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The Thing #3 revealed that the Fantastic Four have a torture chamber in the headquarters, raising a number of questions about their ethics.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from The Thing #3, on sale now.
The Fantastic Four have always been at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of the Marvel Universe. Usually this is in the field of science, but in The Thing #3 (by Walter Mosley, Tom Reilly, Jordie Bellaire, VC’s Joe Caramagna) a different kind of boundary was pushed. Or, more accurately, a line was crossed. After capturing an enemy, the Thing brought him back to the Baxter Building where he proceeded to trap his captive in a place called the interrogation room. The name itself isn’t even the most ominous thing about it, this place is a full blown torture chamber. The tools of interrogation may be different, but it still goes too far and raises a lot of questions about why such a room would be needed by the Fantastic Four and how messed up it is that it exists in what is essentially their family home.
After knocking out the Champion of the Universe, a member of the Elders, immortal, unkillable aliens, the Thing took him back to the Baxter Building. He had no idea why the Champion attacked him, but he aimed to find out. This was when he introduced the interrogation room, which was built by Reed Richards. Despite having no normal torture tools, the interrogation room still required the Champion to be restrained to a chamber while a power dampener weakened his strength and, with enough time, sapped his will to resist their questions.
It’s certainly less inhumane than other forms of torture, but this is still in no way good thing to have. Even less so because it clearly isn’t closely monitored, as the Thing left a child to handle the interrogation of the Champion. Even if there is no physical means of inflicting pain, the technology Reed designed slowly saps away a person’s will to hold onto their secrets, essentially taking away their right to choose.
It raises questions about how ethical the Fantastic Four really are. Reed built it, but since the Thing knows that means the rest of the team knows as well, and clearly they tolerate it. This is made even more disturbing by the fact that the Baxter Building is where the Fantastic Four raise their family. Children live in the building and there doesn’t seem to be much supervision over the interrogation room at all. It’s the sort of negligent parenting that any family court would pounce on in a heartbeat.
Compounding on this is that the Fantastic Four are already having their parenting skills questioned in Fantastic Four #38 (by Dan Slott, Francesco Manna, Jesus Aburtov, VC’s Joe Caramagna). The consequences of how their lives affect their children’s’ wellbeing is already being called into question, but they have the benefit of saving the world more times than most people can count on their side of the argument. If the interrogation room became public knowledge however, it wouldn’t be a question of whether they could keep their children safe so much as if they’re fit to be parents at all. Their characters would come into question, and considering the strength of their own children, if the Fantastic Four were found to be lacking in moral fiber they would be the last people considered fit to raise superpowered children.
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