Fantastic Four (Vol. 3) #55
An Evening Out!
Ben is snoring on the couch and Johnny is watching TV when Sue struggles to come in with groceries. Sue learns that Valeria is still asleep and Reed is still in the lab. While Johnny scrutinizes the lack of junk food when suddenly Sue's cell phone beings to ring. With wakes Ben up from a nightmare where he was fighting the Wizard. It's Janet van Dyne -- the Avenger's Wasp -- who is calling to see if the plans for the evening are still on. While Sue goes to take the call, Ben and Johnny fight over what they are going to be watching on television that night. When they decide that the first one to the remote gets to choose what they want, Johnny flames on and Ben transforms into the Thing and they race for the couch. This results in the two wrecking the living room and cause Valeria to start crying. Sue scolds them for waking the baby up and tells Johnny and Ben she will deal with them when she gets back. Franklin doesn't like the sound of that voice and tries to retreat back into his bedroom. Just then Reed enters the room announcing that he has finished the modifications to the Fantasti-Car but needs to pick up some components from their warehouse. Seeing this as a way to get out of trouble, Ben and Johnny agree to go out and get it for him.
The Thing and Torch bicker with each other all the way to the warehouse over who is to blame for Sue getting mad at them. The subject turns to girls and when Johnny mocks Ben for his lack of dates, Ben points out that Johnny hasn't been hanging out with his girlfriend Namorita very much recently. When they knock on the door of the warehouse, nobody answers and soon discover that the warehouse is closed until the following day. It's at this moment Ben spots what appears to be a Skrull trying to steal the Fantasti-Car. Calling himself the "Grand Acquisition" the Skrull boasts about stealing the Fantasti-Car in order to reverse engineer it to assist the Skrull empire in conquering the universe. As the Fantasti-Car takes off, Johnny tries to chase after it, but the Skrull uses a short-range teleportation device to escape.
The pair do not want to return to base without the Fantasti-Car and decide to try and find it. Recalling some of the things that the Grand Acquisition had said during their brief interaction, Ben deduces that their foe may have escaped to the junkyard on Yancy Street. Sure enough, this appears to have been a good guess as they are soon attacked by the Skrull. Their foe manages to slip out of their grasp due to his apparent teleportation ability. During a reprieve in the fight, Ben and Johnny come to terms with the fact that the pair have to be careful with their abilities and that the only time they don't feel they need to is when they are roughhousing. Suddenly their bonding moment is interrupted when the Acquisition reappears but at a massive size. However, instead of fighting the "Skrull" announces that the battle is over and returns the Fantasti-Car to them. As it turns out they weren't facing a Skrull at all but the Avengers' Yellowjacket in disguise. Yellowjacket takes them back to Avengers Mansion where they learn that Yellowjacket and the Wasp have been taking care of Franklin and Valeria. As it turns out the entire "Skrull" incident was all a ruse to get Ben and Johnny out of the house so Reed and Sue can celebrate their anniversary in peace.
Recurring Charaters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Franklin Richards, Valeria Richards, Yellowjacket, Wasp
Continuity Notes
When Sue is asked why she buys fruit pies when she claims that she doesn't buy junk food she says "Those... Are Different." This is a reference to the many Hostess Fruit Pie advertisements of the late 70s and early 80s that featured various Marvel Super Heroes. These advertisements usually featured a hero stopping a villain by using the snacks against them. Per Spider-Verse #1 these advertisements actually happened on an alternate Earth, designated Earth-51914.
Ben Grimm gained the ability to transform between his human and Thing forms back in Fantastic Four Vol 3 #39 but he eventually loses this ability in Fantastic Four Vol 3 #58.
Reed identifies the warehouse as the "Forbush Warehouse" this is a reference to Irving Forbush, a fictional employee made up by Stan Lee in the 1950s to be the butt of jokes in the many comics he wrote during his tenure at Marvel.
Yellowjacket posing as a Skrull is ironic considering the fact that he was later replaced by a Skrull named Criti Noll during the Secret Invasion event as seen in Mighty Avengers #15.
Reed states that it had been 256 months since he first met Susan, this equals to about 21 years. Per Fantastic Four #543, Reed and Sue first met when she was 13 years old. Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 this would make Sue around 34 years old. At the time of this story, the Fantastic Four had existed for 11 years, making Sue about 23 years old when the Fantastic Four were born in Fantastic Four #1. This measurement of time contradicts Marvel Knights: 4 #1 where Sue states that she was 21 when she got her powers.
