Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. In vol. 4, issue #3, legacy #614, our heroes begin their massive space-time adventure. Hope you like tentacles!

Recap: Reed is taking his family on a year-long expedition of time and space on board their ship the Pestilence. What he’s not telling them is that he’s dying, and this is his way of secretly looking for a cure. While it’ll be a year for them, it’ll only be four minutes back on Earth. (If you were reading only this series and not the accompanying FF series, you’d have no idea the craziness happening on Earth.)

It’s New Year’s Day on Earth, but the FF are thirty-seven light years from Earth. (Dante and Randal: “Thirty-seven?!?”). Their ship is approaching Zeta Doradus, a newly-formed planet made of unstable materials similar to the Fantastic Four’s famous unstable molecules. Alone, Reed muses about how this might be a cure to his condition. Reed continues not to tell his family that he’s dying. Franklin and Valeria debate who will be the first to step foot on the new planet. Everyone’s excited about the expedition, except for Ben, who is acting morose.

Reed launches an oxygen harvester ahead of them to the planet, to create a pocket of environment they can survive on when on the surface (although they still need spacesuits). They land on the planet, with Ben staying behind to pilot the ship, only to find that the harvester has been sucked underground. Franklin attempts to take a soil sample, which causes the surface to transform into tentacles that attack the entire family.

Everyone fights the tentacles and makes it back to the shuttle, only for it to be also surrounded by tentacles. Sue concentrates on keeping a force field between the shuttle and the tentacles, but it’s a struggle. Reed contacts Ben for help, but Ben has a different perspective. From the ship, he can see the entire planet changing shape.

Still inside the shuttle, Reed says the expedition has now become a fight for survival. Valeria wants to communicate with the planet, while Johnny argues against fighting the planet, saying “Them or us, Val.” Ben then takes action, jumping out of the ship without a spacesuit and falling straight down onto the planet, burning up in the atmosphere. He strikes the planet with a huge explosion and a classic, “It’s clobberin’ time!”

The shuttle escapes the tentacles, and then Johnny flies out to ignite the oxygen from the harvester. The flames free Ben and Reed stretches to grab him and return him to the shuttle. Back in space, far away from the danger, Reed deduces that Zeta Doradus is not a planet, but a planet-sized predator. Sue insists on no more danger during this trip, emphasizing less action, more adventure. Ben cheers up and says happy new year to everyone. Sue says the family’s resolution should be “No more surprises,” and Reed follows that up with, “Yes, of course. Here’s to no more ugly surprises.”

Unstable molecule: Reed compares the planet to real-life Earth predators the viperfish or the firefly squid. I’ll assume these were writer Matt Fraction’s inspirations for this issue.

Fade out: Considering some of the extremes that Sue has used her force fields in the past, it’s odd that she struggles this hard in surrounding the shuttle with a force field. I guess the tentacles’ attacks were just that aggressive.

Clobberin’ time: Ben turning himself into a bomb by falling through the atmosphere of a planet is a feat of strength like we haven’t seen from him before.

Flame on: Johnny’s full name is given in this issue as “Jonathan Lowell Spencer Storm.” After much googling, I cannot confirm whether this was introduced previously.

Four and a half/Our gal Val: Franklin and Valeria have their own version of rock-paper-scissors called “Nullifier,” which they use to decide who steps first on the planet. In the end, they both take the first step simultaneously.

Trivia time: This is the only appearance of planet-sized predator Zeta Doradus. You’d think it’d be a natural to show up in Marvel’s far-out cosmic storylines. Just imagine a Galactus vs. Zeta Doradus throwdown.

Fantastic or frightful? An amusing space adventure, nothing more. The only real character beat is Reed keeping this huge secret from his family, and that weighing heavily on him. Ben’s fiery dive from orbit is worth the price of admission.

Next: Blue meanie.

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