The Pine Barrens: Part 2

Ten Years Ago:

Invisible Woman trying on her costume for the first time while Mr. Fantastic explains to her how unstable molecules, the material the costumes are made of, adapt to their powers. During their conversation, the Invisible Woman makes Mr. Fantastic promise not to put her safety over an innocent's.

The Present:

While taking Franklin and his school friends on a camping trip in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, the Fantastic Four discover hostile aliens. These aliens attack the camp while Sue is left alone with the boys. An alien leaps at Invisible Woman, who has been left at the camp along with the Franklin and some kids from his class. She holds them at bay with a force field. As the situation gets worse and outright victory seems impossible, the Invisible Woman decides it would be best to turn everyone invisible and try to slip away. At first, it looks like they'll succeed, but one of the kids in the group attacks one of the aliens with a flaming stick. The kid doesn't win that fight, so Invisible Woman has to save him. With the kids back in one group, they all run and find a cabin to take shelter in. Invisible Woman knocks the door down and they all scramble inside to find that the cabin is occupied by an old man.

Meanwhile, Thing and Mr. Fantastic have found the alien's ship and attempt to infiltrate it. Mr. Fantastic uses his abilities to change his shape into the form of one of the aliens. Mr. Fantastic slips into the ship while Thing stands guard and stumbles on a couple of filmmakers that they met at a gas station in the last issue. Mr. Fantastic lets them know that he's not a real alien and that everything will be alright, however as he's saying he is unaware that one of those same aliens is spying on them.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing), Franklin Richards

Continuity Notes

• The flashback of this story is stated to have taken place ten years prior. Sources place it happening between the events of Fantastic Four #4 and 5. Based on the Sliding Timescale these events would actually have taken place about 11 years ago.

• In this story, Sue uses her powers to make Reed's book invisible. While Fantastic Four #22 states that Sue did not learn how to use her ability to turn other objects invisible until much later, Fantastic Four: First Family #1 explains that Sue actually always had these abilities, however, she seldom used them initially because she had to learn how to control them.

• The events of Marvel Knights: 4 #1-12 occur between Fantastic Four #516 and 517.