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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. By this time, Marvel was the biggest name in Hollywood, so our heroes get the movie pitch treatment in Fantastic Four: Season One.

What’s all this, then? This was one of several “Season One” comics Marvel released in 2011-2013. It looks to me like they were trying to attract folks who liked the Marvel movies but had never read the comics before. It’s similar to the Ultimate Universe, which was also an attempt to draw in new readers, but which had already become unwieldy by this point, as we’re past the craziness of the Ultimatum crossover by now.

So we’re retelling the FF’s origin story again, with some new tweaks. It begins with catching up with what everyone’s doing the night before the fateful rocket launch. Sue is having tea with friends, who are asking her why Reed hasn’t proposed yet. Reed is in the lab with fellow genius Alyssa Moy, as he debates whether to break the law and take off in the rocket, just to advance space travel to the next level. Ben is in the gym, training for the big night. Johnny is both a mechanic and a male model (!), bragging to a pretty girl about how he’s “flying to Cali” in the morning.

The next morning, the ship takes off with our four on board. Alyssa monitors from the surface, pointing out that this is the first-ever privately owned, privately financed, and privately launched spacecraft. The goal is just to go into orbit and take in the view, while Reed and Sue have a romantic moment up there. But then of course the ship is bombarded by cosmic rays. It’s all very similar to the Lee/Kirby original, with hints of powers emerging as the ship goes out of control.

Cut to the woods in upstate New York, where the four emerge from the crashed ship, and their powers kick in for the first time. Everyone’s in a bit of a panic at the body horror of it all, especially Ben, who starts fighting Reed. Rather than decide to be superheroes on the spot, the fight is broken up by Alyssa, who arrives in a hovercraft to rescue everyone. She’s also managed to keep the spaceflight and the crash out of the news.

That night, everyone is in lockdown at the Baxter Building, previously established as the location of Reed and Alyssa’s lab. Johnny breaks lockdown and goes for a motorcycle ride, eventually flaming on and flying for the first time. Ben is also outside, moping around the city streets, focusing on how he’ll never have a normal life again. Meanwhile, there’s some tension between Sue and Alyssa, despite Alyssa saying there’s nothing going on between her and Reed.

The next morning, we get a news report about strange earthquakes felt in the NYC subway, followed by Alyssa contacting the four about a prehistoric creature rampaging through midtown. Reed, Ben, and Johnny take the hovercraft to midtown with Sue staying behind. They confront a giant green monster, familiar as the one from the original Fantastic Four #1 cover. Ben and Johnny try to lure it to Central Park where it can do less damage. Back at HQ, Sue and Alyssa talk about being left behind, and Alyssa says there’s a second hovercraft.

Sue flies to the scene just as the Mole Man appears, riding a second giant monster. Sue manages to talk some sense into the Mole Man by saying he isn’t ugly, and then she defeats the monster with a force field after it swats the other three heroes around. The Mole Man is now an ally, given his own lab inside the Baxter Building. A TV reporter is on site, putting the four on the air and making them famous. Reed shows Sue his plans for building on this, turning them into a team with matching uniforms. Alyssa is the one who gives everyone their code names, based on market research, there’s a press conference announcing the Fantastic Four to the world.

A mysterious man living near the docks sees the TV report and is flooded with memories about the original WWII-era (era) Human Torch. This is Namor, having wandered the Earth as an amnesiac for some time. He goes from vagrant back to original Namor, and then he steals an ancient Atlantean horn from a museum. In the lab, Reed, Alyssa, and the Mole Man come up with a plan to harness the cosmic rays again, this time under controlled circumstances, to turn Ben back into a human. It actually works, and Ben is his old self again. Then Sue contacts everyone, as she and Johnny are now fighting Namor out in the ocean. He’s overpowered them both and is threatening to summon a giant monster from the deep to attack New York.

Reed fights Namor out in the ocean, while Ben frets over whether to step back into the cosmic ray machine and get his powers back to help everyone.  Just as Namor’s monster arrives in NYC, Ben turns back into the Thing and rides the Mole Man’s monster from earlier to the scene, for a big monster brawl. Johnny gets hold of the horn and leads Namor’s creature back to sea, while Sue and Reed capture Namor. Ben says to Reed he had to become the Thing again because stakes are bigger than they’ve ever been before, and that they must have been given these powers for a reason. And just like that, Season One ends with a caption saying the world would never be the same.

Unstable molecule: Reed is accused of “space tourism” being the reason for the FF’s famous spaceflight. He says tourism is only a business model, and that the flight is about much more than that.

Fade out: The main character arc of this series is the Sue/Reed/Alyssa thing. Sue’s friends keep asking why she’s with Reed and if she should start dating someone else. After confronting Namor, Sue makes a case about why she’s with Reed, even if they seem mismatched to everyone else.

Clobberin’ time: Ben sacrificing his humanity to save his teammates comes late in the story, and comes and goes quick that it doesn’t have the emotional punch it could.

Flame on: Johnny is dating a photographer named Zoe throughout this story, even flying her out to the torch (get it?) atop the Statue of Liberty for some alone time.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Alyssa describes herself as being “the fifth Beatle” in the team, saying she’s still a part of everything and just as capable as the rest, except she doesn’t have super powers. In the main Marvel Universe, Alyssa was Reed’s ex-girlfriend from before he and Sue got together, but this series only hints at that.

Trivia time: One panel shows what appears to be Dr. Doom in Latveria, watching the news report about the FF. But, there was no Season Two. The other Marvel comics to get the Season One treatment were Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, Wolverine, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man, and Daredevil. This version of the Fantastic Four had a cameo in the Daredevil one.

Fantastic or frightful? Would this be a good choice for someone who’s never read a Marvel comic before? I’m not so sure. It’s very fast paced, blasting through multiple storylines in its 100 pages. Namor and Mole Man come out of nowhere and have little impact, while Alyssa Moy gets just as much page time as the Fantastic Four. All the pieces are to establish who the Fantastic Four are, but there’s not enough room left to establish why they’re a big deal.

Next: Here’s to you, Mr. Robinson.

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Want more? My ongoing series THE SUBTERKNIGHTS is back on the Kindle store! A man searches for his missing sister in a futuristic city filled with far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. Only $0.99 or free with KU!

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Just when you thought this two-series at once thing was over, there’s one last bit to wrap things up.

Writer Matt Fraction’s experimental dual run comes to an end with Dr. Doom defeated in one comic and Doom the Annihilating Conqueror defeated in the other. Then, both Fantastic Four vol. 4 #16 and FF vol. 2 #16 end with the exact same ten pages, wrapping up the subplots we’ve been following since the start. How does it all end? With a barbecue… on the moon!

The casts of both comics are assembled, with a few other guests. Johnny is cooking burgers and hot dogs on a grill, because of course he is. He and Wyatt Wingfoot toast the memory of Old John Storm, who sacrificed himself to save everyone. The Silver Surfer is there, rushing to the scene after sensing the Watcher had been attacked. Ben asks She-Hulk if she and any of the replacement Fantastic Four – her, Ant-Man, Medusa, and Darla Deering – and she says she doesn’t know. Ben and She-Hulk seem almost flirtatious, but agree to be just friends. Wyatt asks Johnny if there’s a girl for him. He sees Darla with Ant-Man and says, “None, it seems.”

Reed and the Watcher observe from a distance, with Reed worrying about whether Johnny will end up like Old John. The Watcher has recently learned he’s going to become a father, and for the first time in a millennia, he faces an uncertain future. Sue and the Watcher’s partner Ulana have a similar heart-to-heart. Ulana says her unborn child is already watching, and it will be born when the time is right.

Turn the page, and Reed has gone from wistful to aggressive, criticizing Ant-Man for battling Dr. Doom when his job was to protect the Future Foundation kids. But when Ant-Man describes how he did it, by using the Pym particles in new ways. This excites Reed, and he wants to share the news with Valeria. Valeria is inside Reed’s ship, pondering running away from home. Onome, the FF’s resident Wakandan genius, talks her out of it, and they rejoin the barbecue.

At this point, I see it’s almost the end of the comic, and I’m all, “Didn’t more happen during this part?” Flip over to the FF issue, and there’s additional story content! Cut back to the Thing/She-Hulk conversation, where the Moloids watch them from a distance. They’re perplexed at the two being just friends, but they remain loyal to Ben no matter what. Next Ant-Man and Darla have their heart-to-heart. She says he’s been avoiding her, and he says they can’t be together because of everything he’s been through. He then realizes, though, that just means he’s been given a second chance at life. He and Darla have a big romantic kiss.

A bunch of the Future Foundation kids discuss the Pym particles in further detail, while Crystal and Medusa insist that Ahura and Luna should remain with Foundation for a while longer, sensing dark times ahead for the Inhumans. Then FF repeats the Reed/Ant-Man scene, only to cut to Franklin using his powers to contact Ravonna, who may or may not be Valeria in another timeline. She has the beaten-down Annihilus and Kang in her possession, and Franklin praises her for “busting up” the cycle of events that created the Annihilating Conqueror.

The final scene is the same in both comics. The Watcher and Ulana decide to stop watching and actually participate, joining everyone at the barbecue and sampling the hot dogs. Turn the page for a double spread of all the characters in one big shot. The Watcher talks about the importance of sharing a good meal with friends and family. He says, “It is elemental to them. It is the foundation of their families. It is… fantastic.” Then Ulana puts both hands on her pregnant belly and says, “It is also… time.”

The letters page then makes way for longtime Marvel editor Tom Brevoort to pen a heartfelt tribute to Fantastic Four, describing his love for the series and his experiences as its editor. He says he’s been editor of Fantastic Four longer than any other person, but now he’s stepping aside to editor Mark Paniccia the reigns. It’s a lovely goodbye from one of the all-time greats. Except that everything old is new again, because as of this writing Brevoort is back as editor, overseeing Ryan North’s current (and excellent!) take on the comic.

Unstable molecule: Rather than be upset with Ant-Man, Reed is so impressed with the new use of Pym particles that he volunteers to be Ant-Man’s assistant in the lab, rather than the other way around. Ant-Man doesn’t stick around, though.

Fade out: Sue is in mom mode with Ulana, saying that having a child is chaos and uncertainty, but also joy.

Clobberin’ time: I’m not sure where this flirtation/non-flirtation between Ben and She-Hulk came from, but it’s resolved as soon as it begins. There’s some reference to finding the right person. It seems they’re talking about Alicia, who hasn’t been in Fantastic Four for a bit, but it’s not said aloud.

Flame on: Johnny isn’t too heartbroken about Darla choosing Ant-Man over him. He says he was only dating her to get in with the music industry, and that he’s considering a new career as a rock star.

Fantastic fifth wheel: It’s shortly after this that Ant-Man’s daughter Cassie comes back from the dead. Dr. Doom is the one who brings her back in Avengers World #16, in a story that also features Valeria, making it more or less a sequel to these two series. After that, Scott and Cassie relocate to Miami for his new solo series.

Darla Deering and Ant-Man didn’t last long, only for them reconnect – explosively so – in Astonishing Ant-Man #2. She continued to be a popular singer, and she kept the Thing rings and exoskeleton suit for herself. After that, she did a cameo during the Dan Slott Fantastic Four run, and that’s it for her.

Medusa’s fear for the Inhumans’ future appears to be foreshadowing the Terrigen Bomb destroying Attilan in the Infinity miniseries.

She-Hulk kept busy after this, joining the law firm of Paine & Luckberg, which eventually led to her getting her own practice, while also joining Luke Cage’s Mighty Avengers team.

Crystal is here to be a good mom to Luna. On the last page, there’s a bearded man wearing purple armor. The Marvel Wiki confirms this is Nathaniel Richards joining the barbecue from wherever in the timestream he was.

Four and a half: Franklin appears to use a version of his astral projection ability from Power Pack to communicate with Ravonna. He tells her that even if she is Valeria from the future, he still doesn’t consider her family after everything she’s done.

Our gal Val: Valeria states “bread and circuses” as she puts on a smile to join the barbecue. What to make of this? She’s putting on an act, and she’s still in a depressed funk? Or something else?

Foundational: Bentley-23 reminds everyone of his villain potential when he suggests digging up Cassie Lang’s corpse (!) to see what effects the Pym particles had on her. The others don’t like that idea.

Trivia time: It’s long been established that the Silver Surfer doesn’t eat food, but instead he merely absorbs energy into his body. In this issue, though, he gives eating a try, and he seems to enjoy the hot dogs.

Ulana only appeared once more after this, in Mighty Avengers #10. Following the Watcher’s death in the Original Sin crossover, Ulana takes over the Watcher’s duties. We see the baby, who has only grown a head, or “omnithalamus” as she calls it. She named Adam Brashear, a.k.a. the Blue Marvel, as the baby’s godfather. After that, neither Ulana or the baby appeared again.

Fantastic or frightful? At the time these were coming out monthly, I was jazzed about what Fraction and co. were doing, feeling like it was an exciting time for Fantastic Four. But this re-read has felt like a chore at times. These two series succeed in the little character moments, like the Dr. Who-ish standalone issues of Fantastic Four, or the kid hijinks of FF. But the overarching plot with Doom and the multiverse stuff never quite tied together for me. Yes, I do recommend you read these two series, but only as long as you go in with the right mindset.

Next: The FOUR seasons.

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Want more? My ongoing series THE SUBTERKNIGHTS is back on the Kindle store! A man searches for his missing sister in a futuristic city filled with far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. Only $0.99 or free with KU!

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. In FF vol. 2 #16, it’s time to put an end to Dr. Doom once and for all, and the man for the job is… Ant-Man?!?

Recap: Everyone from the Future Foundation and their assorted allies took on Dr. Doom’s castle in an all-out brawl, knocking out his defenses one by one until Doom was all alone, facing off against Ant-Man. Remember that this is the Scott Lang Ant-Man, who still blames Doom for the death of his daughter Cassie. It’s all come down to this.

First there’s some table-setting as Scott contacts Dragon Man to teleport the unconscious Medusa, She-Hulk, and Darla out of the place, while Doom does an automatic repair on his armor. Doom wants his siphon device back so he can achieve cosmic power, but Scott kicks it away. Doom says once he becomes a god, he can bring Scott’s daughter back to life, but Scott tells him his daughter was more than a bargaining chip. Scott manages to crush Doom’s metal gauntlets. Doom demands to know how Scott did that.

What happens next is confusing. The Watcher is nearby, injured after the battle last issue. He says he knows where Scott the power from. Turn the page, and the Watcher is back on the moon, where everyone else is watching the Doom/Scott fight. I guess the Watcher teleported back? Anyway, he gives a long-winded lecture about the Pym Particles, and how they’ve been different for various characters who’ve used them, and that Scott is the first one to figure out how they really work.

Back in Latveria, Scott beats the crap out of Dr. Doom, tearing off his armor down to some sort of grey pajamas he wears underneath. Then he does the unthinkable – he removes Dr. Doom’s mask! Doom isn’t scarred at all, having repaired his face the second he got cosmic power last issue. Scott theorizes every time Doom fixes his face, it just gets scarred again. He says, “It’s not the ugly dead scar tissue of your face that isolates you from humanity, Doom. It’s the ugly dead scar tissue of your soul.”

Doom keeps trying to get to the siphon device, but Scott keeps kicking it away. Scott calls Dr. Doom a sociopath, only mimicking human virtue, with his code of honor being all a pretense. Doom says Scott’s the one who invaded Latveria, making him a villain as well. Scott says the difference between them is that Scott doesn’t desire to become a god. With that, he destroys the siphon.

There’s a weird bit of business where Doom tries his classic trick of switching his mind with Scott’s, but it doesn’t work this time. Scott says his ants recorded Dr. Doom’s brain patterns (!) and put the unencrypted pattern all over the internet. Now every intelligence agency and hacker has access to all of Doom’s private information. Scott grabs Doom and grows to giant size, bursting out from underground onto the surface outside the castle.

Somewhere in between realities, we pick up where left with Franklin, Valeria, and Ravonna, before the kids returned in Fantastic Four #16. Ravonna assures Franklin that she’s on his side, and there’s a way to defeat Dr. Doom so that he never again considers becoming Doom the Annihilating Conqueror.

In Latveria, Scott and Doom continue to fight, while Scott muses about how Cassie died. There’s another explosion nearby, and the Watcher returns alongside another cosmic being, the Living Tribunal. The Tribunal says when Doom took on godhood, his actions became held to a higher standard. The Tribunal returns Doom’s mask onto him and renders judgment – from this day forward, every act of malice will create a new scar upon Doom’s face. He says, “Let the content of character be displayed on your features,” and “You and you alone are hereafter responsible for any scars that mar your face.”

The Tribunal teleports away, and Dr. Doom still refuses to yield, standing and wanting to fight some more. Both Scott and the Watcher try talking him down, saying it’s time for him to learn that other people matter, not just him. Scott asks the Watcher to turn off the feed so the Foundation kids can’t see what happens next. He then gives Doom a huge beating. Scott says he’s not as honorable as Reed Richards, and if Doom ever comes after him or his family again, then Scott will finish the job.

Doom says, “Not quite, ant.” He gets hold of one of his metal gauntlets and does another auto-repair like he did at the start of the issue. He fires an energy blast at Scott just as Ravonna returns with the kid. The blast hits Valeria as she appears in front of Scott, seemingly killing her. But then we see Valeria alive and well, standing off to the side with Franklin. A ghostly visage of Ravonna appears, saying she gave Dr. Doom the same metal treatment Scott felt at the death of his daughter. She says the illusion won’t last, but the memories will. Ravonna disappears, with speculation as to who she really was. Valeria tries to talk to Dr. Doom, but Scott says Doom isn’t in there. “Just an empty shadow of what could have been,” he says.  

At this point, stick a bookmark in this page (I suggest using a bit of scrap paper and not a hard cardstock bookmark so your comic doesn’t get bent or folded) because we’re not done yet…

Clobberin’ time: As Doom’s info goes worldwide, one of the hackers is wearing a Thing mask for some reason.

Fantastic fifth wheel: In the last panel, we see Medusa, She-Hulk, and Darla teleporting back to the scene, just we know they’re okay.

Four and a half: Ravonna mentions Franklin getting his powers back. He responds “Bullwinkle” as his G-rated version of a swear word.

Our gal Val: Valeria still calls Dr. Doom “Uncle Doom,” showing affection for him, even after all this.

Foundational: Upon hearing about the many uses of the Pym Particles, Bentley-23 and Onome speculate about the creation of an anti-Pym, and the unstoppable power it might have. The Watcher shuts them up and threatens to wipe their memories.

The opening recap shows Alex Power taking his parents out of Dr. Doom’s dungeons and to safety, wrapping up that subplot.

Trivia time: Who is the Living Tribunal? He’s the living embodiment of law throughout the multiverse. He has three heads. The uncovered one represents unity, the partially covered one represents vengeance, and the fully covered one represents necessity.

Characters shown as spiraling out of Hank Pym’s original Pym particles are Scott Lang, Vision, Ultron, Wonder Man, Baron Zemo, and the Eric Josten version of Power Man. With that, we can presume Grim Reaper, Wiccan, Speed, Victor Mancha, and that weird android family Vision made for himself are also connected to the Pym particles.

The Marvel Wiki insists that the Ravonna seen in these issues of Fantastic Four and FF is not the same Ravonna from the main Marvel continuity. That one had been genetically engineered to be Kang’s perfect mate (gross) and later changed her name to Terminatrix. It’s speculated that the Ravonna from this storyline is another version of Valeria from the future. But this was never confirmed, as this issue is her last appearance.

Fantastic or frightful? Interesting to see how a “final battle” plays out between Dr. Doom and a hero other than the original Fantastic Four. Scott insists he’s not doing what Reed would do, although both Reed and Ben have beaten up Doom plenty in the past. Still, it’s satisfying see ol’ Doomsy get his comeuppance, and to have Scott be the one to wrap things up.

Next: Campfire tales.

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Want more? My ongoing series THE SUBTERKNIGHTS is back on the Kindle store! A man searches for his missing sister in a futuristic city filled with far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. Only $0.99 or free with KU!

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. It’s all come down to this. The experimental dual run of Fantastic Four and FF reaches its climax with vol. 4 #16, though there’s still more Fantastic to come.

The Fantastic Four’s year-long trip through the multiverse in search of a cure to the molecular disease they’ve afflicted have led them to an alternate universe under control of Dr. Doom, Kang, and Annihilus – who have now merged into one person, Doom the Annihilating Conqueror. This issue begins in the heat of battle as the heroes and their alternate selves in battle against the new Doom, but their combined efforts aren’t enough for this all-powerful Doom. He looks through time and space to see Earth’s Dr. Doom fighting Ant-Man in the concurrent FF issue, and he believes it will be easy for him to conquer Earth.

Doom destroys the FF’s time ship, but not their dopplegangers’ time ship, which arrives on the scene. Then there’s an explosion at Doom’s castle, which rattles him enough that he leaves to investigate. Reed retrieves the device that will allow the doppelgangers to transfer their powers to the FF. The alt-Reed says a full transfer of power is dangerous, and at full strength, their bodies will give out after only four minutes. Ben says, “Then we’ll make ‘em the best damn four minutes of our lives.”

We don’t see what the crisis was at Doom’s castle, except that he fixes it quickly. The FF attack, with newfound godlike powers of their own. They tear apart his armor and give him a good beating. He reminds them that it doesn’t matter now that he controls time and space. Reed says, “We were counting on it,” and he drops the time ship onto Doom. This scatters his physical being throughout the timestream. He cries, “I am its master!” as he disappears.

With only seconds left before their four minutes run out, Reed’s doppelganger uses the device to return everyone’s powers back to normal, warning that the process will be painful. The device goes off, and the Fantastic Four collapse. The alt-Johnny looks them over and says, “They’re dead.” Cut to two days later, at what appears to be a memorial for our heroes. But turn the page and we see they’re alive and well. They were only dead for two minutes before the alt-FF brought them back from the brink. The alt-Reed says that Doom the Annihilating Conqueror is a constant across the multiverse, and that alternate reality Fantastic Fours can send an interdimensional flare to one another when he returns. The FF’s Earth, however, has been severed due to this incident, and they’ll be on their own when or if Doom returns.

The Fantastic Four return home to the new Baxter Building, where they’re greeted by Franklin, Valeria, Lockjaw, and Old John Storm. Old John is overwhelmed with emotion, knowing that the Four saved his home from Doom, and that he doesn’t have to run anymore. He thanks everyone, and he uses a device on his suit to teleport away. He arrives inside Doom’s castle in the past, knowing what he must do. He unleashes his flame on the castle’s power core, causing the distraction from earlier in this issue. Doom destroys him, but Old John dies knowing he saved the day.

Back on Earth, Johnny gets a sense of Old John’s memories from when they touched briefly, and he knows what just happened. Valeria wanted to save him, in hopes that Old John could have found peace another way. Johnny says, “It’s what I would have done,” and “No regrets.” Franklin suggests a memorial of some kind for Old John, and Johnny says there’s only one way to honor a Human Torch…

At this point, stick a bookmark in this page (I suggest using a bit of scrap paper and not a hard cardstock bookmark so your comic doesn’t get bent or folded) because before we can finish reading this issue, we’ve got to check in with Ant-Man’s side of the story. In other words…

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: With his powers increased to extreme levels, Reed goes full liquid, oozing inside Doom’s armor (!) to tear it apart from within.  

Fade out: With Sue’s new powers, she creates a Godzilla-sized force field version of herself that mirrors her own movements. Given some of the outrageous things she’s done with her force fields, I wonder if she can pull this off with her power at regular strength.

Clobberin’ time: When Ben and alt-Ben are attacking Doom, they’re about to say “It’s Clobberin’ time” in unison, but Doom swats them down and then he’s the one who says it!

Flame on: With Johnny’s new powers, he also tears apart sections of Doom’s armor with fireballs.

Four and a half/Our gal Val: When Reed asks for an explanation of where the kids have been, they say to ask the others when they get back, saving us having to read a long recap of the FF issues.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Alternate Fantastic Four members seen on the cover are She-Hulk, Medusa, Ant-Man, Darla Deering, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Namor, Storm and Black Panther.

Trivia time: This is it for Old John Storm, who stayed dead and never appeared again after this. Neither did Doom the Annihilating Conqueror, despite the warning that he’d be back. It’s also the final appearance of the alternate Fantastic Four. Their world is called “the Doomed Universe,” apparently.

Fantastic or frightful? Things are wrapped up quickly but succinctly. This entire dual story arc was all about foreshadowing Doom the Annihilating Conqueror and setting up the mystery of Old John Storm, both of which pay off in the first half of this issue. There’s more resolution to come, but I’ll get to it.

Next: Face the face!

* * * *

Want more? My ongoing series THE SUBTERKNIGHTS is back on the Kindle store! A man searches for his missing sister in a futuristic city filled with far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. Only $0.99 or free with KU!

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. What to do with Dr. Doom? How about just hitting him where it hurts? That’s what we’re doing in FF vol. 2 #15.

After the disappearance of the original Fantastic Four, a replacement four – Ant-Man, She-Hulk, Medusa, and newcomer Darla Deering – took charge of the young geniuses of the Future Foundation. After many ups and downs, Ant-Man decided it was finally time to take on Dr. Doom and finish him off once and for all. The previous issue had the entire Foundation, plus various side characters, regrouping at the Watcher’s home on the moon to make a plan, and then they were off.

After a summary of the plan, we jump right into the action, where the team sends a bunch of backup mechanical Thing suits and Puppet Master’s recreations of Marvel heroes in a frontal assault of Doom’s castle. Cut to the moon, where the kids are controlling all the bots and puppets as if it’s one big video game.

In caverns beneath the castle, Dr. Doom and Kid Immortus have subdued Annihilus. He orders his troops to fall back, deducing that the frontal assault is merely a distraction for the main four. Alex Power and Ahura break into the castle’s cells and rescue Alex’s parents, leaving Ravonna behind in a cell. After everyone takes off, Ravonna opens some sort of portal and escapes on her own.

On the moon, the aliens posing as Julius Caesar and Sun Tzu argue about strategy, so Bentley-23 takes over and leads the kids in the next wave of battle. She-Hulk, Medusa, Darla, and Old John Storm break into the castle. John flies off on his own, while the other three nab some of Doom’s tech and attach it to Darla’s Thing suit. Meanwhile, at the Latverian embassy in New York, Black Bolt and Triton capture Maximus, who used Ant-Man’s tech to shrink to ant size and hide. The other Inhumans take down the embassies in other countries. John Storm finds and attacks Dr. Doom, but Doom takes him down with one blast. Immortus wants them to combine powers and become the prophesized Doom the Annihilating Conqueror, but Doom says he doesn’t need anyone’s help.

Cut to the scene from Fantastic Four #14 where Reed and Sue sent Franklin and Valeria back to Earth with teleporting Inhuman dog Lockjaw. Ravonna meets them in the timestream. She says she needs their help in stopping her younger self. The Watcher appears in Doom’s cave to observe, just as Immortus tries to create the Annihilating Conqueror. But it doesn’t work, as Doom merely steals Immortus’ power for himself. He does the same thing with the Council of Dooms (they’ve been in the background during all this) as well as Annihilus and finally the Watcher himself.

Now ‘roided up with nearly omnipotent power, Doom is attacked by She-Hulk, Medusa, and Darla. Darla uses the device from earlier to transfer the cosmic power from him into her Thing suit. It works, but he still has enough power to knock out the three heroes. Now all he has to do is get to the device and restore his power. That’s when Ant-Man appears before him, saying, “Not this time, Doom. This time, the ant finishes the job.”

To be continued!

Unstable molecule/fade out/clobberin’ time: Reed, Sue, and Ben are in one panel, recreating the scene from issue #14.

Fantastic fifth wheel: After being apprehensive about going into battle, Darla is the one who turns the tide against Doom in the final moments. Also, at the start of the issue, we see that someone has made a Darla Funko Pop.

She-Hulk exclaims “Avengers Assemble!” during the battle, saying it’s hard to remember which team she’s on.

Medusa uses her hair to hold back Doom’s arms in the fight. The kids don’t have a Medusa action figure to use in their planning, so they use a redheaded Troll doll in her place.

Ant-Man’s hero line about finishing the job is foreshadowed earlier during the summary of the plan.

Crystal is seen in one panel, taking down one of Dr. Doom’s embassies.

Four and a half/Our gal Val: Ravonna tells Franklin that his powers won’t work while he’s stuck in mid-teleport, suggesting that his world-altering mutant powers are making a return. Valeria is knocked unconscious when they’re stopped in the timestream.

Foundational: Bentley takes the leadership role by building up his teammates with gaming memes and Mountain Dew, because of course.

Ahura dons a flying suit based on his father’s, guided along by Alex Power’s gravity powers. This gives him more to do in the fight. It’s also reminiscent of the homemade wings Alex wore for a time during his Power Pack days.

Trivia time: All the remote-controlled Thing suits have big lightbulbs for heads. This is a reference to Helper, Gyro Gearloose’s robot assistant from the classic Disney Duck comics.

Look closely, and you can see the cans of Mountain Dew are actually “Mountain Doop,” a reference to the lovable X-Statix character.

I suppose I should look up the origins of all the video game memes referenced in this issue and explain what each one is, but do I really want to bother?

Fantastic or frightful? All that plot and multiverse nonsense leads up to this, just a good old-fashioned superhero brawl. I’d thought this storyline was low on gas, but this issue is all the quirky fun that this FF/Fantastic Four dual run is famous for.

Next: C’mon baby, light my fire.

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Want more? My ongoing series THE SUBTERKNIGHTS is back on the Kindle store! A man searches for his missing sister in a futuristic city filled with far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. Only $0.99 or free with KU!

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Fantastic Four vol. 4 #15 has supervillain battles and multiverse strangeness. Yep, it’s Marvel.

The Fantastic Four’s year-long trip through the multiverse in search of a cure to the molecular disease they’ve afflicted have led them to an alternate universe under control of Dr. Doom, Kang, and Annihilus – with prophetic warnings that the three of them might somehow become one person, Doom the Annihilating Conqueror. We begin with Johnny having a dream (memory?) of the FF visiting prehistoric times. Then he wakes in time for the team to meet their alternate counterparts, including the alternate universe Johnny, whom we’ve come to know as Old John Storm. This conflict is happening across the multiverse (including the concurrent FF series), as is the Fantastic Four’s molecular disease.

What happens next is confusing. The alternate Reed, named Stevenson Storm, has a device that can help Johnny turn off his flames following his injuries in the past few issues. The two Fantastic Fours hook themselves up to the device to provide their energy to Johnny, and this also returns their powers to our Four. Then Ant-Man jumps out of nowhere, growing from ant-sized to normal, and swatting the device away. He says he had to do this at the exact moment the heroes got their powers back. This is an alternate universe version of Ant-Man who reluctantly took a job working for Dr. Doom. The alternate Fantastic Four are frozen in time thanks to some Kang technology. Reed says they’d need a temporal anomaly, and Ant-Man says he knows of one.

Cut to Marvel Girl, a.k.a. Jean Grey, being held captive by Doom’s forces. Remember that this is the time-displaced teenage Jean. She tries escaping, but Doom burns up his henchmen with a flamethrower (!) and takes control of Jean himself. The Fantastic Four burst onto the scene, and reveal to Doom they’re from another world. Turns out Kang has stolen Annihilus’ power, not Doom. Doom also wants Jean’s time-displacedness to stop Kang.

The henchmen attack again. While the other Four fight them off, Doom escapes with Jean to his time platform. Reed gets to work analyzing where (and when!) they’ve gone. It works, and the heroes are there to meet Doom when he arrives, back out in the city with the other Four still frozen in time. There’s a fight, and Ant-Man is killed (!). Jean has one of those anti-mutant power-dampening collars on her. Reed removes it, and she frees the other Four, who join the fight.

Kang arrives, and he battles Dr. Doom. He uses his time powers to anticipate every move Doom makes. Doom looks like he’s defeated, but then he reveals that when he went back in time, he rigged the siphon device with a time limit. The time runs out, and Kang’s newfound power now transfer to Doom, finally transforming him into the long-prophesized Doom the Annihilating Conqueror!

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: In the alternate timeline, the other Reed is Stevenson Storm, and he says Richards is his wife’s maiden name.

Fade out: During the fight, Sue defeats all the henchmen by using tiny force fields to make each other their weapons backfire.

Clobberin’ time: The alternate Thing, who looks like he’s burning like volcanic rock, teams up with our Thing to fight Dr. Doom.

Flame on: Despite being healed, Johnny still spends this whole issue with one arm in a sling.

Fantastic fifth wheel: When Ant-Man shows up, there’s some concern that he’s the one from the FF series having multiverse-traveled here, but it’s revealed that he’s a whole other Ant-Man.

Trivia time: The letters page has this photo of Ramones drummer Marky Ramone touring the Marvel offices and holding a copy of Fantastic Four.

Fantastic or frightful? Again, you can tell this was written by one person working off someone else’s notes. We’re building up to the big finale, but it’s mired in all this time travel/multiverse stuff. I liked the twist of Reed using Doom’s own time platform to outsmart him, but that’s about it.

Next: The children’s crusade.

* * * *

Want more? My ongoing series THE SUBTERKNIGHTS is back on the Kindle store! A man searches for his missing sister in a futuristic city filled with far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. Only $0.99 or free with KU!