Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual #1 Discussion (Spoilers)

Bass said:
I agree.

Here's what I think they could've done - One of the kids from the think tank, Jack Terrigen, has asked Reed for some help. He was always insterested in energy - it's various forms, its altering states of existence, and so forth. He's managed to get an expedition together to go to Antarctica to look for a new energy signiature he discovered in the think tank. Reed was curious about it, and Jack has invited him to come with him. Reed, considering the N-Zone and the Crossover arcs, is quite happy to go on a 'normal' mission, hoping it will get him back into Storm's good books. Reed and Terrigen go on the expedition with other troops and they begin searching. But they have to keep going and surviving against the elements of the snow deserts and ice glaciers, risking life and limb to go further and further, and every step they take drives a wedge in the group. Terrigen is believed to be a quack, on a desperate attempt for a non-existant trophy. Reed's body reacts horrifically to cold and he starts to seize up. Some of the troops break rank and it's revealed that Terrigen has made a lot of unethical decisions to get this expedition going, such as lying to Reed as it has backing only because he lied and convinced people that this energy source could be used as a limitless source of energy for weapons, and that he used the experiments of crazy dictators and torture scientists from centuries beyond. It gets worse as the further they go, the more dead bodies and skeletons they find of previous expeditions. Reed and Terrigen remain, and Reed refuses to go any further, hoping to draw out Terrigen's compassion and help him back to civilisation. Instead, Terrigen makes a lackluster camp for Reed and goes off in search of his energy waves, leaving Reed with a communicator. Long later, the communicator activates, and Terrigen tells Reed what he sees. A swarming mist of beauty. It's pure energy, capable of powering entire countries for centuries. He can't see the end of it, but he's sure that one collection, no bigger than commercial airliner could replace all the oil Europe for 200 years. And he's looking at miles of the stuff. Then, he yelps in pain. Reed asks if he's alright, and Terrigen he explains he's just got a stictch or frostbite. Terrigen gasps, and goes, "Holy God". Reed gets no reply on the machine, and braves the weather to help Terrigen, who, not long after Reed leaves camp, returns. Terrigen, who is holding a sample of the mists in a special container, is brandishing something, a bizarre tuning fork. It's obviously not natural but manmade - which is impossible since no one has ever been here before. Content with what he has, Terrigen helps take Reed home. Reed notices that Terrigen is moving slower and slower, his breather more rasp and painful, it gets worse and Terrigen becomes more and more irritable. The blizzard gets too strong, and in a cave they use for shelter, Terrigen can't keep his mask on and takes it off - and his face is cracked, markings adorn his face, and his eyes are blood red. Reed reacts with horror, Terrigen, sees his reflection and screams and vomits. His skin is necrotic and he thinks he's got some frostbite or something and goes into shock. Reed tries to calm him down, but Terrigen gets worse and worse, and his skin starts to boil and he goes into a seizure. Despite his body's current consistency, Reed entangles Terrigen so he can't hurt himself or swallow his tongue. The seizure passes and Terrigen is in a coma. Reed, on his own, manages to get all the way back to civilisation with Terrigen, the tuning fork, and the mist sample. Reed has a long process of healing in front of him. Sue starts examining Terrigen and says he may never come out of the coma, and that his body is completely inhuman. Reed examines the tuning fork and doesn't understand - it makes no sound. Which defies... well, science. As for the mists, he passes it on to General Ross, and warns him it may be poisonous to humans, estimating that Terrigen's transformation is due to his exposure to the mists, though it's unsure as to what doses would be safe. When Ross asks what the mists are called, Reed names them, "The Terrigen Mists".

That's the annual.

In the series, this is a big mystery that is slowly unraveled. I can imagine Reed going back there for more answers and encountering a long dead civilisation, only a few runes and artifacts remain, and he discovers little of the society. He also discovers a small refugee camp of Inhumans, who are nomadic, and unsure of their true origins. There's maybe a dozen of them. Terrigen begins to grow madder and madder, his body starts to change. The Fantastic Four, slowly begin to unravel this mystery piece by piece until they discover an ancient city and the stories of Black Bolt, Gorgon, and Karnak and the rest of the Inhuman society, but they never meet them in the flesh. But we see the marvellous stories in flashback. The last story is of the Inhuman Exodus where they went into hiding and tell of tombs and catacombs that held their people. The F4 work out that the mists have leaked from their containment and begin searching, and this archaeological mystery eventually takes them to the moon where they discover the last remnants of Inhuman society and a legacy left untold - the Inhumans exist as parts of our genetic code. A dormant zip file that get awakened by the mists. Which is why Terrigen returns to the mists and starts spreading them like a plague. Each new infected person's DNA is overwritten with a dormant dna sequencing from someone from Atillan. Every human has the entire genetic history of Atillan in their bodies. Terrigen starts recreating Inhuman society by exposing people to the mists - Black Bolt, Gorgon, Maximus and the others begin to return one by one. Can The Fantastic Four stop them before they overwrite humanity? And just what made the Inhumans hide in our DNA in the first place?
I liked the Annual. It was good but Bass, your idea... your idea, it was better.
 
TheManWithoutFear said:
Seconded. Very appropriate for these characters. Just like they were appropriate for Mad Thinker's character.

Jae Lee was born to draw two things.

The Sentry and the Inhumans.
 
TheManWithoutFear said:
I liked the Annual. It was good but Bass, your idea... your idea, it was better.

Thanks... maybe I shouldn't tell you where I got it from...
 
TheManWithoutFear said:
And Morlocks. I'm telling you him on Ultimate Morlocks would be awesome.
Im seconding that. He would be great on that. I really love how he drew the Inhumans. They looked great. And yes, I even liked Lockjaw, too.
 
I think the whole floating towards the moon thing is just a nod to 616, and that the Atlantis connnection is that they're going see if they can live in Atalantis. So, I guess they might be there when the FF show up.
 
The book is okay and the art fits, but I think Millar's really abusing the "fantastic-ness" of UFF. We already have a time machine, and a shrinking device ala Innerspace, an alternate zombie dimension and a mystical band of Inhumans (who's almost exactly like the regular versions) who can talk smack in just four issues. Someone remind him that he's writing the Ultimate version. I was surprised how he went all out in UFF considering how he made the Ultimates and the UFF's origin as realistic as possible, although I always thought that Reed Richards' intelligence is way too much for a normal person, making him look like a Jimmy Neutron then some actual believable genius today. I mean how many kids can invent teleportation devices and discover alternate dimensions?
 
[I always thought that Reed Richards' intelligence is way too much for a normal person, making him look like a Jimmy Neutron then some actual believable genius today. I mean how many kids can invent teleportation devices and discover alternate dimensions?[/QUOTE]
I see what your saying, but that is why Reed is the smartest person in the world!!!! :D
 
cmdrjanjalani said:
The book is okay and the art fits, but I think Millar's really abusing the "fantastic-ness" of UFF. We already have a time machine, and a shrinking device ala Innerspace, an alternate zombie dimension and a mystical band of Inhumans (who's almost exactly like the regular versions) who can talk smack in just four issues. Someone remind him that he's writing the Ultimate version. I was surprised how he went all out in UFF considering how he made the Ultimates and the UFF's origin as realistic as possible, although I always thought that Reed Richards' intelligence is way too much for a normal person, making him look like a Jimmy Neutron then some actual believable genius today. I mean how many kids can invent teleportation devices and discover alternate dimensions?
I absolutely agree that Millar is taking liberties, the achievements he makes are done without pain or trail. He's clever, sure, very very clever, but that doesn't mean that he can whip up 20 different new massive scientific breakthroughs per issue. Logistically it's not possible. And Millar is introducing us to all this too fast. Maybe he has a plan, I don't know, but he need s to slow down a little.
 
Guijllons said:
You're right, there is no drama. And getting burnt alive isn't shocking in the slightest.
That's not as bad as, say, the Hulk eating people and wanting to rape Betty Ross.
 
Doc Comic said:
That's not as bad as, say, the Hulk eating people and wanting to rape Betty Ross.
I didn't think that was all too shocking, that's what the Hulk would do. I don't think that the ultimates is particularly shocking at all really, it has cliffhanger endings, but that's about it.
 
It's not shocking to me, but that's because of who I am. To others, though, I think it would be. Wasp flashing the Hulk, Giant-Man beating the crap out of Wasp, Giant-Man's bare *** on the frontpage of the New York Post...it just seems that Millar goes for shock value over legitimately retooling the characters.
 
Doc Comic said:
It's not shocking to me, but that's because of who I am. To others, though, I think it would be. Wasp flashing the Hulk, Giant-Man beating the crap out of Wasp, Giant-Man's bare *** on the frontpage of the New York Post...it just seems that Millar goes for shock value over legitimately retooling the characters.
Come on, the only people that would be shocking to would be members of the Christian right that probably deserve to be locked away from the world for their own good. You can hardly say that the Ultimates isn't a good story and that it's main appeal is the idea of a characters breasts.
 
Guijllons said:
Come on, the only people that would be shocking to would be members of the Christian right that probably deserve to be locked away from the world for their own good. You can hardly say that the Ultimates isn't a good story and that it's main appeal is the idea of a characters breasts.
ultimates2_6.jpg


Oh, no. Not at all.
 

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