Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. The new team is back with the old team for some far-out sci-fi in #547.

With Black Panther as a member of the team now, his solo series has become another FF series, so let’s check in Black Panther #27. It begins in the same scene where 546 ends, with the team returning to space. After some time getting to know life in the new Baxter Building, currently doubling as a temporary Wakandan Embassy, the heroes deal with a monster escaped from the Negative Zone portal. They fight the monster while working out a way to teleport it back to the Negative Zone without reopening the portal. Instead, everybody ends up in a parallel universe where the Skrull homeworld is under attack by the zombies from the Marvel Zombies series. After a big battle, Black Panther used the magical King Solomon’s frogs to teleport away. It’d be another few issues of alternate reality/multiverse-hopping before they finally make it home.

This is all to say that Fantastic Four #547 begins with referencing these issues, where Johnny tries flirting with one of the Dora Milaje by regaling her with stories of the adventure, and T’Challa popping in to say he learned a lot from the journey. T’Challa leaves for the U.N., to resume his responsibility as king of Wakanda.

Cut to outer space, where Reed and Sue are investigating the mysterious meteor they learned of last issue. Remember that they’re taking a so-called second honeymoon to work out their differences after separating during Civil War. The meteor is an artificially constructed life form. Reed wants to study it, but Sue gives him only two days, what with the honeymoon and all. Sue returns to their place on Titan while Reed flies off to investigate, while a mysterious figure follows Reed.

At the new Baxter Building, Ben and Storm joke around about whether that’s her natural hair color (it is). Reed arrives at Camp Hammond in Connecticut where the superheroes of the Initiative are training. He meets with Hank Pym (secretly a Skrull in disguise) and they return to Reed’s ship to check out the meteor. It’s biological, with a built-in faster-than-light drive and a brain that doubles as a power source. They agree the meteor is like ambergris used in making perfume, and it’s possible that this is a message from aliens who communicate via smells.

Sue returns to Titan, only to have her spacecraft get shot down. It’s Hydro-Man, Titania, and Paste-Pot Pete, um, I mean the Trapster. They say they’re working with the Wizard, making this the return of the Frightful Four. Back aboard Reed’s ship, he whips up a device that translates the smells into mathematical vocabulary. The message is from aliens called Odopodians, who say it is a peaceful exchange of their science, art, and culture. But then it says that the message is because the Odopodians no longer exist, having been destroyed by rival aliens called the Contrasepsis. The message ends with, “As soon as they are finished with us, they are coming for you.”

Back on Titan, the three villains try to attack Sue, but she escapes invisibly. Then we’re back at the Baxter Building, where Reed has assembled the new FF and Hank, saying there’s still time to save the Odopodians. He and T’Challa agree to follow the meteor’s path back to its point of origin. He calls Sue to find her in midst of battle against the Frightful Four, now with the Wizard joining them. He has a new weapon that can phase through her force field. He uses it to knock her unconscious. Then Wizard has a message for Reed, “Come and get me, if you can.”

The Wizard tells his teammates that he planted a bomb in Reed’s ship, so when he and the FF will blow himself up when they come to Sue’s rescue. We see the ship explode in the sky over New York while the Wizard boasts, “The end of the Fantastic Four!”

To be continued!

Unstable Molecule: Reed seeks Hank Pym’s help because otherwise it would take Reed weeks of studying to become the biochemist Hank is. Hank tells Reed saying things like that are why Reed is not as popular among other superheroes.

Fade out: Sue turns invisible to escape the Frightful Four, but the villains know she has nowhere to go but the house on Titan, so we resume a few pages later with them fighting her inside the house.

Clobberin’ time: In addition to debating Storm’s hair color, there’s also question of whether Storm wears a weave. She lets Ben lift her up by her hair (!) to prove it.

Flame on: Johnny’s flirtation with a Dora Milaje doesn’t go well, when one of them nearly dislocates his shoulder. What did he think was going to happen?

Fantastic fifth wheel: Yes, that really is Storm’s hair color. Contrary to popular belief, her hair is not because of her mutation, but because she comes from a long line of African priestesses, known for their white hair.

While at the UN, Black Panther cautions a United States politician about not putting Wakanda in the same category as Latveria, Atlantis, and Attilan. He says this will create an unstable condition. This is referencing the politically tense “world tour” storyline from Black Panther just before Civil War started, where he and storm visited these places.

She-Hulk is seen in one panel at the Initiative base, training the new recruits.

The Alicia problem: The FF run into Lyja when on the Skrull homeworld. When she doesn’t recognize Johnny, that’s when everyone realizes they’re in an alternate universe. In this reality, Lyja is not a spy, but a high-ranking military general.

Trivia time: Thanks to movies, I’m pretty sure everyone already knows who the Dora Milaje are. But for the record, they are Wakandan king’s personal guard, a team of elite fighting women. While it’s hard to imagine Black Panther without them, they weren’t introduced until 1998’s Black Panther #3.

And then there are the Marvel Zombies. The zombie-verse first appeared in, of all places, Ultimate Fantastic Four, before spinning off into their own series. The premise was that all of humanity died except for the superheroes, who wandered the wrecked Earth as zombies. It concluded with the Avengers eating Galactus (!), giving them some power cosmic. They ventured into space looking for more people to eat, which led them to these Black Panther issues.

Fantastic or frightful? It seems epic space opera was the order of the day for Fantastic Four and Black Panther, because that’s what this run has been all about so far. With Reed and Sue still so prominent, it feels more like Fantastic Six, but that’s all right. This FF issue has some fun character beats and an exciting cliffhanger.

Next: Stepping in puddles.

* * * *

Want more? Check out my ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a sprawling city full of far-out tech and secret magic. It’s a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid full of action, romance, mystery, and laughs. The first three chapters are FREE! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.