Fantastic Friday! Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s first big story arc comes to a head in issue #561.

Recap: With an eco-disaster on the horizon, the New Defenders have traveled from the future to with a plan to bring future survivors to the present. They’ve abducted both Johnny and Dr. Doom, attaching them both to a dead Galactus and a “Galactus engine” which will power this plan. Meanwhile, Mrs. Deneuve, the FF’s new nanny, was revealed to be Sue from the future, and the New Defenders’ leader.

This issue begins as Johnny learns all when future Sue rejoins the New Defenders, who are Hulk Junior, Lightwave, Natalie X, Alex Ultron, the mysterious Hooded Man, and Johnny’s bank-robbing ex-girlfriend Psionics. Hulk Junior turns on the engine, causing Johnny and Dr. Doom great pain. Future Sue watches this coldly, saying she’s come too far to turn away now.

At the new Baxter Building, the FF, She-Hulk, and the kids recover from future Sue’s attack last issue. Reed deduces that she’s Sue from the future. Reed doesn’t know how to find her, but he does have his new microscopic tracer he’s developing in case of future FF abductions. He looks at Sue and says, “Once it’s injected, it’s impossible to remove.” Reed gives Sue the tracer, and then the computer locates future Sue in the hideout in upstate New York. She-Hulk stays behind to watch the kids until authorities arrive. As Reed, Sue, and Ben fly off in the Fantasticar, Reed says to Valeria that they’ll talk when he gets back.

At the New Defenders’ hideout, we learn that the engine is drawing energy from Galactus first, then Doom, and finally Johnny, in hopes that Johnny might still survive. Future Sue says the eight billion survivors from the future will be equally distributed around the present Earth’s give major continents. Outside, Sue uses her rarely seen “make invisible things visible” power to reveal the hideout is a huge ship hovering in the air upstate. (I find it unlikely that Psionics’ bank robberies paid for all this. Maybe that was just beer money.) The New Defenders can sense an attack is imminent, but they’re not fast enough, as the FF bust into the place.

Fighting! Ben and Sue clear a path so Reed can get at the New Defenders’ computer. The Hooded Man holds them off with his… adamantium claws! Yes, the Hooded Man is really a future Wolverine! He puts up a good fight until Sue blinds him by turning his optic nerves invisible so Ben can punch him out.

Sue confronts her future self, saying that an additional eight billion people would deplete the world. Future Sue says shutting off the engine will kill them all. Sue says she won’t let the future survivors die. Then she contacts Alyssa Moy, Reed’s ex-girlfriend, who has been working with her husband on Nu World, a recreation of Earth in an alternate universe. She and her husband Ted Castle are on Nu World at the moment, and she sends the signal to let everyone through. Alyssa confronts Ted on his plan to save only the wealthy elite, and she tells him to think of this as payback.

All eight billion survivors beam into Nu World in an instant. Ted freaks out, saying the board didn’t approve of this. Alyssa responds, “What are they going to do, Ted? Evict them?” Back at the hideout, future Sue drops the villain act and is overjoyed that Reed found a solution for the survivors. Ben detaches Johnny and Doom from the engine. They’re both out of it, but they survived. Galactus, this one from the New Defenders’ future, wasn’t so lucky, and is now dead. Reed says that one thing Nu World doesn’t have is super-powered protectors, and he thinks the New Defenders are just right for the job.

Then Dr. Doom wakes. Future Sue tries to apologize, saying there was no other way, and that it was nothing personal. “I only did what I had to,” she says. Doom says, “Likewise,” and he wraps his hands around future Sue’s next. There’s a flash of blue lightning, and future Sue is now just a burned skeleton. (Remember a few issues back when Doom swore revenge?) The others ask what he’s done, and Doom says, “Restored my honor. Nothing more.”

To be continued.

Unstable molecule: Reed’s microscopic tracer is in place so that any member of the FF can be instantly found if they ever mysteriously disappear again. Let’s see how long this stays in continuity.

Fade out: Future Wolverine says he recognizes the smell of Sue’s invisible force fields. This has never been a thing before, but I guess future Wolverine is just that good.

Clobberin’ time: But then, Ben has to point out that Wolverine smelled the force fields, but didn’t smell Ben coming. I wonder if that was an editorial note.

Flame on: Johnny refuses to believe future Sue is his sister. She explains that Reed concocted a way to keep her alive for centuries to save the world from the oncoming eco-disaster.

Fantastic fifth wheel: She-Hulk gets stuck on bodyguard (babysitting) duty. She promises to join the fight when she can, but I guess it’s over before she can get there.

Four and a half: Franklin expresses concern over his mom becoming a bad guy in the future. Ben assures him that future Sue is not really evil, but doing what she has to because an entire world is counting on her.

Our gal Val: The unspoken look between Reed and Val before he leaves suggests Reed has figured out Valeria’s secret, that she’s a super-genius.

Sue-per spy: The 2019 Invisible Woman miniseries revealed that Sue was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent all along. Her uncovering the hideout’s ship so efficiently might be her spy training at work, along with use of her powers.

Trivia time: Alyssa and the New Defenders will be around for a while longer, as we deal with the fallout from this story.

The Marvel Wiki tries to reconcile this version of Wolverine with other future Wolverines, from Old Man Logan, Wastelanders: Wolverine, and a weird Spider-Bot interactive comic.

Fantastic or frightful? Mark Millar’s first story arc on the series ends with a bang, while still setting up things to come. For as frustrated as I’ve been with some of Millar’s other work, these past few issues of Fantastic Four have been quite good. It’s a big sci-fi superhero epic, yet one that keeps character from and center. Fun comics, in other words.

Next: Rules of engagement.

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