Here Be FANTASTIC FOUR #357

FANTASTIC FOUR #357
Written by Tom DeFalco
Art by Paul Ryan and Danny Bulanadi

"The Monster Among Us!"

This issue is hated by most people, I think. It's the first issue by Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan, who took over for Walt Simonson. It introduces a huge retcon that angered most fans...but not this one. This change I welcomed, for it fixed a storyline that should never have come to pass in the first place.

In simple terms, this issue has the Puppet Master searching for answers as to what is going on with his step-daughter, Alicia,the wife of FF member Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch. He goes to the Mad Thinker and gets those answers, and he is totally shocked. Meanwhile, Reed Richards has created a device that will scan the brain patterns of the entire Fantastic Four and their loved ones so he can prevent any of them from being controlled by outside forces. Later, an intruder breaks into the lab and tries to destroy the device and its results, but the Thing manages to drive the intruder away. Eventually, the Puppet Master contacts Ben Grimm and tells him what he has learned. Ben proceeds to try and kill Alicia, who is defended by her husband. Simultaneously, Reed examines the results of the brain scans and discovers a shocking secret. In the long run, Alicia is discovered to be a Skrull in disguise!

We will find out in the next issue that this Skrull is named Lyja, and she has been posing as Alicia Masters since around FANTASTIC FOUR #265, when the FF returned from the original SECRET WARS storyline. She was sent by the Skrulls to infiltrate the Fantastic Four and gather information on them. She took Alicia's place with the notion that she would use Alicia's love, Ben Grimm, as a part of this plan, but when Ben didn't return from Battleworld (where the Secret Wars took place) Lyja decided to form a relationship with Johnny and go from there. However, Lyja eventually fell in love with Johnny and it messed up the plans her superiors had devised.

So, fans were pretty pissed. Alicia was a Skrull all along? Nonsense! Looking back, past stories showed no indication of this, especially since a lot of things Alicia said and did back then contradicted this idea. But this is canon nonetheless, and it fixes a plot point that never should have been started in the first place: The relationship between Johnny Storm and Alicia Masters.

After Secret Wars, Ben Grimm chose to remain on Battelworld. Beforehand, he had ended things with Alicia, and his decision to stay away from home solidified things. So Alicia moved on...to Ben's close friend. Terrible. Absolutely terrible. There's an almost unspoken rule in relationships between people. You don't date the ex of your best friend, or any of your friends for that matter. As far as I'm concerned, it's a form of betrayal, which I see as humanity's worst of crimes. Worse than terrorism. Worse than rape. Worse than anything. Betrayal is an act committed upon a person by someone that is supposed to love you. There is no forgiveness for this. It is selfish. It is petty. It is wrong. It is a serious affront to all things. So, Johnny and Alicia getting together should never have happened. What the hell were they thinking? They certainly didn't care about what Ben thought. They only thought about themselves. Selfish. Petty. Wrong.

In FANTASTIC FOUR #277, when Ben Grimm comes home from Battelworld and goes to see Alicia at her apartment, we see what could be the greatest "WTF?" moment of all time in the history of comics...

            

And, boy, does Ben flip out. As well as he should. He even attacks Johnny, although in real life, this wouldn't be a good reaction,as it would lead to some jail time. But this, of course, is a comic.

In any case, I think Johnny and Alicia should never have gotten together. They should never have even considered it. Hell, they even got married. If Johnny was my friend and he did this to me, I'd write him off for life. Same thing with Alicia. They both crossed a line that should never be crossed. So when I found out that Alicia had really been a Skrull since she'd been with Johnny, I was very pleased. Didn't care if some things had been contradicted. Still don't. Was this the best way to retcon the situation? Perhaps not. Perhaps after Ben's return we could have seen a storyline between the three parties involved where Alicia was torn between both men, gradually swinging towards Ben. Alicia could have decided she loved Johnny but loved Ben more, and the couple could have then parted ways amicably, with Johnny eventually moving on (preferably back to Crystal, in my opinion). During the period, tension between Ben and Johnny could have been intense, interfering with their day-to-day lives as members of the Fantastic Four in a variety of ways.

But alas, things did not go this way. Or any other. Alicia turned out to be Lyja, a Skrull infiltrator, a character who I grew to love and eventually miss. And this issue is just the beginning of the turmoil to come in the lives of the Fantastic Four, as we will see in issues to come.