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Quote1 The Fantastic Four! Hmmm... what an idea! If we could find a suitable female, we could be their exact evil counterpart! Quote2
Wizard

Appearing in "The Frightful Four!"

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  • Reed and Sue's Engagement Party

Synopsis for "The Frightful Four!"

Reed Richards and Sue Storm publicly announce their engagement to the press. As they are making their announcement, a package is delivered from the Yancy Street Gang. The Thing opens it, fearing it's the worst and discovers that it's bomb of some kind. However, instead of a harmful explosion, the bomb was a gag filled with flowers.

Elsewhere, Paste-Pot Pete meets with the Sandman and the Wizard to form a new group to go after their mutual foe, the Human Torch. Pete and Sandman recount how they broke out of prison, stole a plane, and saved the Wizard from floating out in space following his last battle with the Human Torch. The Wizard then tells them that he has heard a potential fourth member to their group, a strange woman who can control her hair that lives on an island out in the Mediterranean Sea and has no memory of her past.

Meanwhile, the Fantastic Four are busy preparing for the wedding. As arrangements are being made, the Frightful Four meet for the first time and begin plotting the doom of their good counterparts. Back at the Baxter Building an engagement party is underway with the Avengers and the X-Men in attendance. The Frightful Four make their attack after the party goers leave, ambushing and incapacitating the Thing, the Invisible Girl, and Mister Fantastic. They are unaware that Alicia Masters is also on the premises, and while the Frightful Four are placing anti-gravity discs on their foes, she takes the Signal Flare from Sue's belt and fires it off.

It is seen by the Human Torch, who is over at his friend's garage working on a car, and he races to the Baxter Building. However, Alicia is caught by Medusa, and she, too, is taken prisoner. The four prisoners are then left to drift into the sky on the Wizard's anti-gravity discs. The Torch rushes on the scene and, using his flame powers, forces the Wizard to fly his anti-gravity ship into the sky and rescue his friends. After the Fantastic Four and Alicia are rescued, the ship is attacked by the Frightful Four, who followed after them in the Fantastic Four's Pogo Plane. Forced to land, the two groups battle it out until things start going in the Fantastic Four's favor. Seeking to escape, the Wizard detonates his ship, allowing the Frightful Four to flee the scene in all the confusion.

Notes

Continuity Notes[]

  • Reed and Sue's engagement announcement was revisited from the perspective of the press in Marvels #2.
  • The Yancy Street Gang antagonizes the Thing because he used to be a member, and his leaving the group years ago was seen as a betrayal as seen in Thing #1. They last pulled a prank on the Thing in Fantastic Four #34 by sending him a Beatles wig.
  • Paste-Pot Pete, the Sandman and the Wizard were all previously defeated at the hands of the Human Torch in Strange Tales #124, Strange Tales #115 and Strange Tales #118 respectively. In the case of the Wizard, he was left floating in the air due to a malfunctioning anti-gravity disc at the end of Strange Tales #118.
  • As revealed in Fantastic Four #44, Medusa is a member of the Inhumans. She was stricken with amnesia during a battle against the Trikon a few years earlier as depicted in Inhumans Special #1. It was later revealed in X-Men First Class (Vol. 2) #15 that the Wizard kept Medusa compliant and her memories jumbled with a device that he planted on the base of her neck.
  • The Avengers and the X-Men are all in attendance at the engagement party. Each member of each group last worked with the Fantastic Four while trying to contain Sundown as depicted in Untold Tales of Spider-Man '97 #1. Both teams next interact with the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four Annual #3 during Reed and Sue's wedding. Here are some facts about each member of each respective team:
    • The Avengers gathered here were last seen in Avengers #14 where they had to rescue Doctor Svenson from the Kallusians in order to get the Wasp the lifesaving surgery she needed.
    • Rick Jones, Captain America, and Thor's next chronological appearance is in the second story of Captain America #221 when Rick is injured at Avengers Mansion and has a dream about gaining the amalgamated powers of his fellow Avengers.
    • Giant-Man and the Wasp next appear in Tales of Suspense #65 where Giant-Man continues to redevelop his size-changing powers.
    • Iron Man next appears in Tales of Suspense #64 where he has a rematch against Hawkeye and the Black Widow.
    • Both Professor X and Cyclops were last seen investigating possible mutants attending State University in Fantastic Four #35.
    • Iceman, Beast, Angel and Marvel Girl were all last seen in X-Men #9 when they stopped the alien known as Lucifer.
    • The entire team of X-Men are next seen in X-Men #10, where they ventured into the Savage Land for the first time.
  • The X-Men pretend to not know their leader Charles Xavier at the engagement party as, at the time, the X-Men's identities and Xavier's connection to them were a secret. Xavier did not reveal his connection to the X-Men to the world at large until New X-Men #122. The Fantastic Four don't became aware of Xavier's connection to the X-Men until X-Men First Class (Vol. 2) #1, with the events of that story taking place shortly after Reed and Sue's wedding in Fantastic Four Annual #3.
  • Rick Jones wishes that Bruce Banner could be there at the engagement party. At the time, it was suspected that he was a traitor to his country and simultaneously trying to protect Gamma Base from the Leader as the Hulk, as seen in Tales to Astonish #62 through 70.
  • Spider-Man briefly crashes the party in this story, here are some facts about his appearance here:
  • Following their appearances, here the Frightful Four were pulled forward in time by Aron the Rogue Watcher to battle the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #400. They were later returned with no memory of that encounter.

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