by Kevin Gaussoin, Editor-in-Chief

Official Lead-In:
When the Baxter Building was attacked by a horde of invaders from the Negative Zone, Mr. Fantastic shunted it and the surrounding city block into a temporal pocket for protection. Everyone contained within will reappear, safe and sound–but in one year’s time. Among the displaced are both the Thing and Alicia’s children, as well as Franklin and Valeria Richards. While en route to the Thing’s Aunt Petunia’s home, the remaining members of the FF battled the sorcerer Nicholas Scratch. Before escaping, Scratch teleported the team to the Dark Dimension. The exposure to the dimensional energies altered the Fantastic Four’s genetic structures, but they were able to restore themselves and escape. The team hit the road once more–but unknowingly brought back other-dimensional bacteria that could cause global extinction!

Marvel Comics presents The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine: Fantastic Four #6 (really #699) “A Shot In The Dark”

It’s Clobberin’ Time! But just how reasonable is clobbering when it comes to eliminating a necessary 100% of these mirror universe bacteria? Should they employ Ant Man to look for the racist bacteria with goatees? Join Sue and Johnny as they save the world from left-handed sugars by power-stunting the heck out of Sue’s invisibility schtick. Taking the fate of the world into their own hands without asking the world permission first can’t possibly have any negative repercussions, right? Before you answer, remember that this is Fantastic Four 699 so next issue is #700 for the series. Yes, you’ll definitely want this lead in to the upcoming milestone issue.

For that matter, you’ll probably want this whole latest Fantastic Four run. I’m an old-fashioned comic collector and renumbering really irritates me, but so long as they go back to real “legacy” numbering, I’ll be fine. Back in my day we didn’t need new number one issues to start collecting and reading a series. We jumped in with both feet when we saw an awesome cover and if that turned out to be mid-story rather than a true “jumping-on point”, we either searched for back issues or we figured out how we got here by reading current issues. We didn’t even have Wikipedia!

This issue is written by Ryan North (you may know him by the horrifying Darkhold: Iron Man, the delightful Power Pack: Outlawed, or The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl) with art by Iban Coello (Venom: King in Black, Captain Marvel, Dark Ages) and colors by Jesus Aburtov (Captain America: Symbol of Truth) and lettering by VC’s Joe Caramagna. Cover A and B are by the legendary Alex Ross and Cover C is by Kaare Andrews.

I’m ready for Fantastic Four issue 700 already. The cliffhanger at the end of Fantastic Four 699 seemed a little out of character to me, but I’m going to trust that the creative team that has given us such a wonderfully fun ride thus far is going to really pay off next issue.

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives Fantastic Four #6 (LGY #699) 4 our of 5 first families

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