Marvel Database
Marvel Database
Marvel Database
262,686
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in: Heroes Reborn (1996 Event), Comics, Fantastic Four Vol 2,
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English

Fantastic Four Vol 2 1

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Appearing in "Renaissance"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Dr. Isaac Herbert (Death)
  • Matthew Storm (First appearance)

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Realities:

Locations:

Races and Species:

Items:

  • Quantum drive
  • Space suits

Vehicles:

  • The Excelsior
  • Ben’s Jeep
  • Johnny’s Diablo sports car
  • Sue’s private jet

Synopsis for "Renaissance"

In space, orbiting Earth, is the spaceship known as the Excelsior. The pilot, Major Ben Grimm, is surprised to see Sue Storm and Johnny Storm aboard as he believes the flight to be too dangerous. Suddenly warning indicators go off as radiation floods the ship. Dr. Reed Richards is also aboard and tries to fix the situation. As Ben watches on, Johnny seems to burst into flames. Ben can do nothing as his body becomes heavier and pins him to the floor. Ben hears a noise and someone calling his voice.

Ben snaps awake and realises the events that he’d just witnessed were a dream. In reality, Ben fell asleep during a simulation designed to gather data that could then be transferred to the real Excelsior. Dr. Reed Richards and Dr. Isaac Herbert have been watching the simulation on a monitor, and Reed notes that if Ben hadn’t been injured in the Gulf War then he’d probably be piloting the real Excelsior when it makes its flight into space.

Reed opens the simulator to let Ben out. Once outside they gaze up at the Excelsior. Reed has created a new Quantum drive which will power the propulsion system and shielding of the Excelsior as it heads into space to explore a stellar anomaly. Richards is then brought data which takes up his attention, leaving Ben to answer a telephone call from Sue Storm that was intended for Reed. Sue is at the offices of the Storm Foundation in New York. She tells Ben that she’ll be flying out to Central City, where Reed and Ben are working, in the evening so that she and her brother, Johnny, can input the final launch codes for the Excelsior. Ben offers to collect her when she arrives and drive her to Vandemeer.

After the call ends, Sue has a meeting with her uncle, Matthew Storm, who introduces her to S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Agent Wyatt Wingfoot. Matthew then tells Sue that Wingfoot is now in charge of the Excelsior Project. Sue asks who authorised that decision and Wingfoot tells her the President of the United States authorised it. The decision came after the National Space Agency informed the White House of an energy fluctuation within the stellar anomaly. The fluctuation poses a threat to America and Wingfoot is going to use Excelsior, under the new name “Project One”, to deal with it. He informs Sue that he and his men will travel with her to Vandemeer to take custody of the ship. Any protestations by Sue, or her father and brother, who aren’t aware of this decision yet, are deemed irrelevant.

Back in Central City, Reed and Isaac watch a broadcast of “American Tabloid” hosted by Colleen Chang. She tells her viewers that the place just outside Central City she’s reporting from, known as Area 52, has been a place that has seen a lot of reported UFO activity. Conspiracy theorists have linked this to a secret military base in the area which they feel is run by a clandestine government agency seeking to make contact with alien life. Colleen says that these claims coincide with the news of the stellar anomaly.

Isaac switches off the broadcast. Reed notes that much of Colleen’s report wasn’t far from the truth. As he goes over the data, Reed believes that the stellar anomaly could be a sub-space wormhole. He begins to wonder why their activity needs to be kept secret from the public. Reed begins to hypothesise that sub-atomic particles coming from the anomaly may be a message from another quadrant of space. Reed says that this could be their chance to make contact with alien life, which is why he agreed to take charge of the project for the Storm Foundation. Isaac has no doubts about Reed’s efforts, but isn’t so sure about Ben being involved.

Ben drives a Jeep across the desert so that he can collect Sue from the airport. Suddenly a $250,000 Diablo sports car drives up alongside him, and Ben is greeted by an attractive woman in the passenger seat of the car. Ben believes the woman is interested in him, but it turns out be a prank perpetrated by Johnny Storm, in the driver’s seat. Johnny speeds ahead, turns the Diablo around and challenges Ben to a game of Chicken. Ben, tired of Johnny’s antics, takes him up on the challenge, which ends with Johnny veering off the road. After Ben checks to make sure they’re okay he drives off to collect Sue. Meanwhile Tiffany, Johnny’s passenger, berates Johnny as he grumbles about losing to Ben.

A short while later, at Central City Airport, Sue’s private jet has landed. Ben arrives to collect her and Sue introduces him to Wingfoot. When they arrive at Vandemeer everyone is shocked to find that Wingfoot is there to take over the project from Reed. After an outburst from Ben, Wingfoot orders that Ben and Reed be locked up. Sue and Johnny are given no choice other than to input the launch codes, after which Johnny is knocked out and Wingfoot orders the siblings to be locked up too. Wingfoot then murders Dr. Herbert. After Sue and Johnny are taken away, Wingfoot contacts Doctor Doom. Doom is the person for whom Wingfoot is really working, after Doom provided Wingfoot with faked credentials. Doom intends to use the Excelsior, loaded with missiles and scanners, to attack the anomaly.

In the Detention Block, Reed and Ben watch as the missiles are loaded aboard the Excelsior. They speculate about Wingfoot’s plan. As they’re being taken to the Detention Block, Johnny and Sue are able to overcome the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents escorting them. They then help Reed and Ben escape. The four then don spacesuits and prepare to board the prototype ship to try and stop the Excelsior from carrying out the attack mission. They see the Excelsior launch. Ben warns them that the prototype will get them into space, but doesn’t have the same fuel capacity and shielding of the Excelsior.

The prototype takes off and Wingfoot is informed that Reed’s group have flown after the Excelsior. Once in orbit, the prototype approaches the Excelsior. As it does, sensor readings indicate that someone within the anomaly is trying to communicate. As Reed studies the wormhole and sees a figure begin to emerge, the Excelsior fires missiles at the anomaly. The missiles explode flooding the area with radiation. To stop the prototype ship breaking apart, Ben shuts down the gamma core, which means the shielding is compromised and radiation floods the ship. As Ben fights with the controls to allow the others to reach escape pods, he realises this is exactly like the dream he’d had during the simulation.

Wingfoot is informed that the Excelsior will return to base, but the prototype ship broke up upon re-entry and has crashed into the Caribbean Sea. Before the ship broke up, however, four escape pods jettisoned from it.

Somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle, the pod containing Johnny has smashed open. Suddenly Johnny bursts into flames and flies into the air. He splashes down into the sea which extinguishes the flames. As he climbs onto the shore he finds elongated flesh which turns out to belong to Reed. As Reed recovers he tells Johnny that what’s happened to them is because of the cosmic radiation, as well as saying that he doesn’t know how long they may have to live after exposure to it. Reed retrieves the black box that was onboard the prototype and hopes that the memory chip will yield more information. The two then go in search of Sue and Ben.

Ben, elsewhere on the island, is recovering from his landing. Suddenly his body begins turning to rock. It causes him intense pain. His anguished cries are heard by Sue. She hears another noise and comes across the quantum drive from the prototype ship. Its containment shell has been damaged which has caused the reactor to become unstable. The quantum drive could explode which would destroy the island. She makes her way to a cave and finds Ben, now transformed into an orange rock-like monster. The two of them are then attacked by an unidentified assailant.

Sue’s cries during the attack alert Reed and Johnny and they race to find her. The ground below them gives way and they fall into a tunnel. There they are lifted by strange creatures and carried through the tunnel. Stone pillars with symbols similar to ones linked to the wormhole make Reed realise that this island is one of two places on Earth linked to the anomaly. They see Sue and Ben chained to a sacrificial altar. A monster approaches and menaces Sue. Suddenly she disappears. Ben turns and seeing no sign of Sue believes that the monster ate her. He breaks the chains and punches the monster. She reappears, having previously turned invisible.

Reed and Johnny launch a rescue effort as the monster returns to the altar. The group also spots the quantum drive, now underground with them, which is still in danger of exploding. The ruler of the underground land reveals himself and introduces himself as the Mole Man. He proclaims that thanks to “the great one” he now has the power to bring mankind to its knees, starting with the four of them.

Notes

Continuity Notes[]

  • This entire story is a re-imagining of Fantastic Four #1. Some pages mirror others. Page 1 mirrors page 10 of Fantastic Four #1. The team places their hands together in the same way they did in that same issue, albeit before they take their fateful flight.
  • The Moloids took the time to put flowers in Sue’s hair and a necklace around her neck. Whether this was part of the sacrifice to the unnamed monster or whether they just felt she needed a new look is unclear.
  • When Ben asks Wingfoot if he’s in Central City for the waters, it’s a reference to the movie Casablanca, which presumably exists on Counter-Earth.
  • Wyatt Wingfoot is really the Skrull known as Kl'rt as seen in Fantastic Four (Vol. 2) #5, also revealed that issue is that the alien encountered in space is the Silver Surfer.

Publication Notes[]

  • Plot by Lee, script by Choi.
  • This issue shipped with two different variant covers distributed at a 1:1 ratio.
  • Behind the scenes appearance of the Heroes Reborn Silver Surfer. He is what exits from the stellar anomaly. He will not be fully seen until Fantastic Four (Vol. 2) #5.

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