Fantastic Four #265Fantastic Four #265
Title: “The House That Reed Built”
Writer: John Byrne
Penciller: John Byrne
Inker: John Byrne
Colors: Glynis Wein
Editor: Bob Budiansky
Trapster floats down onto the Baxter Building with a bunch of balloons. He manages to land on the roof and doesn’t hear any alarms. His scanner tells him that he has been detected, but not as an attacker. Pete ditches the balloons. Suddenly three tiny security eyeballs pops up. Pete blasts the three eyes with his paste gun. He pulls a “multi-phase electronic skeleton key” out of his belt and manages to open an entranceway into the Baxter Building. Pete notes that there are still no alarms going off. He says that as long as he sticks the Fantastic Four’s procedures that the building’s defenses are too confused to attack him. Pete makes it to the hangar deck. As he looks around at all the stuff, the security devices do a retinal scan of his eye. The computers identify him as Trapster, AKA Paste Pot Pete. It comes up with a list of his past affiliations. Pete looks at the Fantasti-car and thinks about rigging it to explode the next time it is used, but decides that it would take too much time. He decides that he had better keep moving. Pete pushes a button for the elevator, but the button doesn’t work. The scanner notes his improper use of the elevator lock. Trapster uses his electronic key again to open the stairwell. Pete starts to head down. He says that if he remembers right that the floor below is the astro-science area. Pete flinches at his reflection in front of him. The defense system manages to scan that Pete is very nervous. It scans his weapon and initiates the jamming sequences. Pete heads down to the next floor that serves as the physics lab. Pete’s scanner detects a big energy source. He walks up to a heavily shielded door. He thinks that it is a good thing that his scanner was designed by the Wizard. He says that another scanner might have missed it behind all that shielding. Trapster reaches out for the lock, but he gets shocked when he touches it. He pulls his paste gun and tries to short it out, but he finds that his weapon has been jammed. The defense system scans Pete as he runs back to the stairs. It commences procedures to capture him. Trapster wonders where everybody is. He says that he came to prove that he is not a loser by defeating the Fantastic Four without the other Frightful Four. A flying H.U.B.E.R.T. robot comes up to Trapster and tells him that he is not supposed to be there. As Trapster runs, HUBERT asks if he should detain him. The system says that he is about to detain himself. Pete trips over a toy car on the floor and falls on his butt. Trapster spots that the elevator on this floor has a regular design. He pushes the button and gets in. The doors open and a receptionist asks him how he got into the tower. Trapster grabs her arm to use for a hostage, but the woman lifts Trapster into the air and flips him over. Trapster passes out as the receptionist calls the police to come pick him up. From behind the desk we see that the receptionist is really a robot wired into the desk. She tells the police that Trapster is detained and that they were able to handle him easily.
At Avengers mansion, Jarvis freaks out as Sue has lifted the lid off the pot he is cooking in. Sue apologizes for invading his territory, but that she just caught all the “yummy cooking aromas”. Jarvis says that he appreciates the compliment, but that the dish is very finicky and precise temperatures must be maintained. He increases the heat to make up for the heat that escapes when the lid was lifted. Sue goes to leave the kitchen and apologizes again. Jarvis tells her not to give it another thought. He says that they have all been a little tense over the last few days. Sue says that Jarvis has a gift for understatement.
It was about a week ago that Sue watched Reed, Torch, and Thing fly towards Central Park to investigate a strange energy fluctuation. They barely had time to reach it when there an immense flash of light. Alicia asks what that light was. Sue asks Alicia how she saw it when she is blind. Alicia says that she saw it and that it seemed to fill the entire universe. Sue asks Alicia to watch Franklin, who was sleeping in Johnny’s old room, but Alicia is scared of being left alone. Sue realizes that the last time she was left alone that she was nearly killed by Annihilus. Sue tells Alicia to take her hand. They wake Franklin and fly one of the Fantasti-cars to Central Park. Sue spots residual radiance and flies overhead. Alicia says that she senses something. Sue looks down at the ground and describes an immense alien-looking construct. Sue says that it seems to have just materialized there. Sue scans the thing and realizes that it is radiating on every wavelength, but that it seems to be benign and harmless. Something about the construct was compelling her to land and walk into it, but Sue was wary of it. Suddenly the construct disappears. Sue lands the Fantasti-car and spots Mockingbird, Vision, and Scarlet Witch. Wanda is trying to calm Mockingbird down, but Mockingbird says that it wasn’t her husband that disappeared. Sue asks if the Avengers are involved in this too. Wanda asks where the rest of the Fantastic Four are. She says that she hopes that they were not taken too. Sue asks what on Earth she is talking about. Vision says that he doesn’t think that it is anywhere on Earth and says he is guessing that the construct was some sort of transporting device. He says that he doesn’t really know where the other Avengers and Fantastic Four have been taken, but that they aren’t on Earth.
Sue sits by the window thinking that was about a week ago. Alicia comes in with Franklin and asks if she is ready for their stroll. Franklin reminds his mother that she promised him ice cream. Outside, Sue says that Alicia seems withdrawn and asks if there is anything wrong. Alicia says that she has a sensation that something momentous is going to happen today. As they reach the front gate, Mockingbird is coming in as they are going out. Sue asks her how she is doing. Mockingbird says that she hasn’t been a bride for very long, but that she already has to think about being a widow. She says that Vision told her that the Avengers survive these type of circumstances all the time, but that she is still worried. Alicia says that it is best not to think on these things and that in her years of being with Thing that she has learned that the life of a superhero is that of a soldier in an unending war. Mockingbird says that she is a superhero though. She asks if Vision has made his speech to the press yet. Sue says that he just started, but that she has a small boy that needs an ice cream fix.
An hour later on the walk back, Sue notices
that strange light again. She wonders if it is the same since
Alicia doesn’t seem to notice it this time. Sue asks Alicia
to stay with Franklin while she checks something out. Sue becomes
invisible and starts walking towards the light. Sue spots Iron
Man fly by overhead. She looks and sees the others that were
taken as well. She spots Spider-Man, Hulk, and the X-Men. She
wonders where Reed, Ben, and Johnny are. She says that if they
were all taken at the same time that they should return at the
same time. 
Seconds that
feel like centuries pass and Reed, Johnny, and She-Hulk appear.
Torch cheers that they made it back to Earth. She-Hulk says that
she never thought she would be glad to be breathing New York air
again. Sue notices that She-Hulk is wearing some kind of modified
FF uniform. Reed tells them that he said he would get them back.
He asks if they doubted him. Sue comes running up to Reed. Reed
is happy to see that Sue is all right and that she hasn’t
had the baby yet. He says that must not have been gone as long as
it seemed. Sue tells him to save the analysis for once and kiss
her. Alicia and Franklin arrive and Franklin runs to Torch. Torch
says that for a while there he didn’t think that they would
get back before he graduated college. Franklin asks who the
pretty green lady is. Alicia asks Johnny if Ben is back too.
Johnny puts Franklin down and says that he wish he didn’t
have to tell Alicia this. Johnny struggles for the words, but
suddenly Sue screams in pain from hard radiation. Reed drops to
her side and asks if she is all right. Sue says, “Reed…
it was the baby! I felt it! I felt it move… felt it lash
out! Help me…” Reed says that he has to get her to a
hospital even though he risks another radiation blast. She-Hulk
pushes Reed to the side and tells him not to be a fool. She says
that her tolerance for radiation is far greater than his.
She-Hulk picks up Sue and tells Torch to fly ahead to Mercy
General to let them know that they are coming. Torch flies off,
but thinks to himself that he has never seen anything like that
radiation burst. He says that Sue didn’t have to deal with
this during Franklin’s birth. Torch wonders if even Reed can
deal with this.
First Family rating: 6 out of 10
This comic seems to be a predecessor of the Seinfeld show in that it seems to be about nothing. 11 pages are devoted to Paste Pot Pete getting beaten by an empty building. The rest of it is Sue thinking about how she is worried that the other Fantastic Four have disappeared. She-Hulk makes her first Fantastic Four appearance on Earth, and things looks to be shaping up for next issue. Byrne’s art is excellent even though there isn’t much to see happening.