Fantastic Four #382
Captured!
The Fearsome Foursome teleport into the Four Freedoms Plaza, headquarters of the Fantastic Four, in order to set a trap against their foes. Since Klaw has the most experience against the heroes and is more familiar with their headquarters, Paibok concedes leadership to him for the time being. Searching the base, they quickly come upon the mutated form of Ms. Marvel being held in stasis, something that Klaw believes they can use to their advantage.
Meanwhile in Latveria, the Fantastic Four have witnessed the apparent death of Mister Fantastic at the hands of Doctor Doom, who seemingly incinerated each other in a final act of revenge following their battle against the Hunger. Johnny and Ben are left reeling, but Sue is not even the slightest bit shocked. She reminds them that this is their old foe Doctor Doom they are talking about and that the apparent death of her husband and the FF's greatest foe must be some kind of elaborate trick. Before they can make sense of what happened, the Fantastic Four and their allies Lyja and the teenage Franklin Richards are suddenly pelted by rocks and produce by the locals who blame the Fantastic Four for the death of their leader. Sue orders everyone back into the Quinjet that they borrowed from the Avengers in order to head back to Doctor Doom's castle. Along the way, Sue explains that when she was in Doctor Doom's lab she saw a matter transference platform that allowed Doctor Doom to teleport himself anywhere around the globe, and suspects that if anything, Doom teleported himself and her husband away somewhere else, making it appear as though they were both atomized. While Johnny balks at this suggestion, Ben turns their attention to the Latverian airforce which has scrambled fighter planes to engage them. Johnny quickly flames on and goes out to incapacitate the jets, with an assist from his ex-wife Lyja who fires laser blasts from the Quinjet.
When they arrive at the castle they are attacked by an army of Servo-Guards. There, Ben voices his concerns about Sue coming to terms with Reed's death, but Sue still refuses to believe her husband was killed and tells the rest to have hope. This convinces Ben to pile into the robots and soon the three remaining members of the Fantastic Four and their allies begin fighting their way through the Servo-Guards. During the fight Johnny asks Franklin why he didn't warn them that Reed would die in the future, Franklin tells him that he didn't know that this was going to happen. This causes Franklin to consider some grim questions, particularly if the lessons he was taught in the future were of the wrong timeline, or his grandfather intentionally lied to him. Meanwhile, Sue and Ben have fought their way into the main lab where they comes across Doom's teleportation device. Spotting a memory module, Sue has Ben pull it off the wall so they can analyze the data and learn where Reed was taken later. With more Servo-Guards blocking their way out, Sue has Ben smash a way out for them. No sooner are Sue and Ben gone does a Time-Platform materialize in thin air bringing an armored individual into the area. The Servo-Guards begin to immediately attack this new intruder, but he quickly goes to a control console and reprograms the robots to be loyal to him. With the danger over, the intruder removes his mask, revealing himself as Nathaniel Richards.
Not long after this, the Fantastic Four and their allies return to the Four Freedoms Plaza. Here Franklin tells his mother that they have to talk and Sue agrees. Sue agrees and tells Franklin that while he may have convinced the others, she still does not believe that she is her son from the future, telling him that he is either a fraud or something much, much worse and that she doesn't trust him. Ben tells her to calm down but she barks at him to butt out and take the memory module back down to the lab to be examined. Inside, Lyja and Johnny talk about the pain Sue must be going through when suddenly Lyja keels over in pain again. Suspecting that its their baby, Johnny rushes to his ex-wife's side. She tells Johnny that there is much she has kept hidden, and unless they get a device called a Lagaroo, she will not survive the birthing process as her Skrull physiology will kill her. Elsewhere, Paibok and Devos monitor this situation on a security screen and Paibok is surprised to learn that Lyja is keeping secrets from her newfound allies, but refuses to divulge those secrets to Devos. While in the lab, Ben and Sue deliver the memory module. There Ben tries to convince Sue that Reed is dead and that she should try to move on, but Sue tearfully rejects the idea that her husband is dead.
Elsewhere in the headquarters, Franklin is trying to sort through his own feelings when his psi-defenses just barely warn him of an attack from Huntara. She tells Franklin that she is here to stop him and his grandfather from completing their mission. She tries to convince Franklin that he is being used as nothing more than a pawn and insists that he return with her to Elsewhen. When Franklin continues to fight back, Huntara cuts open a portal with her psionic scythe and pulls both herself and Franklin into the portal. Hearing the fight, the Fantastic Four and Lyja go out to investigate and are suddenly assaulted by gas. Ben tries to run to a ventilator, but the gas knocks them all out before he can clear the room. Having succeeded in defeating their foes, Paibok and Devos teleport away with the Fantastic Four and Lyja as their prisoners. Left alone to his own devices, Klaw returns to the medic bay and the inert body of Ms. Marvel, whom he plans on using for his own ends.
Sometime later, Devo's ship arrives on the Skrull throneworld where general Kalamari and his command meet with Paibok. As Paibok is awarded the Scarlet Star, Devos appraises the situation and realizes that he is in the middle of the Skrull military industrial complex and realizes that the Skrulls are an even greater threat to galactic peace than he thought. The Fantastic Four and Lyja are later placed in shackles and brought through the city on a parade where they are pelted by rocks by attending Skrulls. Elsewhere, Paibok and some guards escort Devos to a private room. There Paibok reveals his intention to kill Devos once his usefulness has run out. Devos also reveals that this was his intention all along as well. Suddenly the planet begins to shudder as Devos reveals his opening salvo: He has summoned his massive arsenal planet to the Skrull throneworld in order to annihilate it from the galaxy. As the planet is being attacked by the massive ship, the Fantastic Four and Lyja are locked in a cell below the planets surface. Sue tells the others that this is the opportunity they have been waiting for, and that she intents for them to break out and begin the search for her missing husband.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Invsibile Woman/Malice, Human Torch, Thing), Lyja, Psi-Lord, Ms. Marvel, Nathaniel Richards, Kalamari, Fearsome Foursome (Paibok, Devos, Huntara, Klaw)
Continuity Notes
The top levels of the Four Freedoms Plaza are seen destroyed here, as they were destroyed by a Gamma bomb in Infinity War #2/Fantastic Four #367. Repairs have been halted due to the settlement that the Fantastic Four had to make with Empire State University in Fantastic Four #375 to pay for the damages caused by Johnny to campus in Fantastic Four #371.
The Fearsome Foursome are unnamed here, they are officially named in Fantastic Four Unlimited #5. The group as last seen in Fantastic Four #379.
Ms. Marvel was mutated by Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four #378, and was put in stasis following the events of Fantastic Four #379.
Reed and Doctor Doom were seemingly slain last issue, however as revealed in Fantastic Four #406-407 they were actually taken prisoner by Hyperstorm.
The Thing is wearing a helmet here because his face was scarred battling Wolverine in Fantastic Four #374, he started wearing the helmet in the following issue. Ben continues to wear the helmet until Fantastic Four #385 and his face is ultimately healed in Fantastic Four #409.
Nathaniel Richards appears here following his last appearance in Fantastic Four #376, he is seen again in Fantastic Four #386.
Franklin mentions how his mother doesn't like him. This is because the teenaged Franklin, replaced Sue's Franklin after he was abducted by Nathaniel Richards in Fantastic Four #376. The future Franklin remains until he is swapped back with his Earth-616 counterpart in Fantastic Four #414. As Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #14 clarifies, this is not an older version of Earth-616 Franklin, but an alternate reality counterpart.
Lyja's tenuous ties with the Human Torch are as follows:
As revealed in Fantastic Four #358, Lyja took the place of Alicia Masters in order to spy on the Fantastic Four circa Fantastic Four #265. Due to the fact that the Thing was no longer part of the group, Lyja pursued a relationship with Johnny in order to maintain ties to the group.
Johnny eventually married "Alicia" in Fantastic Four #300.
Lyja was eventually exposed in Fantastic Four #357 and was seemingly slain the following issue during a mission to rescue the real Alicia Masters from the Skrulls.
Lyja and her commander Paibok survived and have been trying to ruin Johnny from Fantastic Four #371-374.
As revealed in Fantastic Four #390 and 393, Lyja and Johnny's "child" is not their offspring but a Gha'Barri implanted in her by Paibok.
Eventually, Lyja betrayed Paibok when she realized she still cared for Johnny, and came to her ex-husband's side in his battle against the Secret Defenders in Fantastic Four #374. She has remained by his side ever since.
The connections between Huntara and Franklin that are hinted at in this issue are fully explained in Fantastic Four #390. Which reveal that she is apparently Nathaniel Richards daughter.
Although not stated by name in this story, the Skrull throneworld at this time was Satriani after Empress S'Byll took the Skrull throne in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #31.
