Fantastic Four (1998) #32: "Abyss"

Three members of the Fantastic Four enjoyed the spotlight in recent posts, so let's give the fourth (and my personal favourite) her equal time.

This was written by Chris Claremont so prepare for words. Lots and lots of words.

It seems that Susan Richards was sailing on her own when a giant wave capsized her boat.

Why was she alone? Because her husband's a neglectful asshole who never learns from making that mistake. The Fantastic Four, assisted by the Coast Guard and Navy, find her damaged boat and become increasingly worried when they are unable to find Sue herself.

Sue, however, discovers that she is able to breathe underwater due to a magical necklace given to her by Namor in an earlier issue which apparently I'll need to dig up now.

She's not entirely out of the woo...huh...waves, though. She still has to swim to the surface.

Namor shows up as she reaches the point of exhaustion from trying to do so. Their reunion is quite brief because they are under attack almost immediately.

She refers to their attackers as "Atlans". Using her force field to fend them off, the two attempt an escape during which Susan brings Namor up to speed.

So many words...I complain about more currents books being filled with little more than "meaningful" poses or telling glances between characters but there is such a thing as going too far the other way. If you think I'm being overly critical, that is only about a third of the dialogue on this page.

At least I haven't read the earlier issues so it's all new info.

Susan is not done giving Namor the scoop though.

Evidently, this Dorma caused the wave that wrecked Susan.

He got plenty of warning, yet when Namor lays eyes on Alternate Dorma, he still flips out and is taken from the battle quickly. Sue hangs in there a while but is eventually apprehended. Namor shakes off the initial shock and saves the day just as the rest of the FF pop in to provide an assist.

Susan talks Namor out of slaying this version of Dorma. She doesn't want him to become a cold killer like she is.

Eh. Try talking to Stingray about that nowadays.

Namor has no further interaction with the FF other than wishing Susan all the best, so he bails. Reed Richards takes a moment to tell Susan how his heart sank when he thought he'd lost her and so on and so forth. No doubt I'll be reading that speech again soon.

Pretty decent stuff overall. Some of pages in which the FF are looking for Sue felt like filler. That extra page or two could maybe have been put to better use in her own part of the story but that doesn't ruin anything. This was another enjoyable interaction between Marvel's Cosmic Family and its Avenging Son.