Appearing in "70 Million Years BC and then Some!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- U.S. Army soldiers
- 82nd Airborne Division
- ⏴ Lieutenant Glazier
- Wabash
- Kunkle
- 82nd Airborne Division
Antagonists:
- Dinosaurs
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
- Kronosaurus (Death)
- Time Variance Authority (Unnamed)
- Mobius M. Mobius (First appearance) (Unnamed)
- Chronomonitors (First appearance) (Unnamed)
Other Characters:
- Nebula (Vision or hallucination)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Pacific Ocean
- Null-Time Zone (Unnamed)
- Hall of Chronometry (First appearance) (Unnamed)
Items:
Vehicles:
- raft
Synopsis for "70 Million Years BC and then Some!"
Trapped on an island from the Mesozoic Era, the Fantastic Four and US Army troops under the command of Lieutenant Glazier have discovered that the island is gradually being pulled back to its own era. With their time sled lost with the part of the island that has already vanished, they quickly realize that they must find an alternate means of getting off the island or else they too will fade away into the past. When Sharon's knowledge of Mesozoic plant-life enables her to realize that the flora on the island is from different chronological periods, from the Triassic Period through the Jurassic Period to the Cretaceous Period, she realizes that the island seems to be zoned and that it was the oldest Triassic zone that disappeared first. This causes Reed to realize that their best chance of maximizing the time left to them is to hurry back to the far side of the island as quickly as possible. Along the way, Johnny thinks about their current situation and about how he cannot get thoughts of Nebula out of his mind. He also wonders how, if they get out of this, he will explain this to his wife Alicia.
Two days later, everyone is on a beach in a cove on the far side of the island and are hard at work building a raft large enough to get them all off the island. When they're almost out of the creepers that they'll need to complete the raft, the FF volunteer to make a collecting run to their first camp site. During the walk there, Sharon and Ben spend a moment to themselves. Sharon confides in Ben how she loves finally being back in her female form again after months being a She-Thing and how she isn't sure she wants to leave this place if it means becoming a Thing again. Ben is hurt by this, telling her that one doesn't really appreciate what they have until it is lost.
Later, after they've spent a few hours harvesting the needed creepers, the five are just about to head back to the beach when they become aware that something big is heading toward them so Ben puts on the head of his Thing exoskeleton to be ready for a fight. However, when the dinosaur comes crashing through the trees, it turns out to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Ben rushes in to battle the giant dinosaur but finds it more of a threat than he had expected. When the T-Rex tries to swallow Ben, Reed, Johnny and the others come to his aid by stabbing it in the ankle with some spears. With Ben free from the creature's maw, Sharon throws a spear into one of its arms, angering the massive dinosaur into chasing after her. Sharon then lures it to a nearby cliff where the edge of the cliff crumbles beneath both her and the T-Rex, causing them both to fall. When Ben rushes to see if she fell to her death, he is relieved to see that she managed to grab hold of a vine hanging off the cliff edge. After they pull her to safety, the area beyond the cliff begins to swirl with temporal energies. Realizing that another section of the island is about to vanish, the Fantastic Four rush back over the Jurassic-Cretaceous border, just narrowly avoiding being shunted away with the section of the island that is now disappearing. After this incident, Sharon tells Ben that she would rather live as a Thing than die on this island and decides that she will be leaving with them after all.
Two days later, the construction of the massive raft is completed just as the volcano on the island begins to erupt. The Fantastic Four and the soldiers all climb aboard and paddle out to sea, with Ben pulling them away from shore with his exoskeleton's great strength. However, at a certain distance away from the island, they hit some kind of invisible barrier that prevents them from leaving the general area and Reed theorizes that it's the true perimeter of the time disruption within which they have been trapped. While Ben tries to smash through it, their raft is attacked by a Kronosaurus. The soldiers use their weapons to kill the creature but its dead body is still moving and threatens to ram the raft. However, before that happens, the barrier opens up in front of them, allowing the raft to pass through into their own time. As they watch, the island disappears behind them, followed, to their surprise, by the raft which had been constructed out of material from the island, leaving the group stranded in the ocean. However, Sue is the first to realize that their powers are back and uses her invisibility powers to create an invisible raft for them all to ride on. Johnny then flames on and flies off to signal a ship to rescue them. Realizing that she is changing back into a She-Thing, Sharon breaks down in tears, but Ben holds her close telling her that he has a few ideas on how to solve their current problems and will see them through no matter what.
Elsewhere in time and space, the Time Variance Authority reports that the Fantastic Four have been remanded to the custody of their local timeline pending a personal appearance before the board of the TVA, that regional temporal disruptions have been repaired, and that all powers have been restored at the local level. One member points out that none of these recent events would have happened if another department had been paying attention.
Notes
Continuity Notes[]
- Johnny is hung up on a woman named Nebula in this story. Some facts...:
- In Avengers #291 when she joined the Council of Cross-Time Kangs this woman claimed to be the space pirate known as Nebula.
- In reality she is actually Kang's lover Ravonna who was put in a death like coma in Avengers #24. She was later revived by the Grandmaster, as seen in Avengers Annual #21, after Kang gave up the power to save her life to instead try to destroy the Avengers (as seen in Avengers #71). When the Grandmaster revealed the truth, Ravonna decided to get revenge against her lover, developing the Nebula cover to infiltrate the Cross-Time Kangs and get her revenge.
- "Nebula" was seemingly destroyed with the Time Bubble in Fantastic Four #341, however in reality she survived and is seen again in Avengers Spotlight #37.
- Nebula possessed Johnny's body from Fantastic Four #337–341.
- Nebula was seemingly slain when the Time Bubble was destroyed, however she appears again in Avengers Spotlight #37.
- Some explanations about why the Alicia Masters situation here is awkward:
- On Earth-616, Alicia Masters was the long time girlfriend of Ben Grimm since Fantastic Four #9.
- While Ben was on Battleworld in Thing #11–Thing #22, it appeared that there was a budding romance between Johnny and Alicia as seen in the pages of Fantastic Four #265–277.
- In reality, as later revealed in Fantastic Four #358, the real Alicia on Earth-616 was replaced by the Skrull spy known as Lyja to spy on the Fantastic Four. This happened circa Fantastic Four #265.
- "Alicia" later married Johnny in Fantastic Four #300.
- Ben meanwhile went on to pursue a relationship with Ms. Marvel since she joined the team in Fantastic Four #307, following her mutation in Fantastic Four #310 into a She-Thing. The two began a relationship in Fantastic Four #317.
- Ms. Marvel mentions how she gave up her femininity because she hated it. Some facts:
- Sharon was raped by minions of Karl Malus in Captain America #330–331. This caused her to be afraid of men, which caused problems when she initially joined the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #307.
- Eventually she was mutated into a She-Thing by cosmic rays in Fantastic Four #310
- Although she was suicidal at first in Fantastic Four #311, Sharon eventually came to terms with her transformation in Fantastic Four #312. Later she and Ben formed a relationship in Fantastic Four #317, due to the fact that they were both Things.
- Ben was restored to human form in Fantastic Four #326, leading to some tension between the two over Ben's comfort being human again, and Sharon's desire to remain a She-Thing.
- Ben's promise to Sharon is actually to revert himself back to his Thing form, which he does in Fantastic Four #350.
- The Time Variance Authority go after the Fantastic Four again in Fantastic Four #352–354.
- The members of the Fantastic Four appear in the following publications after this story:
- Reed and Sue are next seen in Power Pack #56
- Ben appears again in the 3rd story of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #24
- Johnny and Sharon appear in Fantastic Four Annual #23