Fantastic Four Officially Adds a Fifth Team Member

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The Fantastic Four are known for their catchy, alliterative name. Though they function more like a family of adventurers than a typical superhero group, adding new members has always been a challenge for maintaining their unique identity. However, after a recent alien attack on Earth, they’ve officially welcomed a fifth member to the team.

The story of an alien invasion appeared in Fantastic Four #4, written by Ryan North and illustrated by Carlos Gomez. It began with the Fantastic Four bringing home a new pet – a fluffy puppy. Little did they know, this adorable animal was secretly a monstrous creature with tentacles!

You know, something really strange happened in the latest Fantastic Four comic. It turns out they weren’t the only ones with an unusual pet – practically everyone in the city had one! And the really weird part? These creatures were actually alien invaders, and they were hiding in plain sight. They had some kind of mental power that blocked even the strongest telepaths from detecting them. It was a total mind-bender!

Who is the fifth member of the Fantastic Four?

Fortunately, the aliens could disguise how they looked, but fooling people’s other senses was harder. So, whenever Alicia Masters, a blind sculptor and Ben Grimm’s wife, reached out to touch their new puppy, she briefly sensed something wasn’t right. Concerned, Alicia shared a puzzle with Reed Richards: could an alien hide in plain sight without using illusions?

Reed Richards realized that something could be taking advantage of pareidolia – our brain’s habit of finding patterns and faces in random things. This natural process makes us see familiar shapes even when they aren’t really there. He was inspired to build a device that could temporarily block this ability in people. This revealed the disguised alien invaders, and the Fantastic Four were able to drive them away.

Alicia didn’t boast about her help, but Reed acknowledged her crucial role and welcomed her as a team member. He admitted that without her question, he wouldn’t have even thought about how to deal with what he’d considered a purely theoretical threat – he wouldn’t have realized there was a problem to solve. When Alicia jokingly asked if this meant changing the team’s name, her husband explained that the ‘four’ in ‘Fantastic Four’ was more of a symbolic representation. Sue Storm chimed in, agreeing that there was no better way to earn a place among the Fantastic Four than by working with Mr. Fantastic to save the world.

Fantastic Four #4 is now available at comic shops everywhere.

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2025-10-22 22:16