Fantastic Four: A Death in the Family Vol 1 1

Johnny is awoken from a dream by the Thing who warns him that Sue is on a cleaning rampage and she is on her way to his room to make sure that he has tidied it up. Horrified by the fact that he has slept in and his room is a mess, Johnny tells Ben to run interference. After listing his demands, Ben agrees to do just that. Confronting Sue in the hallway, Ben tries to keep her distracted but she sees right through the ploy. Pushing past the Thing and entering Johnny's room both are surprised to find it in proper shape. However Sue sees right through her brothers ploy and uses her powers to render the Torch's bed invisible, revealing that all the junk in his room was stuffed under there. The Invisible Woman tells her brother to clean up his room while she goes and checks on her husband's progress with cleaning his lab and then to prepare chili for supper. Johnny offers to make chili instead, pointing out that he is better at making it than her.

When they enter Reed's lab they find that it also appears to be clean. When the discussion about responsibilities around the house is done and Sue mentions making chili, Reed suggests that Johnny help her. When Johnny tells him he can't because heh as to clean his room, Johnny opens the door to the closet by mistake causing a bunch of Reed's inventions -- carelessly crammed in there to evade cleaning duty -- come tumbling out. Sue surrenders and agrees to let Johnny help her prepare supper. As Reed and Ben continue working in the lab, one of Reed's inventions begins to come to life. In the kitchen, Johnny and Sue get to talking and he explains that he learned how to cook while his sister was busy raising them as children. Suddenly their moment of bonding is interrupted when an alarm sounds from Reed's lab.

In the lab they find that one of Reed's devices has summoned a massive Cephalopod from another dimension. During the fight with the creature, the beams it fires can pass through Sue's force field, striking her in the chest and killing her instantly. While the Fantastic Four deal with the shock of Sue's sudden death, Johnny refuses to let his sister die like this. Going to the Time Platform, Johnny sets it to go back in time a few hours so he can prevent this tragedy from happening, ignoring Reed's pleas to Johnny that he cannot change the past.

A few hours earlier, the future Johnny appears before his past self while he's scrambling to make his room appear clean. Future-Johnny uses a device to put his past self to sleep and hides him under the bed. When the Thing and Invisible Woman come in the room isn't clean because Johnny was forced to hide his past self under the bed. Johnny then says whatever is necessary to placate his sister and then suggests that he make them chili for supper before Sue can mention it. When they go into Reed's lab, Johnny becomes nervous because this is the moment before the creature appeared in Reed's lab. This time, Ben tries to exit out of the closet causing the devices in it to tumble out. Not willing to take any chances, Johnny uses his powers to melt all the devices to slag, much to the surprise of others.

Johnny then goes with Sue to the kitchen to prepare dinner and goes through the same conversation that he had with his sister earlier, only this time Johnny's a little sadder. When Sue asks him if everything is okay, he tells her that they will be. As if on cue, the alarm in Reed's lab goes off and when the Torch and Invisible Woman arrive, Johnny is dishearted to see that the creature still appeared in Reed's lab despite his best efforts. Sue doesn't listen when Johnny tells her to stay back. However this time when the creature fires its beams at Sue, Johnny gets in the way of the blast, saving her life. By this time the present Johnny has woken up and joined the fight. This creates enough of a distraction for Reed to calibrate a weapon to send the creature back its own dimension.

Present-Johnny is furious at his future-self, thinking him an impostor. However the Torch believes his future-self after he relates the dream they had that morning. Explaining why he came back in time, the Fantastic Four assist future Johnny back to the Time Platform and send him back to his own time. In the aftermath of the battle, Reed explains that the Johnny that just visited them couldn't change his own past, only create a divergent reality where Sue lived, while the Sue of his reality would remain dead. Johnny understands this but believes his alternate self wanted to go back to make sure at least one version of himself didn't have to suffer that sort of loss.

Appearing in "Childhood's End"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Fantastic Four #245

Featured Characters:

Fantastic Four

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Avatar (First appearance)

Other Characters:

Barbara Walker (First appearance)
Jerry
Smitty
Rob
Sharon Selleck (First appearance)
NYPD
H.U.B.E.R.T. (inactive)

Races and Species:

Locations:

New York City
- Manhattan
  - Baxter Building
  - Television City

Vehicles:

Marvel-1 (Only in flashback) (Unnamed)

Synopsis for "Childhood's End"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Fantastic Four #245

Susan Richards is participating in an interview on the television program "Woman to Woman" hosted by Barbara Walker. Right off the top, Walker's begins to irk Susan by referring to her by her maiden name. When Sue correct Walker, the newswoman suggests that the belief that Sue is accepting the "subservient role" to her husband Reed. Sue corrects her by saying that she loves her husband and that it was her choice to take his last name when they got married. When Barbara questions her use of the codename the "Invisible Girl" as counter to a "liberated woman" of today would use, Sue again explains that she doesn't make herself a prisoner of labels. Barbara continues her interview showing an early photo of the Fantastic Four prior to their rocket flight, and footage of it's take off an internal cameras during the cosmic ray storm that gave them their powers. After going over the powers of the other members of the Fantastic Four, Barbara asks if Sue feel's her own powers are overshadowed by the others. Sue shows the contrary opinion by using her invisibility powers to create a column that lifts Barbara high above the stage. Sue then goes on to explain that with her powers she was able to rescue the Fantastic Four during their first battle with Doctor Doom, as well as knock out the Hulk. Barbara continues to dig deeper, bringing up Sue's past love affair with the Sub-Mariner. Sue brushes it off as youthful indiscretion and that after she made up her mind about Reed and they were married, she has maintained a friendly relationship with Namor. Sue then goes on to explain that the Fantastic Four are more than just a team of super-heroes, that they are a family and she has a role with them as wife and mother. Meanwhile, in the control room of the studio, the crew notices that the Fantasti-Flare has been fired into the sky, but none of them are willing to interrupt Barbara's interview due to her tyrannical nature on the set.

Soon after the interview is ended and Barbara expresses her regrets that Sue couldn't be "completely open" with them. Sue resigns to the fact that she could not convince Walker of anything and takes a cab back to the Baxter Building. When she gets into the main lobby, she is shocked to find that her solenoid belt buckle is not calling the elevator to the main floor. Suspecting trouble, Sue uses her powers to lift herself up to the top floors of the Baxter Building. Fearing that they have been vulnerable while Reed has been busy reconstructing the top floors of the Baxter Building, Sue frantically searches for her teammates. She comes across the unconscious body of Reed. She is relieved that he is still alive but she believes that his mind has somehow been shut down. Further down the hall she finds the Thing in the same condition. Turning invisible, Sue then searches their headquarters further. In on the of the rooms, she finds Johnny being restrained by a strange man with long hair and a beard wearing nothing but rags. The man rants about finding answers and tries to probe Johnny's mind. Not finding what he is looking for, the man also shuts down Johnny's mind and tosses him aside. Raging like a madman, the mysterious intruder turns and is actually able to see Sue even though she is invisible.

Dropping her invisibility, Sue tries to flee and when her attacker almost catches her, she tosses her overcoat on him. The man simply reforms it into an outfit for him to wear. When Sue tries to hold him back with an invisible barrier, he causes her great mental pain, simply by touching it. When the man gets too close, Sue bombards him with a flurry of invisible spheres and flees further into the Baxter Building. Entering Ben's quarters, she sees that the doors were blown open and inside Franklin's nanny robot HUBERT had been destroyed, leaving her to wonder what happened to her son. When the man sneaks up on her and places a hand on Sue's shoulder, the Invisible Girl turns his hand invisible. The ruse works, and the man panics as Sue flees once more. Back at the Woman to Woman studio, the tech crew alerts Barbara Walker that there is a news story about a battle going on at the Baxter Building. Seeing this as a golden opportunity for her career, Barbara orders the crew to get a mobile van rolling so they can try to capture footage for their Sue Richards interview. However when they arrive they find that the police have already cordoned the area off and are refusing to let anyone pass.

Suddenly there is an explosion from within the Baxter Building, and Sue is sent flying out -- protected by an invisible bubble. She safely lands by creating a cushion on the street below. Barbara manages to break past the police cordon and begins asking questions. Sue tells Barbara that it's too dangerous and that she and everyone else needs to get away. Before she can say anymore, the strange attacker exits the Baxter Building and floats down to the street below. He is confused by the appearance of both woman and demands answers. When the mystery man grabs her, Sue looks into his eyes for the first time and finally realizes who he is: her son Franklin. When Sue' voices this, the man recoils and suddenly the memories begin flooding back to him. The man-child recalls how his powers flared up while trying to solve a Rubix Cube, transforming him into the form he now wears and confused as to his own identity. Suddenly, Reed, Ben and Johnny -- now back to normal -- exit the Baxter Building to investigate what is going on.

Reed is shocked by this news and suggests that they get Franklin inside so he can run some tests. Just then Alicia arrives on the scene and is reunited with Ben. Reed tells Franklin that he must return himself to his proper age, otherwise his powers may burn out his body. Franklin agrees, but before he does he goes to Ben. Explaining how his father's last attempt to turn Ben back to normal caused a permanent regression to his previous dinosaur-skin like form, Franklin uses his powers to try and restore Ben. However instead of changing him back to his human form, Ben is returned to his trademark rocky exterior and Franklin is restored to his proper age. Reed explains to Ben that Franklin was unable to restore Ben to normal, so the boy undid the permanent nature of Reed's last transformation. Satisfied with this, Ben decides to take Alicia out. When he is out of ear shot, Reed explains to Sue that the real reason was more likely the fact that Ben has had fears that Alicia only loves him for being the Thing and that Franklin reverted him back to his previous rocky form so as not to cause mental trauma by restoring Ben back to human form when he is not mentally capable of accepting the fact that Alicia loves him for who he is, not what he looks like.

Appearing in "Now You See Me..."

Reprint of the 4th story from
Franklin Richards: Everybody Loves Franklin #1

Featured Characters:

Franklin Richards

Supporting Characters:

Other Characters:

Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards) (Mentioned)

Races and Species:

Locations:

Earth-6513
- Earth
  - United States of America
    - New York
      - New York City
        Manhattan
        Baxter Building

Items:

Inviso-Ray

Synopsis for "Now You See Me..."

Reprint of the 4th story from
Franklin Richards: Everybody Loves Franklin #1

Franklin attempts to use his father's Inviso-Ray to see through his birthday presents but ends up making himself and things around him invisible instead. Franklin the drops the now invisible Inviso-Ray and looses it. H.E.R.B.I.E. helps him out by pouring powdered sugar on Franklin and around the room in order to make everything visible. Once they located the Inviso-Ray Franklin uses it to fix everything and H.E.R.B.I.E. cleans up the powdered sugar mess just in time before Sue walks in. Franklin accidently reveals his plan of peeking his presents but his mom acts confused as says what presents showing him the empty closet. Franklin leaves the room confused and forgetting his mom has the power to make things invisible as well.

Solicit Synopsis

The Invisible Woman is dead! As Reed cradles his murdered wife, lost in grief, and Ben rampages after Sue’s killer, Johnny defiantly decides to do whatever it takes— no matter the cost or consequence— to see his sister alive again. What he does will change the way the Fantastic Four look at him forever. “A Death in the Family”-- not a dream, not a hoax... and not to be missed. Includes bonus Fantastic Four issue Vol 1 245!

Links and References

References

Fantastic Four: A Death in the Family Vol 1 1

Appearing in "A Death in the Family"

Synopsis for "A Death in the Family"