Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules

Dr. Reed Richards lives in the small town of Glen Cove and works at Columbia University, attempting to discover a practical use for the sub-atomic particles that he has discovered. He is so absorbed in his work that he forgets that he is due to host a cocktail party for his faculty colleagues and only informs his girlfriend, Susan Sturm on the day of the party itself. To compound this oversight he is unexpectedly called away on government business and fails to inform Susan of the situation.

Susan struggles to cope with her domestic duties (including preparing for the party) and providing some guiding discipline for her listless and frustrated younger brother, Johnny - both of their parents having died in a car accident some time previously. In addition, Susan hosts a women's circle made up of some acquaintances of her late mother and some other, younger women. The circle discusses Peyton Place. The discussion turns into a heated debate between the conservative older women and the younger, more liberal women, at least one of whom feels strong echoes between the small town repression of the book and her own life in Glen Cove.

Johnny Sturm spends much time fantasizing about hot rods and the comic book superheroine, Vapor Girl. Johnny is unaware that the character of Vapor Girl (who appears in a comic-within-a-comic throughout Unstable Molecules) is based in large part on his own sister. Johnny feels stifled by Glen Cove and is eventually inspired to leave by a beatnik drifter called Joey King, who used to date Susan in high school.

The climax of the story takes place at the cocktail party. Not only are the faculty members from Columbia University present, but also a group of comic book creative staff. This unlikely mix of people is joined by Ben Grimm, Reed Richards' old college roommate who is now a boxing trainer. Following an excess of alcohol, Susan and Ben are on the verge of having sex in Susan's bedroom only to be interrupted by Reed. Reed, who had been planning to propose, begins to storm out of the house but is met by a crowd of beatniks who have arrived with Johnny. In an ensuing scuffle Ben is knocked unconscious. Johnny and Reed then catch a lift out of Glen Cove from Joey.

Discover more about Plot related topics

Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan, it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York, the fifth-oldest in the United States, and one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence.

Cocktail party

Cocktail party

A cocktail party is a party at which cocktails are served. It is sometimes called a cocktail reception. A cocktail party organized for purposes of social or business networking is called a mixer.

Peyton Place (novel)

Peyton Place (novel)

Peyton Place is a 1956 novel by the American author Grace Metalious. Set in New England in the time periods before and after World War II, the novel tells the story of three women who are forced to come to terms with their identity, both as women and as sexual beings, in a small, conservative, gossipy town. Metalious included recurring themes of hypocrisy, social inequities and class privilege in a tale that also includes incest, abortion, adultery, lust and murder. The novel sold 60,000 copies within the first ten days of its release, and it remained on The New York Times best seller list for 59 weeks.

Beatnik

Beatnik

Beatniks were members of a social movement in the 1950s who subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle.

• 2004: Won "Best Limited Series" Eisner Award^[1]

The series was collected into a trade paperback:

• Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules (2003, ISBN 0-7851-1112-3)