Fantastic Four: 1234 is a four-issue comic book limited series featuring the Fantastic Four, written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Jae Lee and published by Marvel Comics under the Marvel Knights imprint.
Plot
As the Fantastic Four experience downtime, the Thing tries (and fails) to reconnect with his past on Yancy Street, the Invisible Woman and the Human Torch bicker with each other and Mister Fantastic withdraws to his lab to do some thinking. The Thing eventually enters Reed's lab and tries on the gauntlet of a dismantled Doombot and is teleported to Doctor Doom's castle in Latveria. Here, Doctor Doom reveals a secret about his appearance that shakes the Thing deeply and he uses a time machine in order to restore his human form, and when he returns home (now human), Ben Grimm is unrecognized and then gets badly injured by a hit-and-run driver.
The Invisible Woman visits Alicia Masters to talk about her feelings of rejection from her husband and her attraction to Namor. Soon, Sue discovers Namor on the roof of the building. Meanwhile, the Human Torch arrives at the Baxter Building and a giant monster from the Mole Man's realm appears. Due to rain, the Torch requests help from his sister, but Namor's appearance disrupts her powers and intensifies the rain, causing Torch's flames to snuff out. As a result, Johnny falls into the monster's hole.
Ben Grimm wakes in a hospital to find that his right arm has been amputated above the elbow due to injuries sustained in the wreck. Somewhat confused about what is happening, he resolves to find Mister Fantastic and talk to him.
The Human Torch finds himself in the Mole Man's lair, along with a captured Alicia Masters. The Invisible Woman and Namor arrive shortly and Namor argues with Mole Man, who promised Torch and Masters to Doom, with Invisible Woman promised to Namor. Angry at being considered Doom's lackey, Namor punches a wall, flooding the area with seawater.
Doom is revealed to have created a reality altering machine, the Prime Mover, to destroy the Fantastic Four entirely, and he unleashes a giant Doombot against the Baxter Building to kill Mister Fantastic. However, Reed was aware of Doom's actions and has created a Prime Mover counterpart allowing him to perceive the reality changes Doom manipulated, including his machinations with Grimm after he sought Reed out.
The Invisible Woman saves Ben from a blast of energy released by Doom's robot and they find the teleportation gauntlet in the rubble. Namor and Torch destroy the Doombot's eyes while Sue and Ben use the gauntlet to teleport to Latveria and use Doom's time machine to restore Ben to the Thing. Invisible Woman destroys the Prime Mover while Thing teleports back to New York and destroys the giant Doombot.
Collected editions
The series was collected into a trade paperback and a hardcover:
- Fantastic Four: 1234 (by Grant Morrison and Jae Lee, Marvel, 4-issue mini-series, 2001, tpb, 96 pages, 2004 ISBN 0-7851-1040-2)
References
External links
- Review of the trade paperback, Comics Bulletin