Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm

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The wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm took place in late 1965 at the Baxter Building in New York City, headquarters of the Fantastic Four. The marriage of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl, two high-profile celebrity heroes, naturally drew a great deal of attention, both positive and negative: though virtually every other hero of note attended, a number of the Fantastic Four's greatest foes also arrived in an attempt to steal the glory away from the happy couple. In the end, Richards managed to repel the wedding crashers with help from Uatu the Watcher, who, in his wryly oblique manner, provided Reed with a device that sent the villains back into the recent past with no memory of these events. Reed and Susan Richards were thus married successfully and peacefully.

Ben Grimm, also known as the Thing, and his girlfriend, Alicia Masters, were the best man and maid of honor, respectively.

Background

Reed Richards and Sue Storm dated for years, since before the formation of the Fantastic Four. Along the way, their relationship was threatened by the advances of Namor the Sub-Mariner, who wanted Sue to be his princess and rule Atlantis together. Sue had feelings for Namor, and various problems with Reed caused her to seriously consider being with the Atlantean. In mid-1964, Reed had decided to propose to Sue, but Namor abducted her from the Baxter Building and tried to coerce her into being with him. With help from Doctor Strange, the other members of the Fantastic Four rescued Sue, and she told Namor that Reed was her one true love.[1] Reed ultimately didn't propose until well into the following year, when the team made a special appearance at Reed's alma mater, State University. After a conflict with Diablo and the Dragon Man, Reed took Sue to the campus landmark known as Sweetheart Tree, where he told her that, "according to tradition, any couple who hold hands and kiss while standing before [the tree] will marry within a year."[2] They did so, and publicly announced their engagement soon after. Reed and Sue's engagement drew a great deal of publicity and excitement, along with well wishes from their contemporaries.[3]

The wedding

The day of the wedding, Doctor Doom, the Fantastic Four's greatest nemesis and in particular a long-time rival of Reed Richards, was determined to ruin the event and destroy the team once and for all. He used an "emotion machine" to psychically contact and tacitly encourage a great number of assorted villains from around the world to arrive at the wedding and attack. The strength of this machine was such that even the Puppet Master, who had recently sworn off attacking the Fantastic Four again, felt almost hypnotically compelled to comply. As fans and reporters crowded around the front of the Baxter Building and invitees such as Tony Stark and Nick Fury arrived and were greeted by the Thing, Puppet Master attempted to initiate his plan. He had created a puppet of an arbitrary stranger and equipped the man's hand with a poison syringe such that the Thing would be poisoned when he shook it. The man approached Thing with his hand extended, but Nick Fury and a couple of other undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agents tackled the man, and Fury explained that a remote brainwave scan had revealed that he was under mind control. Puppet Master fled through the crowd, annoyed that he had even wanted to go through with this plan in the first place.

Thing was worried about this attack and went inside, wondering whether he should bother Reed with the news. He spoke to Professor X, Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-Men, but before Xavier could offer any advice, the Mole Man and his obedient Moloids came through the floor in a drill vehicle. On Xavier's call, the X-Men arrived and they and Thing fought off the Mole Man, throwing them back down the hole and sealing them in with Iceman's frost. Ben finally decided that he should notify Reed, but on his way he found that the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes were attacking Sue Storm and Alicia Masters. Reed and Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, arrived and helped Ben fight off the Apes while Sue protected herself and Alicia with a forcefield. The makeshift Fantastic Four, wearing tuxedos made of unstable molecules to support their powers, had a rough time against the transparent Red Ghost. Suddenly, Doctor Strange arrived and banished Red Ghost and the Super-Apes into another dimension, much to the team's gratitude. By this point, the heroes were convinced that some sort of coordinated attack was occurring.

While patrolling the surrounding area, Thor discovered the Super-Skrull, an alien villain possessing all the powers of the Fantastic Four, piloting an alien craft to the Baxter Building. Thor used his hammer Mjölnir to smash Super-Skrull's aircraft, causing a large explosion in the sky, which Human Torch went to investigate. Inside, Reed asked his lawyer Matt Murdock to inform the guests that the wedding would be delayed slightly. Matt asked his associates, Foggy Nelson and Karen Page to do it instead, while he secretly suited up as Daredevil to help fight the coming scourge. As he went out to investigate, he saw a large group of Hydra agents attempting to crush a truck carrying a vortex bomb into the Baxter Building. He fought off the agents and hijacked the runaway truck, searching for a place to crash it safely.

More and more villains continued to arrive, including the Cobra and Mister Hyde and the Asgardians Enchantress and Executioner. The Avengers jumped into action to help fight them off, and Tony Stark suited up as Iron Man to join them. Spider-Man joined the fight as well, using his powerful webs to save Hawkeye from Enchantress dropping a safe on his head. The Black Knight on his flying horse attempted to re-hijack the bomb truck driven by Daredevil, but he was intercepted by the X-Men's Angel. The evil Mandarin assisted from the ground, firing his nerve-ray ring to knock out the Angel in midair. The rest of the X-Men arrived to provide backup, and were met by the combined forces of Mandarin, Electro, the Melter, Unicorn, and Beetle. Before long, a veritable army of heroes and villains surrounded the Baxter Building, fighting each other in a wild melee. Quicksilver matched speed with the Human Top while an army of Atlanteans led by Attuma arrived on the surface. At that moment, Daredevil happened to steer Hydra's truck bomb into the bay, causing it to explode and pull the Atlanteans back underwater in a powerful vortex.

Mr. Fantastic led the heroes' efforts to keep the villains away from the Baxter Building, but soon realized that the fight was too even to make any headway. He was suddenly contacted by the Watcher named Uatu, an occasional ally of the Fantastic Four despite his race's vow to never interfere. Uatu opened a portal and invited Reed to follow if he so wished, leading him to the Watcher home planet, T-37X. Uatu stood aside and "allowed" Reed to take a large device that would apparently turn the tide of battle. He traveled back to New York and used the device, a "sub-atronic time displacer," which transported his foes slightly back in time and caused them to forget any of these events had ever transpired. Richards also focused the device in such a way as to target Doctor Doom, knowing that none but he could have ultimately been behind this attack. With the day saved, the team returned to the chapel, where Reed and Sue were married at last, and shared their first kiss as husband and wife.[4]

Attendees

Guests

Villains

Notable absences

The Hulk and Namor the Sub-Mariner were both targeted by Doom's emotion machine, but both were too embroiled in their own matters at the time to be affected. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby attempted to attend, but were turned away by S.H.I.E.L.D. security. Giant-Man and Wasp, certainly the most high-profile heroes not to attend, had recently been considering retirement.[note 2]

Notes

  1. ↑ Scarlet Witch doesn't actually appear, but her attendance is assumed given the presence of the other Avengers.
  2. ↑ Some characters appear on the comic's cover but not within the comic itself, including: Wasp, Loki, Leader, Red Skull, Dragon Man, and Medusa. Most such absences can be explained by the character being dead, missing, or otherwise significantly occupied or unaccounted for.

References

  1. ↑ Fantastic Four #27: "The Search for Sub-Mariner!" (June 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Bell, George (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  2. ↑ Fantastic Four #35: "Calamity on the Campus!" (February 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  3. ↑ Fantastic Four #36: "The Frightful Four!" (March 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  4. ↑ Fantastic Four Annual #3a: "Bedlam at the Baxter Building!" (October 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
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