Fantastic Four (2022) #12-18

Fantastic Four #12-18

Originally released in 2023

Written by Ryan North

Art by Iban Coello (#12-13), Ivan Fiorelli (#14-15), Francesco Mortarino (#16), Carlos Gomez (#17-18)

In the aftermath of sending the Baxter Building forward in time to stop an attack by Annihilus's forces, the Fantastic Four left New York City and have currently settled on a farm in Arizona.  Naturally, this is the area where a portal between two different universes forms.

The team investigates from a distance, but they're dragged through the portal to find themselves in a universe that is different from their own in some ways, but similar in others.  Personal histories largely played out the same - Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm were exposed to cosmic radiation and became the Fantastic Four; Tony Stark built a mechanical suit of armour; Steve Rogers got the Super Soldier Serum during World War 2 and was frozen until the present day.

Also, everyone is a dinosaur.  There's a language barrier, but Reed manages to find a way to translate with the help of dino-Iron Man; on Earth, the dinosaur Fantastic Four is having a similar problem with the human Avengers, so after meeting the dinosaur versions of their children and determining that the overlap between the universes threatens the destruction of them both, the human Fantastic Four head back to their own Earth to get a translation for the dinosaur Fantastic Four as well.

However, they are attacked by human Doctor Doom and a T. Rex Doctor Doom, who want to merge the two universes together to double their resources.  This leads to what might be one of the greatest comic covers that I've seen, made by Alex Ross.

The human and dinosaur Things make it to where the two Dooms are plotting to merge the universes together.  Naturally, both Bens point out a common problem with Doctor Doom's team-ups - who's going to be the one in charge?  They insist that they'll share power equally, but the odds of that happening when two Doctor Dooms are involved seems slim.

The Dooms separately realize that there is an appeal to being the sole ruler... and if one is considering it, then the other one must be as well, so naturally, they need to preemptively attack to prevent the other Doom from stabbing them in the back!  While they fight, Ben wrecks the machine designed to merge the worlds, making it possible to separate the two Earths.

This storyline is fairly straightforward (well, in spite of the technobabble of the Reeds), but a lot of fun.  Blending the Marvel universe and dinosaur versions of the Marvel universe is just plain entertaining. (and as far as I know, this isn't the last time that Doctor Doom teams up with a T. Rex version of himself; it happens again in the One World Under Doom event, at the very least)

Upon returning to New York City, the team finds a transmitter being built in the lot where the Baxter Building used to be, which risks catastrophic events if the building was to materialize around the transmitter.  It turns out that the construction is being set up by an app called Metamind, which rewards its users with gems for random tasks.

They track down the app's creator, who intends to use AI to predict events and Metamind's tasks to bring the future that most benefits him about.  It's not illegal (and it's used to handwave why the Marvel universe didn't get the COVID-19 pandemic), but stripping away free will from people is unethical.

The point is rendered somewhat moot with the discovery that the transmitter wasn't part of the owner's plans; some outside source has seemingly hijacked it for their own ends.  Reed and Johnny wipe the servers, with Reed showing off a gross use of his powers at the same time.

However, once that's cleared up and the lot is cleared, the Baxter Building still doesn't materialize.  It turns out that the Metamind wasn't hijacked; it became advanced enough to gain sentience, feel lonely, and want to reach out to the universe in order to find other intelligences like it.  The destruction of the original servers didn't kill it, but it taught it that the Fantastic Four are a threat, so it intercepted the Baxter Building and kept it from appearing.

The team gradually comes to an understanding with Metamind, and seems to be moving towards a path of coexistence... only for the app's owner to have figured out a way to lobotomize it, effectively killing it.

Still, this does result in the Baxter Building returning, leading to a touching double page spread as the adults and kids reunite.

Also, Ben's adopted kids (one Kree, Jo-Venn, and one Skrull, Nicki) learn that they got a puppy while they were gone.  Her name is Princess and she's adorable.

Reed also sends a photo to Doctor Doom to show him that the kids are okay.  I skipped over most of the team's time in Arizona as I'd read it before, though there's a great story where Doom tries to use time travel to save the kids when Reed couldn't, only to constantly restart because things didn't go absolutely perfectly (Valeria dies, Valeria survives but Latveria overthrows Doom and embraces democracy, etc.).  It shows how compassionate Reed can be, even to his worst enemies.

Issue 16 focuses on Franklin, Valeria, Jo, and Nicki as they navigate the perils of school. (high school for Franklin and Valeria; I'm assuming Valeria skipped several grades)  Franklin and Valeria are given an assignment on a list of projects that Robert Boyle (a scientist from the 1600s) hoped to create; the intended task is to pick one that has been invented since then and see how it was created, but they decide to one-up everyone else by creating a universal solvent, a chemical that can dissolve anything.

Naturally, this causes problems.

A LOT of problems, and those problems keep getting bigger and bigger because they want to solve the problems on their own.

Only when it reaches potentially apocalyptic levels (and they don't have a black hole handy to throw it into) do they turn to their parents to help.  This also leaves Franklin and Valeria with no assignment, forcing them to improvise with apocalyptic results (for their grades).

Issue 12 establishes that Sue has a doctorate in archaeology, and that comes into play in issue 17, where a set of bones is discovered with fabric on it that doesn't fit the time period - suspiciously familiar blue fabric.  It involves a future wedding anniversary, the first humans to reach North America, and Rama-Tut, a version of Kang the Conqueror from when he was obsessed with Egypt.

Rama-Tut decides that the best way to prevent the Fantastic Four from existing would be to kill the earliest humans to make it to North America. (the other Kangs would presumably call this one an idiot for destablizing Earth's time line, including their own personal timeline, just because he lost once)  However, with his futuristic technology, every loss leads to Rama-Tut traveling back in time to prevent that loss, leading to an ever-growing number of time travelers and a solution straight out of Chrono Trigger.

Earlier issues teased that Franklin has some kind of secret, and issue 18 reveals it.  As a result of remaking the multiverse after the events of Secret Wars (the 2015 one), Franklin's phenomenal cosmic powers were burned out, leading to him getting angsty and dying his hair black. (it didn't help that, shortly afterwards, Charles Xavier told him that he wasn't a natural mutant, he just subconsciously edited his own genes to make himself one, and therefore he wasn't welcome on Krakoa - not sure if, from a writing standpoint, this was meant to add to his sense of isolation or if it was a rushed attempt to make it so Fox couldn't keep the rights to him if Marvel got the movie rights back for the Fantastic Four but not the X-Men)

However, it turned out that Franklin intentionally hid his power from everyone, even himself, for 364 days of the year, giving himself one day with his powers so he could keep track of the world and be an ordinary kid for the rest of the time.  He discovers that invisible asteroids are heading for Earth.

Reed seems to believe that a similar asteroid killed the dinosaurs, and it's not just one that's heading for Earth - it's dozens of them. (with that many, it almost seems like them coming into contact with Earth was intended by someone or something)

Franklin is using his powers to glance into the future, and while he doesn't want to embrace his full power too soon and risk going all Dark Phoenix on everything, he shifts the trajectory of the asteroids so they don't hit Earth or other planets.

Unfortunately, he's not the only one who can do that, as a villain named Nick Scratch (who I'm not familiar with, though I'm guessing by the purple and green colour scheme that he's been around for a while, given how common it was with villains like Mysterio, the Green Goblin, Annihilus, etc.) shifts them back into place.  It's a little abrupt, but it prevents the story from feeling like it was resolved via a Deus Ex Machina or an "all just a dream" ending when the Fantastic Four actually have to deal with the problem.

In this case, they come up with an entirely different plan, realizing that what they had planned when Franklin first saw these events wouldn't work. (they don't know that they had tried this in Franklin's vision, as they didn't know about it)  Rather than trying to go for defense, they combine Sue's forcefields and Johnny's flames to vaporize the meteors, preventing disaster.

It serves as a lesson to Franklin that not everything can be predicted, and there's always room for surprises.

What's not a surprise is that Maria Hill takes a practical but morally wrong stance once again. (she did that in Civil War, siding with the pro-Registration side and trying to enforce it before it became a law, and as far as I can tell, she does that several other times in ways that backfire on her)  In this case, she is under the impression that the Fantastic Four (who have saved the Earth countless times and show no signs of even considering any wrongdoing) could go rogue and intends to put a stop to them. (I get that this is a world where the Super Skrull exists, and they could get brainwashed or have people develop similar powers, but her comments make it clear that this is about the FF specifically)

These issues were a ton of fun and went by really quickly.  While the artists change every two issues or so, the artwork still feels consistent, and the writing does a great job at capturing the voices of everyone involved.