The Fantastic Four have one of the most famous alliterative names in all of comics. Ignoring that they are more a family of explorers than a superhero team, it is hard for them to expand their ranks without wrecking the brand. Despite this, they officially confirmed a fifth member to the team following a recent alien invasion of Earth.
The alien invasion unfolded in Fantastic Four #4 by Ryan North and Carlos Gomez. The story found the First Family of Marvel Comics welcoming a new pet into their home. However, unbeknownst to them, their seemingly cute, fuzzy puppy was actually a slimy tentacle beast.
The action of the issue revealed that the Fantastic Four were not alone in having adopted such a pet. Virtually everyone in their city had a similar creature sharing their home. The alien invaders were apparently telepathic and somehow capable of masking themselves from even the most powerful telepaths on Earth.
Who is the fifth member of the Fantastic Four?
Luckily, while the aliens automatically masked their appearance, it took some effort for them to fool other senses. Thus, whenever blind artist Alicia Masters (who is also Mrs. Ben Grimm) tried to pet the new puppy, she briefly felt the truth of what it was. Disturbed by this, Alicia approached Reed Richards with a thought experiment; could an alien invader somehow hide themselves in plain sight without holograms?
Reed considered the problem and concluded some creature might exploit pareidolia — the brain’s tendency to see meaning in meaningless data. This automatic process continually causes people to see familiar shapes in unfamiliar objects. Inspired, Reed decided to construct a device that would disable peoples’ sense of pareidolia within a given radius. This exposed the alien invaders and allowed the Fantastic Four to send them running.
Alicia was modest about her role in saving the day, but Reed gave her full credit and declared her a part of the team. Had it not been for her question, he never would have considered how to stop what he thought was a purely hypothetical menace. Indeed, he would have been completely unaware there was a problem he needed to solve. When Alicia asked if this meant changing the name of the team, her husband replied that the four in their name was “metaphorical.” Sue Storm agreed, saying that there was no better qualification to be one of the Fantastic Four than teaming up with Mr. Fantastic to save the world.
Fantastic Four #4 is now available at comic shops everywhere.
