Fantastic Four #28: “Reed! Do Something Smart Now!”

Is everyone ready to begin the 60th Anniversary year of “The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine?”  Let’s see where we left off at the end of 2020.

The Griever at the End of All Things is on the loose in New York.  Somehow she has changed her look.  I guess if you’re an abstract being, you can look any way you like.  But the Griever, while not changing her costume, suddenly looks like a cross between a pointy-eared elf and a Maxim magazine model.  Well, you know how these comic book artists are with female characters.  (Shakes head.)  She has whipped everyone to a fare-thee-well except the Human Torch and Sky, who have gotten Valeria and Bentley Wittman out of harm’s way.  And who should come soaring in but the Silver Surfer, having brought from Galactus’s space station the thing that Reed asked him to fetch last issue.  Surprise, surprise, it’s that most dreaded of all comic-book McGuffins, the Ultimate Nullifier.  The question is, who is going to use on the Griever the weapon that can erase a galaxy with the flick of a switch?  And will they use it before she destroys the Fantastic Four and tears down the universe around everyone else? 

To blackmail Franklin into surrendering the Forever Gate to her, the Griever encases Reed, Sue, the Thing, and Dragon Man in pocket realities in which each of them will face the most likely end of their lives over and over again, Groundhog Day style.  While the Surfer battles the Griever, the Torch dives into the first of these micro-universes to rescue Dragon Man from being murdered by Diablo (who brought him to life from a university scientist’s experiment in Fantastic Four #35).  Next, Johnny enters the Thing’s pocket universe to help him escape being slain by an X-Men-related character called Rapture.  (I’d frankly be happier if they left all those X-characters in their own mutant milieu, but this is the merry Marvel Universe, isn’t it?)  Next, Johnny travels into Sue’s possible future and finds her at the mercy of a redesigned Dr. Doom, who has polished off the rest of the FF and saved the Invisible Woman for last.  Doom mentions that they are sixty years on from the beginning of the FF’s adventures (which is probably meant as a reference to the aforementioned FF 60th Anniversary) and that he hasn’t forgotten how Sue once cloaked his mask and armor with the entire known universe watching.  (That was twenty issues ago, and we’re going to get back to that in a moment.) 

While Johnny gets his sister out of there, the Thing ventures into the most portentous future of all (yes, even more portentous than Dr. Doom wiping them out), where he finds a future Reed being murdered by…a future Thing!  It seems that in this future, Reed has had the good taste to lose that damn tacky beard (something to look forward to), but he’s done something else for which bashful Ben actually wants him dead!  The future Ben lets “our” Ben take Reed away, but warns our hero of the unmentioned thing that Reed will one day do.  Except for Reed’s shave, I’m not liking the sound of any of this. 

The reunited Fantastic Four returns to face the Griever, who in their absence has just about kayoed the Silver Surfer (!) and is ready to deliver the coup de grace—until the Surfer produces the Ultimate Nullifier.  To everyone’s surprise, the all-annihilating apparatus floats to the hands of its most appropriate user—Franklin, whose experience in making and unmaking whole universes makes him the one to obliterate the Griever.  Knowing full well that if he zaps the Griever with the Nullifier, he’ll take himself out at the same time, Franklin prepares to save the universe at the cost of his own existence.  That’s when Sue cries, “Reed, do a smart thing NOW!”  Reed, being Reed, does a smart thing and negotiates with the Griever.  He will grant the Griever access to the Forever Gate and send the cosmic Lady Gaga to the end of the universe, where she can perform her function of hastening the final destruction.  The Griever accepts, and off through the Forever Gate she steps, mentioning that she suspects she’ll find Franklin where she’s going.  (And she’s probably right.  The recent Mark Waid History of the Marvel Universe shows that at the end of the universe, there will be no one left but Franklin and Galactus.) 

In the end, Sky and Lyja come to an understanding.  Lyja will leave the Grimm family alone (because of the as-yet-unexplained reason why the Skrull spy upsets N’Kalla), but Lyja can do as she likes with Johnny.  Sky is still miffed over the things she learned about Johnny last issue.  The Torch having to deal with these two females and Victorious at the same time should make a fun story.  Johnny’s pal Spider-Man has always envied Johnny’s love life.  I’ll bet he wouldn’t be so envious now…

Meanwhile, the Silver Surfer prepares to take all the refugees of Franklin’s created worlds to the planet that he’s found for them, as agreed last issue.  And with the dispatch of the Griever, a story arc that stretches all the way back to the first issue of the current series is neatly wrapped up.  Which is the way things go in the world of the Fantastic Four.