Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Issue #550 is the wrap-up (of sorts) of everything the series has been building up to over the last few issues. Can it stick the landing?

Recap: After Black Panther and Storm joined the team, Reed and Sue have now re-joined, making a Fantastic Six. All this is to respond to a distress call from aliens called Oditopians, under attack by murderous aliens called the Contrasepsis. The heroes take their new Fold Ship into Oditopian space, only to learn that the Oditopians fought back with a powerful weapon that destroys space-time, threatening to subsequently destroy all existence. With dozens of Watchers on hand to watch, the Contrasepsis then attacked the Fold Ship.

The Contrasepsis, who are big, bulky, purple guys, breach the ship’s hull as ben fights them off. Reed and Black Panther work on rebuilding the Oditopians’ weapon, while knowing that it may destroy them as well as their enemies. Sue seals the hull breach with a force field, and Black Panther has Ben prepare to fly the ship out of there as soon as they fire the weapon. The plan works, and the Contrasepsis are killed (!) as the ship enters hyperspace. But now spacetime is being destroyed.

As one of the Watchers falls into the void, seemingly to his death, Reed and Black Panther are more interested in figuring out where the Contrasepsis came from. Black Panther says not even he can track them through collapsing spacetime, so he whips up a device capable of summoning the Silver Surfer. The Surfer arrives, still furious at Black Panther over their fight a few issues back. Black Panther and Reed appeal to the Surfer’s innate desire to preserve life. He agrees, and he leads the heroes into the void, which he says leads to planes of physical reality not yet explored. They find the Contrasepsis, who are attacking someone the Surfer calls “a friend.”

The “friend” is… Dr. Strange! He’s locked in battle against the aliens, and the FF join the fight. Strange says the Contrasepsis are not evil, but honorable creatures who normally protect the universe from harm. He says they are more like a weapon, destroying whatever they’re aimed at. Strange uses the all-seeing Eye of Agamoto to show the FF that Eternity, the living embodiment of all things, is dying.

As everyone keeps fighting the aliens, Reed goes on a big speech about how overuse of antibacterial soap causes harmless bacteria to live on the skin, immune to normal treatment. He explains that Eternity’s “substance” was irritated by the Oditopians’ spacetime-destabilizing weapon, so he sent the Contrasepsis to kill them, like killing an infection. But, Strange adds, the Oditopians evolved into a strain they couldn’t kill. The conflict escalated to where they became the equivalent of a flesh-eating disease upon Eternity.  

Then there’s a bunch of talk about conducting surgery on Eternity. The other heroes’ powers can help Strange perform the operation, but he says he still needs a “monomanifestation of fundamental power.”  Then Uatu, Earth’s Watcher, appears and says he’ll help. Of course this breaks his oath only to watch, but he jokes that without Eternity, he’d have fewer “viewing choices.” Uatu teleports back to Earth to recruit Gravity, who’d returned to his parents’ house in Wisconsin. Uatu teleports Gravity back into the void, and he agrees to act as Strange’s energy-based scalpel and suture for the operation.

The surgery is shown in a page of dreamlike imagery, and afterward it’s declared a complete success. Still in the void, the Watcher explains that the Contrasepsis have left to seal the infection off in a pocket universe, he then says he will submit himself to the other Watchers for punishment in breaking his oath once again. Ben ends it all with, “Who wants to eat?”

Back on Earth, it’s a big family dinner with the original four and Black Panther and Storm. (They didn’t invite Gravity too? That was rude of them.) T’Challa says it’s time for him and Storm to take their leave, and the functions of the Wakandan Embassy will be transferred from the new Baxter Building to a Manhattan hotel presidential suite. He says living at the Baxter Building was never about them needing a place to live, but about helping the FF when they needed it.

T’Challa and Storm leave (in the middle of dinner?) and Johnny says that now that the original team is back together, he has a big idea. The caption adds that the world would never be the same.

Unstable molecule: There was some controversy online at the time over how Reed is stretching his neck on the cover, with fans thinking he looks undignified. While it’s true that he most often stretches his midsection while keeping the shapes of his shoulders intact, a quick trip through comics history shows lots of time he stretched his neck like this, so it’s not out of character.

Fade out/Clobberin’ time/Flame on: Sue, Ben, and Johnny are merely backup throughout the issue, fighting off the aliens so the other heroes can do the surgery bit.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Storm’s role during the surgery is to act as life support. I assumed this would involve her lightning power in some way, but instead it’s her temporarily absorbing Eternity’s consciousness into her own throughout the operation, making her join Reed and Sue in the list of FF members who have communed with godlike beings.

After this, Black Panther fights Kilmonger, then gets involved in Wolverine’s Evolution crossover. After that, it’s right into Secret Invasion. Also, to be fair, this isn’t quite the end for him and Storm with the FF, because that’s how they’re depicted during World War Hulk. Where does that fall in continuity, again?

Four and a half/our gal Val: Franklin and Valeria are at the dinner scene, reunited with their parents for the first time since Civil War. They seem in good spirits, not traumatized at all by Civil War.

Trivia time: It’s unknown what, if any, punishment the Watcher received for his actions during this issue. The Marvel Wiki doesn’t mention this incident at all in his entry, skipping from Civil War straight to Secret Invasion.

Neither the Contrasepesis nor the Oditopians have entries in the Marvel Wiki, so it’s unlikely we’ll ever see them again. The fact that Eternity has this army of creatures to use as his personal bio-weapon could be great story fodder for future comics, but oh well. I’m assuming the name “Contrasepsis” is a reference to something, but much Googling has yielded no answer.

Fantastic or frightful? After only seven issues, the Black Panther and Storm era (era) comes to an end. And because Reed and Sue continued to be part of the story the whole time, we only got fleeting glimpses of how this new team worked. Honestly, the best version of this FF wasn’t in Fantastic Four, but in the dimension-hopping epic going on in the solo Black Panther series. As far as this issue goes, writer Dwayne McDuffie seems committed to far-out cosmic stories as his take on Fantastic Four, while powering up Storm and Gravity to superstar levels. It’s a good issue, even if we’ve seen this type of thing before.

Next: We’re friends from work.

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