Today, we dive into the back issue bin for the first time outside the holiday season, but still could have been thematically appropriate because it’s all about family. In fact, it’s about Marvel’s first family: the Fantastic Four!

1998 was a weird year for Marvel, though you could argue that for every year. 1998 was the first year “back” for some of Marvel’s oldest franchises, with a vast percentage of Marvel’s non-mutant population being sucked into an alternate Earth made of the weirdest excesses of the 90s, like Rob Liefeld. During their time away, the Fantastic Four lost their home at Four Freedoms Plaza. The city of New York gave the floors of the Four Freedoms Plaza to the new heroic team Thunderbolts, who totally aren’t villains pretending to be heroes, we promise. Instead, the FF have chosen to live with their stored items, at Pier 4 on the shores of New York.

Our story opens late one night, with Ben Grimm putting together a midnight snack. Falling over one of young Franklin Richards’ rollerskates, Ben winds up waking Franklin up, but does share with the sleepy child the secret of the ultimate sandwich.

Ben’s appetite is temporarily ruined when Franklin points out that everyone has a lot of different last names, but isn’t everyone supposed to have the same last name in a family? Ben gives a quick history lesson by pointing out that Sue Richards used to be Sue Storm, but when asked about himself…

Ben may put up a boisterous front, bragging about how he’s the idol of millions, but he’s a genuinely lonely guy. His ex-squeeze Alicia Masters had been married to Johnny Storm in the earlier runs, only to turn out to be a Skrull, with the original Alicia being perfectly fine and on the west coast… and no longer romantically entangled with Ben. Now that Ben himself is back, he doesn’t really want to drag Alicia back into this kind of life either.

Johnny Storm comes back from a date while Ben is away from his sandwich, and teases him about the food. Chasing after him, Ben finds Reed in his lab, and Sue demanding absolute privacy while his latest tests proceed.

Ben finds a door, wrenches a stuck handle to open the door, and is fried.

Ben wakes up in the middle of the day on the docks, but Pier 4 has completely vanished! Trudging away from the undamaged, but empty docks, he notices that the Four Freedoms Plaza has been restored back to normal. He suspects something weird is happening, but Ben is quickly grabbed up by a celebratory Human Torch, who’s utterly pleased that Ben is “back in town.”

Dropping Ben off through the wall of Four Freedoms Plaza as it expands open and allows the two of them inside, Ben is in for another shock. Torch is… old!

Something is truly off here. It doesn’t help that Sue calls in from Mars to update everyone on their archaeological dig… while Reed yells at the grandson of a Doctor Jones. Who wears a fedora.

Also, there’s a baby on the way? What? Ben is quickly overwhelmed as the current status quo hits him in the face. Long running family member of the Fantastic Four, Crystal, is on the team and is Johnny Storm’s wife. She isn’t pregnant, though. That’s actually… Princess Zawadi?

Wakandan royalty in this time, Zawadi comes from Marvel Universe #4 from a few months back… I think. The book is vague about this, but it would make some sense. Still, she has married Franklin Richards, and the two are expecting their first child together. Franklin has also changed as well, not only (finally) growing older, but wearing a circlet of Vibranium on his head. Apparently, his cosmic powers have kicked into overdrive, with the nickname of Zero Man being used by Franklin himself.

Feeling overwhelmed, Ben takes a seat, only for it to attack! Ben hurls the chair at the wall, only for it to turn out to be one of the children of the Fantastic Four, Ray Storm. The hole left in the wall from Ray’s impact also reveals the other younger Storm, Luna. The family rebel, she was trying to sneak out for the day. As Ben catches up with the future(?), he winds up hearing something that catches his attention.

1961. The Fantastic Four are 34 years old (as of 1998).

Considering Marvel runs under their weird compressed timeline, the Fantastic Four have only been around for about 10 years, with the rest of the modern Marvel comics happening during that time frame. You kind of just ignore it or grin and bear it at this point. It only really gets awkward when things like the original Secret Empire show up, led by evil Richard Nixon to take control of the USA.

In 1974, this made sense. In a time period of “roughly 5 years ago” from 1998, it starts to get a little weird. Maybe future reprints will implicate Donald Trump instead.

Ben Grimm goes out to pick up a poker game at the Avengers mansion. It’s just Wolverine, Thor, Doc Strange, and Ben. As the cards are dealt out, Strange brings up shop talk. As it turns out, Banner was pushing 70 years old, and his heart gave out as he was turning into the Hulk. Daredevil retired, and is helping Matt Murdock open schools for the handicapped. Captain America died in Oklahoma City… presumably from the 1995 bombing. As for Spider-Man? He’s somehow… immortal, or at least seemingly unaging after the death of Gwen Stacy.

Returning home, Ben is surprised by an intruder! Luna has snuck her boyfriend in, and he’s using these weird gravity discs. Despite floating upside down after a long night of poker, Ben isn’t a fool either. You see, Luna’s boyfriend is actually…

And with the Wizard comes the Frightful Four: Blastaar the Living Bomb Burst, Quicksand, and the Hooded Haunt! A massive brawl begins, with the new Fantastic Four and the Frightful Four  mixing it up. However, when Blastaar aims at Zawadi, Franklin loses his shit and becomes a living gateway to the Negative Zone.

The entire Frightful Four are dragged inside quite fast, and it looks like the entirety of Four Freedoms Plaza is going to be dragged inside the Negative Zone. Luckily, an invisible forcefield locks away the suction, and a pair of elastic arms slip a vibranium crown onto Franklin’s head. Reed and Sue have come home just in time to save the day, and for their  grandson’s birth! However, Ben starts to feel dizzy and collapses…

...only to wake up back at Pier 4, with everyone gathered around him Wizard of Oz style. It turns out the door handle Ben wrenched was a particle accelerator of some kind, and it might just have kicked Ben into another universe for a few hours. Or not. Before everyone heads back to bed, Ben remembers his sandwich still is waiting for him to eat it.

This is a wonderful callback to the first time Franklin appeared in the comics, and I am always here for these callbacks and references. For those who don’t remember:

This is a wonderful comic overall. It’s a double-sized annual, so you’re already getting double your comic content for your buck. On top of that, I admit that I’ve always been a sucker for alternate universes, and seeing a Marvel Universe where they allow the characters to grow up and mature is great. Even if it’s just for an issue, it’s nice to see the writers do whatever they want without worrying about ticking off editorial or whiny fanboys.

Karl Kesel has a real knack for dialogue, and the future Fantastic Four feel organically grown. We just may be seeing the marriage of Johnny and Crystal for the first time, but it feels like there was content there we just have yet to see, rather than a random thought cooked up for a joke. The humor is delightful, with some clever references that I was surprised to see the first time around. The art team is great for this issue as well, and it just feels like the Fantastic Four in their prime. High props to a team assembled for an annual to make something this strong for what could have been a throw-away issue filled with reprint content.

Pick up this issue however you can, because it’s just fantastic. And since we’re in the back-issue bin, let's take a look at some of the actual honest-to-god advertisements from the comic.