WHEN CRYSTAL JOINED THE FANTASTIC FOUR

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post will look at the time when the Inhuman named Crystal replaced Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Four while she was pregnant.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #81 (Dec 1968)

Title: Enter – The Exquisite Elemental

Villain: The Wizard

Synopsis: With Sue Storm-Richards (Invisible Woman) deep in her pregnancy, the Human Torch’s (Johnny Storm’s) longtime girlfriend Crystal of the Inhumans temporarily replaces her in the Fantastic Four. This marks the first time any team member has needed replaced.

The team’s old foe the Wizard invades the Baxter Building to keep his recently confiscated Power Gloves from being reverse engineered by the Fantastic Four.

(Our heroes took them after defeating the Wizard a few issues back.)

The battle leads all the way to the docks, where Crystal’s elemental powers prove her value to the team by being crucial to defeating and driving off the Wizard.

FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL Vol 1 #6 (1968)

Title: Let There Be Life

Villains: Annihilus and the Scavenger

Synopsis: Invisible Woman goes into labor, but the cosmic energies in her body threaten the life of her and her baby unless the rest of the team can obtain Element X from the Negative Zone to neutralize those energies.

NOTE: The Negative Zone was discovered by Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) and is accessible through a portal that Reed constructed in the Baxter Building. Such a negative zone was speculated to exist by real-life scientists as a buffer zone between the matter universe and a theoretical anti-matter universe.

The other Fantastic Four members enter the Negative Zone and locate Element X within the power rod of the Zone’s ruler Annihilus, making his first ever appearance. The villain refuses to let our heroes have access to the element, so they wind up battling him and his lackey, the Mad Thinker’s mutated android now called the Scavenger.

During a lengthy fight, Reed surreptitiously manages to drain some Element X from the power rod without Annihilus realizing it. The Fantastic Four pretend to retreat back to Earth without obtaining their goal.

The team gets the Element X to the hospital in time to save Sue, who gives birth to her and Reed’s son Franklin.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #82 (Jan 1969)

Title: The Mark of the Madman

Villain: Maximus the Mad 

Synopsis: With the Invisible Woman on maternity leave, Crystal feels she should have obtained permission to join the FF from her cousin Black Bolt, the king of the Inhumans and their secret, futuristic city called Attilan the Great Refuge.

Crystal has her big, horse-sized dog Lockjaw teleport the two of them to Attilan in the Himalayas, where she is taken captive by Maximus the Mad, Black Bolt’s evil brother. Once again, Maximus has overthrown Black Bolt and imprisoned the rest of the Inhuman Royal Family along with him.

Taking advantage of the residue of Lockjaw’s teleportation beam, Maximus sends a brigade of Alpha Primitives (beings genetically engineered by the Inhumans for labor and military use) to the Baxter Building HQ of the Fantastic Four.

The Alpha Primitives are defeated by Mr. Fantastic, the Thing and the Human Torch, who realize something must have happened to Crystal. They use one of their aircraft to fly to Attilan, and when they arrive, Maximus has his kaiju-sized android Zorr attack them.

The three heroes are defeated, and Maximus the Mad reveals his latest creation – an enormous hypnotic device which will enable him to enthrall everyone on Earth and make them his slaves.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #83 (Feb 1969)

Title: Shall Man Survive?

Villains: Maximus the Mad, his League of Evil Inhumans (later called just the Inhuman League) and Zorr

Synopsis: The Fantastic Four join the Inhuman Royal Family (Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Karnak and Triton) in one of Maximus’ prisons. Meanwhile, the madman recruits a superteam of Inhumans loyal to him as his League of Evil Inhumans (Leonus, Aireo, Stallior, Falconus and Timberius). 

Black Bolt, for the umpteenth time, violates his vow of silence, this time to use his powerful voice to break all our heroes out of captivity. They go on to trash the gigantic android Zorr, then defeat Maximus and his League.

They also destroy the Hypno Device before the villain can use it to enslave the world.

Maximus and his team escape, vowing to return some day.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #84 (Mar 1969)

Title: The Name is Doom

Villain: Dr. Doom

Synopsis: S.H.I.E.L.D. head Nick Fury and his 2nd in Command Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan recruit the Fantastic Four for a covert mission. Several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents have disappeared in Latveria, the fictional European country ruled by the FF’s archenemy Dr. Doom.

Those agents gave their lives to send word about Doom’s new army of Invincibles, robots which are incredibly powerful and even if destroyed can make their individual body parts continue fighting to the end. Our heroes agree to sneak into Latveria in disguise.

Naturally, Dr. Doom detects them and has his Invincibles attack and capture them. When Mr. F, the Thing, the Human Torch and Crystal regain consciousness, they find that they are not imprisoned but are the guests of honor for a parade and festival welcoming them as new Latverian citizens.

The team realizes they cannot use their powers and Dr. Doom informs them they are now trapped in his kingdom for the rest of their lives, subject to the same punishments as his people should they disobey him.

They will also have to watch helplessly when he decides to unleash his army of Invincibles to defeat the Avengers and X-Men as they have the Fantastic Four, opening the way for Doom’s global conquest. 

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #85 (Apr 1969)

Title: Within This Tortured Land

Villain: Dr. Doom

Synopsis: The Fantastic Four spend days living the beaten, terrified lives of Latverian citizens, who never know what awaits them under Victor Von Doom’s iron rule. Back in the U.S. Invisible Woman works through a real estate agent to find a remote home where she and Reed can spend quiet time with their new baby.

Back in Latveria, we learn that our heroes are subjected to devices while they sleep and those devices implant mental blocks preventing the team from using their powers. Dr. Doom relishes watching his enemies squirm, then kills two captured Latverian rebels brought before him.

While having another portrait of himself painted, the insane Victor grows wary that the Fantastic Four may join the rebels and help them even without their powers. He decides to send forth his army of Invincibles from Castle Doom to kill the rebels and every other man, woman and child in the capital city of Doomstadt, including the de-powered Fantastic Four. 

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #86 (May 1969)

Title: The Victims

Villain: Dr. Doom

Synopsis: Doom’s army of Invincibles approaches Doomstadt on their genocidal mission. Though powerless, the Fantastic Four gather the citizens together and try to keep their spirits up.

Mr. Fantastic’s genius helps him realize that Victor would never have created an army of Invincibles powerful enough to defeat even himself without some mechanism for controlling them if they malfunctioned.

While he searches for such mechanisms, the Thing, Human Torch and Crystal help the Latverians futilely use their weapons on the Invincibles. When about to be killed by those robots, self-preservation instincts override Dr. Doom’s hypnotic conditioning and our heroes realize they can use their powers again.

The Invincibles are still far too powerful for the Fantastic Four and the rebels to defeat, but Reed discovers some of the camouflaged devices Doom hid around the nation to control the robots if needed. Soon, the Invincibles are defeated.

Observing all this on his viewscreens in Castle Doom, Victor’s insane rage at the thought of the FF and the rebels overthrowing him prompts him to push the button to blow up Doomstadt with hidden explosives.

Invisible Woman, having heard news about her teammates’ captivity, arrives just in time to protect Doomstadt with the largest force-field she’s ever created, keeping the city safe from the explosion.

She tells Reed she has the Thing’s girlfriend, blind sculptress Alicia Masters, watching their son back home. The Fantastic Four now prepare to storm Castle Doom.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #87 (Jun 1969)

Title: The Power and the Pride

Villain: Dr. Doom

Synopsis: All five members of the Fantastic Four (?) invade Victor’s castle. Doom watches while instructing his aide Hauptmann on using the castle’s high-tech defenses against our heroes.

The fighting goes on and on, with Crystal and Invisible Woman getting separated from Mr. Fantastic, the Thing and the Human Torch in the castle’s labyrinthine corridors.

In an ending that is NOT “off-beat” but is instead anticlimactic, the mad Dr. Doom ends the fighting when the Fantastic Four’s continued invasion threatens to have priceless Latverian artwork destroyed in the crossfire.

Doom kills Hauptmann and, on a whim, informs our heroes they are free to leave Latveria, which they do. I guess they feel wiping out Doom’s Invincibles is enough of an accomplishment. You know comic book writing. 

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #88 (Jul 1969)

Title: A House There Was

Villain: Mole Man

Synopsis: This issue picks up an unknown amount of time after the previous issue. Invisible Woman shows Reed and the others the house she picked out for her, Reed and their son Franklin’s quiet time. Mr. Fantastic also likes it so the deal is finalized.

When the team helps Sue and Reed get the place all set up they don’t realize that in between buying and moving in their oldest foe Mole Man has rigged it with traps and secret cameras that let him observe their every move.

Ultimately, the villain makes himself and his traps known and unleashes his weapon – a device which renders all five heroes blind.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #89 (Aug 1969)

Title: The Madness of the Mole Man

Villain: Mole Man

Synopsis: With the Fantastic Four (really Five) unable to see, Mole Man’s army of subterranean beings called Moloids easily overcome the team.

With our heroes now his captives, Mole Man does a Villain Rant, explaining that his latest plan is to use his device to blind everyone in the world, making it easy for him and his armies to conquer the Earth. 

The team breaks free, and when Mole Man nearly kills Mr. Fantastic in battle, Invisible Woman furiously brings down the villain. The blindness device is destroyed, the FF get their vision back and then defeat Mole Man and his minions, driving them back underground.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #90 (Sep 1969)

Title: The Skrull Takes a Slave

Villains: Skrull Deviants

Synopsis: A spaceship has landed on Earth. The vessel is crewed by Skrull Deviants genetically engineered by the Celestials long, long ago. These Deviants operate independently of the Skrull Empire and have conquered a far-off planet from which they run gladiatorial games.

The Deviants travel the universe abducting powerful beings to serve as Arena Slaves in those gladiatorial games. NOTE: The Deviants are different from the Dire Wraiths fought by Rom the Space Knight, which are an offshoot species of the Skrulls.

The Skrull Deviant called the Slave-Master leads his crew in capturing the Thing and flying off with him back to their planet to make him fight in their games. 

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #91 (Oct 1969)

Title: The Thing – Enslaved

Villains: Skrull Deviants

Synopsis: While Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and Crystal try to find the missing Thing, the Skrull Deviants take their teammate back to their base on the planet Kral IV. The Skrulls have fashioned the entire planet to be like gangland Chicago of the 1920s and 1930s, I would imagine as a riff on the Star Trek episode A Piece of the Action.

In the case of the Skrull Deviants, they’ve based the planet on Old Chicago inspired by an Earth gangster they abducted back in the 1930s. The shape-shifting Skrulls have all assumed the form of old-time human gangsters, too.

The Thing is informed he will be fighting in the Skrull gladiatorial games for the rest of his life. He tries to escape a few times but is thwarted. A Skrull called Boss Barker tells the Thing that he had him abducted hoping he can defeat his rival boss’s prize combatant – a tall robot called Torgo.

Back on Earth, Mr. Fantastic and the others piece together the fact that Ben Grimm (the Thing) was stolen away by Skrulls.   

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #92 (Nov 1969)

Title: Ben Grimm – Killer

Villains: Skrull Deviants and Torgo

Synopsis: Mr. Fantastic’s scientific genius enables him to use the alien technology within the team’s spaceship commandeered from Planet X long ago. He uses it to narrow down where in the universe the Skrulls took the Thing.

Back on Kral IV, the Thing and other arena combatants fight in the gladiatorial games. The Thing learns from Torgo that if any of them refuse to fight, their Skrull captors can use their Sonic (should be Cosmic) Disruptor to knock their home planet out of orbit, killing all inhabitants.

At last, Reed has located Ben. He, the Human Torch and Crystal fly off in the Planet X spaceship to save him while Invisible Woman stays with baby Franklin on Earth. The Thing and Torgo are about to face each other in the arena.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #93 (Dec 1969)

Title: Arena of Death

Villains: Skrull Deviants and Torgo

Synopsis: The Thing and Torgo fight each other in the arena repeatedly with no conclusive result. At long last Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch and Crystal arrive on Kral IV. They waylay some of the Skrull “gangsters” and don their 1930s outfits so they can move about freely.

They commandeer a flying “1930s auto” and take over Boss Barker’s HQ. Barker and the Slave-Master answer all our heroes’ questions about everything on Kral IV. While the Thing and Torgo continue fighting, Reed, Crystal and the Human Torch invade the arena.

Crystal destroys the Sonic Disruptor while Mr. F and the Torch fight the guards. The Thing and Torgo join forces against the Skrulls now that the Disruptor is trashed. The other arena slaves are freed and begin attacking the Skrulls.

In the resulting chaos, the Fantastic Four make it back to the Planet X space craft and return to Earth.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #94 (Jan 1970) 

Title: The Return of the Frightful Four

Villains: The Frightful Four (The Wizard, Medusa, Sandman and the Trapster)

NOTE: This issue marks the very first appearance of Agatha Harkness.

Synopsis: Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) and Invisible Woman (Sue Storm Richards) take their toddler son Franklin to the Whisper Hill mansion of Agatha Harkness, who will go on to be a frequent ally of the Fantastic Four. (And later, the Scarlet Witch’s tutor in magic.)

Franklin’s parents decide that Agatha is their best alternative for childcare given their hectic and dangerous lives. The rest of the team members accompany Reed and Sue to Whisper Hill, where they all spend the night.

Unknown to our heroes, their frequent foes the Frightful Four have surreptitiously followed them to Agatha Harkness’ mansion. Overnight, the villains launch a surprise attack on the Fantastic Four.

The bad guys defeat the F.F. and have them at their mercy. Too late, the Frightful Four realize that the greatest threat in the Whisper Hill mansion has been Agatha all along (see what I did there). Miss Harkness uses her magical powers to safeguard Franklin and defeat the villains, who escape.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #95 (Feb 1970)

Title: Tomorrow – World War Three

Villain: The Monocle

Synopsis: With global tensions at their peak, a special summit is held at the UN to try ironing out a peace settlement. A supervillain calling himself the Monocle (first ever appearance) is hired by unnamed parties who have a vested interest in war breaking out.

Those parties want him to sow discord by killing one of the dignitaries. The five members of the Fantastic Four are providing security for the event. The Monocle uses his high-tech weaponry to kill his target and otherwise sabotage the summit but our heroes stop him each time.

At length, the villain flies off in defeat but the Human Torch captures him. Meanwhile, the Inhuman Medusa has quit the Frightful Four and abducts Crystal to take back to the Great Refuge with her.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #96 (Mar 1970)

Title: The Mad Thinker and His Androids of Death

Villains: The Mad Thinker and his androids

Synopsis: The team has been trying to figure out where Crystal has disappeared to. In the middle of their efforts, their old foe the Mad Thinker attacks, allied with powerful android duplicates of the Thing, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman and the Human Torch.

At first, the villain has his androids pick off the real Johnny and Sue as they search New York for Crystal. Next, the Thinker and his creations invade the Baxter Building itself.

Our heroes fight back and ultimately defeat their robot duplicates. They also corral the Mad Thinker and turn him over to the authorities.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #97 (Apr 1970)

Title: Monster From the Lost Lagoon

Villain: Mowfus

Synopsis: The Fantastic Four are so concerned about Crystal’s disappearance that they … go to Florida for a vacation with little Franklin! Johnny does some token moping about not knowing what happened to Crystal but that’s it. You know comic book writing!

While in Florida vacationing their cares away, the team gets drawn into a venture inside the Lost Lagoon. They fight Mowfus, a scaly alien from Quon whose spaceship has crashed in the lagoon with his wife and child on board, too.

After some battling, Reed realizes that Mowfus is just trying to protect his mate and offspring, just like he and Sue would do. (But I’ll bet Mowfus wouldn’t go on vacation while one of his teammates was in God knows what kind of danger.) With Reed’s help the ship is repaired and the aliens fly off.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #98 (May 1970)

Title: Mystery on the Moon

Villain: Kree Sentry 9168

Synopsis: With the Kree alien race’s giant robotic Sentry 459 inert at Cape Canaveral after being defeated by Captain Marvel (Kree Captain Mar-Vell), Kree Sentry 9168 is sent to sabotage America’s ongoing Apollo Space Missions.

Sentry 9168 attacks a remote Pacific Ocean Island that has such moon-like conditions that NASA used it for simulator training for the astronauts. Using tech at the NASA facilities there, the Sentry gets in position to remotely sabotage the latest moon landing.

The Fantastic Four are summoned to the island (so, NOT the moon) by the government. They arrive, defeat the Sentry, and prevent it from destroying the vessel being piloted by the Apollo Astronauts.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #99 (Jun 1970)

Title: The Torch Goes Wild

Villains: Inhumans

Synopsis: Crystal is located in the Great Refuge, but when the Human Torch is denied permission to speak to her he jumps to the conclusion that the Inhuman Royal Family is keeping her in Attilan against her will. He flies off toward the Himalayan city of the Inhumans with the Thing, Invisible Woman and Mr. Fantastic following after him in another aircraft to try calming Johnny down.

Johnny arrives at Attilan first and vents his bad temper on a fight with most of the Royal Family members until the rest of the FF arrive to stop him. At last Crystal comes forward to meet him and says she had to come back to Attilan with her sister Medusa because their king Black Bolt was in serious medical condition.

Now that Black Bolt is fully healed, Crystal is happy to return to the Baxter Building with her Fantastic Four teammates.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #100 (Jul 1970) 

Title: The Long Journey Home

Villains: The Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker

Synopsis: All five members of the Fantastic Four – Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Thing, the 2nd Human Torch and his superheroine love interest Crystal – are flying one of their vessels home from their latest adventure in Attilan, the Himalayan home city of the Inhumans.

The team’s aircraft is shot down by android duplicates of their Rogues Gallery of foes, causing the vessel to crash land in the New Jersey Pines. The android villains are the latest creations of the Fantastic Four’s longtime foe the Mad Thinker, who is once again allied with the villainous Puppet Master to kill our heroes.   

The Fantastic Four fight and destroy their way through over two dozen robot versions of their foes until, at a crucial moment, the Puppet Master has the subject of his latest radioactive clay puppet – the Hulk – enter the fighting to ensure the FF’s deaths.

With the android duplicates of supervillains all destroyed, the FF are nearly overcome by the real Hulk. The Hulk at last manages to break free of the Puppet Master’s mental control and destroys the Mad Thinker and Puppet Master’s HQ.

The Fantastic Four survive, and the two villains later turn out to have escaped their seeming deaths at the Hulk’s hands.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #101 (Aug 1970)

Title: Death Strikes at Night

Villains: The Maggia (Marvel’s pastiche of the Mafia)

Synopsis: One of the Maggia Families tries a series of death threats and legal maneuvers to force the Fantastic Four to abandon their Baxter Building HQ. NOTE: This is similar to Cornelius Van Lunt’s legal efforts to get the Avengers driven out of Avengers Mansion. 

Despite the cover, Death does NOT strike “at night”, it strikes in the afternoon while our five heroes plus little Franklin are picnicking in Central Park. Five Maggia members invade the Baxter Building to steal some of Reed’s inventions.

Our heroes return to their HQ and realize the Maggia men are wearing high-tech costumes which keep them mostly invincible from their powers. The criminals come close to killing the FF but are beaten in the end and given to the cops. 

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #102 (Sep 1970)

Title: The Strength of the Sub-Mariner

Villains: Magneto and the Sub-Mariner

Synopsis: The five members of the Fantastic Four relax and enjoy each other’s company around the Baxter Building. Meanwhile, in Atlantis, the villain Magneto gets an audience with Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, King of the underwater realm.

He tries to talk Namor into once again joining forces with him against the surface world, like he did when Sub-Mariner joined his Mutant Brotherhood long ago. NOTE: Sub-Mariner is a mutant, being the hybrid offspring of a human male and an Atlantean female. 

Sub-Mariner is at first opposed to it, remembering how he realized Magneto’s true, vile nature when they fought the X-Men together. Little does he know that Magneto has planned for this.

The mutant villain uses his powers to remotely hurl large metal objects at New York City and turn everyday metal objects into shrapnel against civilians. The surface world, including the FF, trace the attacks to Magneto’s current location in Atlantis.

Missiles are fired upon Atlantis, convincing Namor, who is unaware of Magneto’s duplicity, to lead a flying fleet of Atlantean military forces against New York City.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #103 (Oct 1970)

Title: At War with Atlantis

Villains: Magneto and Sub-Mariner

Synopsis: Mr. Fantastic convinces the president to have the U.S. military hold back from attacking the approaching Atlantean fleet for one hour while he and his teammates try to get Sub-Mariner to withdraw his forces. Sub-Mariner leaves his flagship to fight the Fantastic Four single-handed.

Magneto uses his powers to restrain the crew and pilots the flagship in attacking New York and the U.S. army, which fights back. The other flying vessels follow the flagship’s lead. Invisible Woman, meanwhile, has delivered Franklin to Agatha Harkness’ Whisper Hill home to watch him while she joins the others in the ongoing battle.

Magneto intercepts Sue and holds her hostage. He has also taken Sub-Mariner’s true love (since 1939), Lady Dorma of Atlantis, hostage on the flagship. Via videoscreen he interrupts the FF’s battle with Namor and delivers an ultimatum – he’ll kill Lady Dorma unless Sub-Mariner puts him in charge of the Atlantean fleet. And he’ll kill Invisible Woman unless the Fantastic Four stands down.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #104 (Nov 1970)

Title: Our World Enslaved

Villain: Magneto

Synopsis: Sub-Mariner wants to attack Magneto, knowing Lady Dorma will understand his duty to their people. Mr. Fantastic convinces him not to do so yet while he works on an invention to render Magneto helpless and unable to kill anyone.

The Atlantean air and land forces manage to seize enough of New York City for Magneto to establish his camp in Central Park. Sub-Mariner confronts Magneto there and tries negotiating with him.

Mr. F, Crystal, the Thing and Human Torch arrive with Reed’s device, which is powered by Crystal’s elemental powers. The invention binds Magneto in a magnetic field which he cannot control and he is held helpless. He surrenders, the hostages are freed and the Atlantean forces follow Namor back home.     

*** At the beginning of the next issue, Crystal must return to Attilan for years, since it turns out that her exposure to air pollution out in the human world has at last caught up with her and given her a medical condition.

        In the years ahead, she will dump the Human Torch and marry the former Avenger Quicksilver.

FOR ARKON AND XEMU VS THE FANTASTIC FOUR AND THE INHUMANS CLICK HERE.

FOR THUNDRA’S INTERACTIONS WITH THE FANTASTIC FOUR CLICK HERE.