Writer Jonathan Hickman
Penciler Steve Epting
Inkers Rick Magyar with Steve Epting
Colorist Paul Mounts
Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles
Cover Dated January 2012
I own a lot of Fantastic Four anniversary issues, is what I’ve learn from this Fantastic Four month.
This issue marks the 50th Anniversary and 600th issue of Fantastic Four. It is also 104 pages (get it? with the four pages?).
I’m glad to finally write this review as I know that it goes FF 11 -> Fantastic Four 600 but I kept having to recheck it in the days leading up to this post.
This issue has five chapters, but I am only concentrating on the first one.
Latveria. Doctor Doom, Nathaniel Richards and Alternate Reed Richards counterpart.
The Baxter Building. Home of the Future Foundation.
The Other Side of Zero. The Anti-Priest of Annihilus.
Attilan. Floating Citadel of the Inhumans.
The Forever City. The Reborn Supreme Intelligence of the Kree.
New York. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Assembled.
Anyone know what the difference between the different patterns on the Four’s uniforms? Or why they were choosen? I get that they represent the member, but why does Reed have a hollow top of the triangle. Sue has a hollow right side. Grimm has a hollow left side. Spider-Man has his spider symbol.
I side with comicbookdb.com over Marvel Database as saying that Kitty Pryde is in this issue.
See in the middle panel, with all of the heroes? There is a brunette with a yellow and blue uniform but a black mask. So people think it is Mockingbird but it is clearly Kitty Pryde but with a mask on. I say it is more that than Mockingbird wearing the wrong outfit and with the wrong colored hair.
But I’ve decided to leave Marvel Database alone, as I can’t say with hundred percent accuracy that this an official Shadowcat appearance. From FF 11, we know she is present but like in the Sentry arc of New Avengers, just because we know she is around, doesn’t mean it is worth keeping the issue but I believe there is a chance that is suppose to be Kitty.
The gathered heroes are about to fight the invading Kree ships.
Even with the stakes at an all time high, Namor finds an opportunity to hit on Sue in front everybody. Ben calls him on it.
Doctor Strange is fighting in a black business suit.
The Other Side of Zero. The Anti-Priest and his crew are upset as the Kree attack is not the end of the world they had planned. He seeks guidance from Annihilus. He recommends starting their plan immediately. They are going to siege the Baxter Building.
On the Other Side of the World. Castle Doom. For some reason, Nathaniel Richards is a young man instead of the age of a man whose son is in his fifties.
Kristoff, who is still around, surprisingly. He is the man on the throne. Nathaniel wants him to accept someone into the country. Doom is a prisoner of Nathaniel’s. Now that I have typed all of this, I believe Nathaniel Richards was the real name of Young Avengers’ Iron Lad.
Attilan. Black Bolt, Medusa and the Inhumans are caught in the middle of Earth and the Kree attack. Medusa wants them to leave but Black Bolt disagrees.
The art implies that there is a connection between Black Bolt and Supreme Intelligence. Which doesn’t make any sense as Supreme Intelligence was only re-created in the previous issue. Maybe it is only a transition panel, as next, we follow the Supreme Intelligence is chatting with Ronan the Accuser and his wife, Crystal.
The Supreme Intelligence reveals to the couple that long ago, the Accusers went around destroying the planets that the experiment that created the Inhumans, were also performed on. Ronan was not a part of this.
Earth. Captain America announces that they have pushed back the Kree. Reed gives the nod to Susan, she pushes a force field through Iron Man’s armor. The entire island of Manhattan is encased in a giant force field. Now there is a crashed ship inside the force field.
The Baxter Building. The kids are about to teleport the top three floors to the Moon, when some Negative Zone aliens appear.
Soho. The Thing is on his way to save Alicia. He brought along She-Hulk and Red Hulk. They have to fight several Kree Sentries.
Baxter Building. Alex Power is keeping back the aliens, as best as he can, alone. Leech has control over his turning off others powers.
Val is ready to teleport the floors, once Alex makes it up the stairs. I am not sure who this Bentley kid is.
Reed sees from a distance that the top three floors are gone. Reed sends Spider-Man to make sure no one was left behind.
The Negative Zone aliens are about to open the portal to the Negative Zone. Spider-Man starts fighting fools. The portal opens, revealing . . .
So this issue, besides being the 600th issue, is also known for Human Torch coming back to the land of the living. Hickman “killed” him off in an earlier issue, well, more like left him for dead in the Negative Zone.
There are additional stories, like the on-the-nose titled, What Happened to Johnny? but the main one is the reason why I bought this.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 