Item Biography
"What If... Sub-Mariner Had Married the Invisible Girl?"
Chapter 1, "Decline and Fall!"
Chapter 2, "Two Against Atlantis!"
Chapter 3, "Harvest of Shame!"
A familiar scene plays out on an alternate Earth. Fantastic Four members Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch and the Thing square up to Super-Skrull. It's the fourth member of the quartet that settles the debate; Spider-Man.
Yes, this is the alternate world where Spider-Man joined the foursome, making them the Fantastic Five. But Sue Storm felt like a proverbial fifth wheel afterwards. So she left to be with Namor, who like on the mainstream Earth, holds a strong fascination for Sue.
Losing the woman he loved for so many years to a half-human rival, Reed Richards felt his manhood impugned, so tried asserting it in other ways. Richards privately blamed Spider-Man for Sue's loss and began chipping away at the wall-crawler's happy-go-lucky exterior. Criticizing and patronizing at every chance.
All this culminates in br'er Spidey cutting out. He never was a team player anyway. --Why, he didn't even have the decency to wear the same shade of blue as their costumes.
When Ben makes an offhand comment about Reed not being able to keep Sue, Mr. Fantastic lashes out. Indignity at the assault prompts Ben to also quit the team. From four, to three, to two in a matter of hours.
Under the briny waters of the Atlantic Ocean, a city of blue-skinned Atlanteans laud their King and his surface-born bride. Namor and Sue bathe in domestic doe-eyed bliss with expectation of their first child's birth.
Namor's bristling with pride and joy to the point where he's willing to set old hostilities aside and invite Reed and Johnny to attend the birth. When he appears at the window of a Baxter Building floor, Reed again lashes out. Namor leaves with a warning that should Richards pursue a vendetta, then Atlantis would be ready.
A warped plan develops in the febrile mind of Mr. Fantastic. Reed calls a Security Council meeting at the United Nations building and tries to convince the representatives that Namor has declared war on the surface world again.
Ben Grimm has the heavy-hearted task of disproving Reed's testimony by revealing the "evidence" has been tampered with. Richards is left in public disgrace. But he's still not done yet. Reed and Johnny decide to attack Atlantis together and employ a doomsday weapon to initiate a subsea genocide.