Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan #1
The Fantastic Four and Iron Man Are Big in Japan!
In Tokyo Japan there are celebrations over the last monster attack on the country. With the mecha, Otetsukun standing as a monument over the Giant Monster Museum & Expo Center which is now opening to the public. Special guests to appear at the museum are the American heroes known as the Fantastic Four who spent a better part of their earlier career fighting giant monsters. After the ribbon-cutting ceremony the Fantastic Four are brought to the museum's curator Dr. Yamane who shows them around. He explains that the museum is a storehouse of Japan’s history dealing with giant monsters and displays the various creatures as well as the technology created to stop them. As they go on the tour, Dr. Yamane and Reed theorize that the emergence of super-heroes happened at the same time that the frequent monster attacks began to stop and suspect the two are closely related.
The doctor takes them into another section of the museum where he displays various creatures that were created by the Japanese military as bio-weapons. This is fascinating to Mister Fantastic, but he also expresses his concerns over the ethics of doing such things. While Dr. Yamane assures them that everything is safe there is a commotion in the other room. They go and see that it is women fawning over the arrival of Tony Stark, who has come to consider partnering Stark Enterprises with the museum.
Tony is included along with the Fantastic Four's tour of the museum. They are brought to a room where Yamane shows off the possible benefits of bio-engineering monsters, such as creating new sources of food that will make Japan more independent as well as more competitive in the world market. While showing them the Fugushi, aquatic cow-like creatures that produce milk, the Fantastic Four suddenly notice that the creatures are becoming aggressive even though Yamane assures them they are quite docile. Suddenly all the creatures contained in the museum go on a rampage and smash out of their pens and spill out into the streets of Tokyo.
As the Fantastic Four try to contain the creatures, Tony Stark slips away to get his "bodyguard", allowing him to change into Iron Man in secret. While the Fantastic Four and Iron Man try to contain the creatures and save lives, they notice that the giant beasts are all trying to flee the area. While they are trying to figure this out the island is suddenly attacked by a group of even larger monsters who have come off the shoreline. Among their numbers include a massive ape, Giganto, Grogg, and Droom.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Iron Man, Giganto, Droom, Grogg
Continuity Notes
This story has a number of veiled references to numerous attacks on Tokyo by Godzilla. While the giant lizard was introduced into Earth-616 continuity in Godzilla #1, at the time this story was published Marvel no longer had the rights to the character.
Reed Richards states that many of their "early adventures" involved giant monsters. This was depicted in Marvel Monsters: Fin Fang Four #1, which featured the Fantastic Four in the early days of their careers capturing monsters and imprisoning them on Monster Isle.
Tony Stark mentions how he needs to get his "bodyguard", in the past Tony kept his double identity a secret. However, his comments here don't make logical sense since he publicly revealed his identity in Iron Man Vol 3 #55.
