Marvel’s first family is on a quest to find a cure for a disease that is breaking down the cells within Mr. Fantastic. However, no one knows that! Everyone thinks it’s actually an extended family vacation and it was only last issue that Susan found out her husband was quite literally falling apart.
The only married couple to ever last in the Marvel universe aren’t on the greatest terms in this issue and the family can tell that Susan is pissed. In an effort to give them some time alone, Johnny, Ben, and the kids decide to take a little trip to give them time to work things out.
As the trip involves members of the Fantastic Four it’s of course going to be just slightly exciting. Actually my only annoyance with the issue stems from how easy it is for the first family to get back to Earth and apparently at any time period. (I have a feeling this will also bother me in the Age of Ultron crossover issue.)
On a side note, the point of the FF series is that they are doing things while the Fantastic Four are gone for too long of a length of time but right here it shows that shouldn’t be an issue. I suspect we’re going to either gloss over this at the series end or more likely something is going to happen to their ship.
So Ben, Johnny and the kids end up going to the past because they are arguing over something that Julius Caesar did. More of them were arguing over exactly how he died. I really enjoyed how they decided to costume Thing in the past and the entire sets of wardrobe and buildings were illustrated perfectly for the time period. They really did a good job at meshing the tone of the book with the art presented as it had a brighter feel then most Marvel books these days.
When they go back to investigate they find out that Julius Caesar is in fact a time traveler as well. He had come back in time and found that Caesar had died right at that moment, quite likely by his actions. To atone for changing the timeline he took Julius’ place and carried out the rest of his life as history taught him it should be.
While all of this is going on we see that Reed and Sue work out their differences. They move past their problems and will be stronger for it. Typical on how they work things out. Still it’s quickly explained away so there isn’t any ongoing drama, at least between them at this time.
The fantastic four members who are still in the past ended up helping him take his body away as was foretold in history and get him back to his ship. Overall it was an entertaining and relaxing story line compared to the last few issues but it does set us up for things to come.
As we flash back to modern day times we see that the time traveler who took over Julius Caesar is now going to pay back his debt to the Fantastic Four while they are away. It’s unclear what that means but this is clearly going to cross into the FF story line in the upcoming issues and a great way to tie the books together once more.
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Mark Bagley