Appearing in "The Thing from the Black Hole"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Ebon Seeker ⏵ (First appearance)
Other Characters:
Locations:
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Alicia Masters Art Studio
- Baxter Building
- Manhattan
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Thing from the Black Hole"
The members of the Fantastic Four spend an ordinary Saturday afternoon in a variety of ways: at Alicia's studio the blind sculptress uses Ben's muscle to move a new sculpture into place, Reed and Sue are enjoying a day out at the zoo with Franklin, while Johnny and Lorrie attend an automobile exhibition, when suddenly an ominous dark phenomenon appears in the sky. The black hole radiates bands of darkness across the city, blotting out the light, nullifying the Earth's gravity and draining away the air. Fortunately, the effects are short-lived but as the foursome rendezvous a crowd of panicked New Yorkers turns against them, blaming the FF for the phenomenon and threatening violence.
The FF escape the mob and, on returning to the Baxter Building, Reed's instruments detect a sentient presence at the centre of the black hole. Worse, Reed believes that his Signal Pulser device is attracting the huge creature and, sure enough, the being heads directly for the FF's headquarters. The creature was initially preoccupied in finding the Signal Pulser, rather than intentionally consuming the planet. Johnny flames on to intercept it but even a blast of his Nova flame is absorbed by the mass of darkness. Using his elastic body, Reed launches Ben at the creature like a missile, but this attack is just as easily repelled, and Ben plummets the streets below, where Johnny is relieved to find him relatively unharmed.
The FF launch a second attack but again are beaten back. The creature uses his powers to rip up an entire city block from the bedrock and launch it into the sky. With Sue and Johnny left to evacuate the block's residents, Reed and Ben are left to battle the creature alone. Reed tries to envelop the bands of darkness in his pliable form but fails and is injured, leaving an enraged Ben to tackle the giant alone, but his best punch, described as the strongest punch delivered by Ben in his entire career, barely makes an impact. A recovered Reed collects the Signal Pulser from the Baxter Building and uses it to lure the giant away from Manhattan and out into the ocean.
The ruse works enough for communications to be established between the foursome and the creature, who introduces himself as the Ebon Seeker, born of a black hole and drawn to find other sentient life. The Seeker was attracted to Earth by Reed's Signal Pulser only to find that the planet, like all others, drains him of his life energy, and vows to destroy the Earth before it can destroy him. The Seeker is, therefore, portrayed as a planet buster. As the FF mount one last desperate attack, the Seeker envelops them in darkness. Trapped and alone in the vast expanse of nothingness, the team ponder their next move, but are soon joined by an ethereal figure calling herself Firefrost who appears to be the key to overcoming the threat of the Ebon Seeker.
Notes
Continuity Notes[]
- Members of the Fantastic Four and their cast make previous chronological appearances prior to this story:
- Ben, Alicia, Johnny and Reed appear in the first four pages of Marvel Two-In-One #77 when Ben is approached by Nick Fury for a new test flight.
- Sue appears in Amazing Spider-Man #215 when he assists Reed in reversing a power swap that that transferred Spider-Man's spider-sense to the Sub-Mariner.
- Franklin last appeared in Marvel Two-In-One #75.
- Reed and Sue mention Franklin's powers, after being dormant since Fantastic Four #150 they began resurfacing in Fantastic Four #216.
Publication Notes[]
- This issue contains a letters page, Fantastic Four Fan Page. Letters are published from Marcus Lusk and Linda Mann. The letters page also contains a Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation.
Trivia
- On page one, readers see an Alicia Masters sculpture of then Marvel Editor in Chief Jim Shooter.