Random Happenstance

I think I had skipped it before, since this was from a somewhat gloomy period of the run, even by the title's usual standards. No Uatu either: I get trying to do something new with the title, but it doesn't feel right. From 1996, What If? #89, "The Fantastic Farce" Written by Ben Raab, pencils by Mike Miller, inks by Scott Koblish.

The rocket launch of Reed Richards has gone worse than usual in this reality, as the Four's powers appear to be more pronounced from the start; and they're pulled from the rocket crash by men in radiation suits who aren't speaking English. Reed is separated from his friends, who are believed dead, and put on trial for treason. Worse, he couldn't control his elastic body, and had to use a Stark prototype exoskeleton to hold himself together. Prosecutor Matt Murdock puts the screws to Reed at his trial, and he's found guilty. The stress makes Reed think he's losing his mind, as he starts hearing Susan's voice, but she is really there: invisible and intangible, barely holding herself together. She discorporates after freeing Reed, so he can help her brother Johnny. Reed has a little help, though, from Nick Fury, who explains Johnny was being used as a thermal battery, by Latverians. Reed of course remembers a Latverian that had been experimenting with that: Victor Von Doom.

Fury sets Reed up with a jet ride to Latveria, where he finds his contact man, Dum Dum Dugan, already dead; and gets captured. Doom had been trying to use Johnny, to power his devices to free his mother from Hell; but Johnny was burning out. Reed tries to fight Doom in his cell, but isn't a match for Doom's armor: Doom appears to be wearing a toga made out of Dr. Strange's Cloak of Levitation. Unable to stretch out of his cell, a voice calls to Reed from the next cell: his old friend Ben, now a rocky, misshapen Thing. Reed baits him as a "coward" to get him to smash the wall, but is dismayed to see what had happened to Ben; while Ben is just happy Reed was still alive. Together, they fight their way to Johnny: Reed offers to help Doom if he'll let Johnny and Ben go, but Johnny knows the cosmic rays in him are burning him up, and he blows up with Doom and most of his castle.

Reed and Ben are returned to the states, where they're put on "community service," cleaning up a gamma bomb test site; and Reed hopes to keep researching a cure for Ben. 

The cover makes it look like Reed was going to be the bad guy here; that might be another reason I hadn't read this until now.