F F 3

love it hope the movies fallow these stories someday!

Collects FF issues #12-16This is one of the best modern Marvel stories I've ever read, but be warned that you can't start with this volume. There is a lot to read before you can appreciate what happens in this book. In fact, I don't believe you could read this book, and fully understand all the intricacies of what is happening. Before reading this, you need to read the following collected editions:Dark Reign: Fantastic FourFantastic Four (by Hickman) volumes 1-4FF (by Hickman) volumes 1-2Then, when you start reading here, you have to take turns between Fantastic Four Volume 5 and FF Volume 3. For example, you will read the issues like this: Fantastic Four #600, FF #12, Fantastic Four #601, FF #13, and so on and so on...Now that you know all that, I definitely recommend reading this legendary run by a remarkable writer, Jonathan Hickman.Spoilers (from both Fantastic Four and FF for continuity's sake):Fantastic Four #600:-This issue was super-sized. It picks up right from where FF #11 left off, with the coalition of heroes preparing for the Kree attack and the Council’s negative actions.-Johnny comes back. It turns out he was alive the whole time. Sort of. Annihilus has a way to bring people back to life, so he’s actually died multiple times and been resurrected…a lot. He leads a revolution against Annihilus, using multiple other prisoners on his side during the revolt.-It turns out that Annihilus is super powerful. Johnny couldn’t kill him, but I don’t know why.-We also learn more about how powerful Franklin is. He has been traveling to a universe that he created, and there is a mysterious (secret) person communicating with him about his powers. I think the mystery person is Future Franklin, or someone that Franklin inadvertently created. When Franklin and Leech act as heroes, they call themselves Hyperstorm and Kid Incredible.-I learned more about Galactus in this book. It turns out that he is so powerful because he is a survivor of the last universe that has since died and been recreated with the Big Bang. He didn’t come from a different parallel universe, but from a universe that existed in the 616 space before the current universe. Also, under his purple and blue suit, he just looks like a giant human.FF #12:-You have to read back and forth from now on between Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four and FF. I found a reading order online, but make sure you read Issue #600 of Fantastic Four before starting this volume. This volume starts where that issue picked up. From what I understand, the reader now has to read every other book to keep things straight. So, to clarify, after you finish Issue #12 of FF, you should read on to Issue #601 of Fantastic Four, and then back and forth and back and forth.-The art style changes completely, and it is for the worse.-I like the fact that Nathaniel seems to know what is going to happen in the future, but Marvel has a long history of characters coming back from alternate futures. Nathaniel says things about Bentley becoming useful in the future, and he instructs Val to bring the FF to Latveria months before these events take place in this issue. However, technically speaking, he is not necessarily from this present-day’s future. Just him being there could be changing things.-At the end of the issue, Val gets the Bridge working again, and Jerk Reed plans to go home.Fantastic Four #601:-Everybody finds out that Johnny is back.-Ronan gave the Supremor its life back, but he doesn’t want to obey its instructions to attack Earth and Attilan because he is married to Crystal. The Supreme Intelligence shows him mercy and allows him not to partake in the violence because Ronan helped him come back to life.-Johnny now commands the Annihilation Wave, which seems to be an armada. He has his own ship, and along with the Inhumans, they attack the Kree assault.-Bad news, though…debris from their space battle is breaking through Earth’s atmosphere and doing severe damage to the planet.FF #13:-The FF, the Dooms, Nathaniel, and Evil Reed cross the Bridge, and come face to face with the Celestials.-Franklin puts up a good fight, but the Celestials are going to breach the Bridge. The FF decides to destroy the Bridge from their side, but someone needs to fight the Celestials. Evil Reed volunteers to do it saying that he only ever wanted to help everyone. He asks for Val’s Ultimate Nullifier, and seeks out his own Infinity Gauntlet. Dr. Doom calls this Reed a poor shadow of the 616 Reed and decides to stay and help him stop the Celestials. He does this because the world needs him, and to me, Doom really comes off as a hero.Fantastic Four #602:-The Kree are attacking Earth because they want to dispose of the Inhumans.-The assault is causing extreme damage to Earth and its inhabitants.-In a moment of desperation, Sue tells Reed that it is time for them to call Galactus, using the Arc that he gave them.-Galactus arrives and says it is too soon…this isn’t the coming death that he has foreseen. He helps them fight the Kree anyway-Shortly after, the unstoppable Celestials appear, and Galactus confirms that these are the bringers of death that he predicted would arrive.FF #14:-Nathaniel claims that Doom will never return once he goes through the door (universe portal).-Nathaniel tells Val that he is from all possible futures, and that there are universal constants (things that can’t be changed in time).-This issue, in a scene that takes place in the past, shows Val and Nathaniel outlining a space battle that is currently happening in Fantastic Four #602. It just goes to show how much the two titles have to be read concurrently.-In a past scene, the Council of Reeds discuss the Ultimate Nullifier, and how it is a key that unlocks all other doors. However, there is a long time understanding that the user of the Nullifier will die after using it. One of the Reeds tells his brothers that it can be used without causing death to the user if the user has enough focus. They agree that most of the Reeds would be able to display this much focus.-Unfortunately, back in present day, the Jerk Reed uses the Ultimate Nullifier, tries to focus, but ends up exploding himself.-I don’t know why Val calls Doom, “Uncle Doom.”-It doesn’t seem like it, but Val and Nathaniel’s mission was successful. They only needed to delay events by 27 minutes, and the made it all the way to 28.-I take it back, the artwork has grown on me, and fits with a story focused on children.Fantastic Four #603:-Galactus vs. the Celestials. Awesome.-The Celestials are sort of like Transformers. And like Power Ranger robots.-Reed uses Sol’s Anvil to attack the Celestials.-The Celestials take Galactus out of the picture and turn their attention to killing the last Reed, the 616 Reed, to close the loop. All hope looks lost when Future Franklin and Future Val show up.FF #15:-Doom is lost in the multiverse. Kristoff is sad.-This is the first time I’ve ever seen the Power Pack in comics.-The invisible man is talking to Franklin again, but it seems to be just in his head. Or Franklin is the only one that can hear him.-As I suspected, the invisible man ends up being Future Franklin, who comes back to the past with Future Val.Fantastic Four #604:-It sounds like the changes they are making to the past is working because Future Val and Franklin tell Nathaniel that the Revision Wave, combined with Franklin’s power, is fixing the timeline.-The children from the future do a quick catch up with their present-day family, and then the Celestials attack again.-Luckily, young Franklin has been storing his power, and gives it all to Future Franklin.-Nathaniel tells Reed that he has seen this day multiple times, and they always lose. In fact, this is the day that Reed’s sins catch up to him, as this is always the day that Reed dies. They are trying to prevent that from happening.-According to Nathaniel, here are some universal constants…Reed always walks through the Bridge…he always meets the Council of Reeds…he always helps them build suns and save universes…the Council always wakes up the mad space gods (the Celestials), and they always destroy the Council.-Future Franklin wouldn’t stand for his father dying, so they devised a plan to save him. Nathaniel says that Galactus has had many heralds, but Franklin has had only one. Then, using his immense power, Future Franklin sends an energy orb at the fallen Galactus, and shouts, “Rise…To me, my Galactus.” It looks like Franklin controls him or something.-Through further explanation, Nathaniel goes over the fact that all the other Reeds sacrificed being a father and husband for the greater good, but they were all wrong because it was important for Reed to raise Franklin. 616 Reed is the only one that chose correctly, so his son was able to grow up and sacrifice himself for the greater good. It looks like Future Franklin is killed destroying the Celestials.-Nope, he lives. There is hope…forever.-Is Reed trying to teach young Franklin to fly?FF #16:-Young Val doesn’t like Future Val, and Future Val feels the same.-Kid Franklin and Mister Franklin get along great.-Galactus mentions to Mister Franklin that he always thought he would see the death of the universe by himself, but now he knows he won’t be alone. Mister Franklin will be there with him. Mister Franklin reassures him that it will be billions of years until they have to worry about that. Future Franklin tells Galactus (who he calls Galen) that he has to wait a little because Union occurs further down the road.-The whole Future Foundation get new numbering on their costumes.-Young Val likes Bentley like that. I think that is a bad thing. Maybe it means that she is a little evil.-Johnny and Peter decide to be roommates.-Val promises her parents no more secrets, but fails to tell them that she knows Doom (trapped in a parallel universe) has access to an Infinity Gauntlet. And all of the lobotomized Dooms from the multiverse. He becomes their king.-“Here I can build.” – Doom, after forming the Parliament of Doom

I read these as they were coming out, from Oct '09 to Oct '12, and they made a Fantastic Four fan out of me. This volume may not satisfy on its own, but reading the whole mega-arc in order is truly rewarding. This epic storyline was meant to vault the Richards family back to their Lee/Kirby-era status as "the first family of comics", and I'd say Hickman succeeded.To clarify: This book is one part of a 3-year arc spanning the Fantastic Four AND "FF" titles (now 10 trade paperbacks in total, from roughly 60 comic issues), so this isn't something to just jump in on. In fact, the 4 "FF" volumes themselves don't even stand alone as an arc. It may take patience to track them all down, but I'd highly recommend reading the whole thing. It starts with Fantastic Four vol 1-4, then switches to FF vol 1-2, then runs concurrently between Fantastic Four vol 5-6 and FF vol 3-4. Those last four paperbacks are actually best read switching back and forth by issue. The detailed publication order can be easily found in a few different places online.I'd suggest starting with "Fantastic Four by Jonathon Hickman, vol. 1" and taking it from there. This volume would be #7 out of the 10-volume set. Of course they will likely release an "omnibus" of such a successful run, but I've sold off all my single issues and couldn't wait to share this run with friends, so I'm collecting all the trade paperbacks as they're released...

FF really shouldn't be read on its own. Marvel really screwed up the way they packaged and released Hickman's Fantastic Four run. If you read this volume without having read Fantastic Four Volume 5, you feel like you're coming into the middle of a story...because you are. Why did Valeria transport everyone to Latveria? How did Johnny come back? I actually had to go back to the end of Volume 2 just to make sure I didn't forget something. It all felt terribly confusing. At least the previous two volumes felt somewhat self-contained but still, they should've just included he FF run in with the regular Fantastic Four run, in chronological order. Hopefully if they ever do an omnibus edition of Hickman's run, this will be the case.

A nice story, with many intriguing concepts, but it lacks of consistency: how comes that there's a huge build-up towards the battle between the Mad Celestials and Galactus/Franklin... and then the book skips it, jumping at the epilogue, and we learn that the battle takes place in a separate Fantastic Four tradepaperback?Art is questionable: Bobillo's take on anatomy is fairly original, even though irritating, but his veeery cheap (non existant) backgrounds are sort of a fraud; the coloring sometimes is a mess, especially because Bobillo's kids all look alike (is that a brown-haired Alex Powers? And so on). Dragotta's not bad, but the inks feel a bit unfinished, maybe because he had to rush the issue. Things improve a bit with Epting, but it's just for the final chapter.I will give a try to the related Fantastic Four 5 tradepaperback, though.

Loved this, it's a great addition to the Fantastic Four series by Hickman. It shows you the gaps in the timeline that you didn't see. A must read in my opinion.

All as was described / promised. All good!