Fantastic Four #526
Dream Fever: Part 2
The Fantastic Four and their family are infected with a strange illness that causes them to swap dreams. In order to understand the illness further, Mister Fantastic monitors Alicia Masters dreams and learns that she is having nightmares about Diablo. This causes Reed to confirm his suspicions: First that the illness is spread by close contact with others, and second that they were infected with it prior to their battle with Diablo, suggesting that they picked it up in the Microverse. The team has become testy thanks to the nights of broken sleep. Soon Johnny and Ben are in a squabble until they are broken up by Sue.
Elsewhere in the city, Diablo wakes up after a dream about his foes the Fantastic Four and their children. Deciding that their time is up, he decides to head out and demand the Fantastic Four send him back to the 9th Century so he can exact his revenge against the Spanish Inquisitors who persecuted him centuries ago. Back at the Baxter Building, Johnny and Sue argue with each other oversleep while Reed tries to prevent Ben from attacking General Quark to force a cure out of him. They stop fighting because they suddenly sense a massive blast of light. Suddenly, the Baxter Building is changed into gold. The Fantastic Four then go out to face Diablo. He demands that they let him use their Time-Platform otherwise he will leave the Baxter building in its currents state which will cause chaos as money-hungry New Yorkers storm the building. Reed warns Diablo about the virus from the Microverse, convincing the Alchemist to use the Philosopher's Stone to verify this. Learning the truth, Diablo is able to cure himself of the illness. While their foe is distracted, Johnny manages to snatch it from Diablo's hands and the Fantastic Four retreat back into their headquarters.
Blocking Diablo with one of Sue's invisible force fields, Reed rigs a device that will send out a wave of energy from the Philosopher's Stone to cure everyone in the city that has been exposed to the illness. The jolt incapacitates the Fantastic Four long enough for Diablo to breach their defenses and recapture the Stone. When the Fantastic Four try to stop him from using the Time-Platform, he is able to incapacitate them long enough to activate the device and seemingly escape. However as the team is freeing themselves, Reed explains that he set the controls to trap Diablo on an uninhabited world within the Microverse.
Later Johnny is on the roof of the Baxter Building which has been restored to normal. Sue meets with her brother and confesses she knows what has been bothering him. She recounts how she has been having Johnny's long time nightmare where he is confronted by all the women he loved and how they demand too much from him. Eventually, Johnny loses his cool and flames on incinerating them all. She tries to convince Johnny that he can't live his life afraid of intimacy, but Johnny tells her that she can't understand the constant control he must maintain and retires for the night. Later when Reed and Sue are preparing for bed they are talking over who was experiencing each other’s dreams. Reed explains to Sue that every night he doesn't dream about boring equations but ending each day with her. With that, the couple turns out the lights and go to bed.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Alicia Masters, Valeria Richards, Diablo
Continuity Notes
Johnny's dream sequence features nearly every woman he has had a relationship with over the years. These women are:
Valeria of the Fifth Dimension, Johnny first met her in Strange Tales #103. While they never officially dated he went looking for her when trying to find a new romance in Fantastic Four #161 only to discover that she was in a romance with a man from her native dimension.
Doris Evans was Johnny's first long term girlfriend whom he dated from Strange Tales #113-133. She broke up with Johnny in Fantastic Four #45 the same day that Johnny met Crystal...
Crystal of the Inhumans was Johnny's, first love. The pair started dating in Fantastic Four #66 until Fantastic Four #105 who the outside world's pollution forced her to return to Attilan. She later fell in love with the speedster known as Quicksilver in Fantastic Four #131 and they were married in Fantastic Four #150.
Frankie Raye dated Johnny on and off from Fantastic Four #164-204 and Fantastic Four #232-257. She agreed to become a Herald of Galactus. At the time of this story, she had been dead for some time following the events of Silver Surfer Vol 3 #75. She is later resurrected in Heralds #5.
Lyja was a Skrull spy who replaced Alicia Masters in Fantastic Four #265 and tricked Johnny into falling in love with and marrying her in Fantastic Four #300. Lyja was exposed in Fantastic Four #358 but the couple tried to work things out. However, Johnny was seemingly killed in Onslaught Marvel Universe #1. When Johnny returned and started looking for her in Fantastic Four Vol 3 #2 he claimed to be unable to find her. At the time of this story, Johnny has no idea where she is. However as later revealed in Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #2, Lyja was convinced into joining the Secret Invasion of Earth.
Cole Whittman had a brief affair with Johnny from Fantastic Four #514-515. What started as a trap set by her father the Wizard evolved into a true romance until Cole used her powers to seemingly slay herself and her father.
Missing from this dream sequence are three other key romances: Lorrie Melton who Johnny briefly dated from Fantastic Four #222-231, Namorita who dated Johnny from New Warriors Vol 2 #3 until they drifted apart following the events of Fantastic Four Vol 3 #50, and Kourtney Keaton, the actress whom Johnny started dating around the time of this story, circa Marvel Knights: 4 #1.
