Claremont essentially used FANTASTIC FOUR VS. X-MEN as four extra issues of his UNCANNY X-MEN run. The story took place shortly after MUTANT MASSACRE, when Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Kitty were gravely injured by the Marauders. Kitty’s situation was more desperate because she had become a living ghost and her body was losing cohesion. And only Reed Richards’ unparalleled genius could possibly save her. Unfortunately, the FF’s bond as a team and as a family was sorely tested at an inopportune time, and that brought the two teams into a very ugly conflict.

When he was younger, Franklin’s powers were at their greatest when he was asleep. But in his sleep, he saw his father as the architect of the FF and the X-Men’s destruction before Reed merged with Doctor Doom. In reality, Franklin recognized Reed’s hidden journal as the cause of their problems. Buried within the journal’s pages was the revelation that Reed knew that the FF’s fateful space trip would turn them into Super Heroes. The family took that as a betrayal, especially Ben Grimm, who was condemned to life as a monster. Worst of all, Reed couldn’t proclaim his innocence because he wasn’t sure whether the journal was real or not.