Writer- Karl Kesel

Art- Paul Smith

Summary:

At State University, Reed Richards along with his roommate Ben Grimm pass by the room of Victor von Doom. Reed wants to warn him that if he continues to miss class he will be expelled. With von Doom apparently out, Reed glosses over some of his notes. Victor arrives and is infuriated to find Reed looking at his notes. Reed tries to explain that there is a miscalculation there, but Victor will hear none of it and throws them out. Moments later he catches up to Reed and Ben and apologizes, and suggests that he and Reed team up. Five years later, Reed and Victor are testing a new propulsion system to take them, Sue, and Johnny to the moon. Victor schedules the test flight the same day Ben is scheduled to oversee security at gamma reactor test. The flight take off is a success, but cosmic rays hit the ship. Doom reveals he knew the ship's shielding was insufficient and prepared personal armor shielding only for himself. The ship crashes and the four emerge changed. Victor becomes a hideous rock-like creature and lashes out a Reed. Victor then flies off to Ben's test site with Reed in tow. Seeing that someone has been left lying in the test site, Ben rushes to the rescue. He manages to push Reed out of the way of the gamma rays, but is hit himself. Ben suddenly transforms into a hulk-like being and fights Doom. With Doom defeated, Susan and Johnny arrive and attempt to quell Ben who is now fighting Reed. Eventually Reed reaches out to Ben and apologizes for abandoning him to work with Victor. Calm, Ben reverts to human form. Reunited, the four agree to band together as a team.

Comments:
An interesting idea. The issue sort of evokes the recent trend of Ultimate FF and the FF films in that Doom tags along on the team's first flight. Of course here, Doom is actually replacing Ben. The issue also doubles as What if Ben had become the Hulk. An interesting twist indeed. Bottom Line: Read It!

• Collected in What If...Why not?