#the fact that Franklin willingly decided to become…. I can’t even say it…

[tariah23]

Outside of all of… that happening to Gojo, and finishing Snowfall the other day, eek……..

[fyeahfantasticfour]

I wonder if Johnny and Ben not knowing what happened to Reed and Sue is a plot thing? It's not something they would ever do, so I wonder if there are shenanigans involved. Like they ask them why they didn't let them know what was going on and Reed and Sue look at them confused because they did tell them and then an underlying plot thread throughout the story could be figuring out why they forgot. Or who made them forget.

I completely agree that it doesn’t make any sense for Reed and Sue to keep Ben and Johnny thinking their entire family is dead for years or for them to think that there’s any kind of happily ever after without their family, but…unfortunately. We already know what the explanation is going to be, and it doesn’t justify what they did at all. 

We saw it in the Marvel 2-in-One Annual, in the flashback to what happened at the end of Secret Wars. Victor was ranting after having been defeated by Reed and threatened to hunt Reed down no matter where he went so he could reclaim the godlike power he’d once had. Reed decided to give Victor a chance to redeem himself by restoring his face, sending him back to Earth, and wiping his memory of the fact that Reed was still alive. But he felt he couldn’t send Victor back to Earth without someone there to keep him in check, so he wiped Ben and Johnny’s memories and sent them back too. So, no, Reed and Sue did not send Johnny and Ben a message telling them they were still alive. Ben and Johnny didn’t and couldn’t know, because if they’d known, then Victor would have figured it out in ten seconds flat. 

It doesn’t make much sense for Reed to have chosen Ben and Johnny for that task, because Johnny certainly didn’t interact with Victor AT ALL throughout Reed and Sue’s absence (except briefly at the tailend in 2-in-One), and Ben wasn’t even on Earth for most of that time — he joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. 

Cut for length.

While he eventually started interacting with Victor in Infamous Iron Man…well, he does not believe in the possibility of Victor’s redemption, which…fair. Victor did murder him once, and that’s just scratching the surface of all of the horrible things Victor’s done to Ben and his loved ones (look up Desmond Pitt sometime). So Ben is not at all required to forgive Victor for that, ever. But it does mean that he’s not really the best choice if Reed wanted Victor redeemed. It’s no surprise that Ben feels this way about Victor, to be honest—Victor’s been an unrepentant asshole to Ben since the first time they met in college, just because Ben was less intelligent than him. So. Reed knows exactly how Ben feels about Victor. I’d also argue that Ben and Johnny can’t take Victor in a fight alone — Reed and Sue can outsmart Victor, and Sue can take him in a fight with both hands tied behind her back, but Ben and Johnny? Not so much. As far as plans go, it’s a very bad one. Ben and Johnny were the worst fucking choices Reed could have made. All it did was put Ben and Johnny through one hell of a lot of grief and misery for no real reason.

When we first learned why Reed did what he did, we believed that Reed and Sue were restoring the multiverse to what it had been, universe by universe, after the incursions destroyed it. A necessary, time-consuming task (although I still don’t get why Ben and Johnny couldn’t have done it with them). But in Fantastic Four v6 #2, we learn that the multiverse was restored almost instantly, and all they’ve been doing since Secret Wars has been creating new, unnecessary universes. It wasn’t something that NEEDED doing. It was just for fun. They could have gone home and told their grieving loved ones that they were still alive at any point in time. I actually find it really galling that they only let Ben and Johnny know they were still alive because they had to. There’s no indication they would ever have returned home if Franklin’s powers had held out, and were I Ben and Johnny, I would be FURIOUS.

So basically, Reed and Sue kept Ben and Johnny grieving the loss of their entire family just so they could go off and have fun adventures with their kids. It makes them look like callous assholes, especially since they both are well aware of the fact that Johnny’s mental health is less than stellar and that he has become suicidal over far less than the loss of his entire family. I mean. His girlfriend of like two months left him for Galactus and he started asking why he should even bother to go on living. 

What the hell were Reed and Sue thinking? Johnny is not mentally stable enough to handle thinking his whole family is dead AND THEY BOTH KNEW THAT. What good was he going to be against Victor when he was actively trying to kill himself, which, yes, is exactly what he very predictably did?

I also don’t for one second buy that there is ANY happily ever after for Reed without Ben, his best friend who has been by his side for all of his adult life. Reed canonically loves Ben as much as he loves Sue. The last time Ben died, Reed was so inconsolable that he stole Ben’s body from a military base and then went all the way to Heaven to get his soul back, just because he couldn’t bear the thought of living without Ben and was falling to pieces without him. But I’m expected to believe that he’s perfectly, blissfully happy without Ben in his life? That he would willingly put Ben, who he loves so damn much, through that pain? Bullshit. I call bullshit.

And Sue? Happily ever after without the little brother she loves so much and has sacrificed so much for? I don’t believe that she’d ever selfishly put her happiness above Johnny’s basic emotional wellbeing. She gave up everything to take care of Johnny after their parents died — she dropped out of school and took on the burden of raising him when she was still a kid herself. So just. How could she be happy knowing he was mourning her? Especially since Johnny died, what, a year ago? Two? for her, she had to mourn him, and she was devastated. 

She knows how much it fucking hurts to lose your sibling. How could she knowingly and so blithely do that to her baby brother, especially given how precarious his mental health is on the best day? I hate everything about the fact that she is now the sort of person who would do that.

It also just goes against everything the FF have ever stood for: the importance of family. Reed and Sue always put their family first, ahead of everything. 

How do you get from Reed “Everything I Do Is For My Family” Richards to “Yeah, sure, he’d willingly let his son and brother think he’s dead for years just because it’s convenient for him”? I get how it helped Reed, Sue, and their kids, but Reed’s family includes Ben and Johnny and the rest of his extended family. He would not do that to them just to make himself happy. Selfish is one thing Reed has never been. And this isn’t even touching on Reed’s continuing guilt over the rocket crash and all he feels he owes to Ben and Johnny.

I could really go on and on with why this makes no sense. Suffice it to say, I am NOT happy with Slott’s characterization of Reed and Sue. He doesn’t fucking get them at all, and this doesn’t bode well for the rest of his run that we are stuck with for five years minimum.