Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. In FF vol. 2 #2, writer Matt Fraction’s mega-story truly kicks into gear.

We begin with a retelling of the scene at the end of Fantastic Four #2, with Reed and his family taking off through a portal on their year-long exploration of time and space, which will only be four minutes of time on Earth. The temporary Fantastic Four – Ant-Man, She-Hulk, Medusa, and pop star Darla Deering – are counting down the seconds for their return. As time passes, one of the Future Foundation Moloid kids says “Uh-oh.” There’s a pause, and Ant-Man responds with his own “Uh-oh.”

Cut to later, where this new FF has made headlines, along with the Richards’ family disappearance. Around the breakfast table, the Future Foundation kids question Scott Land (a.k.a. Ant-Man) about his ex-con past. He assures them that he’s on the straight and narrow. He further assures them that Fantastic Four will be fine, and are sure to return.

Artie and Leech catch up with Darla on the building’s roof. The “chrono-fold” portal to space-time is still there, waiting for Reed and co. to return. They show her Reed’s lab, where Dragon Man is at work. He’s monitoring the “chronostellar manifold” that can predict heightened activity around Earth, including the return of the Fantastic Four. An alert goes off, but it’s not coming from the portal. Turn the page and we see the Mole Man bursting up through the streets of New York with a giant monster, declaring the temp team to be imposters.

She-Hulk and Medusa are the first to jump into battle. Dragon Man insists that, as the fourth member of this new Fantastic Four, Darla must join them. Ant-Man joins the fight, shrinking down and poking Mole Man in the eye. The fight seems to go well, until Medusa and She-Hulk are knocked around by the monster. Inside the building, Dragon Man shows Darla Ben Grimm’s old high-tech Thing suit. He explains to her (and the readers) that Reed built the Thing suit during the time when Ben was turned human but still needed his super-strength.

Now wearing the Thing suit, but with her own pink-haired head exposed, Darla runs into action. But it’s She-Hulk and Ant-Man who stop the monster. She punches just as he shrinks inside it and messes with its brain. Reporters take their photos again, and the next day the headline reads, “City to Fantastic Four: Pay Up!”

Around the breakfast table that morning, Darla has her bags packed and says she’s leaving. She thinks she’ll accidentally get someone hurt or killed, and she doesn’t believe the original FF will return. Then the alarm goes off and everyone rushes to the roof, thinking the originals are returning. The portal opens, and it looks like Johnny has flown through, saying “I’m alive!” He then says, “You didn’t kill me!” and he blasts the portal with his flame, sealing it shut. Johnny lands in front of everyone, and we see a blue-skinned, white-haired version of Johnny, who announces, “The Fantastic Four are dead!”

To be continued!

Clobberin’ time: In addition to the Thing suit, in the background we can see Ben’s metal helmet he wore for a while after Wolverine scratched up his face.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Scott says Reed knew about his ex-con past when he asked Scott to lead the team. He says that paying the price for his crimes is what put him on his current path. He adds that he hasn’t broken “too many laws” since then.

Medusa doesn’t join everyone for breakfast because she’s in bed waiting for servants to tend to her. They’re really playing up the “royalty/queen” aspect of her.

We get a look at She-Hulk giving a lecture to the Foundation kids about the laws of man compared to the laws of science. She mentions considerations of public welfare, which seems to predict Darla wanting to leave the team for fear of being liable.

In addition to watching the portal. Darla also does some yoga on the roof. She’s informed that one of the kids ate her breakfast while she was up there.  

Foundational: Wakandan genius Onome isn’t familiar with the phrase “ex-con.” I guess they’re doing the thing with her where she’s good at science but not so good with ordinary life stuff.

There’s a gag with Atlanteans Vil and Wu stabbing each other in the hand during breakfast, just to make them seem weird and alien, I guess.

Trivia time: The Thing suit, also known as the Thing exoskeleton, was introduced way back in issue #169, and Ben wore it off and on until getting his powers back in issue #175. The suit returned a number of times (more often than you’d think), usually during those times when Ben turned human again.

Fantastic or frightful? I think we all predicted that the Fantastic Four wouldn’t return so we could have adventures with this new team, but this issue does a great job of setting up the mystery of what might have become of them. It’ll be a while until we get real answers. In the meantime, this issue also does a good job establishing the dynamics of this new team, seen mostly through Darla’s perspective.

Next: Nobody doesn’t love tentacles.

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