This is it. This is the story that really drew people into Hickman's run on the Fantastic Four. This is when one of the Fantastic Four will die. This is Three!
Issue one opens with Val discovering the bridge. If you're confused to what the bridge is, then go read part one. Val crossed the bridge and discovered the army of lobotomized Dooms, the celestials and the other Reeds who, thanks to Val now had an exit. When Franklin from the future visited Val, one of the many mysterious things that he said to her was, "All hope lies in Doom." Now that Val has released several people as intelligent as her father on an unsuspecting public, she could use some hope right now; so she uses a teleporter, which I assume she built using a paper clip and two rubber bands because she didn't have it a minute ago, to visit her 'Uncle Doom.' Once there Val realizes that Doom has recently suffered brain damage in another story arc that I have not read. Doom and her make a deal, she will restore him to his previously evil, awesome self and he will help Reed save the world from the other evil Reeds. Elsewhere, the silver surfer discovers the corpse of Galactus buried beneath the Baxter building. Uh-oh.
Three part two... Yeah that's right. Three part two begins with Susan leaving to do more political stuff for Atlantis but we'll get to that, what's important now is that Ben drank the potion that the Future Foundation brewed for him and his Thing exoskeleton broke off. Johnny decides to actually be a pal for once and take Ben out on the town as just two regular guys. This was a great scene, until they go and grab beers with 'old friends' and Stan Lee is there. Damn it Stan Lee can't you stay out of my comics. They end the night at Alicia's house. If you don't know, Alicia has been Ben's girlfriend for forever and she's also blind so he was able to feel comfortable with his appearance around her. They were never able to be together sexually though, until tonight. This scene could have been really corny or just poorly done in a hundred different ways but because Hickman has such a great handle on these characters it was actually really beautiful. The issue ends with Reed alone at home with the kids, stargazing when the silver surfer comes asking questions, and he brought his friend Galactus.
Three part thr... You know what screw it. Issue 585 begins with Ben and Johnny returning home to find Galactus floating above the Baxter Building. Galactus doesn't want a fight though, he merely wants Reed to join him in his giant planet eating ship as they go for a little trip. While all this is going on, Susan is organizing a meeting between Namor and the old kings of Atlantis. We also see more of those bug people from the negative zone planning an attack on the Baxter Building, but right now let's get to the meeting in Atlantis. Namor kills most of them with a trident and the issue ends.
586 starts off with Sue still in Atlantis and both sides are trying to summon back-up but she's not having none of that so she throws up a force field trapping everyone until a peaceful solution can be found. We go back now to Reed who is informed that Galactus has brought the others who are also responsible for the Galactus' death. Of course, it is some of the characters from the Nu-World issue. I don't know these people's names and I don't care. I would go into more detail on these people but they really don't matter. The only reason I'm mentioning it is because Reed is there and Reed matters but I hate everyone else involved in this. Galactus is great, Reed is great, the silver surfer is great so why does this whole plot suck so much cock? Okay back at the Baxter Building, Johnny and Ben are playing cards when the Annihilation wave invades (the bug people). Johnny figures out that they will be headed to the negative zone portal in Reed's lab where Val and some of the kids are. We get some more scenes of Reed and then back to Sue where it's apparently been a day. Anyway Namor tells Sue that the old Kings were a bunch of dicks and used to kill the people that they put in Sue's position. Back to the Baxter Building where Val is explaining to Johnny that 'cus of science the shielding may not hold and of course, as soon as she says that the shields fall and the Baxter Building gets invaded.
Okay things are looking pretty bleak for everybody right now. Susan is still fighting for peace between two very different peoples, everyone at the Baxter Building is being swarmed by the armies of Annihilus, and Reed is off doing his stupid thing with Galactus. So the Baxter Building is being torn apart but there's a big fix everything button on the other side of the room. They just have to get through all the bug people. Seems impossible until Franklin God's up some bug spray and kills all the monsters to Johnny's amazement. No time to dwell on it though, gotta hit the easy button. Once that's done Val informs Johnny that the shields will not hold much longer but there's another big win button on the other side of the negative zone so someone has to go and activate it. Johnny, Ben, God and a few other kids decide that they are going to have to invade the negative zone before the negative zone invades Earth anymore than it already has. So now that we're putting several children in danger let's check in on Sue shall we? She asks the remaining old Atlantians if what Namor has accused them of is true. Well, it's not. In fact, when Namor murdered the old King with a trident, Sue inherited the throne. Back at the good old Baxter Building the members of the Future Foundation that went through the portal quickly discover that Reed's win button is malfunctioning. Their best chance is to just set off a giant bomb destroying the annihilation wave and the portal to Earth with it, but somebody will have to stay behind to set it off. For some reason Val, who just four issues ago built a teleporter out of bits of string and a torn up sheet of paper, cannot possibly design a bomb with a timer! Ignoring the plot-hole that I could drive a train through, we catch back up with Sue who has finally decided to drop the shield. She informs Namor that he can either honor the deal that they agreed upon or face her womanly, sexy wrath. After a good beating and somebody cleaning up his pants, he agrees. At the Baxter Building, time is running out before the annihilation wave gets there and Ben says that he is staying behind no arguments. Ben just had the greatest week of his life thanks to Johnny and he doesn't want to go out owing him. Johnny begins leading the kids through the portal to safety but then trips Ben, shoves him through the portal and activates the shield so he can't come back through. Ben tries to get the shield back open but there's no time, annihilation has arrived. Johnny just has time to lock down the portal so that even he can't open it back up and say goodbye to Ben. Johnny then turns around to see his certain death and says, "A billion to one, you think I'm afraid of that?" First he says it quietly. Then he screams, "YOU THINK I'M AFRAID OF THAT?!" As if he needed to convince himself, he wasn't going down without a fight. He then shouts, "FLAME ON!" And takes on as many as he can before he is finally overwhelmed. While all of this is happening, Ben's Thing power had begun to come back to him. So he can see all of this happening through the shielded portal as his rocky outer skin re-grows. He just keeps punching and punching the portal as his powers come back to him but it's just not enough. And he now has to live with the guilt that, maybe if he didn't take the cure, he could've saved his best friend. Finally, the portal closes completely putting Ben out of his misery and the issue ends with him and the kids just collapsed in a pile dealing with what they just saw. I must have read this issue a half-a-dozen times and I still get chills from it.
The first thing you will notice about this issue is that there is no dialogue for the first twenty-three pages. In this sequence we see the avengers arriving to help but realizing they're too late. Susan begins to close herself off from Reed. Reed opens the portal to the negative zone to confront Annihilus with the ultimate nullifier but all he does is rub Reed's nose in Johnny's uniform. Doom abdicates his throne to his son Kristoff because he is concerned about his brain damage. Doom even shows up to Johnny's funeral either to pay respects or meet with Valeria, it's unclear. Ben goes out and picks a fight with Thor and the Hulk and the Hulk just let's him pound on him for a while to let him get out all the shit he's got bottled up inside. Reed is looking at a list of threats to Earth and has decided that he needs to reform the council which is also one of the threats to Earth. Reed's father appears out of literally nowhere and says, "Hello son I'm home."
This issue was broken up into parts so I'm going to do that here. This story is called Uncles. Franklin is sitting on top of the Baxter Building when Spider-Man drops down next to him. He takes him for a swing around town and they talk about Johnny. They go out and get a hot-dog and then return to the rooftops. Spider-Man tells Franklin that he also lost his uncle when he was younger and because of it it made him a better person. When he thinks about him now, he only remembers the good times and he's not sad anymore. Franklin tells him that he's sad because he thinks he could have saved Johnny but Spider-Man tells him that he knows he could have saved his uncle. This story is only a few pages long but it is absolutely perfect. A few times Franklin mentioned that Spider-Man was his favorite hero and because they both lost their uncles it is just a nice little story.
Anyway the issue completely ends with a little message from Jonathan Hickman asking us to join him in FF. I don't know about you but I will be there.
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