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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Issue #532 goes way back – all the way back – to explain everything about the universe and reality itself. That’s a tall order. Can it succeed?

How to recap all this? Reed took a job with the government, who wanted to recreate the FF’s original spaceflight with a bunch of astronauts. Deducing that the cosmic rays that gave the FF their powers contained a message from unseen aliens, Reed sabotaged the astronauts’ flight and went on the run. He and his teammates then met the Entity, the alien who sent the message. He wanted to find other seekers of the truth like himself. The Entity’s people, who accused him of being a heretic, arrived on Earth and attacked. The Entity and Reed tried escaping into the Negative Zone, but the portal was damaged, sending them to a void before the creation of the universe. The Entity, wanting to understand all things, went ahead and created the big bang. Got all that?

This issue begins with Reed floating in space as he witnesses the origin of the universe. He says it’s too much even for his mind to comprehend. He further says “This isn’t how it’s supposed to work,” and that it’s all just chaos. He says it’s all unstable, with forces of energy fighting against one another.

The Entity contacts Reed telepathically, and says he cannot control it all. The Entity says he was searching for truth, while Reed searched for knowledge. The big bang can only happen when truth and knowledge are in balance. He says Reed much let the Entity into his mind, or else the universe will collapse into destruction. Reed agrees, and then he screams in pain. Reed tries to cling to his sanity while experiencing all of time and space at once, including the creation of life on Earth.

The Entity says he understands why there is life in the universe, and Reed says he understands it, too. Reed explains that sentient life always struggles to understand, because the universe itself is a living, sentient consciousness that is struggling to understand itself. The Entity, addressing himself as, “I/we/the universe,” says he will continue to grow and expand, until he finally understands himself. He promises Reed that Reed will be there to see that moment, just as he was there to see the beginning.

Cosmic rays then appear, blasting through Reed. He says he can feel his thoughts affecting the rays, and his mind dwells on his three teammates, so far away. He then deduces that those thoughts are the message inside the rays, eventually turning into the force that gave the FF their powers. The intelligence behind the origin of the FF was Reed himself.

The Entity tells Reed that Reed is now free of his human bonds, and can go anywhere in time or space. Reed glimpses the FF’s original spaceflight, the birth of Franklin, and the FF fighting Dr. Doom. Reed says his family is his whole universe. The Entity tells him, “Choose your moment.”

Turn the page, and Reed is back on the U.S. Army base talking with scientist Dr. Love. They talk about how there’s never enough time for both work and family, and she hopes to get ahead of schedule so Reed can get back to New York. She asks the same question she did a few issues earlier: if the FF were struck by the exact same cosmic rays, how did the rays affect each of them differently. Reed says there must be some random factor he missed. Dr. Love suggests that Reed can’t see this random variable because he’s “in the fishbowl.”

Then the other scientist, Dr. Crane, calls Reed and Dr. Love to his office. He says the composition of the cosmic rays have changed, and they are no longer the exact same combination that gave the FF their powers. The astronauts’ spaceflight will have to be suspended and probably shut down. Reed’s only response is that he’d like to go back home.

Back in New York, Sue is frustrated after dealing with the social worker investigating whether the new Baxter Building is a safe place for the children. Reed returns, and he and Sue are happy to see each other. Later that night, Reed catches up with Ben and Johnny. Ben has bought another fancy suit with his newfound wealth (his one-fourth of Fantastic Four Inc.’s money was preserved when the rest of the team lost theirs some time ago).

Reed returns to his lab, to study the miniature planet from the beginning of this story arc. He says it would be easy to interfere in their culture, ending war and bloodshed. He doesn’t, however, saying there’s a difference between history and the smaller moments in all our lives. He concludes that the smaller moments are the parts that really matter. Reed and Sue go off to bed, saying it’s good to see their whole family together, and looking so happy. Alone in his room, Ben sheds a single tear, suggesting that he’s not so happy after all.

Unstable molecule: Does Reed remember what happened, or doesn’t he? At first, it seems like he does, but the issue doesn’t say. It’s left up to reader’s imagination.

Fade out: After spending the night together, Sue says she’s thankful for the cosmic rays, suggesting that Reed used his powers in creative ways in bed. Has Banky from Mallrats read this issue?

Clobberin’ time: Ben’s new life as a multi-millionaire, and the complications that come with that, will be further chronicled in the Thing miniseries that debuted shortly after this issue.

Flame on: The cover image has Jonny in place of Reed at the center of the universe. I assume this is because each other character were prominent on the previous three covers, so Johnny got his due, even though he’s barely in the issue.

Four and a half: Franklin is one panel, as Reed checks on him sleeping. The flashback scene would have to be Franklin’s birth, as Dr. Doom was present for Valeria’s birth.

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, she’s walking around the Baxter Building wearing camouflage pants and a form-fitting dark green t-shirt. Not the sort of thing she normally wears. Was she just coming home from spy training, or even a mission?

Trivia time: The Entity never appeared again after this. Although, if he became the universe, you could argue that he’s in every Marvel comic. (What is the Entity’s relationship to Eternity? Or the Pheonix Force? Or the Beyonder? These and similar questions will likely never be answered.)

This story arc is also the only appearances of Dr. Love and Dr. Crane. Crane is quite obviously modeled after actor Paul Giamatti, but I can’t find any official sources from Marvel that confirms this.

Years later, writer Dan Slott will do a story similar to this one, in which an alien called the Overseer was responsible for the cosmic rays that gave the FF their powers. How to reconcile that with this story? This one says the Entity manipulated the rays to send a message to the FF, but did not create them. Let’s see if this holds up when we get to those Slott issues.

Trash website Aint It Cool News once published a review of this issue, except that it was mostly the words “Where are the editors?” repeated over and over.

Fantastic or frightful? There we have it, the origin of the Marvel Universe and the true story of the Fantastic Four’s powers. So, why wasn’t this a mega-event that rocked the entire comics world to its core? It’s very much a philosophical discussion, and not pulse-pounding superhero action. Also, because Reed (probably) doesn’t remember any of this, it comes off as inconsequential. If the characters go on like nothing happened, then why shouldn’t the reader?

Next: Green Vegas.

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. If you thought this story arc was getting far-out and cosmic already, issue 531 goes even further… by going back.

Where were we? After taking a top-secret government job, Reed deduced that the cosmic rays that originally gave the FF their powers was no accident. The rays contained a signal from an alien being hoping to contact explorer-geniuses like himself. Then a battleship from the alien’s home world shows up. They are threatening to attack the Earth, believing the alien to be a heretic. Also, the U.S. Army is out to get Reed, after he sabotaged their attempt to recreate the FF’s powers for a bunch of astronauts. Also-also, a social worker is investigating Reed and Sue with concerns that the new Baxter Building in unsafe for their kids.

The FF and the alien have a quick debate about how a scientific, space-faring race can also have crimes against heresy, the alien teleports himself and the FF to a deserted tropical island for their safety. Reed insists on going back to protect New York from the invaders, but the alien says he must do whatever it takes to survive. They debate it some more, and the alien uses the last of his strength to teleport everyone back. The Baxter Building is under fire, with little Franklin and Valeria still inside, being babysat by a group of prospective nannies.

Sue takes the alien down to Reed’s lab, with Reed naming the alien “the Entity” for the first time, making it his name from now on. Johnny is tasked with getting the kids to safety, and Reed slingshots Ben into the sky to clobber the alien ships. Inside, the Entity takes notice of the Negative Zone portal, which hilariously has a big “Do not touch!” sign.

The Entity contacts Reed telepathically. Reed leaves the others to the fight and joins the Entity in the lab. The Entity says the Negative Zone is the one place where he can go that his people cannot find him. Reed says it’s too dangerous, but the Entity is willing to take the risk. He says it’s better to end it all than to keep running.

Outside, Sue and Johnny manage to drive back the invaders, only for them to call in reinforcements. In the lab, Reed recalibrates the Negative Zone portal for the Entity’s unique energy signature. The Entity says he’d been searching for someone like him for three hundred Earth years. In all that time, Reed was the first to respond. He thinks that Reed is despairing, because he’s spent his life only seeing and not truly living. He warns Reed not to become like him, a question in living form. Reed readies the portal, but then tells the Entity, “I want to understand everything.”

We get some more fighting outside the building. Then back in the lab, the Entity offers Reed his hand, saying “You will see all that I know, and all that I still seek.” Then one of the invaders’ missiles gets past Johnny and hits the building. This causes the Negative Zone portal to go haywire. He and the Entity are transported to an outer space scene, which Reed describes as, “Between then and now. Between existence… and the void.”

Reed further elaborates that he is touching the fabric of creation itself, and he’s being hurtled backwards millions of years through time. He and the Entity end up surrounded by darkness, which the Entity says is the void, a time before the big bang. The Entity obsesses over how life came to exist from nothingness. He adds that he must also understand himself. A light appears, and the Entity says it came from “that which is the galaxy within me.” Reed asks if the Entity’s desire for understanding is what caused the big bang. The Entity says, “There is but one way to be sure,” and, “Let there be light.”

Turn the page, and we see the Entity expanding outward, being the big bang, with Reed still floating at the center of it all.

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: This issue tries to get at the heart of who Reed is as a character, suggesting that Reed is unfulfilled because of his desire to understand the nature of the universe. Does this line up with everything we’ve seen about the character we’ve seen before? It’s debatable.

Fade out: Sue takes a leadership role during the battle, hanging back and giving orders to Ben and Johnny.

Clobberin’ time: Ben jokes about wanting the Millennium Falcon to fly down from space and save the day, only to be disappointed when it doesn’t happen. At least, I hope this is a joke.

Flame on: Johnny’s big hero moment is when he rescues the kids and the nannies by blasting a bunch of aliens out of the building. But then he fails to stop an alien missile, which sends Reed and the Entity back to the big bang.

Four and a half/Our gal Val: Franklin and Valeria also get a hero moment, putting themselves between the invaders and the nannies. They maintain faith that Johnny will save them, which he does.

Trivia time: The Marvel Universe has established multiple reasons for why and how the big bang happened. The most well-known is how it’s tied into the origin of Galactus, as seen in Super-Villain Classics #1. But then, an Avengers story stated that the big bang came when leftover matter from a bunch of alternate universes crashing into each other. And then, in Venom of all places, the symbiote king/god Knull said the Celestials did the big bang, and that Knull was there at the time. This FF storyline, meanwhile, is not included in the Marvel Wiki’s entry about the big bang.

Fantastic or frightful? In earlier posts, I praised J. Michael Straczynski for bringing far-out cosmic sci-fi to Fantastic Four, but does he go too far in this issue? Tying the creation of the universe to one character’s search for meaning is some seriously heady stuff. And the thing is, it’s going to get even headier.

Next: Time and again.

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Issue #530 brings us a lot of crazy space action, but also gives us a whole new take on the FF’s origin.

Recap: Reed took a top-secret government job, where scientists hoped to create FF-style superhumans by recreating the spaceflight from the FF’s origin. Reed deduced that the cosmic rays that gave the FF their powers were actually a message from unseen aliens. Believing that only he and his teammates should respond to the message, Reed escapes from military police (!) and returns to NYC, where he and the FF plan to recreate the spaceflight on their own. Meanwhile, a social worker named Simone DeBouvier is investigating Reed and Sue concerning whether the new Baxter Building is a safe place to raise their kids.

We begin with cosmic rays bombarding the FF’s ship. The rays then part, with a glowing ball of energy flying toward the ship. It knocks out all power to the ship, leaving the FF adrift. They fall back to Earth, with Sue using a force field to keep the ship from burning up in reentry. Inside the atmosphere, Johnny flies outside the ship and combines his flame with the force field to cushion the impact. The ship is destroyed in the crash, but the heroes are unharmed thanks to Sue and Johnny’s efforts.

Then a creature emerges from the wreckage. It has glowing blue eyes and images of starscapes on its body, kind of like classic Marvel character Eternity. Ben says, “Looks ta me like yer message got through, Stretch.”

Reed starts expositing about how the creature used the cosmic rays as a teleportation carrier signal, when he’s interrupted by gunfire. It’s the U.S. Army, who accuse the FF of violating Army air space, and they have further instructions to take Reed into custody. Then they see the alien and prepare to open fire. Reed tells them the creature means no harm. Then one of the soldiers trips (!) and accidentally fires his gun. The bullet hits the alien in the arm. It returns fire, disintegrating the soldier.

Now all the soldiers open fire, with Sue protecting the alien with a force field. The alien won’t have this, and it disintegrates even more soldiers. The remaining soldiers retreat. Reed is about to fight the alien, but Ben stops him. Ben says this wasn’t a disintegration, and that the soldiers are all still alive. We then see that the soldiers were teleported to a remote, snowy mountain top. Ben says, “Don’t worry. They’ll call in soon.”

Ben says the alien is telling him these things in his head. He asks the others to trust him. (The comic uses male pronouns for the alien at this point.) He says the alien understands, and that the best solution is to be somewhere else. The alien then teleports itself and the FF back to the new Baxter Building. Reed checks to confirm that the soldiers are all right, and then the alien speaks for the first time, saying all this teleporting took a lot out of him, and that the strain was almost more than he could bear. Reed questions the alien’s intentions, and why he chose to communicate with Ben first. The alien says he was alone for a long time, so he connected with Ben, who is also feels alone.

Then the alien tells his story. He says he was once a flesh and blood creature, who longed to understand the “ultimate final truth” of the universe. His people’s leaders, however, insisted there were things his people were not meant to know. Using stolen technology, the alien studied the entire cosmos. He shared his findings with his people, believing that a desire for knowledge and truth would overcome their fears and prejudices. “I was wrong,” he says.

The alien’s people attacked him just as he used his forbidden technology to “touch the mind of the universe.” With his equipment damaged, he transformed into the cosmic being he is now. With the power to “ride the thoughts of the universe,” the alien calibrated the cosmic rays to find others like him, which brought him to the FF. Unfortunately, they don’t have time to talk, because the people of the alien’s home world have learned to track him. They are on a “religious crusade” to stop him from sharing his knowledge with others. On cue, a battleship appears in the sky over New York, and the alien says, “In a very little while, we shall all be dead.”

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: For a guy who’s made first contact with various aliens over the years, Reed is quick to throw out diplomacy and attack the alien when he believes the alien killed the soldiers. Could Reed be fearing that his status with the U.S. military could worsen because of this?

Fade out: Sue nearly passes out from using her force fields to protect everyone as their ship crashes, but we’ve seen her force fields become much more powerful in the last hundred issues or so. Perhaps the stress of going into space added to her strain.

Clobberin’ time: All this talk about Ben feeling lonely goes back to earlier issues, where the women were flirting with him only because he’s rich now. The comic reminds us that he’s rich when he makes a wisecrack about Reed being “broke” at one point.

Flame on: Johnny and Reed can hear and talk to each other while Johnny is flying outside the crashing spaceship. We know their suits have built-in communicators, so I guess the suits’ audio can also compensate for Johnny travelling at high velocity.

Trivia time: Johnny tries to talk down the soldiers by reminding them that there was a Fantastic Four movie. This is obviously a meta joke, referencing the 2005 film, the same year as this comic. But within the fiction of the Marvel Universe, remember that their have been at least two attempts at a Fantastic Four movie, which were either unfinished or huge flops.

Fantastic or frightful? This story was controversial at the time for what many felt was rewriting the FF’s origin. As far as this issue goes, however, it’s more far-out sci-fi that fans of J. Michael Straczynski and his series Babylon 5 hoped for.

Next: Charge of the light brigade.

* * * *

Want more? Check out my new ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a city full of far-out technology and hidden dark magic. The first three chapters are FREE, so give it a shot! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. In issue #529, our heroes take on the government and then come to a surprise revelation that may change everything we know about them.

Recap: Reed takes a job at a secret government base in Nevada, where scientists want to recreate the FF’s original spaceflight and give a crew of astronauts fantastic powers. The base is sabotaged with a bomb. Even though Reed saved the day, the scientists suspect he is the saboteur. Also, a social worker is skeptical of the Richards kids’ safety, and Ben has become incredibly wealthy after having protected his one-fourth of Fantastic Four, Inc.

The scientists regroup and discuss their options, saying the ship has been totaled and cannot be replaced, so they’ll have to wait one year before the cosmic ray configuration is set to happen again. They ask Reed for his opinion, and all he says is, “Some things weren’t meant to be. He places a tiny tracking device on Dr. Crane. Reed’s narration captions state that he knows the others suspect him, and he doesn’t have much time. He then reveals to us the reader that he DID sabotage the flight!

Reed has another tiny device hidden inside a shaving cream can, which he uses to contact the new Baxter Building. Instead of summoning his teammates, however, he pilots the Fantasticar by remote control, remarking that it’ll take about two hours to reach Nevada. Sue sees the Fantasticar take off by itself, saying, “Some people just call a cab when they want to come home.”

At the base, Dr. Love convinces Dr. Crane that Reed is the saboteur. She wants to send the M.P. to arrest Reed, but Crane thinks they won’t be needed. He thinks that Reed’s stretching powers are useless, and he’ll be easy to apprehend. The M.P. show up to arrest Reed, mistaking the tracking device on Dr. Crane for the Reed’s.

The M.P. are ordered to detain Reed by any means. Alarms go off and the lights go out. Reed steals a jeep from two M.P. goons by stretching over its windshield, and then the chase is on. The M.P. jeeps chase Reed into the desert, shooting out a tire on his jeep. He stretches himself into a bouncy ball and bounces across the desert. They catch up to Reed and surround him. They draw their guns and tell him to put his hands over his head. He stretches them way, way over his head, just in time for the Fantasticar to arrive. He flies off with it.

At the Baxter Building, Sue and social worker Simone Debouvier meet with prospective nannies in the hopes of providing a “normal” environment for the kids. Reed then arrives in a panic, saying the entire team/family has got to move, because government agents are after him. Sue takes him into the other room explains who Debouvier is and what she wants. Reed tries to put on a good face for Debouvier, saying he’s been doing confidential work. Debouvier leaves, threatening to return with her supervisor. Sue leaves the kids with the group of nannies while the FF reunite and compare notes.

In a conference room, Reed says that Earth scientists have been sending signals to space for years hoping to communicate with aliens. The process, he says, must include a means for the aliens to receive and decode those signals. Because the FF’s powers align with their personalities, Reed says the cosmic rays were not an accident, but an attempt by some unknown aliens to communicate with Earth. He says the FF must act fast, because the exact combination of cosmic rays is about to happen again.

Reed wants the FF to return to space and reenter the cosmic rays to show the aliens that they’ve received the message. Reed says he doesn’t know what will happen. He gives Johnny and Ben the option to stay behind, but Ben answers for them both by saying, “Ya coulda saved time by just tellin’ us on the way up.”

The FF board their private spaceship and prepare for takeoff. Reed is contacted by U.S. Army General Bragg, who orders Reed to surrender. Reed says he can’t because the countdown has already started. The sidewalks outside the building rumble as the ship takes off the Baxter Building’s roof. Simone Debouvier sees this, and she writes it up as a safety violation.  

In space, Ben ruminates on the nature of fate. He wonders why this is happening now, at the time when he’s learned he’s rich. He wonders if the cosmic rays will turn him human again. The final page is the ship being bombarded by the cosmic rays.

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Okay, so Reed sabotaged the scientists’ spaceflight because he deduced that the cosmic rays are messages from aliens and only the FF can and/or should answer them? Do I have that right?

Fade out: Sue is so furious about dealing with Debouvier that she talks about using her force fields to squash her between two force fields. She’s likely joking about that, but the artwork has her looking really ticked off as she says this.

Clobberin’ time: During the flight, Ben tries and fails to cross his fingers for good luck. He says that after all these years, it’s never occurred to him that he’s unable to do that.

Flame on: Johnny’s only line in this issue is when he jokes with Ben on board the ship. When Reed gives him the opportunity to back out of the spaceflight, he looks to Ben and lets Ben answer for them both.

Four and a half: Franklin tells the room full of nannies that monsters visit the Baxter Building on occasion. They think it’s his imagination, until they are startled to see Ben walk past.

Trivia time: Does this issue rewrite the nature of the cosmic rays, or doesn’t it? First, it’s been established in multiple Marvel comics that there’s a permanent cosmic ray belt outside Earth that all incoming and outgoing spacecraft must deal with. Second, plenty of others have been transformed by the rays like the FF, including Sharon Ventura, the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, the U-Foes, the Red Hulk, and the Red She-Hulk. Even the FF’s own Ben Grimm was transformed when he flew through them a second time. I believe this issue sidesteps all that continuity by this story involves a specific configuration of the cosmic rays, and one that happens only rarely.  

Fantastic or frightful? The idea of the cosmic rays being a message from aliens has been controversial among fans for many years, even though it’s been done a couple of times now. What makes this issue a standout, however, is Reed’s escape from the base. He uses his powers in creative ways, but also defensive. He never once strikes out against the M.P. guys, as he knows they’re just doing their jobs. It’s a fun and cinematic action scene, something I wish comics could/should do more often.

Next: Cosmic bowl.

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Want more? Check out my new ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a city full of far-out technology and hidden dark magic. The first three chapters are FREE, so give it a shot! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.