The Fantastic Four #600

[sherkahn]

The threats just keep on coming.

And, oh yeah, we learn a truth about the nature of the Negative Zone.

MASSIVE SPOILERS and some gore behind the cut.



The War of Four Cities continues.


The Kree invade.
The Annihilation Wave invades.
The Inhuman king and his wife launch THEIR counter assault.
Namor and his Atlanteans hold the line.

And Earth's defenders hold back the assault on all fronts..

But that's not whatyou are here to see, you've seen it dozens of times in the past 40 years of Marvel. THIS IS what you came to see.

This is how the Human Torch died.


This is what triggered his return.


Turns out you can't really die in the Negative Zone, as the Anti-Priest kept preaching.

Here's how they did it.


And after months of repair and combat arena events and meeting up with the Light Brigade (members of the alien Inhuman elite from the Badoon/Centauri/Dire Wraiths/Kymelian queens) we come to this.


Johnny Storm now leads the Annihilation Wave.

I'm not doing this story justice. You need to get this. It's one of the better "returns" yet to occur in comics.


Welcome back, Johnny.

Comments

This isn't Annihilus

[blue_bolt]

Annihilus wanted to destroy everything (except the Negative Zone) to eradicate all threats to his life. He's all about living forever. Annihilus wanting to die is like Thanos wanting to live. IT'S NOT HIM.

Also can we get a warning up for the Johny Storm bug surgery fun kit? Thank you very much.

[espanolbot]

Awww, Annihilus is so tiny! ^^ Like a little gobliny thing!

[icon_uk]

Turns out you can't really die in the Negative Zone

The poor bugger who blew his brains out in the 42 prison will be so relieved... as will all the others who died defending the gate to Earth from invasion.

[big_daddy_d]

So Johnny has a heel turn. Interesting. At least in bad guy mode he actually looks pretty awesome. I can't blame him for going heel though, I mean looking at that third page, it looks like those worms are eating him and noticed the absence of his penis..add to it his horrified scream annnd you're welcome.

[shadowpsykie]

well, that's body horror....

so... its World War Torch?

Hulk wants his event back... :D

[nezchan]

It was all just a big misunderstanding!

[captainbellman]

Dawww Annihilus. Those little ears and that "I've been a bad wittle boy" pose when confronting Mr. Fantastic...no wonder Johnny decided to turn him into an adorable space-insect-warlord-puppy!

[long_silence]

Actually I think Digitek did show up alive in the last issue of Captain Britain and MI-13

[dr_archeville]

Looks like a "Being Tortured Makes You Evil" Face-Heel Turn.

[jlbarnett]

well, I'm glad I dropped this just as they were starting the 4 cities war thing.

I do recall they said that future Franklin's favorite hero had switched from Spidey to Johnny. Seems strange if Johnny ended up turning bad.

[filkertom]

Oh. Oh my. Johnny Storm. Alive, you say?

Has it even been a year?

I'm sorry, but every time they pull one of these Big Incredible Cosmic Event No Really We're Gonna Snuff Somebody Important We Swear On Our Mothers' Graves We're Really Gonna Effin Do It....

It lasts about this long.

Learning how to write stories, about actual characters 'n' stuff, might not be a bad idea. Not that I'm holding my breath or anything.

Re: This isn't Annihilus

[namey]

Given Richards' reaction, I'm guessing he was going for a bluff. It was super effective.

[sherkahn]

Actually he's still a hero and defeated the Annihilation Wave from the inside.

[q99]

The AW has used mind-altering bugs before. Controlled people like Terrax.

[sherkahn]

They don't work on Johnny. He keeps burning them out.

Interesting, but I wonder...

[blue_bolt]

I just realized a couple things:

1. Based on the stich marks on Johnny in the gorn panel (if that's no gorn I don't know what is) they're fixing him. What I find funny is that Johnny didn't just go evil, he enslaved Annihilus. I find that rather odd. Maybe Annihilus 2.0 isn't exactly up to snuff.

2. Having Johnny fight then repair him and then fight and then repair him seems like they stole the "Talia's sister kills her and resurrects her until she goes bad" (well more bad) plotline from DC.

3. Annihilus wanted to expand the Negative Zone so it encompassed everything. If he'd succeeded what would have happened to mortals? Would dead have become a revolving door- oh wait, the Negative Zone is apparently Marvel's land of "death is cheap." Sadly, we've already explored the implications of no death with the Cancerverse. I'm not truly interested in the idea of you die, you come back. This is Marvel, it's not a new concept.

[darkknightjrk]

Well, I would assume that Johnny will do a face turn pretty soon.

Re: This isn't Annihilus

[blue_bolt]

1. Your icon + "It was super effective," made me smirk (I rarely LOL).

2. Remember that Annihilus died and returned (damn you anti-priest, damn you!)? I think maybe Annihilus Jr. or 2.0 isn't the exact same. For one thing he's way shorter, like half as tall. Maybe he's just going through puberty. Teenaged hormone riddled emo annihilus - now that's funny!

[funbox]

But isn't this the beauty of it all? We all knew he wouldn't die. Characters like this seldom do. But just look the reveal they just did and tell me that it wasn't a little stunning at least in how they "brought" him back.

[chocochuy]

In the name of all mankind, I welcome our new hot overlord!

Welcome back, Johnny!

[pyrotwilight]

Oh yeah! Johnny died, didn't he? XD

Interesting look for him.

[eyz]

...and Johnny Storm is back, so he can be back on the team's roster just in time for that announced Fantastic Four reboot movie.

[hyperactivator]

Okay where is everybody getting this "Johnny is evil now" thing? He defeated the omnicidal maniac and stopped an evil army from invading earth. How is that evil?

Yes he's in control of that army now but again how is that evil if he hasn't done anything evil with it?

Your not making sense.

[hyperactivator]

You do know this is a soap opera story right? And it was awesome so if you don't like the tropes get out of the genre.

Re: Interesting, but I wonder...

[hyperactivator]

Johnny is evil? Um no. He stopped the omnicidal maniac and is holding him prisoner. Show me the evil.

[filkertom]

...



...



... Excuse me?

[nomadicwriter]

Was there an announcement recently? I thought all mention of the supposed reboot went quiet around summer 2010. (Not that there's any hope of Fox actually letting the rights revert to Marvel, but I can dream.)

Mod Note

[salinea]

Don't be needlessly aggressive and rude on scans_daily, please. If you need to, please reacquaint yourself with the rules of the community.

[blackruzsa]

THIS ART!

[schmevil]

y u mad tho

[curlyjo1]

I was not terribly happy about the cover price of this until I read it. And kept reading, and kept reading. Certainly got my money's worth out of this issue.

[biod]

"I took over the negative zone while my insides were hanging out, what have YOU done lately?"

[icon_uk]

Based on the pages here, where he's tortured by the bad guy and eneds up seemingly working for him, to the extent that Johnny Storm now leads the Annihilation Wave, and given what the Annihilation Wave had done before, it seemed a reasonable assumption

[icon_uk]

I wonder how long before "badass warlord for the side of good" Johnny (Who IS looking mighty fine) is changed back to the good naturedly inept underachiever Johnny?

I mean, how many times has character development (for him particularly) just been ignored when a new writer comes in?

[hyperactivator]

1. He was enslaved and forced to fight for the bad guy's amusement.
2. I repeat isn't shown doing anything evil and yet everyone assumes he's evil because he's in control of an evil army?

How is it reasonable that a good guy defeating a bad guy and holding him captive means that the good guy has turned evil?

Does power autimaticly make one evil?

Or is his leash holding pose too sexy too for a good guy?

[icon_uk]

1) And totured repeatedly past any normal human levels.

2)yet everyone assumes he's evil because he's in control of an evil army?

Yeah, that would actually do it for most people; Based on the pages we can see, we have no sign that the Annihilation Wave is doing anything different from what it normally does; annihilating everything. That is pretty much by definition evil, and the guy in charge has, as far as we know, been tortured past breaking point and is leading them in their "Annihilation Wave".

It would be eminently plausible to read this as that he had been turned to evil by Annihilus

[stubbleupdate]

It's like nobody told you that "Here you die, in the Negative Zone you can live"

[hyperactivator]

I find it annoying in for the same reason I find it my sister's complaints about my cat sleeping all day or killing small animals annoying.

It's like saying "this rain is too wet" or "this comedy isn't dramatic enough".

False deaths and dramatic reveals are in the Fantstic Four's storytelling DNA. It's a part of the package.

Yet some people seem to upset at this story for being a Fantastic Four story. Just like my sister somtimes informs me that my cat is being weird only for me to find it just being a cat.

So I am mildly annoyed at this.

[bariman]

Peter: I fought a spider god who had turned the entire population of Manhattan into spider monsters.
Johnny: Spider monsters? Eww.
Peter: You would have like the aftermath though. Naked people as far as the eye could see.