SPOILER WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Dan Slott, Sara Pichelli, Simone Bianchi, Skottie Young, Esad Ribic, Sara Pichelli and Michael Allred’s Fantastic Four #1, on sale now.
Fantastic Four #1 might not be the resounding, hopeful reunion that many were hoping for, but the issue might have offered a little more than many realize. While Reed Richards, Sue Storm and their two children, Franklin and Valeria, are still technically adrift out in the multiverse, it’s possible that Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli’s debut issue secretly introduced the next big threat the superhero family will face, the hotly-anticipated villain who goes by the name “The Griever.”
Chances are many comic book fans know The Griever by another name -- Eradikus, which is a misconception we will get to a bit later. First, let’s tackle the theory at hand, which is that the Griever actually appears in Fantastic Four #1 and plays a prominent part in the story. She doesn’t go by The Griever on the page, though. Instead, she goes by another, far less intimidating name -- Astronomica. Astronomica first appears in a story Ben Grimm (aka The Thing) recalls.
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Ben’s story recounts a time when the Fantastic Four, fully assembled and ready to burn rubber across the vast expanse of the Marvel Universe, got lost in said universe. Luckily, they had picked up a passenger along the way, and it just so happened that this passenger, named Astronomica, ended up being their savior. Astronomica was able to use her magical scepter to deliver the Fantastic Four team back safely to Earth, but only if they powered up said scepter by offering up their best singer for a performance. The ensuing scene is actually pretty funny, with Sue Storm being forced to acknowledge that she might not have the best singing voice and Johnny Storm belting out the lyrics to “Danke Schoen.” The crew arrive safely back on Earth and Ben says that Reed was able to help Astronomica get back home.
The story makes for a good laugh. It’s the kind of highflying adventure Fantastic Four fans have been looking for (and, frankly, don’t get in the rest of the issue). The scene’s importance seemingly ends there, except there are some clues hidden within that Astronomica might not be as noble as she appears.
The first major clue is in her appearance. To better explain that, let’s get back to Eradikus for a moment. The name Eradikus originally surfaced back in June, when Sara Pichelli’s rough costume design concept art first surfaced. Included on the design sheet was a fierce-looking villain and one of her minions. Written next to the villain was the word “Eradikus,” which led many comics fans to believe that this was the name of the Fantastic Four’s next big villain. Some time later, Dan Slott issued a statement clarifying that the villain’s name was not Eradikus. The name “The Griever” would not surface until Comic-Con International in San Diego during Marvel’s Next Big Thing panel.
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Eradikus might not be the name of the team’s next big threat, but the design hasn’t changed. Visually, the similarities between The Griever and Astronomica are striking. Both are lithe, blue aliens with seemingly feminine traits. The dark lips and draped back grab also hint at similarities without being overt. Astronomica is also depicted as being roughly of human height in Fantastic Four #1, which lines up with what we know of the Griever from Humberto Ramos’ variant. So, visually, they’re extremely similar.
While that’s a compelling enough argument on its own, there are some extra details outside of Fantastic Four #1 that hint at Astronomica’s ulterior motives. One of those clues actually comes in the form of Dan Slott’s own clarification about The Griever’s name. At the time, Slott couldn’t reveal that the villain’s name was The Griever, likely because the reveal was being held for Comic-Con. He could only say that it wasn’t Eradikus. He chose to do so through song. Specifically, Slott quoted the Bob Dylan song “Brownsville Girl” with the lyrics: “The only thing we knew for sure about Henry Porter/Is that his name wasn’t Henry Porter.”
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The lyrics themselves likely don’t have a lot to do with the Griever, but it would be a curious coincidence for such a meaningful statement to be delivered in song when, in the first issue of Fantastic Four, a character who looks a great deal like a teased villain plays a pivotal part in the story via song. In roughly the same vein, it’s worth noting that the villain’s name, the Griever, may be linked to song. While the concept of song is typically associated with happiness, dance and other such positive feelings, song can also be a tool of mourning -- grief. It might be that we meet Astronomica in Fantastic Four #1 before some terrible fate has befallen her, causing her to take on the persona of the Griever, a villain who uses song as a deadly weapon. Or, maybe she has been bad all along and playing the long con.
This is all just theory, and Astronomica might end up being nothing more than a strange footnote in Fantastic Four history, but it is worth asking, if that’s the case, why exactly is this story in Fantastic Four #1? Sure, it’s a good, fun yarn about the Fantastic Four in their heyday, but it also plays a crucial, though subtle, role. Astronomica left the piece of her Stellarex Stone -- the name of which could be linked to a cosmic Captain Marvel villain from the ‘70s named Stellarax, who also wielded a deadly mace -- that powers her scepter behind on Earth with the Fantastic Four, in case they got lost again.
According to Ben, Astronomica said that by using the stone fragment they would be able to find their way home. At recalling these words, Ben has an epiphany and slots the stone into a wedding ring that he uses to propose to Alicia. From a story perspective, that stone must be more than just a sign of Ben’s undying love for his longtime girlfriend. It would be all too fitting if the tool that helped the Fantastic Four return to Earth years ago was actually the means to their eventual undoing. It might be Astronomica -- The Griever -- who triggers the first blow.