Appearing in "Madmen & Prophets"
Fantastic Four (Vol. 2) #10
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Galactus
- Maximus
- Doctor Doom
- Plasma (First appearance)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Madmen & Prophets"
Fantastic Four (Vol. 2) #10
Galactus has just consumed another world that was visited by his herald Plasma, but finds that it is not enough to quench his hunger and sends her off toward Earth to prepare it for his coming.
While deep beneath the hidden city of Attilan, the Fantastic Four and the Inhumans come face to face with the long lost and now completely insane Maximus with a legion of mutates. Maximus explains that he is the great devourer and that he has come to herald in the end times and that he will choose the who will be strongest to live on after the world is destroyed. He asks Medusa to leave Black Bolt and be his queen, a request she refuses leading to a battle between our heroes and the forces of Maximus. During the battle Crystal gets close enough to Maximus to attack however she is easily downed. He takes her captive and sprints away presuming to take her as his queen since Medusa refused him. Furious that the woman he's fallen in love with has been kidnapped, the Human Torch tries to speed after them but is blasted back by Maximus who caves in the cavern to prevent the others from following him.
With no other choice to get through, Black Bolt uses his destructive voice to blast through the rock so that they might continue after Maximus. They arrive at the source of the Terrigen Mists a "creation machine" that Maximus is now using to try and boost Crystal's evolution, the Human Torch easily punches out Maximus and the others free Crystal before any foreseeable damages could be done. In the aftermath, the Fantastic Four decide to leave Black Bolt alone to decide what to do with the device they ahve just found.
Much later, the Fantastic Four are celebrated as heroes, however it soon comes time for them to leave and return to New York. Unable to leave Attilan, Crystal bids Johnny farewell and they share a kiss before the FF are teleported back home by Lockjaw. As the Inhumans watch their new allies go, Maximus is being dragged away screaming about how the true devourer is coming to Earth to destroy them all.
While in Latveria, reconstruction of Dr. Doom's castle is nearing completion and Doom has tken the time to rest when suddenly a giant suit of armor materializes in the middle of his castle. Before Doom can order his guards he is surprised to find that the device is piloted by himself from the near future. Quashing any arguments, the Doom from the future hands his past self a memory card and then vanishes into time again. Upon closer examination Doom realizes the device is an upgraded version of the memory control card for his own time machine and finds these developments very intriguing.
Appearing in "Rebel Without a Cause"
Iron Man (Vol. 2) #9
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Fantastic Four
- Atomic Knights of the Round Table (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
- Rebel O'Reilly (Appears in flashback)
- Victor von Doom (Only in flashback)
Antagonists:
- Titanium Man (Boris Bullski) (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
- Hydra (Only in flashback)
- Madame Hydra (Only in flashback)
- Several unnamed members (Only in flashback)
Other Characters:
- Pam (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Counter-Earth (Main story and flashback)
- United States of America (Main story and flashback)
- Russia (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
Items:
- Prometheum Armor (Main story and flashback)
- Titanium Man Armor (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
- Fantastic Four Uniforms
Synopsis for "Rebel Without a Cause"
Iron Man (Vol. 2) #9
With Rebel incapacitated, Iron Man brings him to the one man who might just be able to help: Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. Arriving at the Baxter Building, Iron Man is greeted by the Thing and Mr. Fantastic. With Reed's help, Iron Man connect his armor to Rebel's in order to try and view his memories to find out what happened. Reed warns him though, this procedure would connect their life supports and should Rebel die during the process, Iron Man would die with him.
Viewing Conner's memories, Tony learns that he often viewed himself as being constantly having to compete with Tony's fame, fortune and better luck, always doing reckless things to try and prove himself. This would ultimately lose his girlfriend of the time. Tony and Rebel would then begin working on a project to build a suit of combat armor that would eventually lead them to developing the Prometheum Armor. Along the way, Victor von Doom would approach them and show them a newspaper story showing how the Russians beat them to it by creating their own armored warrior: The Titanium Man.
As he goes deeper into Conner's mind, bringing him to a critical point, Tony sees how the night before the big test of the Prometheum Armor that ended in Conner's death, Conner would take the armor out on an unauthorized flight into Russian airspace. There he would easily evade missiles however he would be attacked by the Titanium Man. Despite his armors superior technology, the Titanium Man would have more skill over Rebel and the battle would end with Rebel losing the fight. The damages caused to the suit during that fight would lead to Connor's seeming death. The last memory Tony would see would be Madame Hydra having her minions digging up Rebel's body to use for their ends.
Before he could learn more, Mr. Fantastic unplugs Iron Man from the connection to avoid him dying in the process. Reed explains he didn't want to lose both of them. With Rebel revived and his continued mortality in question, Rebel tells both Reed and Iron Man that no matter what happens next he wants to die a hero.