Every installment of this feature is about odd comic book plot points that were rarely (sometimes NEVER!) mentioned again after they were first introduced.

Today we look at how Reed Richards has gotten pretty much a total pass on cloning Thor and then that clone of Thor killing Goliath, a really good friend of Reed's best friend, Ben Grimm!

At the end of Civil War #3 by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven and Dexter Vines, Thor appeared to return from the dead to join the fight between Captain America's "Secret Avengers" and Iron Man's Avengers (Iron Man's team were in support of a Superhero Registration Act while Captain America's team were against it)...

In the next issue, the fight continues with Thor tearing apart Cap's team. Bill Foster, Goliath, steps in and, well...

Invisible Woman then splits with Iron Man's team to allow Cap's team to escape. This is when we learn that the Thor who just killed Goliath was actually a CLONE of Thor by Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man and Yellowjacket...

Okay, so that's pretty big, right?

Well, go to the next page to see how it has been referenced since (hint: not nearly as much as it should have been)...

The biggest issue is that Goliath was really good friends with Ben Grimm. However, while that probably SHOULD have broken up the Fantastic Four, Marvel did not want to break up the Fantastic Four, so incoming FF writer Dwayne McDuffie had to just sweep it under the rug in Fantastic Four #542 (drawn by Mike McKone, Andy Lanning and Cam Smith)...

That's the extent of it between the Thing and Reed. They never address it any further (even as the clone of Thor returned to life later on).

Hank Pym is off the hook as he was revealed to have been a Skrull during Civil War, as shown in Avengers: The Initiative by Dan Slott, Christos Gage, Steve Kurth and Drew Hennessey...

Thor and Iron Man had it out in Thor #3 by J. Michael Straczynski, Olivier Coipel and Mark Morales...

Thor next met Reed Richards during Secret Invasion #6 by Brian Michael Bendis, Leinil Yu and Mark Morales, and they just didn't discuss Thor's issues with Reed...

And they haven't since.

So, yeah, Reed just got a total free pass for him cloning Thor and that clone of Thor killing a good man, who was friends with Reed's best friend.

Odd.

If you have any other suggestions of other forgotten comic book plots, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com