What does a Kree attack on Earth and the Inhumans, the return of Johnny Storm, Galactus at the hands of Richards, and a mysterious being teaching Franklin how to control his powers have in common? One kick ass issue of Fantastic Four!
The Fantastic Four ended last year with issue 588 being the last issue, but today they have brought it back with issue 600, and they brought it back with in a memorable way.
If you have been reading FF, then you know what's going on in the world of Marvel, even if everything is still a bit of a mystery. Everyone is at war with each other; The Kree is attacking Earth and the Inhumans, Earth and the Inhumans are fighting back, Annihilus is trying to make his return back and alternate universe Reed Richards has Doom on a collar. All of that doesn't matter as much though, because Fantastic Four #600 brought us 100 pages of delectable reading material and I'm hear to talk about what happened after page 30.
Death and birth was the whole theme for this issue; the death of Jonny Storm and the birth of him, then the death again and birth again, which ended up as a cycle for him . When we last saw Johnny, he stayed behind in the Negative Zone to hold off Annihilus and his army from reaching Earth and we assumed him to be dead. The assumptions weren't wrong, he did die, he put up one hell of a fight against Annihilus' army by going nova. Unfortunately, that was not enough to stop Annihilus himself as he landed a killing blow on Johnny who was attempting to do a second nova blast.
Fast forward a few days later and Annihilus rebuilds Johnny's body and brings him back alive, just for pure entertainment. Annihilus brings Johnny back so he can watch him fight in The Arena along with the Light Brigade. Light Brigade is an elite group comprised of the six greatest Universal Inhuman warriors. Each Light Brigade is formed to take part in a ritual called the Offering, which leads to all members dying. Johny and the Light Brigade has died many times during the stay in the Negative Zone, but they are always brought back to the world of the living to keep fighting and entertain Annihilus.
Annihilus has other plans besides being entertained, he has made a deal with alternate universe Richards that involves opening the portal from the Negative Zone to Earth that allows Annihilus and his army to rush through it and overtake Earth. Through brute force, Johnny and the Light Brigade rushed the relentless tyrant and took away his Cosmic Control Rod that controls Annihilus' army. In the end the heroes were victorious and stopped Annihilus from opening the portal to enter Earth.
Johnny Storm's triumphant return wasn't the only great thing in this issue, we have also found out that Galactus is willing to protect Earth from the destruction it is now facing. Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, is willing to be called by Reed Richards and will stand against him to fight off the enemies of Earth. Of course it's not because he's nice though, it's because if Earth is destroyed, then Galactus being able to obtain the Galactus Seed that resides in the World Tree. If Galactus does lose the seed, then the seed will grow and birth a new Ravager of Worlds. In order to call Galactus, he has given Richards the Arc along with a question about whether or not Reeds has been keeping an eye on Franklin.
Unbeknownst to everyone in the Marvel Universe, one of the most powerful beings has been practicing using their powers. Franklin Richards has been found by a mysterious being and is willing to teach the god like child how to control and use his powers for the greater good. Who this mysterious person is? No one even knows, he just happened to appear in a world that Franklin conjured up.
The Fantastic Four is back in action, Galactus will fight along Richards and Franklin is beginning his path to become one of the most powerful people. This was indeed a great comic, even though everyone knew Johnny was going to come back eventually, his return was magnificent and his story was incredible. Marvel can go two ways with this now that Johnny has returned, they can now make Johnny a crap-load more powerful considering what he's been through against Annihilus and his army or they can make it seem like it was no big deal what he did; most likely they're going to go with the latter, but a man can hope at least. Johnny has the Cosmic Control Rod and his experience in the Negative Zone made hims push his powers farther than he usually does, so Johnny has upped his power levels for sure. The thing I'm most excited about seeing is how Franklin will use his powers and when he understands how powerful he truly is and can be.
Lots of people are going to be hating on this issue and Marvel, just because they killed someone off in a badass way and they brought him back. I can see where they are coming from though, but this issue was too damn awesome in my opinion. Johnny kicked ass, an alliance was made with Galactus and Franklin is building galaxies in his hand.
