Fantastic Four (Vol 2) #2
Repercussions
The Fantastic Four have come face-to-face with the underground ruler known as the Mole Man who vows to destroy the intruders on his land. The Human Torch brazenly attacks the Mole Man and finds himself soundly defeated. Reed realizes that the Mole Man is light sensitive and has the Thing pull a crystal out of the ground and has the Invisible Woman break open a shaft to the surface to let light in. With Johnny pulling off the Mole Man's protective goggles the reflect light through the crystal blinding the Mole Man and all of his minions, allowing them to escape with the near-critical quantum core. On the surface, Ben uses his strength to close the entrance to the Mole Man's underground lair and Reed stabilizes the quantum core. Before they can figure out what to do next they are suddenly knocked out by a bright flash of light.
While deep below in the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, the kingdom has been struck with a strange plague that has been striking their people dead. Believing it is the "black water" (oil) spilled into their domain by the surface dwellers, Warlord Krang convinces Namor to go to war against the surface when yet another of Namor's people succumbs to the plague.
Reed Richards and his crew awaken to find themselves captives of SHIELD, while they don't know this they attempt to escape by smashing a hole out of the side of the helicarrier and fall nearly to their deaths. They are rescued by a SHIELD flight team and brought before Nick Fury for questioning. Reed explains to Fury that they were part of the Excelsior crew and they tried to stop his agent Wyatt Wingfoot from destroying the space anomaly and their failure resulted in their current condition. Before Reed can explain things further, SHIELD is alerted of Namor's attack on New York City. When Fury refuses to give them any more information about Wingfoot's operation he does tell him that he didn't authorize the takeover. With the threat of Namor looming, Fury agrees to let Reed and his companions help.
Given SHIELD uniforms made out of unstable molecules, the group decides to act separate from SHIELD and removes the SHIELD logos from the uniforms and replaces them with the number "4" after the name Reed came up with them: The Fantastic Four. The engage Namor in a full-frontal assault, with the Thing attacking first. Namor easily bests Ben in underwater battle and upon realizing that he has to deal with super-humans uses the trumpet horn of Atlantis to summon his greatest weapon: Giganto, a gigantic whale monster from the oceans deep.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), SHIELD (Nick Fury, Contessa, Dum Dum Dugan), Sub-Mariner, Warlord Krang, Lady Dorma, Gignato, Mole Man, Moloids
Continuity Notes
As becomes evident in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4 the events of this story take place in a pocket dimension created by Franklin Richards to save the Fantastic Four and the Avengers after they sacrificed their lives to stop Onslaught at the end of Onslaught Marvel Universe #1. As such, with the exception of the members of the Fantastic Four and Namor, all other characters in this story are products of Franklin's imagination.
This story is a re-imagining of the Fantastic Four's first encounters with the Mole Man and Namor in Fantastic Four #1 and 4 respectively.
As revealed in Captain America (vol. 2) #11 this is not really Nick Fury, but a Life Model Decoy that took the real Nick Fury's place as part of a plot to subvert the United States on behalf of the Son of the Serpent.
