Marvel Finally Realizes The Fantastic Four’s Fifth Member is the Team’s Secret MVP

Summary

• Marvel’s First Family, the Fantastic Four, often rely on Alicia Masters-Grimm’s unique perspective to overcome challenges they can’t solve, making her the team’s unofficial fifth member – and its MVP.
• Even without superpowers, Alicia Masters-Grimm played a pivotal role in the Fantastic Four, including saving the team multiple times, and even elevated the Four’s individual – and collective – abilities to new heights with her insights.
• Alicia is the unsung hero of the Fantastic Four, playing a crucial role in finding solutions to some of their most serious problems, even in the face of cosmic threats and reality-altering villains.

Warning: Contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #19!!

As Marvel’s first superhero team, the Fantastic Four have spent their lives in the spotlight. They’ve saved the world countless times and extended their reach far into the known universe – and sometimes beyond it. Yet even with their extraordinary powers, they sometimes fall short of finding the right answer. Their honorary fifth member, Alicia Masters-Grimm, has been helping them help everyone else for a long time.

Fantastic Four #19 – by Ryan North, Carlos Gomez, Jesus Aburtov, and Joe Caramagna – is the latest in a series of issues depicting Alicia’s immense contributions to the team. The rest of the Four never fail to impress, and have been taking their own abilities to new heights recently, yet it is Alicia who surpisingly carries the greatest responsibility.

In fact, Alicia has saved Marvel’s First Family multiple times. She’s done a lot of heavy lifting recently, from using her sculpting knowledge to help the Invisible Woman to fixing reality herself.

Alicia Masters-Grimm Has Been Vital Since Her Introduction

And She Doesn’t Need Superpowers

In a world where she’s surrounded by superpowered heroes and villains, Alicia Masters doesn’t just keep up, but makes huge contributions to the Fantastic Four in her own way.

While the team is called the Fantastic Four, Alicia Masters-Grimm has acted as their fifth member for a long while. First introduced all the way back in Fantastic Four (1961) #8, she has spent the subsequent years being a huge influence on the group. She’s an incredibly empathetic and understanding person and is always willing to see the best in others. Despite being blinded by an explosion and then exploited by her stepfather, the Puppet Master, she acts as a force of good. Marrying Ben Grimm cemented her place in the family, but her importance goes far beyond her relationship.

In a world where she’s surrounded by superpowered heroes and villains, Alicia Masters doesn’t just keep up, but makes huge contributions to the Fantastic Four in her own way. Alicia’s sculpting abilities were instrumental in defeating Xargorr in Fantastic Four #9, when she helped shape the Invisible Woman’s force fields to fend off Mr. Fantastic and the Thing after they were tricked into attacking the rest of the team. Her talents, and compassionate nature, add an angle the team is otherwise missing, and she’s managed to get them out of more than one tight spot as a result.

Alicia Brings A New Way Of Being A Hero To The Fantastic Four

She’s Made Them Strongrer

Fantastic Four
#18 offered an exquisite example of [Alica’s contributions to the team.] As invisible asteroids seemed set to destroy the planet, the team couldn’t find the right answer until Alicia intervened.

Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman are highly educated and intelligent, and they both frequently come up with scientific solutions to problems, while the Thing and Human Torch offer up their own unique approaches. The four are so accustomed to working together with their strengths and weaknesses that they sometimes get locked in a loop of thinking and can’t break out of it – even to solve time-sensitive problems. Alicia often offers the perfect solution to this, and even after being close to the team, and a member of the family, for years, she still has an insightful outside perspective.

Fantastic Four #18 offered an exquisite example of this. As invisible asteroids seemed set to destroy the planet, the team couldn’t find the right answer, until Alicia intervened. While her original inspiration was drawn from a game she remembered from childhood, she also suggested that Johnny and Sue use their powers in a way none considered before. The end result was a completely new combination: lasers. Reed and Sue took Alicia’s idea and turned it into a full-scale solution, but none of them would have pulled it off in such a time crunch were it not for Alicia.

The Fantastic Four Have Faced Cosmic Threats With Alicia’s Help

Alicia Altered Reality To Thwart Trapster

Ultimately, defeating Trapster and restoring reality was a team effort, but it wouldn’t have been possible without Alicia.

The most recent show of Alicia’s unique brand of herosim came in Fantastic Four #19. The villain Trapster managed to get his hands on a Cosmic Cube and use it to warp reality, trapping the Four in a retro alternate universe. Invisible Woman managed to save Reed, encasing him in one of her force fields, just long enough for Alicia to navigate her way to him. Mr. Fantastic had just enough time to explain that Alicia needed to get the cube and will their real reality back into existence to save them.

Using a Cosmic Cube is no small feat, and it requires intense concentration and willpower. Alicia demonstrated both, even though following Reed’s instructions meant giving up her family – which, in that reality, felt incredibly real to her. It put a spotlight on her particular kind of strength. Ultimately, defeating Trapster and restoring reality was a team effort, but it wouldn’t have been possible without Alicia. Not only did she find Reed in the alternate reality, but she wielded one of Marvel’s most powerful artifacts to put things right again, and the fortitude that required cannot be overstated.

Alicia Is Essential To The Fantastic Four Going Forward

She Is Officially Their MVP

Alicia’s influence extends beyond her direct contributions, and the whole team is better off for it…Given recent events, and her long history with the team, there is no further doubt that Alicia Masters-Grimm is a star player in the Fantastic Four.

Alicia has been caught up in many terrible situations over the years, from kidnappings to many of the Four’s toughest battles. Not only has she survived, but she has acted as a hero, even with no powers of her own. Alicia has a particular understanding of the world and perspective on people that no one else can match. For all their genius and wide range of abilities, the team doesn’t always have the right answer (or sometimes any answers at all). Luckily, their fifth member is not just a sounding board, but a major source of inspiration.

Even when she doesn’t contribute directly, her presence in their lives is a boon. Reed and Sue recently used Braille, which they learned in a show of solidarity and support for Alicia, to secretly communicate and defeat Kang. Alicia’s influence extends beyond her direct contributions, and the whole team is better off for it. Her unique viewpoint helps them overcome challenges that they’re not up to facing entirely on their own. Given recent events, and her long history with the team, there is no further doubt that Alicia Masters-Grimm is a star player in the Fantastic Four.

Fantastic Four #

19
is available now from Marvel Comics.