The Fantastic Four has gone through a roller coaster ride over the decades. The Human Torch, The Invisible Woman, Mister Fantastic and The Thing are always the centre of the team. But in absence of any member of the team, other heroes get into the first superhero team of Marvel Universe. Such is the scenario that has taken place in Fantastic Four #168-170. It is written by Rot Thomas, Rich Buckler and George Perez. Where Luke Cage gets into the place of Ben Grimm.
This ’70s story discovers the squad swivelling after their current fighting with the Hulk. The Thing has lost the powers after being exposed to the gamma radiations of Hulk. The Thing has got back to the human form of Ben Grimm. Very soon, Ben realises that he is living in the monstrous ego of his own. Mr Fantastic also reveals that people with superpowers can only be the active members of the team. That is to say that Ben clearly does not qualify for being a member. In an action to restore Ben’s place on the team, Reed settles Luke Cage as a member of the squad.
Luke Replaces Ben
Luke fits in quite well. Ben is considerably less interested in things as he feels replaced by Luke. He wishes to be a portion of the Fantastic Four despite his scarcity of superpowers. Ben’s endeavour to support only recognizes him as a villain. He is saved by Luke where Ben tries to punch him in his stomach so as to break his own hand. Reed discloses to Ben that he has built an exoskeleton exactly like Ben made for The Thing. After some tough time, the duo starts chasing Luke again who has arrived at the prison to get Puppet Master out of the jail.
The Puppet Master grabs Alicia (Ben’s girlfriend) as captive and escapes with Luke Cage behaving as his escort. Suddenly, the Thing and Mister Fantastic arrive. During the battle on the Fantasticar, Alicia is flung from the flying automobile. The Puppet Master plunges his puppet into the ocean beneath them. The puppet gets dissolved in the water. This frees Luke Cage from his custody. The story ends with Ben as a happy soul. He is content with the human life he has built with Alicia. Also, he is content with the superpowers he has as a superhero.
Ben ultimately took an additional leave of absence after the original Secret Wars. He was displaced by the extraordinary She-Hulk she went on to evolve one of the team’s supreme alternative members.
