Fantastic Four #60: ‘Inside Out’: It Was Never About the Costumes

Following on from the October 2002 cover-dated ‘Inside Out’, Mark Waid continues Mister Fantastic’s secret confession to his daughter Val: ‘Without proper preparation or shielding he took his friends through a wave of radiation that made them all something other than human. His guilt was unbearable and deserved. These were the people he loved, and he’d destroyed their lives. Thanks to him, they were fated to be freaks, lab specimens or worse. Unless he changed that fate somehow. Unless he made the world see them for what they were: three of the best and bravest people anyone could hope to meet. So he refused to let them operate in secret. He gave them a home in a city of eight million. He gave them costumes. And a flying car. And he encouraged them to parade around with some pretty outlandish names. “Mister Fantastic”. Does that sound like something anyone would really want to call themselves? No but that’s the kind of thing that made headlines. And t-shirts. And action figures. He knew that would keep people from fearing them. You see glamour and fame weren’t options. They were necessities. Because by maybe turning his friends into celebrities he could be forgiven for taking their normal lives away. Someday.’

‘Inside Out’ marks the launch-issue of a new Fantastic Four creative team, writer Mark Waid reuniting with longtime Flash collaborator Mike Wieringo. Waid crafts a story about the seemingly unique mid-life crisis of Fantastic Four team leader, Reed Richards. It is a crisis that manifests as a desire for more media attention, a desire so deep that Richards hires a PR consultancy to promote a new image for Marvel’s First Family. But in a secret confession to his daughter Val, Mister Fantastic admits that it was always about the costumes and the celebrity; just not in the way most people imagine. Celebrity was their only tool to prevent a Frankenstein ending filled with pitchforks and torches. And in return, Reed Richards gave the world something entirely new; trailblazers on the road to tomorrow.

—shathley Q