Fantastic Four: The End
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fantastic Four: The End | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Fantastic Four: The End is a six-issue comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics, depicting a possible future for the members of the superhero team the Fantastic Four. Written and pencilled by Alan Davis and inked by Mark Farmer, its premiere issue was cover-dated January, 2007.
[edit] Plot
The members of the Fantastic Four have become estranged after an epic battle with a "more machine than man" version of Dr. Doom, resulting in the deaths of Franklin Richards and Valeria Richards, the children of group leader Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and his wife Susan Richards (the Invisible Woman). Scientist Reed's experiments, specifically a system known as the "Methuselah Treatment", have helped to rid the world of disease, and with the super-team Avengers, the Fantastic Four have secured the solar system. Richards lives and works in an asteroid orbiting Earth, while his wife is on an archaeological expedition underwater, Susan's brother Johnny Storm (the Human Torch) is a strike-force leader for the Avengers, and Ben Grimm (the Thing) lives with his wife Alicia Masters and their three children on Mars.
Reed is under-going therapy sessions from She-Hulk on his asteroid base of operations. He is trying to perfect his technology for point A to B wormhole transportation. Working with Wyatt Wingfoot and Thundra who work as asteroid miners. The Super Skrull, posing as She-Hulk, penetrates Reed's defenses and in the midst of his attack transports himself and Reed into the Negative Zone where they encounter Annihilus.
Johnny is working with the Avengers in outer space patrolling the galaxy using P.E.G.s (Personal Environment Generators) and telepathy nodes, they guard the quarantine zone set in place by Reed. Lately though there have been some very mysterious fights with clones of villains who convert to a liquid state upon defeat and float away, later found out to be (arguably) a kind of homunculus created by Diablo and the Mad Thinker. Ben and the Inhumans join Johnny and the Avengers right before they run across a Kree Sentry and notice an illegal transmission being sent out of the quarantine zone.
Ben is married to Alicia Masters who has had her sight restored (most likely by Reed's inventions) and works as a specialist in the field of terraforming. Ben can revert back to human at will (as prophisized by Franklin in issue #245 of Fantastic Four). They are seen as royalty in their home on Mars with the Inhumans and have three children all of whom exhibit superpowers. Two boys, Jacob who has super-speed (by appearance he's 8 years old), and Daniel (by appearance age 13), who exhibits a power similar to Susan's that he uses in very specific styles, i.e. the form of a suit of armor with mace shaped fists and stilts allowing for the appearance of flight, containers or tubes for pushing liquids through. And a daughter, Yancy (by appearance age 5), who has the power of a "sonic scream", similar to that of Banshee or a lesser version of Black Bolt's powers. Ben's worried about being separated from his family especially after the loss of Franklin and Valeria.
Sue is on an underwater expedition and stumbles into Namor who aids her in her analysis until she runs across Kree writing in an abandoned temple. An attack by Attuma is short-lived when it's apparent Sue's powers have matured in intensity, with undocumented abilities such as modulation to separate molecules (specifically shown to allow for breathing underwater) and even reducing gravity allowing for more "true" flight-like capabilities than just an illusion using invisible platforms. After abruptly leaving Namor, Sue attempts a dangerous descent into a volcanic conduit. Sue's ship is incapacitated and she is apprehended by the Mole Man who mentions his plan to find the "Orb of Gnomon". She escapes by jumping onto a lake of molten lava, encased in a force field, thanking the Mole Man for inadvertantly pointing her in the right direction in her own search for the orb. During her submersion she experiences a flashback to a message Valeria projected into the air (written in the Kree language) right before her death.
