Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Writer Mark Millar continues to put his mark on the series in #568, as one mean villain keeps getting meaner.

Dr. Doom’s long-lost mentor the Marquis of Droom arrived on Earth after causing death and destruction throughout the multiverse. After expressing his disappointment with Dr. Doom, the Marquis sent Doom into the distant past. He then adorned himself with Doom’s metal mask and decided to take on the Earth, beginning with the Fantastic Four.

This issue begins with another subplot, though, where Ben shows up at the apartment of his girlfriend Debbie Green, who recently dumped him after he lost his temper on live TV. She tells him that she still loves him, but she doesn’t want to be afraid of him. But, she has a change of heart. She tells Ben to leave the “big stuff” for supervillains and keep things normal for her. He asks her if the wedding is off, and she says, “Never.”

Except then Ben and Debbie are attacked. People outside are throwing Molotov cocktails at the apartment, blaming Ben and the FF for the weird weather happening all over the globe. (The weather is actually because of the Marquis arriving on Earth, but Ben doesn’t know that yet.) Ben jumps outside and chases off the attackers while smashing up the sidewalk, while Debbie tells him that the TV news states that the weird weather is originating from the Baxter Building. Ben walks off, and we see the Marquis and his unnamed apprentice are watching him in secret.

There’s a bunch of quick hits showing the weather freaking out all over the planet. But it’s not just the weather – also volcanos and Biblical plagues of locusts. Ben shows up at the new Baxter Building to meet with Reed, Sue, and Johnny, and that’s when the Marquis and the apprentice attack. The apprentice fights with invisible force fields, and he wields a glowing green sword. The FF mistake the Marquis for Dr. Doom, but the apprentice says, “That name is dead for all time!”

The Marquis introduces himself, and he seems to use some sort of telekinesis and/or mind control to make the FF kneel in front of him. He shows them a vision of Dr. Doom in the distant past being fed to a Megalodon. Ben makes the usual wisecrack about his Aunt Petunia, so the Marquis teleports everyone to the home of the actual Aunt Petunia. He kills Petunia right in front of everyone, reducing her to a skeleton.

Then it gets even nastier when the apprentice wants to murder Sue, but the Marquis says instead she will have to decide which of her children will live or die. Reed offers to take Sue’s place, saying he’s the one who has out-strategized Doom over the years. The Marquis tells the heroes not to have hope, because hope is what he’s already destroyed in countless other universes, and this one is no different.

The Marquis shows the FF a flashback to annual #6, where the FF confronted Annihilus in the Negative Zone. He says if Reed failed to defeat Annihilus, then his son Franklin would never have been born. The Marquis says, “I will spare you and your planet if you agree to let Franklin die.” He says there are millions of alternate timelines where this happens, and that Reed will have no memory of any other possibility happening. Reed refuses to deal with the Marquis, saying, “You’re wasting your time.” The Marquis instead shows Reed a parallel universe where Ben died during the FF’s origin spaceflight, rather than becoming the Thing. Reed says, “You want my life, Marquis, it’s yours. Anyone else, it’s their choice.”

Then the Marquis teleports Reed to place called Area 87, which is a high-tech holding cell containing a man named Clyde Wyncham. The Marquis explains that Clyde is the world’s most powerful supervillain, who came to Earth from yet another parallel universe where he was the only mutant. Clyde has reality-altering powers, kept in check by a cybernetic helmet of Reed’s design. While wearing the helmet, Clyde is lost in his own pleasant dreams. The Marquis says that the day will come when many of Reed’s adversaries will join forces and attack Area 87, and Clyde will wake up with his full power.

We then see Clyde destroying all the villains and escaping to become master of all space and time, exploring the multiverse for a billion years and eventually becoming… the Marquis of Death! He says he is on his final voyage, to give one Reed Richards a chance to save all the rest. The Marquis says all Reed has to do is pull the plug on Clyde, which will kill him. Reed refuses to take a life saying there’s always another way.

The Marquis teleports Reed back to the Baxter Building, where Sue, Ben, and Johnny attack him. Johnny says, “Plug the breach!” Then turn the page and we see the outside of the building attacked by an army of Fantastic Fours from other dimensions.

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed sticking to his principles in the face of the Marquis’ threats has no effect on the Marquis. The Marquis gets enjoyment at seeing past versions of Reed break down all across the multiverse.

Fade out/Flame on: At one point, Johnny accuses the Marquis of being just like every other easily-beaten supervillain. The Marquis shows Johnny a vision of all the ways Sue can be killed throughout the multiverse.

Clobberin’ time: Is Ben’s Aunt Petunia really dead? She’ll appear again in a few years, still alive and with no reference to this issue. It’s a safe bet that her death in this issue is either an illusion or yet another alternate timeline.

Fantastic fifth wheel: With the weather being out of control all over the world, Ben tells the people on the street “You want that X-Man weather chick.” That your former teammate Storm you’re talking about, Ben! To be fair, on the next page, he says he’ll give her number to the Molotov cocktail guys.

Trivia time: If you’ve never read Mark Millar’s miniseries Marvel 1985, oops I spoiled the whole thing for you. That story was about Clyde Wyncham, a young man in the “real world” who developed the ability to bring characters from the comics into his universe. When a bunch of comic villains ran amok, he then traveled to the Marvel Universe to recruit heroes to save the day. The series ended with Captain America taking Wyncham back to the Marvel Universe to get him some help.

Fantastic or frightful? While I found a lot to like in writer Mark Millar’s early issues of Fantastic Four, it’s here where the so-called “edgelord” Millar is in full force. This issue is a variation of Millar’s miniseries Nemesis, about an all-powerful supervillain tearing apart an ordinary man’s life, just for his own sick amusement. There’s a similar tone here – mean-spirited only for the sake of being mean-spirited.

Next: Cold feet.

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