Fantastic Four Annual #1

[flint_marko]

Sue travels to Latveria and asks Valeria to come back home, but she refuses.









Sue sends Valeria out of the castle in one of her bubbles and attacks Doom. During the battle, Doom senses someone inside her mind.

Comments

[big_daddy_d]

Umm..wow. O.O

[icon_uk]

Oh goody, the return of Malice, the Evil Mom personality...

Have we ever had an evil personality for Johnny or Reed, or Ben?

[donnblake]

There was a while where Reed was trapped in Doom's armor (for reasons involving the Dreaming Celestial, IIRC) and was slowly corrupted by it. He had gone full evil by the time Doom teamed up with the rest of the Fantastic Four to save him from it. I think the Brute, from Counter-Earth, was also an evil Reed, but I'm not sure if you'd count that since it was a distinct individual.

As for Ben and Johnny, I don't think so, although I wouldn't be surprised if Thing had lost his mind and gone a destructive rampage a time or two. Also, for a while Ben was shedding bits of skin that became mindlessly destructive proto-Things, though. I think. That was a weird story.

[burkeonthesly]

Johnny gets written as a high-functioning sociopath with some regularity.

[auggie18]

< insert joke about regular Reed being evil here >

[drtechnobabel]

I've got a couple. I'll just leave them here and let you decide which one to put in:

"Well to my knowledge, Malice hasn't built a planet-destroying bomb that's killed billions, so she's already less evil than Reed"

"Reed already has an evil double. His name is 'Reed Richards as written by Jonathan Hickman'."

"Well Reed did shoot his own son that one time. So already Doom's a better father than him."

"Reed basically helped build and run the superhero version of Guantanamo Bay, so I'd say he's plenty evil already."

"Reed Richards is a man who illegally took his best friend, his girlfriend, and her little brother on an untested rocketship into a cloud of radiation that he had no idea of the effects of, other than it was dangerous enough to require the best radiation shielding he could get at Wal-Mart. Then, when said radiation horribly mutated him and his friends, instead of immediately attempting to get medical help, he convinced them all to form a vigilante group under his command, and on top of that had the gall to call himself 'Mr. Fantastic'. Reed is already his own evil counterpart."

[flint_marko]

When did he shoot his son?

[drtechnobabel]

To be fair, I kind of took it out of context for the sake of humor, but during one of those times that everyone was worried that Franklin couldn't control his powers, Reed decided that the best option would be to shoot his son with a laser rifle to put him in a comatose state until he could figure out what to do. Of course, Franklin got better eventually, but Reed told no one he was doing this beforehand, and even ended up shooting Franklin while Sue was holding him.

[shadowpsykie]

WTF REED!

[katefan]

clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap

[drtechnobabel]

Not sure about Johnny or Ben, but Reed has so many evil counterparts that they formed their own council.

[icon_uk]

Oh counterparts is one thing (Or what's a mirror universe for), but an actual example of 616 Johnny turning into the "Dark" (sic) Human Torch for some reason.

Reed in Civil War might sort of count depending on your individual assessment of his actions

[drtechnobabel]

I'd say it's pretty much tied between him and 'Illuminati Reed'.

[espanolbot]

Ah yeah, the Council of Ricks... I mean, Reeds.

[donnblake]

Oh, also, Franklin was possessed by Nicholas Scratch once. That was a creepy one.

[thehood]

We've had a mind controlled Thing a few times, does that count?

[cypherfdp]

Oh yes, Malice, everyone's favorite character.

[beyondthefringe]

The John Byrne Malice, as opposed to the Chris Claremont Malice.
One's a psychic entity which tends to possess heroic women and turn them evil with bad costumes, the other is Chris Claremont.

I mean... huh?

[icon_uk]

The FF's Malice predates Mr Sinisters Marauders Malice IIRC.

FF Malice is "just" a secondary personality created by the Hate Monger

The X-Men Malice is an living being in her own right, who just happens to not have a body.

I do remember a great sequence in the X-Men title back in the 1980's where Wolverine bemoans the fact that he can't tell whether someone is possessed by Malice because they even smell the same, and he completely overlooks that every single person possessed by Malice manifests an antique cameo brooch around their throat.

[beyondthefringe]

Frighteningly enough, I knew all that, having been reading back when those events took place. :)

When I saw Malice referenced, I feared we were in for another round of Psycho-man. I hate that guy.

[icon_uk]

Frighteningly enough, I knew all that, having been reading back when those events took place. :)

Ditto and likewise! :) (and you even referenced the right villain, Psycho-Man rather than Hate Monger)

[tsunamiwombat]

Oh thank god he only drew the cover, can you imagine this with his faces?

Also, as much as I LOVE Sue as a bitchin ass kicking super powerful tigermom who doesn't need Reed or anyone else to slap a bodies shit-

How the hell does she take Doom on, alone, inside his home?

This is all not withstanding the fact that Malice a shit

[kevinroc]

How the hell does she take Doom on, alone, inside his home?

Doom's been really down ever since Scott Lang kicked his butt. Lang said such mean things to him.

[ablackraptor]

Because she's Susan frikkin' Storm-Richards, maybe? Its to my understanding that Sue's one of the heaviest hitters in the superhero community, more than the rest of the team combined, when she gets fighting.

[icon_uk]

In fact the manifestation of the Malice personality was what awakened her to the sheer versatility and potential of her powers, as she casually took down the rest of the FF.

And after she regained her true self in the story, that's when she decided to rename herself the Invisible WOMAN rather than the Invisible Girl.

[flint_marko]

While she was battling him, she used the atoms of her force field to seep in between the atoms of his defensive shield, disabling his armor.

Doom was also holding back because he didn't want to kill her.

[silverzeo]

No duh, Val, this is what happens when you push mothers too far....

[shieldhill]

Wait, Valeria is supposed to be three? She looked older during the Fraction run... but then children are always drawn inconsistently in comics.

[deceptioncat]

Good thing is at least she isn't 2 anymore.
Wait...
Did Susan and Reed miss her birthday while she was in Latveria? No wonder Valeria wants to stay with DOOM, he has the best birthday parties.

[zechs80]

It is mandatory for all children to have the best birthday parties in Latveria. Besides the recently revealed curfew in New Avengers that enables all children to have a good night's sleep.

[drtechnobabel]

Doombot: GATHER CHILDREN. IT IS TIME FOR THE CAKE CEREMONY.

Child: But we're not done playing 'Pin the Tail on the-"

Doombot: I SAID GATHER. DO NOT MAKE THIS UNIT REPEAT ITSELF A SECOND TIME. AND NOW, THE OBLIGATORY BIRTHDAY SONG:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR CITIZEN 492284.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.

IT IS NOW TIME FOR THE CLOWNBOT TO ENTERTAIN YOU WITH ITS HUMOROUS JAPES. PROCEED, CLOWBOT UNIT.

Clownbot: THANK YOU, UNIT 547. NOW CHILDREN, IT IS TIME FOR A JOKE. QUERY: WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

Child: To get to the other side?

Clownbot: INCORRECT. THE CHICKEN CROSSED THE ROAD IN ORDER TO BETTER SERVE THE WILL OF DOOM. CLEARLY YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR HAS BEEN CORRUPTED BY FOREIGN INFLUENCE. UNIT 547, TAKE THIS CHILD TO THE REEDUCATION TUBE, SO THAT HE MAY LEARN TO APPRECIATE LATVERIAN HUMOR.

[shadowpsykie]

this was magical

[writeofway]

Terrific. :)

[drtechnobabel]

Honestly, this is something that Sue should have done a LONG time ago. The fact that she would let her 3 year-old daughter stay with Dr. Doom of all people for this long is, quite frankly, madness and pretty poor parenting. A shame that this ended up being a reintroduction of Malice, though.

Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if Doom just brought up Malice to cast a shadow of doubt over Sue's actions and keep Val on his side.

[espanolbot]

Hm, why do I get the impression that Doom's just saying that to further drive a wedge between Val and Sue?

[deepspaceartist]

Makes sense. Sue just proved she can wreck Doom's shit and end him at her convenience. Doom now has a vested interest in making her doubt herself.

[flint_marko]

We saw doom trying to go into her mind and sensing someone else was there.

[junipepper]

Is there, like, a law that the Richards children must always be drawn in incredibly creepy ways that correspond to no actual developmental stage of a human child?

[shadowpsykie]

.... i don't know what to say...

[jaybee3]

So I guess we're supposed to be siding with Valeria and Doom here...because of Malice? When you know - Sue has a point. Ever since her intelligence showed pretty much Valeria has been able to do whatever she wants - including pushing around her older brother (who wished her into existence) despite the fact he can create universes with a thought. For a three year old she behaves like a bratty teenager. It's time she did get her comeuppance and was treated like a child, not a mini-adult.

But no....

[silverhammerman]

Yeah, if Sue's supposed to come off as unbalanced or something it really doesn't land. I mean, just from these scans it doesn't seem like Sue is saying anything unreasonable before the fight breaks out, a bit harsh maybe, but frankly it seemed like a pretty sensible approach to crazy superhero stuff.

[umbrall]

I like Valeria with the Dooms mask. Its a good image. Clearly she won't grow up to be Miss Fantastic.

The FF used to babysit Luna. I could see a long talk between those two would be interesting.