After Prime Elements, we get four stand-alone issues, and since this blog will probably end up being the length of a novella let's get right into it shall we? The first issue is called The Future Foundation and if that sounds familiar, that's because the Future Foundation gets its own book down the line called FF. This issue opens with Reed at a conference called Singularity. It is apparently a forum for like minded people and scientists to get together and share thoughts on how to make the world a better place founded by Reed himself. Reed closes the conference with a speech so cruel and evil that I was convinced that he was either drugged, possessed or a Skrull but no he's just normal creepy old Reed. After that we get some scenes of the army of children living at the Baxter building. The Moloids are setting their room up, Val is fixing up Dragonman as Franklin spars with Leech and Artie. I still don't know who Artie is but now he can create matter with his mind. While all this is going on Reed goes to visit the Wizard. The Wizard won't stop babbling about the second coming of Christ or something so Reed gives him his helmet back, I'm sure that won't come back to bite him in the ass. The main reason that Reed went to see the Wizard is to tell him that he has adopted his clone Bentley and he is going to raise him to be a normal person, not a freak like either of them. In the final page of the issue, we finally see what the Future Foundation actually is. All of the kids are sitting in a classroom including Dragonman, and two atlantians with the help of Susan's influence. Reed tells them that there is nothing that they cannot accomplish together.
In The Frank-Tastic Four Franklin and Leech are bored so they get Uncle Johnny to take them to this great new toy store because Reed is too busy with a project from the Future Foundation. Once they get their Johnny bumps into Arcade and Impossible Man. He is about to cause a scene with Arcade but Impossible Man vouches for him saying he's his new business partner so he gives Arcade some leeway. Arcade shows off some of the new Impossible Man toys and once everyone has one he sets off the trap. All of the toys come to life and begin attacking people, SHOCKER! Leech gets knocked out which upsets Franklin, so he makes a giant stuffed dinosaur come to life and attack Arcade... *sigh* Look I know these are not my best details here but I kind of hated this whole scene. I mean we go from gathering a group of the most intelligent group of children to solve the world's problems to an issue about a bunch of shenanigans in a toy store. WHAT THE FUCK? Anyway, they beat Arcade and we finally get back to the Future Foundation. We learn that the first problem that they want to tackle is Ben. Ben has been stuck as The Thing for years and Reed has never been able to cure him but the kids have found a solution of sorts. All the other members of the Fantastic Four have had sort of an on/off switch with their powers but Reed has always been trying to turn Ben's completely off. It doesn't work that way though, so they have come up with a way to make The Thing human for one week a year.
When Everything's Lost, The Battle Is Won, is the next issue and it is a doozie. It opens with Franklin Richards from the future falling through time. He lands in some pocket dimension with Valeria from the future and Nathaniel Richards, Reed's father. Franklin tells them that his mission to his past self's birthday party was a success and then begins building a self-sustaining universe for them to live in when the shit hits the fan whatever that shit may be. Val leaves on her particular mission and their grandpa leaves on his. Turns out Nathaniel needed to go to the past State University, whatever state that may be, where Reed and Victor Von Doom are classmates and Victor is still a douche-bag (HA spell check just told me to put a dash in douche-bag). Anyway, Reed is happy to see his father but rightfully so, has questions like why does he look exactly the same after all these years. Nathaniel explains that, during events that we didn't see, (I'm pretty sure they take place in S.H.I.E.L.D.) Nathaniel is now almost immortal, and he was forced to play a game with all of the other Nathaniel Richards from alternate universes where they were forced to kill each other until one remains. ALL THAT HAPPENED OFF PANEL! Anyway only this Nathaniel and one other remain and he needs Reed's help to take him out. Reed asks Doom for help and Doom can't resist the opportunity to show Reed his toys. He gives Ben Grimm (Reed's roommate) a robotic armor suit similar to his Thing persona. Ben states, "I could get used to this." Oh poor, poor Ben. Victor puts on a prototype of his Dr. Doom helmet that allows him to read and dominate minds. Before they go to battle though, we take a break to see future Valeria's mission was to visit present day Susan, her past mom. So now that nobody's confused, back to Reed and the gang. They teleport through to the other Nathaniel's universe and see his fortress of solitude. He pops out to greet them and the issue ends.
The last issue of the bunch is called Because of All These Things That I've Done. The titles run into each other as do the issues. The first thing that evil Nathaniel does is throw The Anachronauts at them. I don't know if we've ever seen these characters before in Marvel but man I need some more of them. There's like a space-man dinosaur, a Roman soldier robot, a cyborg monkey, a cave-man with a baseball bat and a genius midget pirate. These guys are in this issue for about three pages but it was a marvelous three pages. After the best characters ever get killed off, they have evil Nathaniel cornered but regular Nathaniel can't kill him. Doom can though and he has his evil villain monologue about how the Richards could not have won this battle without Doom! After that father of the year Nathaniel Richards takes off on his son again promising to see him again the next time he needs someone executed. We now see Val and Sue sitting at the table sipping tea and talking. Val explains that because Nathaniel, an immortal time traveler, has killed all other Nathaniels the time stream is collapsing. Franklin and Val are going to stay in the time stream and rebuild it because Franklin is basically God. In so doing, they will most likely die. While this is happening, Nathaniel returns to Franklin who is preparing for the time stream's collapse. Franklin throws Nathaniel into the time stream because he is confident that he can escape and he shouldn't be there when it collapses. Val tells her past mom that dark days are coming and she needs to hold the family together in these dark times. She leaves and returns to Franklin standing alone in his universe. They begin to discuss options for survival but it doesn't seem to be looking good. There's a really sweet moment where Val tells Franklin that he has always been her favorite hero as their world collapses around them.
Well that does it for those issues. Next up is the story arc Three, and if you know your maths you realize that three is less than four so that means that one of the Fantastic Four will be dying in that arc. Stay tuned to find out who. That is if you don't know already I mean it's a three year old issue.
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