Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Our heroes continue to time travel in vol. 4 issue #6 legacy #617, so why not go all the way back in time?

The Fantastic Four, along with Franklin and Valeria, are off on a year-long expedition through time and space. This is secretly Reed’s way of looking for a cure for the life-threatening affliction he’s come down with. Also, all this time, Ben had been acting more and more irritable.

We begin at “the end of all things” where an alien jury is sentencing a prisoner back in time to the big bang. His sentence is that he will witness the creation of the universe, and then be the first living thing to die. On board the FF’s ship, the two kids are giving a presentation about the big bang and the constantly expanding nature of the universe. Reed approves of their homework and adds, “We’ll be there by lunchtime to see it happen.”

In his room, Ben is swallowing aspirin by the bottleful. He joins his teammates on the bridge, admitting that he has a huge headache. The ship arrives just in time for the big bang, only to find the prisoner there, strapped to a floating chunk of rock. Valeria deduces the creature came from another time as well, and Reed wants to investigate, despite the potential danger. So Ben dons a high-tech spacesuit and heads out to the rock. He frees the creature and brings it back to the rock.

Aboard the ship, the creature’s metal suit bursts open, and we see the prisoner is the FF’s old foe, Blastaar the Living Bomb-burst! (Who is Blastaar again? Originally from the Negative Zone, he was a power mad dictator. After being separated from his people, he continued to be power-hungry and enraged. Also readers of the FF series running parallel to this one just saw Blastaar in the present, so something’s up.) Ben and Blastaar fight, and starts glowing with orange energy. Blastaar punches Ben out of the ship, causing a hull breach.

Next Reed and Sue fight Blastaar, trying to keep him from destroying the ship as they battle. Reed is injured during the fight. Johnny joins in, only for Blastaar to overpower him. Reed notices that cooling rods were part of Blastaar’s prison garb, and he fears that Blastaar was sentenced to die in the past because he’s overpowered and is about to blow up anyway.

The family huddles in the cockpit while Blastaar goes nuts throughout the rest of the ship. Franklin suggests traveling to the end of time from the beginning of this issue (confused yet?). Reed says the ship is too damaged, but Franklin wonders if he can do it with his reality-bending powers. Franklin concentrates, and the ship disappears, leaving Blastaar behind. He sees the beginning of the universe, and his own end.

Unstable molecule: Getting burned by Blastaar would seem to exacerbate Reed’s sickness.

Fade out: With Ben out with his headache, Sue is the one piloting the ship. She makes a big deal of how complicated it is to hit just the right coordinates for the beginning of time.

Clobberin’ time: Not only does Ben glow orange during the fight, but his eyes are shows glowing when he’s alone in his room.

Flame on: Johnny and Blastaar fight while surrounded by one of Sue’s force fields, where  they can both go nuts with fire and not burn the whole ship down.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Two H.E.R.B.I.E. robots join the fight, only for Blastaar to make short work of them. Sue doesn’t like that they are weapons, but Reed insists they were built only for construction and demolition. Freakin’ H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot.

Four and a half: I guess now we’re adding time travel to the increasingly lengthy list of Franklin’s mutant powers. What I find more interesting is his growing more and more in control of his powers.

Our gal Val: Valeria is basically the ship’s science officer in this issue, running scans on Blastaar before he wakes. Maybe Reed is having her do this as more of her homework.

Trivia time: The big bang was a busier time than this issue suggests. This was where Galactus, the Phoenix Force, and Knull (a.k.a. god of the symbiotes) all came from. And just this year in Marvel Comics, Dr. Doom, Rocket Racoon, and the FF’s own H.E.R.B.I.E. all visited the big bang. (Freakin’ H.E.R.B.I.E. again!) I can think of no explanation as to why everybody’s not running into each at this moment, except that empty space is big, so maybe they’re all spaced out around the explosion.

Fantastic or frightful? It’s another “all they do is fight” issue in the classic Marvel style. It sets up a fun cliffhanger. But more importantly, it hints as to how the two Fantastic Four and FF series are going to tie together. I guess that’s all it has to be.

Next: Crunch time.

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