast Rhythem Ruiz, Irish born grease monkey Lugwrench Lubowski and lastly the scrappy young girl calling herself "Two-Fisted" Tommie Boyd. The youths are none to happy that the long-time enemy of the Yancy Street Gang is on their turf, but when Ben tells them that he is looking for Jimmy Sokolowski they tell him what they know about his abduction and know the warehouse where he was taken. When Ben's insists that he go alone, the Yancy Street Gang refuses and tags along despite his protests.
Breaking into the abandoned warehouse, they clash with the "men" who captured Jimmy and Ben discovers that they are actually robots. Fighting through the robots they find Jimmy on an examination table. When Ben gets close he is suddenly blasted by his long-time foe Doctor Doom. Doom explains that he has been experimenting on drug addicts to find a way to take away the addictive effects and withdrawal symptoms of drugs, rendering them useless, however his experiments to date have proven to be fatal. When Doom attacks Ben, the Yancy Streeters try to fight back, but Doom's gauntlet blasts send them fleeing. But this buys Ben time to recover and start fighting back, wrecking the warehouse in the process. Although Doom is protected by his force field and blasts Ben into submission, the damage has already been done and any attempts by Doom to find a cure for drug addictions has been ruined. With is plans ruined, Doctor Doom decides to pay his leave, vowing to one day getting his revenge against the Fantastic Four.
As Ben recovers from the attack, he is joined by the Yancy Street Gang who has freed Jimmy and they all flee the warehouse, escaping just moments before it self-destructs. Soon, Jimmy is reunited with his father who is happy to have his home safe and sound back home. The Yancy Streeters grudgingly agree that they did good work with the Thing, but when they leave they secretly past a "kick me" sign on Ben's back. Back at the Four Freedoms Plaza, Johnny is finishing decorating the tree with Franklin when they are joined by Reed, Alicia and Sue. Sue has recovered Johnny's present from the trash, and Johnny gives the gift to Alicia wanting it to be the first item she has to begin rebuilding her life with. Suddenly the Thing returns home and he is in a sour mood, not only was his favorite jacket ruined, and the Yancy Street Gang planted a sign on his back, but he has realized that they also stole his wallet to boot. However, Ben's sour mood is calmed when Sue holds mistletoe over his head and he gets kisses from both her and Alicia. Becoming bashful, Ben wishes everyone a Merry Christmas.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Alicia Masters, Franklin Richards, Yancy Street Gang (Dictionary Dawson, Little Larry Lee, Smooth Manny Merengues, Rhythm Ruiz, Lugwrench Lubowski, Two-Fisted Tommie Boyd), Doctor Doom, Roberta
Continuity Notes
Ben broke his arm last issue battling Dreadface. Incidentally enough, in his appearances between that issue and this one (Marvel Holiday Special #1991, Marvel Comics Presents #94, Slapstick #4, New Warriors #24 and Marvel Comics Presents #105) Ben's arm is not broken. Although his arm is placed in a cast this issue, it's gone by next issue.
Ben grew up on Yancy Street and there is animosity between him and the Yancy Street Gang due to the fact that Ben was a member of the gang until he moved away from the neighborhood, as seen in Thing #1.
Alicia's presence with the Fantastic Four is one with complex difficulties for both Ben and Johnny. They are:
Ben used to date Alicia going back as early as Fantastic Four #9.
Unknown to the Fantastic Four, while Ben, Johnny, and Reed were kidnapped by the Beyonder in Thing #10, Alicia was captured and replaced by the Skrull spy known as Lyja. This happened around Fantastic Four #265 when the Fantastic Four returned from the Secret Wars sans the Thing. As revealed in Fantastic Four #358, because the Thing remained on Battleworld, Lyja pursued a relationship with Johnny in order to maintain close ties to the Fantastic Four. During her mission, Lyja legitimately fell in love with Johnny while posing as Alicia.
"Alicia" and Johnny got married in Fantastic Four #300.
Lyja was later exposed in Fantastic Four #357 and seemingly died in issue #358 on the mission to rescue Alicia.
Based on the Sliding Timescale, this story couldn’t happen on Christmas. As such, you may consider references to the holiday as being topical.
