Strange Tales #19 (V2)

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The issue begins with Mayhem visiting Captain George Petrovic in his police office. While they talk, another officer enters and explains a former employee that worked with Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four) has called a bomb threat. Captain Petrovic tells the officer to call Reed and get him there while he goes to check out the scene as well. Mayhem says she will meet him there, despite Petrovic’s demands to stand down.

At the scene it’s not Reed Richards who arrives but Ben Grimm – the Thing – of the Fantastic Four. The Captain and Thing make their way inside where they speak to the scientist named George Strunk. The scientist explains that they told Reed that the rocket wasn’t ready; but Reed didn’t listen, and as a result Reed got fantastic powers, and became a hero, a celebrity and extremely rich and famous. But his companion scientist – who told him the ship wasn’t ready – was fired – and now he wants to prove he’s smarter than Reed Richards. Mayhem appears and tears into the old man who confesses that there is no way to truly defuse the bomb; that there were triggers to back up the other triggers to ensure it would explode. Thing says he will stay and hold the bomb, and Mayhem explains she will use her gas form to try and keep the bomb’s effects from wiping out the neighborhood. The Captain gets the scientist out and has him arrested and then the bomb goes off. The Captain runs back and confirms that Thing is still alive; but Thing explains that the explosion caused Mayhem’s gaseous form to be consumed by the explosion, and that she had not survived.

Truth is, that’s the story the press would be told – that Brigit O’Reilly died in the explosion. The only two people to know the truth would be Captain George Petrovic and the Thing; that she did survive. She then visits with the families of the two officers who died side by side with O’Reilly that night. She unites both families to spend the day together, and the families bond at a baseball game, since they were sitting side by side; a parting, final gift from Brigit O’Reilly, better known as Mayhem.