Fantastic Four (Vol 3) #16
Unnatural Selection
This story continues from Iron Man (vol 3) #14...
From their dwelling in Limbo, Margali Szardos and her fellow Defenders, Destiny and Legion, watch the Fantastic Four from a crystal ball as they materialize in their reality. Szardos and her allies hope that the Fantastic Four can put things right on this world so that they can restore the karmic balance caused by their past misdeeds. From the Blue Area of the Moon, the Fantastic Four quickly realize that they are not in their native reality when they see a massive artificial ring around the planet Earth. As the Fantastic Four recount their battle with Ronan, an increasingly inhuman looking Invisible Woman points their attention to a massive statue depicting the Fantastic Four which features Doctor Doom among their number. The other members of the Fantastic Four recognize it as a finished rendition of the sculpture that they saw an alternate version of Alicia Masters sculpting. Reed explains they witnessed a world where the male members of the Fantastic Four had died and -- as impossible as it sounds -- Sue is married to Doctor Doom and has had a female child with him. Sue finds the idea of being married to Doom as insane, but before they can investigate further it appears that Iron Man has caught up with them. However they soon realize that they have made a terrible mistake identifying who approaches them as this Iron Man attacks them. Soon the Fantastic Four finds themselves under attack by a quartet of Kree soldiers with outfits fashioned after the Avengers.
As the Fantastic Four defend themselves from the Kree answer to Captain America, Giant-Man and the Scarlet Witch, they learn that this world was conquered by the Kree who had their soldiers usurp the identities of Earth's fallen heroes for the purposes of mocking the very humans they are charged to hunt. Needing to make a quick escape and figure out what is going on, Johnny manages to steal the Kree Avengers Quinjet allowing the Fantastic Four to flee the scene. Flying down to Earth's surface they are shocked to see a massive skeleton of an impossibly large whale-like creature. This leads the Thing to suspect that this world was decimated from the X-Men's old alien foes the Brood. He explains that he learned about the Brood from his friend Carol Danvers who was with the X-Men when they encountered the creatures. Suddenly the Kree Iron Man catches up with them and renews his attack, forcing the Fantastic Four to crash land on a building top on Manhattan. There they are confronted by their foe who is suddenly struck down by an arrow. The Fantastic Four have been saved by two warriors calling themselves Redwing and Lucas. While Lucas instantly recognizes the Fantastic Four and believes that hey are destined to help them on their quest, Redwing is disinterested in trusting them so easily
Entering a complex the Fantastic Four are informed that after the Kree conquered Earth another insectoid alien force then attacked and decimated the planet and that pockets of humanity have been fighting them ever since. When Ben asks if they are dealing with the Brood he is told that the alien invaders are similar, but a different race all together. As the Fantastic Four learn that Redwing and Lucas are planning to eliminate the queen and hopefully defeat the invaders they tag along. Suddenly they are attacked by a horde of these alien insects and during the course of the battle they shatter through the ground into the den of the queen. From there they pile on the alien ruler when it tries to swallow Sue. With the combination of the Fantastic Four and their two warrior allies the queen is quickly slaughtered. With the threat of the aliens now over the Fantastic Four are suddenly teleported away before they can be thanked by Redwing and Lucas. As it turned out, this is the quest that Margali had sent the Fantastic Four on all along, and having redeemed herself and her allies sent the Fantastic Four back home.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Kree Avengers (Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Giant-Man, Captain America)
Continuity Notes
The Fantastic Four are on Earth-99315 this reality was first indexed in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.
They recount their conflict with Ronan which took place in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #14-15 and Iron Man (vol. 3) #14. This is when Sue was infected with the mannequin that is transforming her into an alien being and when the Fantastic Four first got their glimpse of Earth-99315.
Although the Fantastic Four on Earth-99315 state that Sue married Doctor Doom, if it was truly Victor von Doom in the armor becomes ambiguous as in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #25-31 Reed Richards gets trapped in Doctor Doom's armor. Because Doom's Generals from Counter-Earth needed to be reigned in, Richards posed as his oldest enemy and staged a mock wedding with Sue to make her the "official" consort of Latveria. It is theorized that this might explain why the Fantastic Four of Earth-99315 accepted the fact that Doom had married Sue and had a child withe her. However a clear explanation for this is unavailable.
Valeria von Doom (only mentioned in this story) is actually an adult version of Valeria Richards the stillborn second child of Reed and Sue. Valeria didn't survive the child birthing process as depicted in Fantastic Four #267. This is revealed in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #49. Franklin ultimately uses his powers to restore Valeria to her newborn state so Sue can give birth to her again in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #50.
Ben mentions that he learned from the Brood and the Acanti from Warbird of the Avengers. Carol Danvers had first hand experience with the Brood when she was associated with the X-Men during their first encounter with the Brood in Uncanny X-Men #162-167. It was during this time that the Brood messed with Carol's DNA awakening her powers that led to her adopting the identity of Binary.
