Fantastic Four Unplugged Primer
Fantastic Four Unplugged and it’s sister series, Avengers Unplugged, were shortlived series that featured “dialed down” stories featuring the title characters, usually individual stories that featured an individual member of the team.
The first issue written by Mick Lackey and drawn by Heitor Olivera featured a Thing solo story that pitted him against one of the Mad Thinker’s androids. In the following issue Lacky and artist Adriana Melo wrote a somber story about the Fantastic Four attending the reading of Mister Fantastic’s will. As of Fantastic Four #381, the Fantastic Four believed Reed to have died during a battle with Doctor Doom, a belief that was later revealed to be false, thereby nullifying any sort of emotional impact that could be taken from this story. Lackey and Melo punctuated the pointlessness of the last issue with their next story which focused on Reed Richards, who at the time of the story was trapped in the Hyborian age before being rescued by his teammate. This story also expanded upon the Fantastic Four’s first clash with Hyperstorm in issue #406-407. Issue #4 featured the Human Torch battling the Mole Man. It also featured Lyja, Johnny’s estranged wife, attempting to be part of his life by poising as a college student named Laura Green. Issues #5 and 6 featured stories focused of Mister Fantastic (against Blastaar) and the Thing (agains plane hijackers) respectively.
Due to the nature of the title, the stories therein were not huge game changers. The title was shortly cancelled as Marvel was bleeding out excessive (and costly) titles that were not selling very well.
