Fantastic Four #248 — Nick Peron

Jan 5

Jan 5 Fantastic Four #248

Nightmare!

IMG 2020 20 01 05 05 16 05 47906.png — Credits

Triton of the Inhumans is swimming deep below the surface of Attilan in the vast underwater tunnels. He comes across a secret chamber with a strange crystal device that suddenly unleashes a blinding flare of energy...

Meanwhile, the Fantastic Four have been teleported to the Moon to participate in a celebration being thrown for the Inhumans in honor of Quicksilver and Crystal's child, who has just been named Luna, after their new home on the moon. They are greeted by the Inhuman royal family and they visit upon Crystal and Pietro and their daughter when suddenly the entire city is rocked as suddenly the moon is pulled out of Earth orbit. Rushing outside to see what is going on, the Fantastic Four and their Inhuman allies are shocked to see a massive ship swallowing up the moon. With the moon now captive, the Human Torch flames on and flies out to investigate the massive ship held therein, regardless of Reed's warnings that the ship is far too massive for him to navigate on his own.

Seeking to explore themselves, the Fantastic Four follow Black Bolt to one of the Inhumans many ancient ships. They fly out from the moon to investigate the strange craft, landing on a (relatively) nearby shelf where the group begins trying to examine the strange ship. Suddenly a massive door opens up and a massive alien creature emerges. They watch in horror as the creature begins breaking down the moon. As the Torch just barely manages to reach them, they watch on as the Inhumans launch ships to attack the creature to no effect.

Black Bolt then uses his powerful voice to call out to the massive alien and inform it of their existence and that they pose no threat. As Reed finds it all very impossible that they can see so far and that Black Bolt can unleash his voice without any collateral damage, the massive alien turns their attention to them. Johnny and Ben try to attack and are easily swatted away. The creature then begins to spray gas as though they are nothing more than uncommon pests. When Sue suddenly dies in his arm, Reed screams and suddenly everything is back to normal... He and his allies are back on Attilan and the moon is in space. Reed theorizes that whatever has caught them in this strange illusion broke when they all began seeing logical holes in their collective nightmares. While deep below Attilan, Triton revives having smashed the crystal at the last moment when the combined anguish of those around him temporarily broke him free from the nightmare crystal's control. With the threat gone, Triton dives back into the waters to return home.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Inhumans (Maximus (body swapped with Black Bolt), Medusa, Crystal, Karnak, Gorgon, Karnak, Luna), Lockjaw, Quicksilver

Continuity Notes

The narrative of this story refers to Quicksilver as a mutant. However as revealed in Uncanny Avengers (vol 2) #4-5, Quicksilver is not actually a mutant. Unknown at the time of this story -- even to Pietro himself -- he was experimented upon as a youth by the High Evolutionary. In order to cover up his work, the Evolutionary made it so that whatever tests were conducted on Pietro in the future he would register as a mutant.

Quicksilver and the Torch talk about Johnny's romantic life in this story:
- Mention is made, again, of Johnny's long-running relationship with Crystal which lasted from Fantastic Four #66-105. It ended for good when Crystal met Pietro in Fantastic Four #131-132 and the pair got married in Fantastic Four #150.
- Johnny states that he is thinking about a love he lost recently. He is referring to Frankie Raye who Johnny dated on-and-off between Fantastic Four #164-207 and Fantastic Four #232-244 when she became a herald of Galactus.