Unthinkable: Part One

Johnny is taking advantage of his position as Fantastic Four, Inc.'s Chief Financial Officer to have some fun at the expense of Ben. Throughout the week whenever Ben comes to get an advance on his allowance from the company, Johnny has one excuse or another to deny him money. After a week of getting the runaround, the Thing decides to play a prank on Johnny by filling up a massive water balloon and dropping it on the Torch while he is out suntanning.

Meanwhile, Reed and Sue are exploring another dimension where alien creatures that speak in trinary are fighting with each other. Reed warns his wife that her invisibility powers will be less reliable in this dimension. However when Reed decodes their language and tries to introduce himself to the aliens, the mere mention of the Fantastic Four's name evokes enough fear that their attackers flee. Having collected the photonuclear crystals he was looking for, the paid prepare to head back to their portal. Along the way, Sue points out that Reed still hasn't been able to figure out what happened in Val's room the other night. When she suggests that it must have been magic, Reed tells her he doesn't believe in magic. When Sue points out that Reed has seen feats of magic before, he tells her all he saw was a form of science that he hasn't bothered to explore yet. They drop the conversation as they approach the portal and find the aliens they encountered earlier have regrouped and are now blocking their portal. These attackers prove of little challenge against the two members of the Fantastic Four.

At that moment on the Moon, Franklin and Valeria are being babysat by the Inhumans. Franklin is trying to get his younger sister to speak for the first time by trying to teach her how to say "mama" or "dada". Crystal and Medusa try to explain to Franklin that Valeria is much too young to be speaking just yet. Soon the portal back to Earth opens with Sue standing in the doorway, having come to collect the children. While Sue takes Valeria off to be fed, Reed asks Franklin if he wishes to help in the lab. There they find a soaking wet Johnny searching for a weapon to get back at Ben for dropping the water balloon on him. Reed believes Johnny's claims that he did nothing to provoke Ben this time and agrees to help them on a prank to play on him. He then sends Johnny and Franklin off to get the supplies he needs to carry it out. While in the kitchen, Ben borrows money from Sue to tide him over. He then begins trying to get Valeria to say his name. When Sue remarks on how everyone is trying to get Valeria to talk, Ben points out that she is Reed's daughter and has the potential to be as smart as he is. Sue suddenly breaks down and admits that she fears that Valeria might not be normal after Doctor Doom helped deliver her. Watching Valeria playing with her blocks on the floor, Ben tries to encourage Sue to see that Valeria is as normal as can be.

What they don't see is the sudden image of Doctor Doom appearing on the face of one of the blocks. Doom reintroduces himself to the girl he calls his goddaughter, explaining how is mastery over sorcery helped her be born without the complications of her parent’s physiology killing her in the process. He explains how he named Valeria after someone close to him, touching the armor made from the flesh of the very woman Valeria was named after. Doom goes on to explain that helping birth Valeria gave him a window of opportunity to finally strike the ultimate revenge against his hated enemies the Fantastic Four and mystically bonded himself to the infant making her his familiar. Doom explains that he will use her as a conduit for his sorcerer to get revenge against her father, blaming Reed for the damage done to his face. Doom removes his mask to show Valeria the scarred visage behind it. Doom then tells her that it is time to begin.

At that moment in Reed's lab, Mister Fantastic has completed the device for Johnny's prank. When Johnny goes to test it out a strange green energy beam emits from it, an effect that was not designed by Reed. When the beam tries to strike at Franklin both Johnny and Reed pull the boy away. With the strange energy following after them, Reed decides to send Franklin back to the moon where he can be safe. He activates the transporter with Crystal standing in waiting on the other side. Back in the kitchen, Sue picks up Valeria and believes that the baby is trying to talk. Encouraging Valeria to say "dada", the infant instead says the word "Doom". In the lab, the transporter begins to malfunction. Reed sends Franklin through anyway but is horrified to notice that instead of transporting Franklin to the moon, the child is now in Hell being dragged away by demons. In utter horror, the boy begins screaming for his fathers for help.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Franklin Richards, Valeria Richards, Doctor Doom, Inhumans (Medusa, Crystal, Lockjaw)

Continuity Notes

• Sue mentions the mystical attack on Franklin and Valeria earlier which occurred in Fantastic Four Vol 3 #61.

• Crystal refers to their home as "New Attilan", some facts about this reference:

  • Attilan was first brought from the Himalayan Mountains to the moon in Fantastic Four #240, however, it was returned to Earth in Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising #1 and eventually returned to the Himalayans in Inhumans Vol 2 #12.

  • Later the Kree briefly enslaved the Inhumans, converting Attilan into a mobile space ship in Inhumans Vol 3 #1-4. When freed, the Inhumans decided to explore the stars with the royal family returning to Earth.

  • The Inhuman Royal family decided to rebuild their home on the moon in Fantastic Four Vol 3 #54.

• Doctor Doom recounts the complications surrounding Valeria's birth although he glosses over some of the finer details, those are:

  • Valeria was actually, per the Sliding Timescale was actually conceived about five years earlier in Fantastic Four #254. However, Sue's pregnancy was with complication and she had a miscarriage in Fantastic Four #257.

  • Years later, circa Fantastic Four Vol 3 #49, Franklin uses his reality-altering powers to resurrect Valeria and pull her forward in time, restarting Sue's pregnancy to the state it was just prior to the miscarriage. When Reed was unavailable to save Sue, the Fantastic Four were forced to seek the aid of Doctor Doom to help Sue give birth to the child in Fantastic Four Vol 3 #54.

• Doom's reference to Valeria being named after someone "close to his heart" is a reference to his childhood sweetheart Valeria as seen as early as Marvel Super-Heroes #20. Doom had recently killed Valeria's namesake and turned her skin into his mystical armor during the events of last issue.

• As explained in Fantastic Four #5 and Fantastic Four Annual #2, Doctor Doom blames Reed for the injuries sustained to his face when his attempt to contact his mother's soul in the netherworld blew up in his face. In reality, Doom refused to listen to Reed's warnings that his calculations were off.