Fantastic Four #516 — Nick Peron

Mar 6

Mar 6 Fantastic Four #516

Dysfunctional: Part Three

Told to entertain Salamandra, Hydro-Man has to endure the indignity as being the water in her bubble bath. However, her relaxation is interrupted when the alarms in the Wizard's headquarters begins to go off. They rush to the control room and see Salamandra and the Wizard's daughter Cole trying to infiltrate their base. Observing her closely on the monitors it appears that she is speaking with someone who is not visible and deduce that she must be helping the Invisible Woman get inside. When Cole arrives, the Wizard and Hydro-Man try to attack the Invisible Woman, who turns out not to be there at all. When the Wizard finally realizes what Cole is doing, she activates her transportation ring to teleport the Fantastic Four in the middle of the Frightful Four's headquarters.

Soon a battle breaks out between the two groups. Johnny is blasted back out of the base with Cole following him. When the Invisible Woman takes on Salamandra she is surprised to find that her foe can transform into a dragon form. While outside, Johnny and Cole fight against the Wizard's anti-gravity defenses. When Johnny suggests that Cole use her powers to help them win the fight she warns him of the dangers her abilities have. Johnny assures her it will be worth it when they finally cure her and the pair kiss. Cole begins assisting the Fantastic Four in their battle and it begins to turn the tide. However, the young woman suddenly collapses and both Johnny and Reed come to her side and are shocked to see that she has become completely gaunt. Reed deduces that Cole's powers either add or remove mass from her body.

Reed rushes off to find the Wizard's notes in the hopes of finding a cure. The Wizard then renews his attacks on the rest of the team and manages to spirit himself away with Cole. Taking her into his lab he attaches her to a machine that bombards her with gravitons. When this restores her to normal, the Wizard decides to continue bombarding her in order to learn what the upper limits to her powers might be. The Wizard is attacked by Reed who is quickly incapacitated with the anti-gravity discs. He then demands that his daughter assist him in stopping the rest. She refuses, using her powers to repel the Wizard into one of the Trapster's traps, incapacitating him. She then decides that this has to end and begins pushing her powers as hard as she can. This causes the Wizard's hideout to burst out from beneath New York City and begin to float into the sky.

As the Fantastic Four exit the hideout they spot Cole atop of it, growing more and more obese as she continues to take on mass. Cole is horrified that Johnny has seen her like this. When the Wizard, impressed by his daughter's abilities, tells her that he loves her. She tells him that while she loves him as well, this dysfunctional relationship cannot continue and forces herself, the Wizard, and his headquarters to crash into the Hudson River. The Fantastic Four search the wreckage but find no sign of the Frightful Four or Cole. Johnny is devastated because the possible cure for Cole was lost. Reed gives some glimmer of hope: He managed to observe the Wizard's notes long enough to figure out the 19-year-old methodology with today's science. However, when Johnny asks to use Reed's tracking device to find her, he explains that the Wizard saturated the area of free-floating particles making tracking her nearly impossible.