Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We’re in the middle of some of the most ambitious – and most bewildering – run of issues the series has ever done. Buckle up.

In what has got to be one of the most convoluted storylines in comics history (including that one where Superboy Prime punched all of reality itself), New York is under attack by four ancient civilizations and four evil versions of Reed from other universes. The Inhumans, the Kree, and the Avengers are also involved. Oh, and Johnny died a while back, Spider-Man took his place, and we just learned Johnny is still alive. Oh, AND the series is now two series, Fantastic Four and FF, with the story running across both titles. We’ve reached the “don’t even try to follow all this” point in the story, and instead we’re just going along for the ride.

FF #12 follows the kids from the Future Foundation after they teleported several floors of the Baxter Building away from the NYC battle. Unfortunately, they’ve ended up on a mountaintop in Latveria. They’re rounded up by Doombots and taken to the castle. There, Nathaniel Richards and an evil Reed have subdued Dr. Doom before Kristoff, who is currently ruling the country. Valeria and Nathaniel have a conversation about time travel, and he says he’s the one who sent Franklin from the future to give her message that “all hopes lie in Doom.”

With Kristoff and Nathaniel’s help, the Future Foundation kids return to their section of the Baxter Building up on the mountains. Valeria sneaks away to steal a small device from Reed’s lab, and then the kids get to work rebuilding the Bridge, Reed’s teleporter to other dimensions. The evil Reed says it’s time for him to go home.

Fantastic Four #601 takes us back to the battle in New York, where the Kree use a feedback device to break through the force field Sue put around the city. Spider-Man and Johnny are reunited at the Negative Zone portal. After seeing NYC under attack, Johnny takes off and creates the “4” symbol in the sky, letting everyone know he’s back. Ben defeats the robots on street level, rescuing Alicia and the other civilians, and the original Fantastic Four are reunited.

There’s a bunch of business where the Kree floating city merges with the floating city of Attilan. Ronan the Accuser tries standing up to the Kree Supreme Intelligence, but the S.I. says his plan will go forward. The FF and the Avengers try to come up with a plan to save New York. Johnny says that now that he has Annihilus’ Cosmic Control Rod, he has his own army – the Annihilation Wave. He opens the Negative Zone portal thanks to those obelisks the cultists put around the city (remember what I said about not trying to follow all this) and the FF lead the Annihilation Wave into space to take on the Kree Armada. Black Bolt sides with the FF and also fights the Kree. It looks like they’ve won, but debris from the battle is about to fall down onto NYC.

Then it’s back to Latveria in FF #13. The whole group enters the Bridge, only to find the Mad Celestials on the other side. The Mad Celestials are the ones who defeated the interdimensional Council of Reeds. (Again, don’t try to follow all this.) There’s a flashback to Valeria and Nathaniel talking about time travel and whether they can prevent future catastrophes.

The Doombots fight the Mad Celestials, and Valeria reveals the device she stole from Reed’s lab is (of course) the Ultimate Nullifier. Franklin catches the attention of the Celestials, who describe him as “beyond omega classification.” They try to destroy him, but Franklin’s reality-altering powers kick in, turning their weapons into flowers (!). The Celestials show Franklin an empty void, telling him it’s his future. The Celestials permanently open the Bridge, preventing Valeria from using the Nullifier. The evil Reed has a redemption moment, saying he will stay behind to buy the kids more time to close the Bridge. Doom also stays behind, saying “What gods dare stand against me?”

In Fantastic Four #602, the battle is suddenly not going well, despite the ending of the previous issue, with the surviving Kree laying waste to the Annihilation Wave. While Reed tries to devise a way to stop the debris from hitting New York, the Kree breach Johnny’s battleship and attack. The heroes fight them off, and Reed recovers. The Supreme Intelligence orders the Kree to redirect their attacks on Attlian. Reed then activates his new device, opening a singularity.

Galatcus comes through the singularity, and tells Reed he will take care of the Kree. (Remember that Reed contacted Galactus before the battle. Also remember that’s really no point in trying to follow all this.) The Kree try to fight Galactus, but then Galactus says his vision of death is now fulfilled, and “mad gods” are here. Turn the page and the Mad Celestials are there, facing off against Galactus.

Then it’s back to the Bridge in FF #14, where at this point the Mad Celestials are still on the other side of the Bridge. There’s a lot of technobabble as the kids undo the Celestials’ devices to get the Bridge closed on their side. The devices transform into a robot to fight the kids. In the ongoing flashback scenes, Nathaniel teaches Valeria about constants in the timestream that cannot be stopped, and they work to find more time. They reach the conclusion by repeating the “all hope lies in Doom” line. Nathaniel says Dr. Doom must be convinced to sacrifice himself.

There’s another flashback, this time to the Council of Reeds, where one Reed tells another that the Ultimate Nullifier can be used successfully, but only if the user has enough focus. In the present, the evil Reed falters, pondering how the Council could have changed everything for the better. In his moment of weakness, the Nullifier destroys him. All alone, Dr. Doom stands up to the Celestials, saying he will not be moved. The Celestials blast him, and then they travel through the Bridge to Earth, back atop the mountain in Latveria. It looks as if all is lost, but Valeria says, “We bought enough time.”

In FF #15, there’s more technobabble as the kids debate what to do about Mad Celestials on Earth. The Bridge is shut down too late, with Dr. Doom on the other side. Kristoff wants to go back for him, but Nathaniel says Latveria needs Kristoff now. Stranded on a mountaintop, Alex Power says help is on the way. It arrives in the form of living spaceship Friday and Alex’s siblings in Power Pack! They’re back in their original outfits, moon boots and all.

Friday flies everyone to the Hub, former headquarters of the four evil Reeds. Franklin has a conversation with the image of his future self, saying he had to use some of what future him gave him. There’s a fight with the advanced Moloids who still live there. After that, Franklin, Nathaniel, and Valeria stay behind while Power Pack and the Future Foundation return to the Latverian mountain. The Fantastic Four arrive aboard Johnny’s battleship, and now the whole family is reunited. Everyone’s about to fire up Sol’s Anvil, the mega-weapon built at the hub. But then the Mad Celestials catch up with them and blast the place. Franklin survives, and amid the rubble, he sees the future versions of himself and Valeria appear. Future Franklin says, “I’m here now.”

Then it’s a jarring jump back to Fantastic Four #603, where the Mad Celestials are not in Latveria, but confronting Galactus in space. Galactus and the Celestials fight in epic cosmic grandeur, so much so that the Kree and the Inhumans flee Earth for deep space. Galactus kills one of the Celestials, but then the other three form into one bigger Celestial like they’re freakin’ Voltron or something. They blast Galactus back to Earth, seemingly killing him.

This is where the issue crosses over with FF #15, as Valeria contacts Reed and tells him to meet the Foundation kids at the Hub. We see the FF’s side of the big family reunion.  The one big Celestial flies toward Earth. Reed uses the Hub to combine the energies of the four lost cities into a massive energy weapon to attack the Celestial. It breaks up back into three Celestials, and now the FF have no way to fight them. The Celestials lay waste to the place until only Sue is left standing. Then a portal opens up, and we see the same (or, similar) scene to the end of FF #15, where future Franklin and Valeria appear. Sue says, “It’s our children.”

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: I know Reed is a super-genius and all, but wow he whipped up that singularity device on the fly awfully quick.

Fade out: The Kree describe Sue’s force field as “subatomically frictionless.” Add that to the list when trying to figure out how the force fields work.

Clobberin’ time: Ben makes short work of the Kree’s robots when he sees Alicia in danger. Later, he’s the first one to get taken out by the Mad Celestials.

Flame on: There are references to Johnny looking older now, and Reed surmises that time passes differently in the Negative Zone, so two years have passed for Johnny during his time there.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Spider-Man is on hand throughout, but he doesn’t do much now that Johnny is back.

During the fight in New York, She-Hulk and the Red Hulk do their version of Wolverine and Colossus’ famous “fastball special,” where Red Hulk uses his strength to throw She-Hulk at a Kree ship.

Four and a half: Franklin has long been designated as an omega-level mutant (but really, which Marvel mutant isn’t omega-level these days?), and yet here the Celestials call him “beyond omega.” I think this refers to whatever power his future self gave him, and not some silly-sounding new mutant designation.

Our gal Val: There’s a running joke about Valeria and Nathaniel building a working lightsaber. Val chooses red as its color, somewhat tellingly.

Foundational: Bentley-23 is all about being villainous in this issues. He talks about overthrowing Latveria for himself, he tries hijacking Val’s message to her parents to make evil demands, and he suggests eating Atlanteans Vil and Wu if stranded in the wilderness.

Everyone keeps calling Dragon Man just “Dragon” in these issues. Nobody tell Erik Larsen’s lawyers.

Trivia time: Where were the Power Pack kids in continuity at this time? God only knows, because trying to track them after their series ended is next to impossible. Their appearance in these issues is not in their Marvel Wiki page. By this point Julie Power had all kinds of grown-up adventures (in more ways than one, wink-wink) in series like The Loners and Avengers Academy, while little sister Katie Power is still being drawn like she hasn’t aged since the early days.

Fantastic or frightful? I can see what writer Jonathan Hickman is going for, in making things more and more cosmic and increasing the stakes higher and higher. But how much is too much? Also, how and when the two storylines cross over is inconsistent, and you’d think having one writer on both series could prevent that. I don’t know. I’m ready to move on from Hickman, but we still have a way to go.

Next: Future shock.

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