Fantastic Four (Earth-1610)

From Marvel Database

This page is similar in name or subject to other pages.

See also Fantastic Four for a complete list of references to distinguish between these closely named or closely related articles.

Contents 1 History 2 Ultimate Fantastic Four (story arcs) 3 Paraphernalia 4 Notes 5 Trivia 6 See Also 7 Links and References

History

Over a decade ago, the U.S. government, under the auspices of the Directory of Mainland Technology Development, began gathering international child prodigies at a Manhattan laboratory facility in the Baxter Building, giving them the best resources and teachers the project could afford. Headed by scientist William Storm and the U.S. military's General Ross, the project discovered the N-Zone, an other-dimensional space which paralleled our own. When 11-year-old Reed Richards independently accessed this zone and began sending small toys into it, the project recruited him to join their work. Over the following ten years, Reed Richards, Victor Van Damme, and other students and instructors worked on the project before the government ultimately constructed its N-Zone teleportation gate in the Nevada desert, intending to teleport an apple to a receptor in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Unbeknownst to the others, Victor Van Damme altered the device's settings and, upon the five people on its steps vanished into interdimensional space and returned with an altered "phase-space condition". Reed Richards returned to the same spot, transformed into a mass of pliable cells. Ben Grimm, Reed's childhood friend, was transported to Mexico and transformed into the rock-like Thing; Johnny Storm was transported to Paris, his skin converted to flame-emitting cells; Victor Van Damme was transported to an unrevealed location and acquired a mechanized skin; while Sue Storm was transported into the Nevada desert, acquiring invisibility powers.

Arthur Molekevic, a fired Baxter Building instructor who had covertly observed the experiment and its transformed subjects, sent his artificial Ani-men after the five. Initially retrieving Susan while the government gathered Reed, Ben, and Johnny at the Baxter Building, Molekevic then sent what seemed to be an enormous monster after them. Defeating it they followed it to Molekevic's underground laboratories and retrieved Susan, inadvertently destroying the underground chambers in the process and apparently burying Molekevic. The government relocated the remaining Baxter Building students to a secondary facility in Oregon, and dedicated the Manhattan facility to the quiet study of the altered four. When Van Damme attacked the Baxter Building six months later, Reed tracked him to Copenhagen. Refused permission to go to Denmark by the government, the quartet went anyway in Reed's childhood "Fantastic-Car," knowing they needed Victor's knowledge to restore themselves. Battling Van Damme, they were unable to defeat him before the government arrived and were forced by international law to set him free.

The four used a reconstructed N-Zone transporter to pilot a decommissioned U.S. Space Shuttle, heavily modified by Reed Richards and awkwardly christened the "Awesome" by Johnny Storm, to explore the N-Zone itself. The quartet made contact there with a being known as Nihil, who tried to kill them and follow them back to Earth, where both ships crashed in Las Vegas. The Fantastic Four were officially "outed" as super-humans on the Sunset Strip while defeating Nihil and his alien crew. Returning to the Baxter Building, they were briefly attacked by a rejected Baxter thinker named Rhona Burchill who was jealous of Reed's status, and subsequently aided the Ultimates, with Ben and Johnny fighting beside Nick Fury, Carol Danvers, and the Ultimates' Thor and Black Widow against the Free while Reed and Sue went into space with Iron Man to investigate Gah Lak Tus. The quartet also investigated the mystery of a secret race known as the Inhumans, then a group of Chrono-Bandits across time after they duplicated a time machine which Reed and Sue had co-created. Recently, Reed made interdimensional contact with another universe's version of the Fantastic Four, bringing the team into conflict with an alien world affected with a zombie-creating virus.

All four decided on using their powers to better humanity, and founded the Fantastic Four.

Ultimate Fantastic Four (story arcs)

• Arc 1: The Fantastic (#1-6) by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar and Adam Kubert

Covers the origin of the Ultimate Fantastic Four, including how they gained their powers, and their first battle with the psychotic Mole Man.

• Arc 2: Doom (#7-12) by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen

Introduces Ultimate Dr. Doom, who attempts to kill Reed along with the rest of the four using tiny insectoid robots manufactured from cell phone parts.

• Arc 3: N-Zone (#13-18) by Warren Ellis and Adam Kubert

While exploring the N-Zone via their spaceship Awesome, the Ultimate Fantastic Four encounter the bizarre and sadistic alien Nihil.

• Arc 4: Think Tank (#19-20) by Mike Carey and Jae Lee

Returning to the Baxter Building after their adventure in the N-Zone, the Fantastic Four are attacked and kidnapped by Rhona Burchill, also known as the Mad Thinker.

• Annual 1: Inhuman (Annual # 1) by Mark Millar and Jae Lee

The Four run into the rogue Inhuman Crystal, whom Johnny instantly claims he loves. They then attempt to break up Crystal's arranged marriage to Black Bolt's brother. This was the first Ultimate appearance of the Inhumans.

• Arc 5: Crossover (#21-23) by Mark Millar and Greg Land

Reed receives contact from an older version of himself from an alternate dimension. After crossing over, Reed discovers he's been duped and that the entire world is infested with blood-thirsty zombies, looking for their next meal. Namely, Reed.

• Arc 6: Tomb of Prince Namor (#24-26) by Mark Millar and Greg Land

While joining an excavation of Atlantis with Mary Storm (the previously thought dead mother of Sue and Johnny,) the four unearth the tomb of an ancient Atlantean named Namor, who may not be exactly who he seems.

• Arc 7: President Thor (#27-29) by Mark Millar and Greg Land

Using time-travel, the Fantastic Four attempt to erase the accident which gave them their powers. But there is a law of unintended consequences...

• Arc 8: Frightful (#30-32) by Mark Millar and Greg Land

The escape of the Frightful Four, Johnny has one week to live, and only Doctor Doom can help him.

• Arc 9: God War (#33-38) by Mike Carey and Pasqual Ferry

Paraphernalia

Equipment: None known.
Transportation: Fantasticar
Weapons: None known.

Notes

• No special notes.
  

Trivia

• Bryan Hitch designed the costumes for the characters, thus explaining their aesthetic resemblance to the costumes worn by The Ultimates. Contrary to popular belief, Hitch was only tasked as concept artist and was never slated to draw the book when it debuted.

• Willie Lumpkin, the Richards' mailman in the 616 Universe, is portrayed in the Ultimate Universe as Lieutenant Lumpkin, head of security for the Baxter Building.

• Marvel Zombies (which is a spin-off series from Crossover) also tie-in to the story arc Frightful, featuring the return of Ultimate Doctor Doom.

• The X-Men's Kitty Pryde and Jean Grey served as interns under Sue Storm during an archaeological dig in Chile.

• There are two references to past issues of both Ultimate Fantastic Four and the original The Fantastic Four comic book series on the cover art for issue number five. It shows Sue Storm becoming invisible in order to avoid the paparazzi, with a wide smile and a shrug. In front of the guard rail, six tabloid newspapers flutter to the street. One of those tabloids is The Daily Bugle, which is commonly associated with the Spider-Man universe. The headline reads, "FANTASTIC FOUR FRENZY", and its supposed "photograph" is a quick sketch version of Ultimate Fantastic Four #1's cover art. Also, the newspaper fluttering by Sue's right shoulder is called the Tatteler, and its headline, which is partially obscured by the semi-solid shoulder, reads "IS SUE EXPECTING?". This is an obvious reference to Reed's and Sue's first child in the original Fantastic Four universe, young Franklin Richards.

See Also

• Appearances of Fantastic Four (Earth-1610)
• Team Gallery: Fantastic Four (Earth-1610)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Fantastic Four (Earth-1610)

Links and References

• Official Handbook Description of the Ultimate Fantastic Four
• Ultimate Fantastic Four @ ULTIMATE X
  

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Ultimate Fantastic Four. The list of authors can be seen in the Fantastic Four&action=history page history. As with Marvel Universe, the text of Wikipedia:Wikipedia is available under the Wikipedia:GNU Free Documentation License.