Fantastic Four - The End - #6 - Marvel

We finally wrap up this mini series. But it didn't end the way I thought it would. I was pleasantly surprised. First, come to find out, the orb that Sue was looking for, was one that Valeria had described to her on that fateful day where her and Franklin disappeared. About 20 years ago. Or . . . I mean 20 years from the time of this story. Anyways, Valeria was making a sign for it, while all the hoopla was going on with Doom, and Sue's been looking for it ever since. My understanding it that it allows a person to see a moment in time, in the past, and then pluck something out of that moment. So Sue's plan is to get Valeria and Franklin when they disappeared. Which was Valeria's plan all along. Then we have this whole alien invasion thing. The Avengers, and practically anybody else that was willing to fight, is out by Jupiter attempting to thwart the alien invasion fleet. But there all being herded in front of a gun ship. It gets down to the last second, it looks like everybody is going to get fried, when out of the blue, or blackness, comes a ray that takes out the gunship. It's from Galactus. He then issues a warning, "Henceforth, any who threaten this solar system shall make an enemy of Galactus. GO NOW!" Pretty succinct. And next thing you know, the invasion is off. But it's not all peaches & cream for our heroes. When they pulled Val & Franklin through time, Doom saw it as an opportunity to save himself also. And since he was already in the middle of a fight, now he's trying to kill the Richards in the current time. But he sees Reed's gate into the Negative Zone and jumps in to it. Just as the thing self-destructs. So Reed doesn't know if he made it in to the Zone, or if he was vaporized. We however find out, on the last page, that he is indeed in the Zone, and is in the process of riling up the natives. Fantastic series, pun intended. But I expected nothing less from Alan Davis and Mark Farmer. These guys are just fantastic when they work together. I'm just wondering if this is going to lead in to another "The End" mini series, like the X-men did. They got 3 mini series out of it. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Fantastic Four - The End - #5 - Marvel

We're coming to the end of this story, but for the Fantastic Four, of course, that just means that the story is going to get even more frantic and involved. I mean, we only have 1 more book in this mini-series, and the final splash page, in this issue, is the entire Kree and Shi'ar warfleets descending upon our galaxy. And that's the beginning of the final book? Well if we get nothing else out of a Fantastic Four storyline, and that's not to say you don't because you do, you get consistency. Because the Fantastic Four are consistently in the deep end of the pool. And they consistently have to paddle like hell to get out of it. And they consistently prove that they work together better as a team, and a family than they do as individuals. Actually, what I mean to say, is that they each have their strengths and talents, and are formidable individually, but when they come together, they are near to unstoppable. And in this book, they finally do all come back together. Johnny and the Thing, along with the Avengers and the Inhumans, have finally beaten the Kree Sentinel on Mars. But not before it got a signal sent out. Which is pointed right at the satellite where Reed is. Also Susan has descended into the depths of the earth, literally, and has found the Orb of Gnomon and has returned with it to Doctor Strange and his daughter. And with that, they also head to the satellite where Reed is. And speaking of Reed, he's been sucked in to the Negative Zone with the Super Skrull, and is at the feet of Annihilus. But, having arrived at the satellite shortly before anybody else, Johnny and Ben, knowing what has happened to Reed, go in to the Zone to bring him back. They are successful at the task, and everyone arrives back at the satellite almost simultaneously. But there's not much time for a reunion, because as I said before, we are about to be invaded by the entire Kree and Shi'ar warfleet. Is that enough action for one issue for ya? Also, as I said before, they only have 1 more issue to pull their fat out of the fire, and wrap this up. Can it be done? Well . . . this is the FF. The fun is in seeing how they do it. What a ride!

Fantastic Four - The End - #4 - Marvel

Everything seems to be going wrong for the Fantastic Four. Reed built a barrier around our galaxy, to try to keep the Earth out of all the conflicts that seem to arise around the Universe. Well it's worked, but, it's also peaked that interest and curiosity of all those alien races that might have just gave us a passing glance, but now are thinking that we have something powerful enough to hide, that we have to gate off our whole galaxy. So there's many facets out there, conspiring to get through our shell, and find out what it is that we feel is so powerful, or worth so much, that we'd go to such great lengths to protect it. So, the Skrulls have come through, in the form of the Super-Skrull, and he has been keeping a close eye on Reed to find out what, if anything, he is working on. The Kree have also broken through, my means of a Kree Sentinel that they've awakened on Mars, and a transmitting tower that they had hidden, that allows them to home in on and come on through. They also head straight for the FF asteroid, where Reed is at. They also have the Shi'ar Imperial Guard with them. Meanwhile Sue, at the bottom of the ocean, has also run across some Kree technology, and has been investigating it further. She finds a opening, beneath the ocean, and in investigating comes face to face with the Moleman, and all of his minions. Meanwhile, Reed and the Super Skrull have been locked in battle, and it's resulted in both of them being thrown in to the Negative Zone. And face to face with Annihlus. So basically, each member of the FF, while out on their own, are all collective up the creek without a paddle. And we still have 2 issues to go. It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out.

Fantastic Four - The End - #3 - Marvel

I'm a little confused on this one. I'm not sure if this is the end of the Fantastic Four, or the end of our universe. The way the stories going right now, it could go either way. Here's all the stuff going on. There's a very old Dr. Strange who's trying to give his daughter Clea enlightenment. I take that he's getting ready to undergo some sort of mission, and he needs Clea ready should he not return. Then we go to the bottom of the ocean with Sue and Namor. They've just been attacked by Attuma. Sue's trying to find something in the wreckage of Atlantis. It appears to be Kree in nature. But the closer she gets, the harder it going to be for her to break free of it's grasp. It looks as if her and her ship are about to get pulled into an underground magma pool. Up on Mars, Johnny and Norrin Radd have come to visit the Thing and Alicia. Well, that's not the real reason they're here. They do want to visit, but they're actually here to see the royal Inhuman family. They want to warn them about the signal that slipped through when the galactic grid was down for a moment. But it looks as if their warning may be to late, as there is already a commotion on the planet. When they go out to investigate, they find a reactivated Kree Sentry. Meanwhile, Reed is having problems of his own. He keeps trying to send out probes, but they keep coming back fried. He can't figure out what's going on. Jennifer is up there keeping him company, but she is also in Wakanda for the royal festivities. So who's really up there with Reed? The Shi'ar are tracking some cosmic disturbances. They seem to be random but the find out they're actually waves. When they track the waves back, they originate from earth. And finally Uatu is trying some reverse psychology on Galactus. He asks him, "In your battles with the FF, when you life was theirs to take . . . you were spared. The Test, Galactus, is whether you are worthy of that primitive species compassion." Sounds like a challenge to me. That's a lot for one book. Even an FF book. But with Alan Davis and Mark Farmer at the creative helm, you now it was going to be great. Only 3 more issues to wrap this story up. I wonder how they're going to do it?

Fantastic Four - The End - #2 - Marvel

What can I say? I love the Fantastic Four. And this is the Fantastic Four book, to end all Fantastic Four books. Literally. And it's brought to us by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer. So what more could you ask for? The team has been split up for years now, although not officially. Reed has become a recluse in his laboratory. Johnny is a member of the Avengers. And with the solar system as their jurisdiction now, he's hardly ever near earth. Ben lives on Mars, supporting Alicia who is terra forming it. And Sue is an archaeologist, currently rummaging through the wreckage of Atlantis. They've all kept themselves so busy, since their kids deaths, Franklin and Valeria, that they don't even realize how far they've drifted apart. But now, someone is trying to send a signal into the solar system, for some reason. Which is why Johnny and company are currently working out by Saturn. We don't know who or what it is yet, but my money says it has something to do with the Kree technology that Sue's found underneath the Atlantean temple. But that's just my guess. Fantastic story and great art. And that's to www.milehighcomics.com for the assist with the cover. Fantastic resource and great people to do business with.

Fantastic Four - The End - #1 - Marvel

In the tradition on the mini series, "X-Men : the End", there is a new chapter, "Fantastic Four : the End". It's a story about the final days of the Fantastic Four. It's set many decades in our future. And it's brought to us by the fantastic team of Alan Davis and Mark Farmer. They've collaborated together in the past to bring us many great story arcs, for both of our big publishers. This is going to be another one to add to their list of classics. As I said it's set many years in the future. The Fantastic Four exist only in name, as the participants have long since drifted apart. Johnny has joined the Avengers, Ben & Alicia are living on Mars with their children while Alicia is active in terraforming the planet, and Sue in on a series of archaeological expeditions with the current one being at the bottom of the ocean. Only Reed has stayed in the FF headquarters, which is now an orbiting satellite. And he's become so obsessed with his experiments and participation in helping the citizens of earth become part of a galactic community, that he is oblivious to how long they've all been separated. Jen, She-Hulk, comes up to visit Reed, and counsel him a bit. She's the one to bring it to his attention that it's been over a year since Sue has visited, and several months since they've even talked. It's been longer yet since he's visited Ben & Alicia. It all seemed to fall apart after their last battle with Doom, in which he inadvertently killed Franklin and Valeria. That's an awful lot for the first issue. Oh, and did I forget to tell you that there's a group of anarchists trying to sabotage the whole galactic community thing, not to mention technology in general, and it's being led by Doctor Strange. Wow! How are they going to follow up this issue? I can't wait to find out.

X-men: The End - Men & X-men - Book 3 - #6 Marvel

This is a cool book for anyone who loves the X-men. Basically, over the course of the last 3 chapters, this being the third, Chris Claremont is telling the story of the end of the X-men. It's set an unknown number of years in the future. And, I guess, is supposed to be the story that eventually will wrap up the entire X-men continuity. So therefore it's only fitting that's it being done by Chris Claremont. Which I'm sure is by his design also. So far we've seen Magneto die. And in this story, Cassandra Nova and Xavier meld into one with the Phoenix along with some of the remaining X-men including Jean Grey, Madelyn Pryor and Scott Summers. Plus there's also lots of other X-men and Super Guardians that are wiped out. During this story Kitty Pryde is elected Mayor of Chicago, but at the end of the story, 20 years later, she is now the President and in giving a speech the only X-men I see left in the crowd is Wolverine, Bishop & his family, Nightcrawler & his family, Bobby Drake, Beast, Raven Darkholme and a couple more. But, that's about it. This, I believe is the end of the story. Although at the bottom of the last page it says, "the Beginning". But I don't believe there's going to be another installment of this set. Now, the problem is, with all X-men continuity, you don't ever know until later whether this continuity takes place in our timeline or not. And as far as that goes, they could say it's the ending for our X-men now, but then later something happens that changes our timeline then it's not our ending anymore. I know. Very complicated. But to most of us that's what we love about this group, sorry, family. Although some could say it's a cheap way out. Which it is. But if it's been done 20 times before, what's 21? But that being said, I do like this story. You get to see an aspect of these characters that we might not necessarily see in a regular X-men story. Plus it's a big climactic, end of the world story, which is where the X-men are best. I also did like Sean Chen's artwork. Unless you're a diehard fan I wouldn't worry to much about running out and getting the rest of the series because I'm sure it'll be out in Trade Paperback format within 2 months. But it is worth reading in some form or another.