Avengers #14-17 + New Avengers #7-8 Annotations

[Prelude to Infinity - "The World is Screaming"]

New Avengers #7 - "Thrones"

• One month after #6!
• Tony is still in space.
• Yyatdat = endless fear of losing everything.
• Reed has been hopping from Earth around the multiverse with his family. I think this is a continuity justification, maybe some correlation with the FF title while this was coming out?
• Black Bolt has ordered Maximus to build some kind of machine...
• Let's burn it all down...
• Reed and Stephen have dinner with Doom and Kristoff. Doom inquires as to what Reed and the Illuminati have been doing, especially in relation to what happened in #6, but the two warn Doom to stop asking questions and stay out of their way.
• Black Swan has been reading a bunch of books! Terrax is still quiet.
• Hank has undergone another mutation?
• Reed has built a bunch of anti-matter bombs!
• Namor and T'Challa are having tensions: Wakanda still wants retribution for Namor flooding the country during AvX. Namor sues for peace, T'Challa supports the idea of no loss of life even though he wants to kill Namor. Shuri says screw alla dat, let's go to war! Wakanda needs to rebuild its reputation as untouchable.

Avengers #14 - "The Signal"

• Self-repair origin bomb site in India unleashes some Kirby-esque block-Janus face guys who build a sigil structure not unlike the one in Canada to heal the world. They fail.
• In Australia, the communication site sends a signal out across the world. The world is sick. The system is broken.
• The signal is part of the sickness. Something seeking to remake the world...
• It appears that the awakened origin bomb system has activated, the Earth is awakened, and it knows that it's broken. Multiversal fracture point... World terminal...
• This signal occurs every 6 minutes and knocks out the power across the planet. Avengers jump into action to stabilize the planet.
• Tony is back from space? Or maybe just some remote-controlled Iron-Man armor.
• Self-repair site in India accepts the signal from Australia and goes there via portal.
• Avengers go there as well and fight the creatures.
• On AIM island, the defense origin bomb crystal yield they found back in #4 has started to wake up due to the signal...

Avengers #15 - "Sent & Received"

• Avengers continue to fight the communication bugs and the repair golems in Australia. Since it's an antenna, Thor turns it into a lightning rod and fries the creatures, but not before the signal it has cast out is received by an Aleph in a faraway galaxy...
• Captain Universe returns to the Avengers claiming that the end & the beginning have arrived. She takes Manifold with her as they teleport across the universe. They arrive on an alien world to witness an invasion, with ships that look exactly like the ones we saw back in #1's flash-forward of the war.
• In space, Abigail Brand and SWORD are met with a bunch of space-vessels attempting to land on Earth. One ship escapes their tractor-beam net, a ship filled with Skrulls!
• Pandemonium on AIM Island as the being from the crystal (defense) has escaped!
• Banner and his team track the being as it follows the remnant signal straight to Australia!

Avengers #16 - "To The End"

• Nightmask and Starbrand are still chilling on Sol's Hammer, but they know that they can leave at any time since it's not powerful enough to hold them. Nightmask wants to stay and train Starbrand as he continues to evolve and control his powers.
• The defense being kicks the crap out of the Avengers.
• Banner gets stressed and Hulks out in the middle of the SHIELD facility.
• Captain Universe tells Manifold to warn the Avengers of the coming conflict: her children, the Builders, are on the warpath. The Avengers machine is not complete, they need to get bigger...
• To protect a world you must possess the power to destroy a world...
• The space knights ascend to face the Builders!
• On AIM Island, Scientist Supreme and Superia plan to use the Auger (the device that yanked Hyperion from the death of his universe) to recapture the defense being.

Avengers #17 - "...To the Light"

• Superia confronts the defense being, explaining that its confusion stems from the broken system: Ex Nihilo's defiance of the rules and attempt to evolve the Earth created a system that was interrupted when Starbrand destroyed the over-mind back in #9. Then again, the system was also broken due to the incursions and the fact that Earth is the axis which the Multiverse spins on.
• The Earth doesn't need the defense being (possibly due to the presence of the Avengers Machine), and so the defense being is without purpose.
• AIM's distraction works and they trap him in the void between universes using the Auger.
• They also take a bunch of DNA samples from all the Avengers...
• Bruce chills out from his Hulk-relapse.
• Manifold comes back and dispatches the AIM soldiers, revealing the message that Captain Universe planted in his mind.
• The message is expansion paired with an image of the red planet and the sun...
• Tony and Cap know exactly who they need to recruit: Ex Nihilo and Abyss + Starbrand and Nightmask!
• One more recitation!
• It was the spark that started the fire -- a legend that grew in the telling.
• After the light.
• Before the war.
• And before the fall.
• They were the last days of the great idea -- and Avengers World.
• We were final options.
• We were last resorts.
• We were world builders and world breakers.
• And in the last days of life, before a season of death...
• We were Avengers.

New Avengers #8 - "What Maximus Made"

• One week later. [This takes place after Infinity #1, but I've placed it here in the reading order due to publication date]
• Tony is back on Earth. While he was in deep space, he met with the Watcher and they found the corpse of the Living Tribunal!
• He stayed behind while the Avengers left Earth to go fight the Builders across the stars, and he tells Reed that he thinks everything is falling apart and they need to be more proactive by eliminating a specific variable...
• Maximus finishes the two projects for Black Bolt: some kind of Terrigen mist machine and a pocket dimension where sound has no pitch and Black bolt can speak freely + hold secret meetings (Maximus implies that he's already aware of Black Bolt's meetings with the Illuminati).
• Medusa confronts Black Bolt, but instead of being honest he does something (I'm not completely sure I understand) where he wears the Inhuman crown and holds two blue (Terrigen?) crystals in each hand, then shattering the crown while the crystals vibrate.
• What we are... What we will be...
• Does he destroy this psychic sanctuary they share? All we know is that Medusa is pissed and she slaps him.
• Namor is about to make an offer to Black Swan that will solve both their problems when T'Challa offers him a drink. Namor thinks it's in honor of the peace terms Shuri has agreed to, but T'Challa reveals it was a ruse and Wakanda has launched a sneak attack on Atlantis. Namor leaves to save his people, and the cycle continues.
• Tony and Reed return to Stark tower after apparently meeting with someone to do something...
• Reed believes that since they had one month with no incursions, the next month will have at least three or four.
• They get a signal that Earth is being invaded, and a member of the Black Order arrives at the homes of each Illuminati member!
• Ebony Maw approaches the Sanctum Santorum...
• Black Dwarf approaches Wakanda...
• Corvus Glaive approaches the Jean Grey School...
• Proxima Midnight approaches a devastated Atlantis with a mourning Namor...

Avengers #7-13 Annotated

[Heralds of the New Universe]

Avengers #7 - "The Last White Event"

• Superflow! The Bleed in the Marvel continuity! Dreamspace between universes!
• Stations operated by Caretakers and Curators, being destroyed by some kind of rogue entropy.
• As universes die because of the Incursions, the Ascension Stations are destroyed.
• The legacy of the Builders, extinguished. At the nexus of all superflows, the caretaker orders all remaining stations to fire their white events. They are destroyed.
• The White Event arrives on Earth.
• The Light...
• Nightmask explains that a White Event activates heralds to shepherd a world on the brink of universal ascension. A Nightmask is a forerunner of change.
• Because the multiverse machine is broken, the white event is broken, so all the heralds are not present.
• Nightmask uses stark-tech to locate any other heralds: he finds a Starbrand. The selection of the herald occurred at a college campus, and killed everyone there...
• A Starbrand is a planetary defense system, but the selection process was broken, and it chose someone who has been ignored their whole life to wield a power to break worlds...

Avengers #8 - "Starbranded"

• The Avengers confront Starbrand, Kevin Connor. He freaks out and they fight.
• Captain Universe and Nightmask give us some foreshadowing: Starbrand is a product of a broken system, he is inherently flawed. But there is something else at work here...
• The system is broken, but it's also conflicted...
• Nightmask breaks the fight up and teleports him and Starbrand away. Captain Universe tells him to do it, even though it will make things worse and eventually put Nightmask in a box... right where he belongs...
• Nightmask shows Kevin the downed superflow station of the builders: the delivery mechanism for white events. There will be no other heralds to join them as a result of the broken system: they are alone.
• Nightmask explains that there is a conflict in the broken system: an older system that's not meant to operate in tandem with the white event...
• The Avengers return to home base and activate the 'wake the world' protocol to gather reserves.
• Tony mentions that he tagged Nightmask with a universal tracker, courtesy of Reed Richards...
• Just as Bruce questions the involvement of Reed, they find out that the two are on Mars...
• Nightmask tells Kevin that he himself is a product of the older system but repurposed for the new one. This puts him in direct conflict with his maker: Ex Nihilo...

Avengers #9 - "Star Bound"

• Nightmask and Kevin meet with Ex Nihilo and Abyss in the Martian Garden. Abyss tries to scan Kevin, but he reacts, and a scuffle almost breaks out. Nightmask allows Abyss to scan him instead: she discovers that the conflict between systems is actually a result of Ex Nihilo's own experiments. Instead of sticking to the normal gardener MO of termination or evolution, he changed the rules to try to make the Earth sentient. His origin bombs contained their own "human trait charge" that will initiate within its own organism and ecosystem.
• Self-awareness (Croatia), self-sustenance (Savage Land), self-repair (India), reproduction (Japan), communication (Australia), evolution/adaptation (Canada), self-defense (AIM Island).
• The Avengers see that the two fugitives have left Mars and are in Croatia.
• They witness the self-aware organisms fuse into an over-mind, the sentient brain of the planet Earth. It tries to communicate and absorb Adam, but Kevin perceives it as an attack and he destroys the over-mind.
• Adam says they will all be judged. Captain Universe tells him that she gave a warning: do what he believes is right, but it will end up with him in a box.
• The Avengers see the whole thing happening, and fight Kevin.
• The fight ceases when everyone comes to their senses.
• The Avengers believe Kevin and Adam to be too dangerous to remain on Earth, so they are sent to the solar station within Sol's Hammer.
• There was a lot of builder machine code, so here are the translations:
• I WILL BURN THE MEAT FROM YOUR BONES (pg.2)
• DO NOT DARE (pg.3)
• JOIN (pg.9)
• ALIVE (pg.10)
• CAN YOU HEAR ME (pg.11)
• I AM OF THE SYSTEM (pg.11)
• I AM EARTH (pg.11)
• THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN (pg.11)
• THE WORLD IS BROKEN (pg.11)
• THE WORLD IS BROKEN (pg.11)
• BROKEN (pg.11)
• BROKEN

[Survival of the Fittest]

Avengers #10 - "Validator"

• Crazy issue!
• Maria Hill and Agent Porter approach the corpse of Canadian Dept H Agent Robert Michaud. They access the recording implant in his head to find out what happened during the mission... and why he killed himself...
• One of the origin bomb impact sites was in Regina, Canada. Ex Nihilo said it corresponded with evolution...
• One month ago, Dept H sent a super-squad known as Omega-Flight to investigate the impact site. They were picked off by the flora & fauna within the dome; Validator leaves a final message, a warning: This place is death...
• Dept H gets the Avengers to come and investigate, led by Captain America, Falcon, and Wolverine. Michaud explains that they did everything to penetrate the dome, but nothing worked, not even nuclear weapons.
• Eden is able to get them in there, but Michaud tags along.
• The group meets an indigenous tribe of little yellow people. The guide them to a pit of orange energy.
• Validator emerges from the pit and raises her hand...
• Hello father...
• She whispers something into Michaud's ear...
• The group appears out of the dome in a desert, the sand beneath them a mysterious symbol...
• Agent Hill intercepts them, but Michaud shoots himself in the temple...
• Porter and Hill discuss why the Avengers withheld information from them, but Hill understands that SHIELD gives the heroes a reason not to trust them.
• Porter reveals he found 327 hours of additional footage of the mission, but it came from the past... and the future...
• Validator raises her hand as the orange energy pit casts the same symbol found in the desert.
• The Avengers are hit by a wave of adaptation and evolution, morphing them into past and future analogues.
• They see that Validator pulled Michaud close, and she told him something...
• As the Avengers fly home, they discuss the events of what happened, with Logan explaining that Michaud offed himself because some secret was more important than his life, the secret told to him by Validator, his daughter!
• Validator tells Michaud that something amazing has happened, they've made something within the dome, and now she must protect it...
• The system is now online...

Avengers #11 - "Wake the Dragon"

• Avengers go to infiltrate a criminal underworld exchange at a casino in Hong Kong.
• Of course, it doesn't go so secretive, Bobby and Sam convince some AIM bozos to quit their jobs.
• Carol goes head-to-head in poker with the AIM broker Mathias Deeds. He beats her since he was cheating.
• Everybody thinks AIM is there to sell something, but it turns out that they were there to buy an army.
• The army belongs to a group called Chimera; mercenaries who profit on death and war, a wicked kind of progress. Shang Chi fights against a couple of them.
• Shang Chi believes that AIM is preparing for some kind of war...

Avengers #12 - "Evolve"

• The Avengers go to the Savage Land to teach the alien children some good ol fashioned values!
• Spider-Man is still Superior and Tony is in space with the Guardians at this point in continuity.
• The kids were from the self-sustenance pod, so they don't get tired, they don't eat or drink or sleep or run out of energy. So the question is how they will fit into society without any want or need...
• Thor and Hyperion talk about the wars to come, and the storm that seems different than any they've faced before. Will there be another side?
• Builder machine code spoken by kids:
• I HAVE TRIUMPHED
• BUT HOW?
• I HAVE EARNED IT
• Hyperion and Captain Universe tell the kids that their purpose will be to provide and do good in hope of a world without need. Virtue unbound!
• Some of the kids then get kidnapped by the freaking High Evolutionary!

Avengers #13 - "Strong"

• Avengers get help from Garrok the Watcher who tells them High Evolutionary took the kids.
• Evolutionary activates a re-animated Terminus to hold off the heroes.
• Hyperion goes in and whoops Wyndham only to find out that he was using the kids as batteries to power the Terminus. Hyperion gets the kids out of the robot just before Thor fries it with lightning.
• High Evolutionary gets away.
• Hyperion tells Thor that he believed the death of his world to be the defining point of his life, but now knows it was the arrival of a new world. He pledges himself to these alien children. The acceptance of a family, of love, makes him strong!

New Avengers #4-6 + Avengers #4-6 Annotations

[Swan Songs of a Dead World]

New Avengers #4 - "World Eater"

• Reed and T'Challa are almost done replicating Black Swan's weapon, an Anti-Matter device.
• Tony gives them VR helmets and shows them what he's been making: a Dyson Sphere around the sun to use as a tool to stop the Incursions.
• Reed christens it "Sol's Hammer". Recall that we saw Sol's Anvil back in Fantastic Four.
• Stephen reads dark spells in a book called the Blu'Dakorr. Wong is disturbed. The spells require a high cost; 40 fallen souls... and one righteous.
• An incursion is alerted, and Stephen tells Wong that his estate will be left to him in the case that anything happens.
• The gang runs through some solutions, but no avail. Namor says fuck it and goes into the fray.
• This world was ruled by Magneto but is in the process of being eaten by Galaktus.
• His herald, Terrax the Enlightened, dunks on them. He says there's nothing they can do: Galaktus will unmoor the universe by eating earth.
• The Illuminati say screw it and fight anyways.

New Avengers #5 - "Black Swans"

• The origin of Black Swan!
• The Illuminati resolves to let Black Swan out of the cage to get some info on the incursions.
• Beneath her cage is a bomb, but they give her a necklace with the same explosive power if she goes out of line.
• Terrax from last issue ended up getting captured; they were too late to stop Galaktus, but they took Terrax for some info as well.
• Swan doesn't rock with Stephen...
• Her origin has a reverse of the first page of Avengers #1.
• Her name is Yabbat Ummon Taaru. She had a brother, Dadingra, and they inherited a key to the Library of Worlds, a gift from Sinnu Sarrum, the Ivory Kings.
• Only the great ladies, Black Swans, could navigate the twisted paths between worlds.
• Their planet got attacked by beings called Black Priests, descending from an incursion world. They are seen in the flash forward from New Avengers #2.
• Yabbat is the only survivor, she takes the key and flees to the Library. The Black Swans find her and train her in their way.
• Her world was an offering to Rabum Alal. The birth of Rabum Alal started the incursions, and every Earth destroyed by Black Swans is a gift to him, to save one planet until the next incursion instead of both universes perishing. One season longer... Wardum Uggae.
• The Eighth Way, shading the apocalypse: evacuating Earth and destroying it stops the incursions for that universe.
• Alternate Beasts use this method, and his name is known in the Game of Worlds...
• Black Swan has incursion detectors in her eyes, but they can forecast better; she can predict them.
• An incursion begins, but this one is in Latveria...

New Avengers #6 - "Blue Hell"

• Incursion in Latveria!
• The gang shows Swan the anti-matter bomb they built.
• They take her with them to Latveria where they discover this to be a different kind of incursion: a blue sky.
• Blue means Map-Makers: so there is a race of beings called the Map-Makers who have hijacked the incursions for their own benefit. They harvest worlds, wait for incursions, then send their Sidera Maris (Bridge-Builders) to conquer the new world. From the new world, the dead world is destabilized, and a piece of it falls onto the new, marking it. The marker allows the Map-Makers to locate it and begin the cycle once more. Somehow, they can travel the multiverse at will.
• Doom and Kristoff take on the Sidera Maris, but Panther is worried about the actions of the Illuminati getting found out since Latveria is a surveillance state.
• The group agrees to destroy the dead world.
• Reed thanks Swan for her help.
• Swan telepathically conspires with Terrax, claiming they can be useful to each other in the future. He doesn't miss Galaktus, but he misses finding worlds to destroy.
• Doom's minions find a remnant of the dead world, a marker...

[Heroes Assembled]

Avengers #4 - "The Death & Resurrection of Major Titans"

• Origin of Hyperion!
• His world was destroyed by the Incursions. he tried to hold both earths apart but failed. He survived the death of the two realities but was snatched out of the void by AIM. He was then freed by the Avengers.
• The Avengers discover a sixth impact site of the origin bombs that Ex Nihilo unleashed, in the savage land.
• They intercept the AIM scientists trying to claim it, and the pods burst to reveal little alien children. Hyperion is their new dad.
• However, the AIM scientists find the seventh site in Norway, and an individual encased in crystal...

Avengers #5 - "Superguardian"

• Origin of Smasher!
• Flashback to the New X-men arc Imperial, the Shi'ar are attacked by Cassandra Nova and Smasher falls to Earth to warn the X-Men. A piece of his goggles is left behind, living armor picked up by Isabel Kane. She becomes the new Smasher, and is initiated as a Sub-Guardian of the Shi'ar.
• Her gramps was Captain Terror, an old ally of Cap. He puts her in touch with the Avengers.
• in present day, Stark finds out that the new man built by Ex Nihilo is called Adam/Blackveil.
• Cap and Smasher lead an Avengers squad to the help the Shi'ar against an invasion. They win, and Isabel becomes a Super-Guardian.
• Gladiator and the Superguardians discover that the invading race was actually running from something...

Avengers #6 - "Zen and the Art of Cosmology"

• The origin of Captain Universe!
• She was a single mother with her daughter in a car crash. She was in a coma for ten years.
• The Universe selected her because they were both broken and dying. Earth is the axis that the multiverse spins on.
• Spider-Man is Superior right now, douchebag Otto in our best boy.
• Shang Chi gets our Mother/Cap Universe back on track; Tamara Devoux faces grief.
• But nobody knows what happened to her daughter...
• Tony is still trying to decode the builder language to communicate with Blackveil.
• Cap Universe speaks builder machine code and reveals his name is actually Nightmask. She completes Tony's translator and gives Nightmask English:
• The System is broken, it's coming, the White Event...

New Avengers #1-3 + Avengers #1-3 Annotations

[Illuminated]

New Avengers #1 - "Memento Mori"

• And it begins!
• Recap page: clipped scene from one of the Bendis comics with the Illuminati (one that I don't care to look up) where T'Challa declines the membership and warns them of disagreement in their future endeavors to shepherd the world...
• Reed gives us his everything dies speech; it's inevitable, and I accept it...
• In Wakanda, a group of tech'ed out kids complete a gauntlet of trials, becoming fitting candidates for the Wakandan space program. Black Panther congratulates them, but not before discovering a hidden vibrational threshold.
• On the other side, we see an Earth in the sky. Black Swan and Manifold descend with some foot-soldiers from this Earth, planting a device while they speak in high Sumerian.
• The Wakandans confront them, but the kids don't make it out.
• Mentions of Incursions, the great destroyer Rabum Alal, and the Wheel...
• Apparently Manifold teamed up with Swan to destroy his planet, but she kills him anyways.
• Swan activates the device and destroys the Earth in the sky, but Panther KO's her.
• Panther recalls a meeting with Bast, who warns him of dark days ahead, worlds dying, and those who answer the call of a desperate man...
• The Illuminati!
• Iron Man, Cap, Namor, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Reed Richards!

New Avengers #2 - "In Secret, They Rule"

• Reed interrogates Black Swan beneath the Necropolis.
• Something is hidden within her...
• The Wheel demands an offering, and the destroyer gets his due...
• The Wheel shames the weak; it breaks hope and crushes decency and steals honor...
• What comes next...
• Tension between Namor and T'Challa (I assume because of AvX). T'Challa says he will kill Namor.
• Reed gives the everything dies speech, and then lays out the known ground rules for the incursions.
• The death of one universe causes the end of everything early, contractions in the multiverse, a domino effect of colliding universes.
• Incursions last for 8 hours, two earths in the same space. Either destroy the other Earth, or both universes perish. Black Swan used a device to destroy the other world.
• Cap rejects any immoral or consequentialist course of action, presenting the idea of using the Infinity Gauntlet as a way out.
• They split up to gather the remaining gem (since Charles is dead) while Tony, T'Challa, and Reed build an early defense system.
• Hints of what's coming: some reptilian creatures, flying helmed beings, alternate heroes, and robotic soldiers...
• Reed and T'Challa meet: two possibilities for the cause of the incursions, either it's natural, or someone is behind it. Reed says if the plan with the gauntlet doesn't work, then they must learn to destroy a world...

New Avengers #3 - "Infinity"

• DAMN!
• Hank McCoy Beast joins the Illuminati in place of Charles Xavier. He brings the final gem along with him.
• The gang finishes the early warning system, devices implanted in their palms.
• They put together the gauntlet when an incursion appears, and Cap uses it to push the reality back.
• It works, but some kind of feedback shatters all of the gems, except for the time gem which disappears.
• Steve says there is no way he's going to let the rest of them build WMD's to stave off the incursions, and they all agree to mind-wipe him with Strange's magic.

[Eden on the Red Planet]

Avengers #1 - "Avengers World"

• Tony and Cap resolve to expand the Avengers... an Avengers World!
• Cap has bad dreams about the mind-wipe...
• On Mars, Ex Nihilo and Aleph and Abyss are up to no good. They've come to judge Earth; Aleph has chosen to raze the planet. They send Origin Bombs to evolve flora and fauna on Earth. Two of them hit Australia and Canada.
• Ex is making his own perfected artificial man...
• The movie lineup of the Avengers come to take these villains on; they get shredded.
• Cap is sent back to earth in the Quinjet as a warning, he assembles the backup roster he and Tony put together.
• Wake the world!
• Before the Light...
• Before the War...
• Before the Fall...

Avengers #2 - "We Were Avengers"

• Recruitment season!
• Avengers Machine: Spider-Man, Falcon, Wolverine, Eden Fesi (from Secret Warriors!) as Manifold, Captain Marvel, Shang-Chi, Spider-Woman, Hyperion, Smasher, Captain Universe, Sunspot and Cannonball.
• So our three stooges were created by The Builders, the first race born in the universe. They worshipped the female incarnation of the universe, but then decided to remake all of reality as they see fit.
• The Aleph judges worlds and purges them accordingly, carrying two seeds within him: an Ex Nihilo and an Abyss. The Ex & Abyss can choose to evolve the surviving worlds to their full potential in the new design of the universe.
• A ton of Origin Bombs land on Earth, striking Japan, India, Savage Land, Croatia, and Norway.
• Cap gets Manifold to transport the new Avengers roster to Mars.

Avengers #3 - "The Garden"

• The perfected artificial man, Adam, is born. He starts spewing builder machine code, referencing something called a White Event, and how the universe is broken, and the builders have left the machine.
• Ex Nihilo is psyched, life is chaos, evolution is unpredictable!
• The Avengers fight the three interlopers; Captain Universe pretty much one-shots them since apparently her suit is the embodiment of the universe that the builders worship.
• She talks about 'a crash' and pie...
• Falcon speaks to the birds on Mars, they have some kind of natural psychic link with the dogs Ex spawns, and they depart together.
• Aleph gets nuked by Captain Universe, but Ex and Abyss are chill. They decide to stay on Mars.
• One was life, one was death! Cap and Tony!

Fantastic Four #605-611 + FF #16-23 Annotations

[Four Reborn]

FF #16 - "One Step Beyond" [3/28/12]

• Val narrated chapter.
• Fallout from the War of Four Cities and the battle with the Mad Celestials.
• Future Frank and Galactus watch the sunset, Galen is happy he doesn't have to watch the universe end alone.
• New and improved Baxter Building.
• Space station called Foundation.
• Johnny is going to move in with Pete!
• Intervention with Valeria. She promises not to keep anymore secrets.
• But she did keep a secret: she told Doom to stay alive, for there is something beneath the Council that is worth finding...
• He finds the corpses of Suit-Reed and Beard-Reed and their Infinity Gauntlets, but he also finds the Hole with the lobotomized Dooms.
• Here, I can build.

Fantastic Four #605 - "End of Line"

• Fun little story where Reed and Nate go forward in time by 1000-year intervals.
• 3012: Franklin, Spider-Woman, a human torch analogue, and Ben Grimm lead the FF.
• Ben only ages once a year when he's normal for a week.
• 4012: Franklin dips to hang with marvel cosmic.
• 5012: Ben is still alive, an old man, reminiscing about times past as he speaks to the memorial of his friends Reed, Sue, and Johnny.
• 6012: Ben's funeral attended by Franklin.

Fantastic Four #605.1 - "Origin Story"

• Origin of Beard-Reed who is actually Nazi-Reed + how the Council came to be.
• Hickman builds his own version of DC's Earth-X.
• Loved the follow up to Beard-Reed having a little bit of Doom in him, mentioned way back in #571.

Fantastic Four #606 - "Adventures in Red"

• The gang removes a tumor from the brain of Willie Lumpkin!

FF #17 - "The Roommate Experience"

• Hickman + Dragotta = Hilarious.
• This was amazing.
• Johnny has a portal to the Negative Zone in Pete's apartment. Pete's trying to get rid of him.
• The get drunk on cosmic mare's milk. Pretty sure Johnny bangs Mary Jane.
• The final straw is Pete finding Annihilus dropping bombs in his toilet.

FF #18 - "What Do You Call The Opposite Of a Field Trip?" [5/30/12]

• Fantastic issue!
• We wrap up the Negative Zone sub-plot with a field trip into the anti-verse!
• Meanwhile, the Kree/Inhuman war is settled with both Franks fixing the Halan star. Future-Frank warns Black Bolt that he must be on Earth, for something wicked this way comes! Incursion hinting!
• Punchline on that last page was hilarious.

[Ancient History]

Fantastic Four #607 - "Inert" [6/13/12]

• Wakanda! Black Panther! Storm!
• Recap for an event I didn't read: T'Challa renders all Vibranium inert in order to prevent Doom from exploiting it. However, T'Challa reveals in this that his process of liquidating Vibranium and investing it has kept the country's economy intact.
• Crazy Egyptian pantheon lore! War between Amun-Ra and Anubis! Amun-Ra is beaten, but he hides his knowledge in his heart, which he gives to Bast to prevent from falling in the hands of Anubis. Bast goes to the Wakandans and drops the heart in a well. Using the remaining blood, she paints the face of one of them; red paste of knowledge. And so begins the reign of Wakanda.
• The way things are... the burning cycle... the first and last hunt... the great circle...
• The throne room is attacked by the soldiers of Anubis.
• Equilibrium, harmonics, fate... everything lives... everything dies...
• T'Challa and Reed arrive at a well... right before a temple of Amun-Ra
• Storm, Shuri, and Sue go to meet with Bast.

Fantastic Four #608 - "City of The Dead"

• Beneath Wakanda, behind the wall of knowledge, lies the Necropolis: City of the Dead, where all Black Panthers are laid to rest.
• T'Challa has been guided by a dream, and he and Reed enter.
• They meet with Bast who judges T'Challa. Reed's presence cements a bond between him and T'Challa that will never be broken.
• We get some foreshadowing about Avengers vs X-Men (which I don't really care about)
• T'Challa wants to be the Panther once more, but Shuri retains the position while T'Challa becomes the King of the Dead. He now has the strength and knowledge of every past Black Panther.
• Meanwhile, Shuri Storm and Sue face off against Anubis in the spirit-realm. They get some good licks in while Bast finishes the job.
• Dark Days are coming, and Reed and T'Challa must face them together!

FF #19 - "Safari"

• A new addition to the FF! Onome!
• Hyena Clan, bad news, they clean em up pretty well.
• Just a fun romp!

FF #20 - "Deus Ex Inhuman"

• House-keeping!
• Inhumans return to Earth! Light Brigade is welcomed, they won the unwinnable battle!
• Annihilus is drop-kicked back to the Negative Zone. Johnny keeps the control rod for leverage.
• Bentley and Val blossoming friendship...
• Future-Frank drops off Franklin at normal school, hinting at his future friendships.
• Medusa interrupts Ronan and Crystal; Black Bolt has summoned her home...

FF #21 - "Ronance"

• Hearts break!
• More revelations on the peace between Black Bolt and Supremor: they agree on a ceasefire as a result of the oncoming death of everything.
• However, Ronan has to return to Hala and break off his Ronance with Crystal.
• Nerds cry.
• At least Pete got a reunion with his centurion spitfire.

Fantastic Four #609 - "The God Ship" [8/8/12]

• Wrap up the Nu-World plot threads. They use the corpse of the OML Galactus as a time vessel, a 'god-ship' that will take them lightyears into the future.
• Banner Jr decides to rejoin them.

[Fantastic Finale]

Fantastic Four #610 - "The Wizard" [9/12/12]

• AIM buys the island of Barbuda. Cap, Pym, Tony, and Reed meet with the Prez.
• Reed leads the Four to invade the island. They fight against the beekeepers bozos and The Wizard, but Scientist Supreme dispatches him and reveals a peace treaty.
• Barbuda is now AIM Island, legally purchased, with Reed as their American ambassador. In exchange, the Four are given custody of Wizard.
• Wizard is sick, he has a massive brain tumor, but he hints at Reed split by light and shadow before men of night and day...
• Reed leaves Wizard to meet with his clone Bentley. Bentley presents the helm of the Wizard, but Wizard tells him to put it on...

FF #22 - "You Are Whatever You Want To Be"

• Bentley rejects his dad. Kicks him in the balls. Great stuff.
• Val is three????? Wtf.
• We can defy our nature! Great stuff!
• Fun little character pieces.

Fantastic Four #611 - "Foundation"

• Doom uses the Infinity Gauntlet found in the Council remains to rebuild its destroyed universe of origin in his own image!
• However, the nature of a Doom universe betrays and imprisons him.
• Future Val, Nate, and Reed go to save him.
• They convince the six Doom-lords to release Doom, but one of them sends a Doom-dragon to stop them. Just as they cross the portal, the doom-dragon barely stops them, but not before the lobotomized dooms sacrifice themselves to save Victor.
• Nate plans to visit all the multiversal reeds without dads to make up his penance while Val will apparently use the council dimension for her own designs.
• Here, I can build!

FF #23 - "Run" [10/24/12]

• So good!
• Future Frank takes Leech and his younger self into a no rules adventure in the closet pocket universe. It's so much fun and Dragotta gets to stretch his legs really well.
• Future-Frank says goodbye to everyone. Leech, Val, and even a happy hour with Ben and Johnny where we get a future preview of the Frank-tastic four!
• Frank says goodbye to his parents, he needs to leave because two Franklins in the same time period will cause disturbances in the universe, especially with what's coming next.
• Frank tells his parents they did a great job of raising him, and says goodbye.
• When the threshold between who you are and who you can be presents itself, do not walk through... run!

Fantastic Four #600-604 + FF #12-15 Annotations

[Forever]

Fantastic Four #600 - Forever, Part I - "Fire In The Sky" [11/23/11]

• Kree armada wreaks havoc across New York.
• A dreadnaught goes down in Soho. Sentries everywhere.
• Sue and Tony create a forcefield around Manhattan.
• Nathanial, Alpha-Reed, and captured Doom arrive before Kristoff Vernard, but Nathanial pleads that they must help Alpha-Reed or risk Doom's life.
• Supremor gives Ronan and Crystal the info dump on him and Black Bolt's rivalry.
• FF kids are attacked by Annihilation Wave. Val transports them away.
• The portal is left on Earth; Pete tries to stop them from opening it but fails.
• It opens to reveal... Johnny Storm with a chained Annihilus!
• "Whatever Happened to Johnny Storm?"
• Flashback to #587, Johnny fends off the Annihilation Wave, but is killed by Annihilus. He's resurrected since nothing can die in the Negative Zone and meets the Light Brigade we saw back in #577-578. Since he can get them out of there, they agree to help him rebel against Annihilus.
• Alpha-Reed is the one who gave the Negative Priest the tech for the obelisks.
• Once more we reference Everything Lives, and Johnny nabs the cosmic control rod from bug-bro.
• "Black Queen"
• Before Attilan arrived over the Forever City but after the Royal Family came back to the moon, Black Bolt and Medusa have some alone time in the psychic plane. They get through some of her skepticism and make up.
• "The Arc"
• A couple days ago, Sue and Reed meet Galactus on the moon, where he gives them a device called the 'Arc'. The arc will summon Galactus. He tells them that shit is about to go down on Earth, and to call him if need be.
• Reed is confused since Earth's destruction would prevent his death in the OML future, but Galactus explains that Asgardians have placed a Galactus seed within Yggdrasil, and Earth's destruction would free it to make a new Galactus. The infant world eater would cause cosmic instability, and result in the end of all things much sooner than planned.
• Galactus wants to be the last one who watches the universe die, so he's all for Earth surviving.
• "Remember"
• The baby universe created by Franklin back in #574 is a playground for Hyperstorm and Kid Incredible! Jump!
• Silhouette Dude offers to train Franklin's reality warping mutant abilities, and he's definitely Future Franklin.

FF #12 - "Too Many Kids"

• The three floors of the Baxter Building are translocated to the mountains of Latveria. The kids meet up with Nathanial, Doom, Alpha-Reed, and Kristoff.
• It's revealed that Nathanial is the one who told Valeria to send the floors to Latveria, and he tells her he sent Future Franklin back in #574.
• The gang goes back to the fragmented Baxter Building to access the Bridge. Val grabs the Ultimate Nullifier...
• Alpha-Reed says he'll unlock Doom's collar once they cross the threshold...
• It's time to go home...

Fantastic Four #601 - Forever, Part II - "We Follow The Storm"

• Kree blow a hole in the force field with an anti-matter bomb.
• Johnny is back and makes a flaming 4 in the sky. Hope is not lost!
• Supremor gets beamed to the flagship, Fist of Hala. Ronan and Crystal stay behind as rebels.
• Attilan merges with the city-ship New Hala.
• Johnny uses the cosmic control rod to command the Annihilation wave against the Kree.
• New Hala attacks from behind.
• But the debris from the space battle falls on New York and Earth...

FF #13 - "The Bridge"

• The gang goes through the bridge, finding the Mad Celestials gathered at the remains of the Council.
• Weeks ago, Nathanial and Val talk about Tipping Points and Catastrophe Theory. All the various crises are occurring at the same time and will cascade to destroy the system that is humanity. Their only hope is to spread out the crises and find more time.
• Doom gets his collar released. Franklin tries to hold off the Celestials, but they beat him in the mind scape. A celestial uses detachable fingers to hold the bridge open.
• Alpha-Reed gives Nathanial the trigger to Sol's Anvil, while Val gives him the Ultimate Nullifier in return.
• Everyone tries to escape, but Alpha-Reed and Doom stay behind to destroy the bridge from the inside.

Fantastic Four #602 - Forever, Part III - "A Season of Dying"

• As the ground team destroys the incoming debris, Johnny's Annihilation Wave begins to lose the advantage.
• As the flagship Pestilence is boarded, Reed and Sue use the Arc from #600 to summon Galactus.
• He arrives but tells Reed and Sue that this is not the threat he's been prepping for. As he takes out a good chunk of the Kree armada, the real threat reveals itself...
• The Mad Celestials have arrived!

FF #14 - "27 Minutes"

• Alpha-Reed and Doom must hold off the Mad Celestials for 27 minutes!
• The kids try to close the gate and pry off the finger drones. Franklin gets them off, but one of them activates the severed celestial hand and it turns into a hand of God para-drone! So cool!
• Flashback: Val and Nate go to the Immortal City and plan how they can find more time by spreading out the universal constants.
• They key to this... All Hope Lies In Doom!
• Alpha-Reed uses the Nullifier to zap some of the Mad Celestials, but eventually succumbs to the pressure and is atomized.
• We get more of the convo between Val and Doom in FF #13; she reveals that she tricked him into sacrificing himself, but he's okay with it. He buys them enough time. But what secret does she tell him...
• Jus before the kids close the Bridge, the Mad Celestials rip their way through to Earth-616. They teleport to #602 during the finale. But Doom bought them 28 minutes. There is still hope...

Fantastic Four #603 - Forever, Part IV - "Can You Be Strong?"

• Galactus faces off against the Mad Celestials.
• Supremor and the Kree Armada flee back to Hala with the Inhumans in pursuit.
• Reed gets a message from Val and the FF kids; they have the trigger for Sol's Anvil.
• They go back while Galactus fends off the gods. He kills one of them, but they turn into a kaiju megazord celestial, and fry his ass. They mentioned this ability way back in FF #3.
• The Anvil is activated and breaks them up, but they only have time for one shot.
• Mad Celestials wreak havoc, and the Anvil gets fried. They're here to kill Reed, the last renegade from the Council.
• Sue protects Reed, but she's not powerful enough. Right before annihilation, she remembers future-Val's words from #582: Remember the price was paid.
• In the sky... Future Frank and Future Val return! They survived the revision wave! Jump!

FF #15 - "The One Where Power Pack shows up"

• So we pretty much get last issue from Franklin's perspective, filling in some gaps.
• The Power Pack gives the FF kids a ride to the Anvil from the Latverian mountains.
• They dispatch the evolved Moloids that built the structure, cracking their helmets reverts them back to normal Moloids.
• Quite a few sequences with the imaginary friend, who tells Frank to save his powers for what comes next.
• The issue ends at the same point as #603, with Future Frank and Future Val appearing, and Frank revealing he was the imaginary friend.

Fantastic Four #604 - Forever, Part V - "And If Tomorrow..." [3/14/12]

• Future Frank & Val arrive.
• Future Frank takes young Frank's power he's been saving up, and faces off against the Mad Celestials.
• Some great parental analogies for the relationship between Nathanial, Reed, Val, and Frank.
• Frank uses the power to revitalize Galactus into his own herald and mess up the Mad Celestials.
• Val asks why she wasn't privy to this part of the plan, and future Val reveals her younger self could not be trusted. This is because young Val believed that Reed made the right choice joining the council, and still should have stayed on the council for the greater good of the multiverse.
• However, Nathanial explains that staying on the council is the wrong choice, because our Reed choosing his family results in the life of Franklin and Valeria, something the council never could have made.
• Future Frank deus ex beams the final Celestial, and the two suns anoint the dawn of the superheroes.
• Great freaking cape comics.
• For if we live, there is hope. If we is hope, then there is tomorrow. And if tomorrow, then forever.

FF #1-11 Annotations

[All Hope Lies in Doom]

FF #1 - "The Club" [3/23/11]

• The Future Foundation!
• Reed watches a video Johnny pre-recorded before his death where he tells them to make the world a better place... and give his spot to Spider-Man!
• Peter joins the team and everyone has sexy cool white outfits.
• Rogue AIM scientists besiege the PAVLOV facility where they free the Wizard from his cell.
• The FF arrive just in time to witness Bentley's escape, where he tells Reed he's coming for his son/clone very soon...
• The FF have dinner made by Nathanial, and they talk about possible ways to deal with the Inhumans on the moon, maybe terra-forming?
• Valeria and Nathanial reveal that they've gotten Doom to join the Future Foundation! This is probably a result of the deal Val made with Doom back in #583.
• Has she restored his intelligence?

FF #2 - "Doom Nation"

• Doom is reborn!
• Ben spars with Doom but Sue breaks it up.
• Ben, Sue, and Dragon Man go to a bar so he cools off.
• The FF brainstorm how to get Doom's intelligence back while diagnosing him. They discover that nothing is inherently missing form his brain besides the connection between two areas that allows him to access information and magick.
• They go to Latveria to use Kristoff as a backup for Doom's brain. When Kristoff Vernard was adopted, his inheritance would be a portion of Doom's memories and intellect in the event that Doom was killed. They will now use the backup within Kristoff's mind to heal the damage to Doom's brain, copying over the aspects that need fixing.
• Just before they activate the machine, Reed contemplates erasing Doom's mind, but doesn't follow through.
• Doom is cured, and resolves to repay his bargain with Valeria they made back in FF #583: he will help her defeat Reed...

FF #3 - "Whatever Happened To All Those Reeds?"

• Invitations are sent out by envoys of the FF to various members of their rogues gallery:
• Ben and the moloid kids visit High Evolutionary...
• Dragon Man and Alex Power visit El Diablo...
• Spider-Man, Franklin, Artie, and Leech visit the Mad Thinker and his android...
• Sue and Bentley visit his dad, The Wizard, and his two AIM lackeys...
• Just as Valeria is about to reveal why she and Doom have convened everyone to brainstorm ways to defeat Reed, the freaking Watcher shows up!
• Val gives everybody the recap of #583 but with some added dialogue:
• Alpha-Reed says Celestials can combine????
• The group strategizes on how they can continue their crusades to solve everything, determining that the four cities each have elements they need to construct a device known as Sol's Anvil (which they've used before to kill a freaking Beyonder!). A geothermal vent (new Atlantis/Peak), Ascension Engine (Forever City), dormant dynamo on the moon (Inhuman City-Ship), and these all are on an axis that matches a frequency with the Negative Zone. 
• They dip and tell Val that her dad still has a place among them...
• Iron-Man-Reed meets with some envoys of the Old Kings, revealing to the Mala and Chordai that the Uhari are planning on taking advantage and asserting control over the other tribes once they conquer the world. He agrees to help the two tribes beat the Uhari if they give him something...
• Armor-Reed meets with the Mole Man who is pissed that more Moloids are joining the Forever People. But what will he bargain with Armor-Reed to make them stop?
• Prof X Reed goes to the Universal Inhumans on the Moon and agrees to help them in exchange for an area of the moon to operate, but their telepaths reveal he's lying and planning something that will threaten the Inhumans. They kill him and resolve to match the Reed's plans.
• Alpha-Reed meets with Annihilus and claims he wants to go back to his universe by opening a portal to the Negative Zone. Annihilus agrees to help him in exchange for him keeping it open so they can invade...
• In the present day, the anvil hub (the trigger for Sol's Anvil) is nearing completion. It doesn't matter that Prof X Reed died since they can trigger the dynamo remotely. Now they will sacrifice this world for the greater good. Now they will orchestrate a war...

FF #4 - "The Beating of Drums..."

• The Council of Doom brainstorms weaknesses of the Reeds. Reed explains that these alter-versions of him don't have families and are heartless.
• He also reveals that every time they encounter a Doom, they lobotomize him (a callback to the Hole we saw back in #571)
• Ben leaves the Baxter Building to do some soul searching. He's not happy about working with the villains.
• The Spiral device Sue got back in #576 comes back: a distress signal from the Uhari of Old Atlantis, the other two tribes have turned on them.
• Sue takes Peter and Alex with her to the North Pole.
• Valeria already knows what the reeds are building and tells everyone how they will use the Four Cities to construct Sol's Anvil.
• Sue and the boys interrupt the siege of the Peak, but not before reinforcements arrive, composed of the Mole Man's creatures accompanied by Armor-Reed!
• He orders Mole Man to bring the city of Old Atlantis down!

FF #5 - "...The Sound of War" [6/29/11]

• Reed finds a way to activate the Spiral to get a glimpse of what's going on at the North Pole, but finds a crater exposing the geothermal vent where the peak is supposed to be.
• 15 minutes earlier: Sue finds out that isn't her Reed and gets blasted. Peter catches her while Alex shows off his gravity powers by getting creative. A mala soldier fractures his arm, and the Peak's shielding is destroyed.
• Mole Men's soldiers activate their machine, amplifying the vent and destroying the city of old Atlantis.
• Sue, Peter, and Alex retreat to confront Reed about what just happened.
• Ben visits Alicia Masters, and she helps him get through the lingering trauma of not being able to save Johnny.
• Sue confronts Reed, and he admits he's messed up, he admits he's done something terrible...
• In the Forever City, the Reeds and Mole Man convene with the evolved moloids, agreeing to help fix the Ascension Engine to allow them to reproduce in exchange for not accepting refugee moloids who try to join the city.
• Just then, the city of Attilan appears above in the sky: Black Bolt and the Inhuman royal family has returned from their pilgrimage to Hala!

[War of Four Cities]

FF #6 - "Two Kings" [7/13/11]

• Inhuman/Kree lore-dump!
• War of Kings recap: Black Bolt fights Vulcan, beats him, but a bomb tears a hole in space called the fault, and Black Bolt gets sucked in.
• Weeks later, Medusa deals with space politics as a result of the Inhumans taking over the Kree empire.
• Maximus schemes, he has plan...
• Some Kree dude pressures Ronan, claiming Ronan has some kind of seed...
• Lockjaw has some kind of vision:
• Hundreds of thousands of years ago, on the Kree home world of Hala, scientists present the success of the metagenesis plan to the Supreme Intelligence; they've seeded over 100 worlds with Inhuman genetic manipulation.
• As the Supreme Intelligence assimilates the data, he searches for unanimous agreement within the thousand minds he is made up of. He comes upon dissent; a priest foresees a rebel arise out of the metagenesis, who will spell doom for the supreme intelligence.
• The symbol of divergent path looks like the thing sticking out of lockjaw and Black bolt's head!
• Supreme Intelligence orders the Accuser to kill the two scientists, but not before one of them destroys the data crystal uploading info to the Supreme Intelligence. He is only able to absorb 94%, but sees it as enough.
• The Accuser destroys hundreds of worlds seeded with the metagenesis, but five survive as a result of the incomplete data. Those five are the worlds of the brides, and Earth.
• Black Bolt awakens within the void of the Fault...

FF #7 - "The Supremor Seed"

• Black Bolt is attacked by a space squid in the Fault (which kind of looks like the Supreme Intelligence to me...)
• He kills it with his voice, somehow opening a wormhole that puts him back into normal space. Lockjaw is there, who teleports him back to Hala.
• Just as the Kree are about to maybe start a coup, Black Bolt returns to restore order. The Kree emissary explains that the Inhuman royal family's plan of providing relief to the outer worlds after the war with the Shi'ar goes completely against their warrior way: rebuild the core worlds and let the outer rim fend for themselves, only the strongest will survive and earn their place in the empire.
• Black Bolt leaves the decision in the hands of Ronan the Accuser, who will stand regent as the Inhumans depart back to earth to reconvene with the lunar city-ship for the Summoning.
• The emissary is pissed, so Black Bolt vaporizes him. He says he is awake...
• Crystal stays behind with her boo Ronan.
• 300,000 years ago, wittle Supweme Intewigence is having some nightmares of Black Bolt, so he summons the current Accuser to follow his contingency plan. In the event that Supreme Intelligence dies, the Accuser will hold this Supremor Seed in his hammer to rebirth the SI.
• We get a repeat of the scene where the Universal Inhumans mind-bang Prof-X Reed and kill him, but then see that Black Bolt and the royal family return with Attilan.
• He gets acquainted with his new brides, but everyone knows what comes next... WAR!
• And a great segway into Attilan appearing over the Forever City in #5!

FF #8 - "Ascension"

• Attilan descends above the Forever City as they command their armies to invade. It's all-out war between the Universal Inhumans and the evolved men.
• Sue confronts Nathanial after having spoken to Reed. She questions his imperative of "what needs to be done".
• He explains that she should be content based on the revelations Reed has given her. He has seen the future where they lose, and the fact that the Reeds will crack the planet in half will be the least of their worries in the face of what comes next. This is the future Valeria tells Sue back in #582, the cataclysmic end of days that forced Future Frank and Val to come back and make the changes.
• Nathanial and Reed suit up, Spider-Man gathers the villains to depart, and they all got FF costumes!
• Sue and everybody else stay behind.
• The FF arrives amidst the war between the Inhumans and the Forever City. Doom casts a spell to protect them from the Ascension Engine. Everybody agrees to only kill two of the Reeds, keeping one alive for info haha.
• High Evolutionary tells Reed he can disable the Ascension Engine due to the Reed's meddling.
• The Inhumans are immune to the engine as a result of their controlled evolution and selective breeding.
• Sue and Reed have put Val in time out within her room, but Bentley breaks her out.
• Wizard gets taken down.
• Reed sees that one of the Reeds happens to be the Armor-Reed. This changes things...
• Could it be because of his connection to the Mad Celestials? Could they track him to this universe?
• Just before he reveals his concerns to his dad, Reed and the others are transported to Attilan to convene with Black Bolt.
• Doom takes down Iron-Man Reed and questions him about the nature of their machine, but before the alter-Reed responds, Doom is set ablaze by Diablo!
• Are Mad Thinker and Diablo traitors??? This confirms the statistic Reed mentions to Peter earlier of how likely one of the villains while go turncoat.

FF #9 - "Burn it Down"

• Doom is unfazed by Diablo's flames and fries the crap out of him!
• The gang meets with Black Bolt and the Inhumans. Nathanial tells Medusa that he's been to Attilan 1000 years in the future, and it's much bigger.
• Black Bolt has Reed step aside while they deal with the Reeds, as their plans are dangerous for the Inhuman agenda.
• Back at the Baxter Buidling, Bentley and Val have some snacks in the room with the Bridge. We even see the severed Celestial hand from #572!
• The Inhumans annihilate the Forever City.
• High Evolutionary arrives at the Ascension Engine.
• As more Inhumans descend, the Reeds prepare to shut down the engine and retreat (all that truly matters is the engine remaining intact)
• But it's too late, as Maximus uses a giant mech to blow all the evolved men to hell. Not entirely sure if he destroys the engine or not.
• The Inhumans take out Armor Reed and Iron-Man Reed, sending the two and the traitors Diablo and Thinker up to their gulag "Alpha Hell".
• Alpha-Reed lures Doom into a trap, engaging a collar like the ones used on the Dooms in The Hole (#571). Doom is now his slave, and if he does not do his bidding, the collar will lobotomize Doom. They embark for Latveria.
• Black Bolt tells the remaining FF to leave, but since their ships were destroyed, they must depart through Eldrac! Remember Eldrac from #577, the door that takes you to where you need to be.
• Peter wonders if the door can take you back in time, to erase your sins from ever being committed. Reed says there's only one way to find out...

FF #10 - "What I Need"

• Eldrac sends the three to separate locations where they need to be:
• Reed arrives at home in the Baxter Building to give Sue the recap. Sue wonders if Reed's attempt to delay the dark days ahead is futile, and they should instead prepare to embrace the inevitable. They agree to no more villains in the house, and to try to get Ben to come back. Sue asks about Victor...
• Nathanial arrives in Latveria just as Alpha-Reed and an imprisoned Doom touch down. Alpha-Reed reveals that his version of Nathanial was The Beast we encountered way back in #582, which is hilarious because a young Doom actually ended up killing him. Nathanial says he's not here to help Doom, but to help Alpha-Reed.
• Peter arrives in Avengers Mansion to convince Ben to come back home to the FF.
• Ronan activates the Kree fleet as he is given control of the empire. Although it goes against the Inhuman Royal Family, Crystal stands beside her beloved. They arrive below the aerial Attilan over the Forever City undetected.
• Peter and Ben return aboard a Quinjet, bringing along Iron Man, Cap, and Hawkeye as help.
• Apparently the FF kids are out on a super-secret class project.

FF #11 - "Intelligence" [10/26/11]

• Franklin and Leech watch the FF kids work on the super-secret class project.
• Reed walks in to confront Val, and we learn that the machine they're building will transport three floors of the Baxter Building away in case of an emergency. However, Val implies there is another reason for building this device...
• The Kree invade the Alpha-Hell gulag of Attlian, taking the two Reeds for themselves.
• At the Other Side of Zero, the Negative Priest breeds Negative Zone hordes and prepares them for human hosts. He talks to Annihilus, explaining that their plan to unleash the Annihilation Wave upon this reality is almost complete: they've built obelisks which will amplify and extend the bridge portal to the Negative Zone, with the catalyst door being the portal within the Baxter Building.
• Reed and Cap prepare a multitude of heroes to besiege the city of Attilan.
• Before the reignited Ascension Engine, Ronan reveals he's gathered the two Reeds as a new host for the Supremor Seed within his hammer! It attaches itself to them as he kicks the two into the engine, rebirthing...
• The Supreme Intelligence! This version of the Supremor has multiversal knowledge, and appears to be more powerful...
• Just as the heroes board quinjets towards Attilan, they witness the Kree fleet descend over New York!
• Supremor saw his death in the future and burned hundreds of worlds to prevent it, and now he will do the same to Earth!

Fantastic Four #583-588 Annotations

[Three]

Fantastic Four #583 - "In Latveria, the Flowers Bloom in Winter" [9/22/10]

• If they think I'm going to read Fall of the Hulks, they are mistaken!
• So Doom appears to have gotten brain-blasted. He summons Kristoff Vernard (his heir?) to take the throne until he regains his intellect.
• Valeria goes awol and does a little bit too much! She activates the Bridge and lets the remaining Reeds escape into universe 616. These include the Alpha-Reed, Iron-Man reed, Prof-X Reed, and Armor-Reed (who IIRC lost his intelligence and was the one who summoned the Mad Celestials in the first place).
• I guess all of them split up according to the infographic word bubble map. Could those locations correspond to the Four Cities? I don't think so since the Negative Zone and Inhuman City-Ship are not on Earth, but maybe we'll get an answer in the future.
• So Val disagrees with her father's decision to choose his family! That's crazy!
• Val makes a deal with Doom; she'll restore his intelligence if he promises to help Reed. Why will Reed need Doom's help?
• Silver Surfer discovers the corpse of OML-future Galactus!

Fantastic Four #584 - "Congratulations, Mister Grimm. You're Handsome Again!"

• Nu-Ben and Johnny take the city by storm! (Get it?)
• The revamped Yancy Street gang is hilarious.
• Sue goes to Mutopia to rendezvous with Namor as they set forth for the Peak of Old Atlantis to arrange a peace treaty between both kingdoms.
• Reed observes strange spatial energy bleeds dubbed the Fault and the Crunch.
• He is confronted by Silver Surfer and Galactus himself regarding the corpse of the alter-Galactus from OML-timeline. 

Fantastic Four #585 - "The Kings of Atlantis!"

• God damn it, Namor! Still badass though, and don't think it didn't notice the reuse of his line in HOX/POX!
• Reed joins Galactus and Surfer on their way to Nu-World. It's in a different dimension IIRC, but Surfer found a bleed that will let them access it.
• While Surfer goes to collect some other individuals with similar energy signatures as the dead Galactus, he reveals to Reed that Franklin's powers have been reactivated, and that he feared a confrontation.
• The Other Side of Zero/Anti-Priests prepare to invade the Baxter Building, activate the Negative Zone portal, and unleash a second Annihilation Wave upon the universe.

Fantastic Four #586 - "World-Eater!"

• From bad to worse!
• The peeps Surfer got were Ted and Alyssa!
• The reason for the apocalypse of the OML-Timeline besides the superhero-genocide is a result of the Sun dying after too much of its energy is consumed.
• Reed plans on using the Farm planets + star-surgery to prevent the death of Galactus and the decay of the sun from occurring.
• Galactus wants to eat Nu-World, and they try to ferry the remaining population off the planet through the last remaining gate.
• Namor reveals that the Old Kings are actually malevolent in nature and want to pillage the world like they did in the old days. They use Sue as bait and plan to kill her.
• Negative Priests and bug dudes invade the Baxter Building and blow a hole in Reed's portal, unleashing the Annihilation Wave from the Negative Zone.

Fantastic Four #587 - "The Last Stand!"

• Whaaat! So Leech has been rooming with Franklin so he can hold back his reality warping powers! So smart, I never would have guessed!
• RIP Johnny! But if nothing can die in the Negative Zone...
• The Old Kings reject Namor's prejudice and name Susan as their new queen.
• Reed opens the gate back to Earth, bringing Alyssa, Ted, Lightwave, Maestro Bruce Jr, and the collective conscious of humanity in Natalie X. Galactus destroys Nu-World.

Fantastic Four #588 - "Month of Mourning" [2/23/11]

• Nathanial Richards is back! Every boy needs his father!
• That sequence of Reed staring at the priority threat list was perfect.
• Loved the Peter/Franklin back-up!

Fantastic Four #575-582 Annotations

[The Prime Elements]

Fantastic Four #575 - "The Abandoned City of the High-Evolutionary" [1/27/10]

• There is chaos in the underworld!
• Mole Man! Moloids!
• High Evolutionary! Abandoned City! Darwin Bubble!
• Prose is kind of confusing: Mole Man says that when HE activated the Ascension Engine, it started de-evolving everyone, so they had to escape. But since they didn't turn it off, the city kept going up. Some Moloids ended up arriving in the city and getting de-evolved into humans. But shouldn't that mean they were evolved? He even says that if HE had stayed in the city, he would have had extreme intelligence. That should mean that the city evolves instead of de-evolving!
• Oh dang! The Galactus from 2509/Old Man Logan Universe!
• So the Moloids devolving enhances their intelligence and reverts them to human-like beings, but everybody else gets de-evolved.
• So the FF adopts those evolved Moloids, while the risen Forever/Future City attempts to establish it's own sovereignty.

Fantastic Four #576 - "The Old Kings of Atlantis"

• The Peak: secret off-shoot Atlantis in the South Pole, Antarctica.
• Three Old Kings: Crab (Mala), fish (Uhari), shark/eel (Chordai).
• Susan is elected as the representative of humanity.
• King Ul-Uhar.
• OHHHHHHH! The reason why it has to be her is because her connection with Namor!
• The Spiral device to communicate.

Fantastic Four #577 - "Universal Inhumans"

• What! Crazy crazy dumps!
• So TLDR, the Kree didn't just experiment on Earth, they went to four other planets!
• The Kree's plan is to use the Inhumans as a harvesting ground to prevent the Kree from genetic stagnation.
• Horse people Kymellians, fin headed Centurions, lizard-like Badoon, and the crab Dire-Wraiths.
• These four Inhuman cultures live on the Inhuman City-Ship and have arrived on the blue area of the Moon. They are each led by a respective queen, and all of the queens are wives of Black Bolt, the Midnight King of all Universal Inhumans.
• Black Bolt and the earth-Inhumans have departed from the moon with Attilan and gone to Hala, the Kree hom-world, to jump the Supreme Intelligence.
• And when he comes back, he wants to make Earth a haven for Inhumans, a new Hala!
• Eldrac the Doorway!
• Dal Damoc, the Summoner, The Wayfinder!
• The Light Brigade: six of the greatest Inhuman warriors formed to take part in the Offering, a ritual where they face an endless number of trials to prove the worth of the Inhumans. The Offering ends when the last member of the Brigade dies.

Fantastic Four #578 - "The Cult of the Negative Zone" [4/28/10]

• Annihilation Aftermath: Annihilus was killed by Nova but left behind eggs to hatch a new body.
• Blastaar takes over the Negative Zone, and has expanded his territory, including annexing the prison known as 42.
• YOOOOOOOO!
• Cool spin on the Negative Zone being an inverted universe: reverse Big Bang, cold to hot, the universe is living instead of dying. It's not expanding, it's shrinking. It's getting hotter!
• Other-Side of Zero club, Cult of the Negative Zone, Anti-Priests.
• New & improved Negative Zone portal in the Baxter Building.
• Prison 42 has been transformed into a city by the reborn forces of Annihilus.
• Give us a battle we cannot win! Epic! The Light Brigade enters the Negative Zone to war against the Annihilation Wave!
• The War of Four Cities has Begun!

[To Do The Impossible...]

Fantastic Four #579 - "The Future Foundation" [5/26/10]

• "The future of man is not here... it is out there."
• Oh my god. That might have been one of the greatest speeches I've ever read in comic book prose. Reed has been cemented as Hickman's avatar; I could feel him coming through the pages and speaking to me. Easily one of the best moments of the run so far.
• What did Sue ask the old kings for? = revealed at the end of this issue to be two Atlantean foreign exchange students who join the newfound Future Foundation!
• Moloid role call! Turg (floating head), Korr (baby), Mik (blue shirt), Tong (sweatshirt).
• They discover that there is a curved axis connecting three of the cities, and a radius that reflects onto the location of the Negative Zone portal.
• Ted is still on Nu-World, but makes a bubble to protect him and his stuff from the time dilation. He creates a new synthetic Alyssa Moy.
• Alex Ultron and his robo-peeps colonize an uninhabited moon and begin terraforming.
• Natalie X is still on Nu-World, and she evolves her power to become a hive-mind for the remnants of humanity still left on Nu-World.
• Lightwave dreams of serving Galactus.
• Banner Jr continues to grow older.
• So Artie, using the helmet the kids gave him, can project the internal blueprints for any object.
• Loved the interaction between Reed and the Wizard. His biblical metaphors are wonderful!
• What could he be hinting at? How will the world burn if Reed doesn't solve everything? What did he see in his visions!?!
• The Future Foundation is born!

Fantastic Four #580 - "The Frank-Tastic Four"

• "I promise... I've given up games of murder."
• What is the problem the FF have found a solution to that Reed never could = SO the kids found out how to cure ben! One week a year sounds like a great deal to me.
• Nu-World Update! Ted finally perfects the synthetic Alyssa Moy-2515 who can access the original long-lost memories of the original Alyssa! He and Nu-Alyssa leave a Moypilot to man the World-Ship's orbit around the singularity as they depart back to Earth. He also dumps 640+ years of info into his brain (which I'm assuming he collected while in the time bubble).
• Planet Ultron is complete after Alex Ultron finishes terraforming the moon.
• Natalie X becomes the collective conscious of humanity, a World-Mind.
• Lightwave is still dreaming of serving Galactus while Banner Jr becomes a version of the Maestro Hulk.
• The brawl in the arcade toy store was so much fun. I love Impossible Man, and pairing Franklin and Johnny is perfect. Can't forget about my boy Leech as well!
• Eager to see more dynamics between Franklin Valeria and Reed; that conflict of Franklin feeling put to the side needs to be explored!

Fantastic Four #581 - "When Everything's Lost, the Battle is Won"

• Val: "So we have a deal?"
• Johnny: "I don't wish it any more than you do."
• Doom: "Here I can build."
• SHIIIIIII
• Future-Franklin and Future-Val are working with Nathaniel Richards!
• So did Franklin remove something from his past self's mind to restore his powers? Some kind of mental block?
• Where are they? Franklin says he's going to use this weird void to build a pocket reality as an escape hatch. It's a new Eden at the end of time!
• How will Val fix the past?
• How will Nathanial fix the future?
• Nathanial Richards history lesson: He dipped on Reed to go and work for the SHIELD. When trying to stop Night Machine from detonating (See SHIELD #2), he became immortal and was given the ability to travel through time. However, every single incarnation of Nathanial Richards from across the multiverse was pulled into reality 616. They landed 600,000 years in the future, and were confronted by Immortus, a being empowered by the TVA to police time. Seeing all these Nathanials with temporal abilities as an obvious threat to the timestream, he devised a compromise where they would have to choose only one Nathanial to live while the others die. All of the variants turn on each other, and 616 Nathanial refuses to take part in this great hunt, opting instead to run and hide across the timestream/multiverse.
• We meet the last Nathanial, and he's built a Frankenstein-playground made up of artifacts from human history called Chronopolis. 

Fantastic Four #582 - "...Because of All These Things I've Done" [8/25/10]

• So the last Nathanial is called The Beast.
• The Chrononauts are a task force put together by Kang according to the Marvel wiki. More connections between Nathanial Richards and Kang-thanial!
• So if Nathanial has never killed anyone, does that mean it was Howard who killed Night Machine in the pages of SHIELD?
• Loved proto-Doom! Him smashing in the Beast's face in was hilarious!
• OH MY GOD THE LONG GAME! VALERIA IS LITERALLY TALKING ABOUT SECRET WARS 5 YEARS BEFORE IT HAPPENED!
• Could the bad future they've been mentioning since the beginning of this run be the Old Man Logan future that they're trying to prevent from Millar's run? = Nope!
• Val and Franklin and Nathanial have made changes to the timeline to prevent some cataclysmic future, but they won't survive to see it.
• I love it! Franklin kicks Nathanial out of the White-Space because he wants Reed to be with his dad! Every boy needs his father!
• Val says only Sue can hold the F4 together! There will be a moment when she wants to give up, but she must look to the sky and remember that the price was paid.
• Val gets back to the pocket-Eden in the white-space, but they won't make it to the new future before the revision wave hits. They decide to hit what we Brazilians call a "Jacare" beneath the wave and tunnel their way through. They jump into the void!