Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We’re going underwater for a soaking wet slugfest in issue #575.  

We begin with Sue giving a slideshow (Powerpoint?) presentation about an isolated Antarctic base which is located over a massive body of water that may have undiscovered life forms within it. Recently, new scanning tech found a structure inside the water. We see Ben and Johnny bored with this conversation, when Reed enters and says, “Something’s come up.” After noticing a data leak from the site, Reed discovered A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) had hacked the place. A.I.M. had been slant drilling into the water from five miles away, and are preparing to launch probes into it. Reed says the FF must get there first, and they don’t have the luxury of sending probes.

At the arctic base, the FF meet with Dr. Cal Cooley, who runs the place with help from the tech that the FF provided. Cal has prepared a sea pod for the FF, but he says it will difficult to break through the ice shield into the underground water. Turn the page and we see the pod smashing through the ice and the FF swimming out of it in deep sea gear. They swim around some exotic sea life, and then find the structure, looking like a bunch of crystals. A bunch of A.I.M. submarines arrive, and they battle the humanoid sea creatures who come from inside the structure. The FF fight back, smashing their way through the subs. This fight scene takes up almost the entire issue, told only through the art with no dialogue.

The sea creatures escort the FF into the structure, which is their city. Reed spots telepathic communication devices throughout the city. The creatures attach these devices to the FF’s dive helmets. They meet the city’s ruler, Ul-Uhar, who says he is regent of the king. Then he tells them, “Welcome to the kingdom of Atlantis.”

Reed says Atlantis was destroyed at the bottom of the sea, and Ul-Uhar says the entire sea is Atlantis. Ul-Uhar asks Reed what the difference is between him and the A.I.M. villains. Reed tries to explain that humanity is a collective and no one person speaks on behalf of the entire surface world. But then Sue volunteers to be that voice. Ul-Uhar names Sue the envoy and emissary of mankind. He tasks her with returning to the surface world with a message, “The old kings of Atlantis have returned.”

Then, just like last issue, it wraps up in a single text page, telling and not showing what happened next. We’re meant to call this city the Old Kingdom. Sue was given an apparatus allowing her to speak to the Old Kingdom whenever she needs to. Sue contacted Namor to set up a peaceful negotiation between him and the Old Kingdom, and that Namor has yet to respond. There’s also a bunch of world-building stuff about the different species and classes of the Old Kingdom, if anyone’s interested.

Unstable molecule: Reed is only partially aware of the situation in the Antarctic, never having met Cal or the specifics of what they’re doing in the base. Reed’s own Antarctic base, seen in vol. 3 #1, goes unmentioned.

Fade out/Clobberin’ time: Sue surrounds Ben with a force field and then throws him at one of the submarines. It yet another variation of the X-Men’s famous “fastball special” in which Colossus would throw Wolverine at an enemy.

Flame on: Johnny arrives in freezing cold Antarctica wearing only swim trunks adorned the flame pattern. Because the cold doesn’t bother him. He also wears this during the undersea fight, while everyone else is in their diving suits.

Foundational: We’ll see the Old Kingdom again, because that’s where the FF will recruit two more members of the Future Foundation. Additionally, this issue has two references to the super-intelligent Moloid kids living at the new Baxter Building now.

SUE-per spy: The 2019 Invisible Woman miniseries revealed that Sue had a double life as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent all along. In this issue, we learn Sue has been working on this Antarctic project for the last four years, with the rest of the FF knowing little to nothing about it. Could she have been doing her spy missions during this time?

Trivia time: What’s this talk about Atlantis being in ruins at the bottom of the ocean? Atlantis was destroyed in Sub-Mariner #6, the final issue of that run. Following that issue, Namor joined the X-Men, finally living up to his title as “Marvel’s first mutant,” and he was living at the X-Men’s Utopia headquarters.

Fantastic or frightful? Having a mostly wordless issue recalls Marvel’s weird “Nuff Said” experiment from a few years earlier, and doing it only during the fighting and action was the smart way to go. I’m still baffled at this practice of wrapping up the plot with these text pages, which is awkward. So, this is a fun issue, but not remarkable. 

Next: Universal remote.

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