How ‘Fantastic Four’ #25 Opens Up a Universe of Possibilities

WARNING! THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR FANTASTIC FOUR #25, SO READ ON AT YOUR OWN RISK, TRUE BELIEVERS!

There’s never a dull moment for Marvel’s First Family of Super Heroes. The family recently grew when Ben Grimm AKA the Thing and Alicia Masters adopted the Skrull child Jo-Venn and his Kree counterpart N’Kalla. In this week’s FANTASTIC FOUR #25, Dan Slott and artist R.B. Silva first caught up with the new parents as they readied their kids for school. After some further consideration, they came to the decision to home school them for now.

Unfortunately for the entire Fantastic Four, there are much bigger problems to deal with.

Helmsman and his herald, Cormorant, have come to Earth seeking an object of immense power. Susan Richards AKA the Invisible Woman found out the hard way when Nick Fury Jr. recruited her to spy on Doctor Doom and his loyal follower, Victorious. This is not a new thing for Susan since she’s been a S.H.I.E.L.D. spy for years, as seen most recently in last year’s INVISIBLE WOMAN miniseries. But it was a new experience for Susan to see Doom’s defenses fall so easily to Cormorant’s might. More alarmingly, Doom orders both Victorious and Susan to stand down, because no Earthly power can withstand Cormorant... yet.

According to Doom, Cormorant, and by extension his master, are from a higher plane of existence. That would explain why the laws of physics don’t mean much to them. Cormorant subsequently demolished most of the Baxter Building with the Fantastix inside of it. Cormorant was looking for one of Reed Richards AKA Mister Fantastic’s greatest secrets, and that forced Doom and Susan to call a truce and summon the family.

For once, Reed allowed his son Franklin to dive straight into danger alongside the rest of the team. As seen in X-MEN/FANTASTIC FOUR, Franklin has been embracing his mutant heritage. That continued in this issue, as Franklin’s newfound love of mutant pop culture manifested in his bedroom aesthetics and taste in music. But this partially masked Franklin’s greatest fear: the fact that his powers have been fading away. In the fight against Cormorant, only Franklin’s might was able to give him pause. Sadly, it used up the last of Franklin’s abilities and left him powerless.

Franklin was also heartbroken to discover that the loss of his powers has also rendered him unable to go to Krakoa to summon help. He’s simply human now, and that’s going to be hard for Franklin to take. Yet the more pressing issue wasn’t even Cormorant. Once he was satisfied that Reed’s secret wasn’t what he was looking for, Cormorant simply left. But that was only after Cormorant unleashed the Zero Force, or "an energy that predates our very existence,” according to Doom. He was also jealous that Reed discovered it first.

Valeria came up with the solution of merging the Zero Force power with her new teleportation gate. But in doing so, she created another problem. The Forever Gate is now permanently locked in place at the site of the Baxter Building, and it can open a portal to any point in space or time. That left Reed with little choice but to reclaim the Baxter Building for his family so they can protect the gateway. Doom also decided to leave Victorious in New York as his ambassador, where she can also spy on the Richards clan. Now that the Forever Gate has been created, Cormorant is only the beginning. Other universal powers will soon seek it out.

Additionally, a back-up story by Slott and artist Paco Medina catches up with the Unseen moments after EMPYRE: FALLOUT – FANTASTIC FOUR #1. Uatu the Watcher lives again, several years after the original Nick Fury murdered him in ORIGINAL SIN. Fury became the Unseen after Uatu’s people punished him for that crime. Now that Uatu is back among the living, he isn’t letting the Unseen off the hook. Instead, Uatu offered the restored Nick Fury a new role as his herald. After all, there’s a Reckoning coming. Someone went through a lot of trouble to arm the Cotati with weapons from the First Race. That means there’s a war on the horizon. And now, the Watcher has a soldier of his own to watch his back.

What does this mean for the future of the Fantastic Four – and the entire Marvel Universe? You’ll have to keep reading FANTASTIC FOUR to find out!

And in case you missed it, the new Fantastic Four Fojis made their first appearance! You can download them for free today and share them on all your favorite platforms, wherever you want to profess your fandom for the Fantastic Four! (By downloading the Fantastic Four Foji you agree to be bound by the terms located here.)

FANTASTIC FOUR #25, written by Dan Slott with art by R.B. Silva and Paco Medina, is on sale now online and at your local comic shop!

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