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"I, Reed Richards, Being Of Sound Mind And Body..."

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Back when MTV was having a heyday with its successful "Unplugged" series of performances, Marvel Editor-In-Chief Mark Gruenwald threw his weight behind producing two 6-issue titles in the mid-1990s that capitalized on the "unplugged" label but otherwise carried no relevance in regard to the word itself.  One series was published featuring the Avengers--and one with the Fantastic Four, its masthead revised accordingly. (Though the additional lettering left something to be desired.)



Looking back at my own copies of this series, I noticed that I stopped well short of collecting the entire run (I never did start on the Avengers book), perhaps not wanting to reward what seemed to be a poorly-conceived marketing ploy; but the issue being profiled here today may surprise you as much as it did myself after pulling it off the shelf to give it a second read.  Its story follows up on what appeared to be the death of Reed Richards at the hand of Doctor Doom--details that were conspicuously absent in the regular FF title, where things were happening at a breakneck pace and the remainder of the team as well as their allies being given no time to fully process Reed's death, much less mourn the man. Nor was there a formal service for Reed (if I'm remembering correctly)--perhaps in part because, for a time, Sue was convinced that Reed was still alive, even though Ben and Johnny were sure and weren't hesitant to voice their feelings on the matter to Sue.

Inevitably, however, Sue had to accept Reed's death and move on--and she does so by observing the formality of arranging for the reading of Reed's last will and testament, a more personal drama which would have been almost inappropriate to wedge into the back-to-back crises occurring in the main title but which can be given its full due in the limited series without interruption. But while Sue may now be prepared to see this through, the twist to this story is in finding that Ben Grimm, the Thing and Reed's best friend, is visibly on edge and short-tempered at the thought of a legal proceeding that would effectively make Reed's passing a reality to be acknowledged and, in his own case, admitted.


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