Fantastic Four #349
Eggs Got Legs
The only thing standing in between the Skrull renegade known as De'Lila and the various forces against her (which include Skrull soldiers hunting her, the New Fantastic Four, and the Mole Man and his legions) is Reed Richards, who is under her telepathic control. Before a fight can break out De'Lila calls a halt to hostilities and reveals her true form. She then begins to appeal to the Earthlings and ask them to kill the Skrulls that are after her. De'Lila's telepathic influence begins to affect the Mole Man, who empathizes with her role as an outcast and orders his minions to kill the other Skrulls. The only one unaffected by De'Lila is the Ghost Rider who decides that the Skrulls should not die by her thralls and erects a Hell-Fire barrier around the aliens. This interruption also causes the rest of the New Fantastic Four and the Mole Man to snap out of it. Realizing her plan is a bust, De'Lila then orders Reed Richards to take her out of the area and they flee on his Sky-Cycle. The Hulk tries to stop them by tossing a boulder at them, but misses. In the aftermath of the battle Spider-Man realizes that they have been duped by De'Lila the whole time and that the Fantastic Four have been alive the whole time, and their group has been nothing more than her pawns.
The New Fantastic Four then head after them with the Mole Man and his armies in tow. Spider-Man uses his Spider-Sense to help lead his comrades through the tunnels after their foe. However down a ways they trigger off an explosive and are almost buried alive if not for the Hulk holding up the cave in with his immense strength.
Further down the tunnel, De'Lila has Reed land the Sky-Cycle and she shape-shifts into the form of Susan Richards in order to reassert her control over Reed. Apparently falling in love with De'Lila, Reed kisses her. Feeling attracted to Richards herself, De'Lila explains what the Inorganic Technotroid is: a incubated defense robot that is used to defend Skrull rulers that is hatched from an egg. The Technotroid then imprints and becomes loyal to whomever it sees first, thus making their need to find it important lest it imprints itself on something else. Still trapped under the rubble, Hulk tells his teammates to get a move on so they can get out of the cave in alive. Ghost Rider offers up a solution, by spinning his bike chain around at incredible speeds he is able to bore through the rock and dig them a tunnel to freedom.
Meanwhile back at the Four Freedoms Plaza, Sue, Sharon, Ben, Alicia and Johnny awaken to find themselves bound up in the elevator. With the series of knots set up to choke them if they try to escape and Johnny having an asbestos lined bag on his head, it seems like they are stuck until they are rescued. No sooner are they awake that the elevator kicks into gear again, and they are discovered by Franklin. Franklin frees them and the Fantastic Four rush into the control room where they find their robotic receptionist Roberta. She explains that Reed left with a woman who appeared to be Sue, but used the code "Tell all my friends in the Navy" suggesting that something was up, leading to her discovering the rest of the team and getting Franklin to assist in rescuing them. Learning that Reed is somewhere below Monster Island, the Fantastic Four rush off to get to him, leaving Franklin in the care of Alicia.
Back below the tunnels, De'Lila and Reed are continuing to search for the Technotroid. Along the way Reed discovers strange hieroglyphics on the walls from centuries ago. Reed is curious, but De'Lila forces him to continue on their trek. They soon find a female Giganto sleeping a captured Skrull saucer. Reed tosses a rock far off and the noise causes the Giganto to go to investigate. As they approach the Skrull saucer they are stopped by the New Fantastic Four who have finally caught up with them. De'Lila then takes Reed hostage and threatens to kill him if they do not free the egg from the Skrull Saucer. She explains that she selected the four heroes to be the "new" Fantastic Four because their unique powers would allow her to free the Technotroid egg from its protective casing. The Hulk uses his strength to smash into the ship and remove the egg, while the Ghost Rider's Hell-Fire strips away a defensive coating. With a spinning ream of lasers blocking the shut-off switch, Wolverine disables their mechanisms with his Adamantium claws. Finally Spider-Man fires his webbing to activate the release mechanism freeing the egg from within.
However before De'Lila can grab the egg, her thralls stand in her way. To make matters worse the Mole Man and his armies have arrived to claim the egg for themselves. Before a full on battle can erupt, the real Fantastic Four arrive on the scene. While most of the heroes fight back the hordes of the Mole Man, Spider-Man races to stop De'Lila from getting the egg. In order to throw the hero off, she changes her form into that of his wife Mary Jane, causing Spider-Man to pause long enough to be blasted away. Suddenly the fight is interrupted by the return of the male Giganto and other monsters called back by the Skrulls. They order a full surrender revealing their orders are to either reclaim the Technotroid or destroy the planet to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. During this stand-off, the egg hatches in the hand of the female Giganto and the Technotroid imprints itself on the Giganto. She then orders her "child" to destroy the Skrull commanding officer. With the Skrulls leverage destroyed, De'Lila tries to make a break for freedom by changing back into the form of Sue Richards and trying to enthrall Reed once again. Reed seemingly falls for it by embracing her in a kiss, but this is all a ploy to steal her weapon. Reed then knocks her out and runs to his wife and kisses her.
Meanwhile, De'Lila has recovered from the punch and is left to the mercies of the Ghost Rider who forces her to gaze into his Penance Stair, causing her to go mad, he then turns her over to the Skrulls and suggest they leave. Having had enough the Mole Man demands that they all leave his domain or prepare to die, but Spider-Man manages to talk him down as they all seem to have accomplished what they set out to do and will leave willingly, pointing out that a battle would only cause more damage to the Mole Man's domain.
Meanwhile, above the surface, the Punisher is following the Tricephalous in an Apache helicopter as it flies back to Monster Island, intent on bringing his personal war against crime down on the mysterious island. However as he passes through the clouds and is able to view the island he spots the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and the Hulk on the island surface. Believing that they have the situation well under control, the Punisher turns around and returns for home.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing, Ms. Marvel), New Fantastic Four (Spider-Man, Hulk, Ghost Rider, Wolverine), “Alicia Masters”, Franklin Richards, Mole Man, Skrulls, De’Lila, Inorganic Technotroid, Punisher, Tricephalous, Giganto, Vandoom, Moloids, Roberta
Continuity Notes
The woman who appears to be Alicia Masters in this story is actually a Skrull spy named Lyja, as revealed in Fantastic Four #358. She replaced the real Alicia circa Fantastic Four #265 in order to spy on the team.
Johnny mentions that they first battled the Mole Man on Monster Island, this is a reference to Fantastic Four #1.
This issue Reed finds some artifacts that suggest that the creatures of the Mole Man's domain have a connection to the Celestials and the Deviants stating that the Avengers have detailed information in their files after visiting Lemuria which has similar artifacts. Marvel Universe #4-7 confirms that the monsters in the Mole Man's domain were created by the Deviants. The Deviants in turn were created by the Celestials as revealed in Eternals #1. The Avengers learned of the Deviants in Avengers #246-248.
Ben lost his powers in Fantastic Four #326, they remain lost until he purposely transforms himself again in Fantastic Four #350.
Later on in this story, he wears an exoskeleton based on his Thing form. This is based on the original that was constructed for Ben back in Fantastic Four #168 that he wore until it was destroyed in Fantastic Four #175 when Galactus forced Ben to resume his Thing form.
Ben recently started wearing the exoskeleton in battle on occasion beginning in Fantastic Four Annual #22.
De'Lilah tries to throw off Spider-Man by changing into Mary Jane Watson who is referred to here as Spider-Man's wife. Peter and Mary Jane were married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. However, years later in Amazing Spider-Man #545, the demon Mephisto altered reality so that Peter and MJ never got married. Presumably, in this new reality, Peter would recognize Mary Jane as his fiancée and not his wife.
The Fantastic Four, both new and old, the Skrulls, De'Lila, Mole Man, the Technotroid, and the Gigantos are all seen in Spider-Man/Fantastic Four #3 which picks up right where this story leaves off. They are tricked into fighting further by a time-traveling Kristoff Vernard who was attempting to steal some metal alloy off the Technotroid for his own machinations in his own time.
Continuity Errors
This story states that Monster Island is located in the Bermuda Triangle. This is not correct, as in Fantastic Four #1 it is stated that Monster Island was located in the South Pacific. However, since everyone had to pass through a strange portal to reach Monster Island from Bermuda, it could be that there is a portal to Monster Island in the Triangle similar to the one that transported Jim Scully and his eventual allies to Earth's prehistoric past in Skull, the Slayer #1.
