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Appearing in "The Star-Spectre!"

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  • Nykonn (First appearance)
  • Nykonn's alien warriors

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  • Unnamed alien dimension

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Synopsis for "The Star-Spectre!"

As his body lies dying, Captain Britain faces the demonic Nykonn on the astral plane in the service of Merlyn and the Goddess of the Northern Skies.

Appearing in "The Way It Began!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Fantastic Four #126

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Synopsis for "The Way It Began!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Fantastic Four #126

Ben and Alicia arrive at the Baxter Building and see what appears to be Doctor Doom standing over the dead body of Sue. When Ben tries to attack "Doom," he learns that it is a life like illusion cast by Reed's Thought-Projector Helmet. Reed explains he was testing it out by coming up with the most repulsive image he could think of. Suddenly, the Human Torch melts through the wall to see what all the noise was about, thinking it was an attack. Sue enters the room and then scolds Johnny for melting through the wall. She then turns her anger toward Reed, as they are running for their trip to Whisper Hill to spend time with their son Franklin.

When Ben makes a crack about putting off marrying Alicia, Johnny takes the opportunity to put down Ben for the way he appears. This angers the Thing and the two almost come to blows when Reed and Sue intervene. After Reed and Sue leave, Ben accidentally makes reference to Alicia, upsetting her that he still views her blindness as something to pity, decides to show herself out. When Ben tries to confide in Johnny how he feels about his appearance, Johnny -- still sore about having to let Crystal go back home -- gets angry at him for being so stubborn about his relationship with Alicia and storms out. Reed and Sue watch Johnny leave in a hurry and Sue wonders if Johnny is taking Crystal's departure from the group too hard.

Back inside, Ben decides to distract his mind and decides to put on Reed's Thought-Projector Helmet. Conjuring up an image of himself when he first mutated into the Thing, with a thick leathery hide, and then as he is now with a rocky exterior, the Thing soon begins remembering himself after the faithful trip into space that led to his transformation.

This in turn leads to a visual recollection of the events that gave birth to the Fantastic Four. Ben recalls how Reed asked Ben, Sue and Johnny to assist him in a commandeering his space ship before the government could shut down the project. How Reed ignored Ben's warnings about cosmic rays. How they succeeded in sneaking onto the base and blasting off in the rocket without being captured. Then comes the memory of Ben's warnings coming to life: cosmic rays bombarding the ship. He recalls how Johnny was complaining about his body feeling like it was on fire, and how he himself could not lift himself off the floor. Ben then recalls how when their ship landed, Sue suddenly vanished from sight. Ben himself mutated into his Thing form and when he tried to start a fight with Reed, they were similarly shocked when he was able to stretch out of the way and then subdue Ben with rubber-like arms. Johnny suddenly burst into flames and was able to fly, inspired by the comic book hero, Johnny decides to call himself the Human Torch. Lastly, Ben recalls how Reed got them all to pay attention and suggested that they used their new found powers to the benefit of mankind. Calling themselves Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch and the Thing, the Fantastic Four were born.

Ben then recalls how shortly after they gained their powers, they ended up crossing paths with the Mole Man, an ugly man who hide below the Earth after being shunned by society because of his appearance. He also recalls their first battle with the Mole Man, wherein they battled his creatures and prevented him from unleashing his minions through various tunnels he dug beneath the Earth. How that battle ended with the Fantastic Four seemingly vanishing the Mole Man, trapping him in his underground kingdom. [1] Ben then recalls the group's most recent encounter with the Mole Man, wherein Sue had bought a bizarre metal home to the newly born Franklin in. They soon discovered it was the staging ground for the Mole Man's latest scheme to blind everyone on the surface. Force to fight the Mole Man without their eyesight, the Fantastic Four were still able to foil these plans, but the Mole Man had escaped and then destroyed the metal construct he had created.[2]

Inspired by this recollection, Ben believes that the Mole Man may have the key to curing Alicia of her blindness and decides to go and find their oldest foe. Because of the racket Ben has caused in making this revelation, the Baxter Building's landlord, Walter Collins comes to once more try and evict the Fantastic Four. Unwilling to stop, Ben abruptly hangs Collins from a coat rack and leaves, determined to cure Alicia of her affliction.

Appearing in "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #5

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  • Pickman (Death)
  • Senator Irksome

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Synopsis for "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #5

Scorpio returns and successfully traps Nick Fury, who was scheduled to attend the unveiling of a new and improved LMD. With Fury his captive, Scorpio uses a machine to make a perfect casting of his face which he then wears as a mask to impersonate him and attend the unveiling in his place. Further, he drugs Fury and swaps the real Nick Fury with the experimental LMD. When the agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. awakes, he finds himself in the observation room surrounded by his friends but unable to communicate, and forced to run through the gauntlet of tests and traps designed to show off the LMD's capabilities. Fury gets through the test, but Scorpio escapes not before Nick gets one good look at his face.

Appearing in "The Granite Sky!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Marvel Team-Up #13

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Synopsis for "The Granite Sky!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Marvel Team-Up #13

Peter Parker has come to the New York waterfront to think. He had hoped that his recent travels to San Francisco would help get his mind off of the recent death of Gwen Stacy. His thoughts are interrupted by a drunk sailor named Nathaniel who can see the sorrow in Peter's eyes. As the man rambles on about how one needs to move on in life, Peter has had enough of this man's drunken advice. While his back is turned, Parker uses his web-shooters to quickly swing away. Nathaniel is taken aback by the sudden departure of the young man he was giving advice. Suddenly, a strange meteor falls out of the sky and splashes down in the water. When Nathan goes to investigate he finds a strange man emerging out of the water. Helping the man out, Nathan is suddenly turned into stone. The man he attempted to rescue turns out to be the super-villain known as the Grey Gargoyle.

A few blocks uptown, Peter Parker is changing into Spider-Man and thinking over what Nathaniel had said. At first, he curses the spider who gave him his powers but ultimately decides that it was for the best and goes looking for a crime to stop. As he patrols the city Spider-Man comes across some A.I.M. scientists who begin shooting at him on sight. Spider-Man easily rounds up the shooters and decides to investigate where they came from. Swinging down the street, the wall-crawler's spider-sense begins to tingle. Suddenly, he spots an A.I.M. goon getting tossed out a window by Captain America's shield. Spider-Man leaps into the building to give Cap a helping hand. The two men easily defeat the AIM soldiers, and with the fight over Captain America radios S.H.I.E.L.D. to pick them up. Suddenly, the pair is teleported aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, much to Spider-Man's surprise. They are greeted by Dum Dum Dugan, who has them lowered from the flight deck into the facility. There, an eager S.H.I.E.L.D. agent remembers that Spider-Man is wanted for murder and tries to apprehend him. Spider-Man fights back to evade capture, but the situation is quickly defused when Nick Fury enters the room and orders his men to stand down. He then invites the wall-crawler to sit in on his debriefing with Captain America.

Fury tells them that while Cap's mission was to stop AIM from getting ahold of a new telemetry system, there were three of the devices made and that A.I.M. managed to snatch the other two while Cap went after the first. However, Fury anticipated this and planted homing devices on them and they were able to track A.I.M. to a secret facility in Queens. They then begin organizing an attack, which Spider-Man is hesitant to take part in, but Fury convinces him to do so for the sake of national security. Meanwhile, at the A.I.M. facility hidden below the site of the old World's Fair, the Grey Gargoyle is plotting to get revenge against Captain America for stranding him in space. He recounts that he was trapped in space until he was able to contact A.I.M. and had them shoot down his vessel so that he could crash-land in New York. Before they can launch their own missiles, Captain America, and Spider-Man attack. However, during the course of the battle, the pair are turned into stone by the Grey Gargoyle.

He then chains their stone bodies to the rockets that contain a weapon that will allow the Grey Gargoyle to turn entire cities into stone, as part of a scheme to blackmail the entire world. However, when the rockets are shot off, he is suddenly attacked by Captain America and Spider-Man again. Something unique to their body chemistries allowed the two heroes to break free from the Gargoyle's spell. During the ensuing battle, one of the loose chains wraps itself around the Grey Gargoyle's leg as the rocket takes off, pulling the villain into space once more. With the battle now over, Spider-Man decides to head home, leaving Cap to clean up the mess.

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