Fantastic Four 6, Ultimates 23

Fantastic Four 6
Fraction (w) and Bagley and Farmer (a) and Mounts

I enjoy this Fantastic Four run quite a bit and the Thing is an interesting character in this run. These are two statements I never thought I'd make separately, let alone together, but they hold true regardless. I like that the Fantastic Four have returned to the roots, as it were, and gone in a route of exploration. I think removing them from the superheroes of Earth is probably a smart idea, and one that will only benefit the team for the time being. This issue puts the F4 and the two kids (with everyone alive, despite F4 5AU's assertion; remember, this issue puts us squarely back into F4 continuity whereas that one drifted us somewhere between Age of Ultron and F4 and there's a high probability that the Age of Ultron continuity gets erased, so that story's plot has less meaning to it. Still I'd recommend it based on the character moments all around) on a trip to see the Big Bang. The ULTIMATE exploration for science. They'll see the entire universe created from a place somewhat removed from it. Reed quizzes the kids on what the Big Bang is in a whole lot of science-talk, mixed nicely with a couple of child-like moments, and the gang sets off. Ben, meanwhile, is dealing with a killer headache and some rage problems, not unlike the Hulk. But imagine if, instead of the Hulk growing out of Bruce Banner, the Hulk grew out of someone like the Thing, who is already somewhat Hulkish in his own right. Ben actively has to calm himself down from even minor annoyances, flashing a Thing-out when the kids knock on the bathroom door while he's trying to open a container of Tylenol. The team flies to the Big Bang and finds a creature strapped to a rock in front of the explosion. The audience saw this creature at the start of the issue (it's all covered up so we don't know its identity as yet) being sentenced for its crimes by authorities at the end of the universe to die in the Big Bang; to be the universe's first death. The F4 waste little time in deciding to rescue the creature, which they manage, only to find that he's none other than old cosmic foe Blastaar, currently outputting crazy radioactivity. Blastaar immediately begins attacking his rescuers and blowing bits of the ship to pieces. Thing hulks out (I'd try to use a different word but that one already exists and it really fits, you guys) and starts wailing on Blastaar before eventually being knocked outside the ship, hanging on for his life. Sue protects the kids and herself before telling them to run for safety and trapping Johnny and Blastaar in a forcefield together. Johnny heats the area up intensely before Blastaar can manage to knock him out. The kids send a couple of HERBIE-based robots (and a Doctor Who joke) in to help, which distracts Blastaar long enough for the team to reconvene and come up with a plan. The craft is pretty devastated but Blastaar is close to exploding, so the only viable option is Franklin, who swears he can use his powers to save them. The last few panels show the ship (Ben included, who is floating outside the ship but hanging on) disappearing and leaving Blastaar in front of the Big Bang explosion, fading into it.
So we're not sure where the F4 will wind up and whether or not Franklin did what he aimed to do successfully, but we're in a very interesting spot for this book. If Franklin wasn't able to do it as successfully as he hoped, we'll have questions for the plot about where they are and what's happened to them. If he did do it successfully, maybe we'll have to question if Franklin is ready for his role as world's most powerful hero sooner than we thought. And Ben...what is happening with Ben? When he loses control to the anger, His color scheme inverts, with his rocks going black and the cracks between the rocks going yellow/orange. It looks a bit like his Fear Itself Worthy-incarnation, as I think I've mentioned before. Is he still suffering ill-effects from that or is he, like Reed, starting to see degradation from the power-granting explosion? All questions worth asking and all interesting plot points to deal with going forward. Good issue.

Ultimates 23
Humphries (w) and Bennett and José (a) and Milla (c)

Another solid issue for the Ultimates as Ford's West Coast Ultimates continue their attacks on the true Ultimates. Black Knight has successfully subdued and captured Tony Stark and brought him back to Ford, who soliloquies his plan in a super-villainy way. Tony decides not to attack Ford, as his armor isn't available and Ford still has one reject Ultimate with him, though in suspension (Wonder Man). Meanwhile, President Cap is getting pretty fed up with his new job. He's disgusted with the people he has to work with (namely the elected officials) and feels he could be doing more out on the front lines than from behind a desk. He complains that he was elected to win the war and he's done that but the country's still not mending and he can't politic his way around that. Carol Danvers assures him that he was elected as a symbol for the war and the reconstruction and that he's doing a fine job. This doesn't stop him, though, from leaping into action when Tigra and Quake are unleashed on DC. We get a bit of backstory for Tigra (ex-cop who was in prison for "actions that cost a young man his life" before Nick Fury approached her about joining the Ultimates), who is soundly beaten by Cap, and for the Vision (Robert Mitchell, a high school dropout with an IQ of 240 who is adept at hacking and created an antimatter generator from plans found on the internet) who is currently using Tigra and Quake as a distraction so he can bring a new Tony Stark satellite/energy platform crashing down on Sacramento. Ford explains to Tony that the action will look like an attack on the West Coast from the President and that it will also kill the current governor of California, paving the way for one of Ford's hand-picked candidates to take control and to officially separate itself from the United States and become an enemy to the country. Cap sniffs out the distraction tactic and directs SHIELD to figure out what they're meant not to see. Quake, meanwhile, reveals to the audience that she's been betrayed by Vision and Ford, who did not tell her that the plan was to reprogram the J-RICE (the satellite) and not simply destroy it. Quake is angry about the betrayal and clearly was not complicit in the plan, so we'll see where that goes. At the same time, the Black Knight shows up on the moon and knocks Thor aside, keeping Thor and Sue Storm distracted. Hawkeye is out somewhere keeping tabs on Nick Fury for SHIELD. So that's all Ultimates accounted for with seemingly no way to stop what's happening.
This is an interesting place to leave the issue. Cap has figured out that it's a distraction and that these Ultimates were sent by Ford for some reason or another and, on top of all the other crap he has to deal with right now, he is pissed about it. These Ultimates are pretty formidable, with Vision's intelligence and at least some powers (we haven't seen a lot of them, just an ability to phase and fly so far) making him a useful counter to Black Knight's sheer power. Tigra was somewhat impressive but she ended up one on one against a very angry Captain America, so it's hard to get a proper gauge on her. Wonder Man's still in the tank, so we'll have to see soon what he's like in the field. The country and the Ultimates are on a dangerous precipice as we head into the next issue, leaving us in a pretty good spot for action and intrigue.