Fantastic Four #19
Prisoners of the Pharaoh!
While studying an Egyptian exhibit, Reed Richards reads off a hieroglyph about a substance which apparently restored the blindness of a pharaoh during a mostly unrecorded era of the Egyptian empire. Telling Alicia of this discovery, the Fantastic Four decide to use Dr. Doom's time machine to travel into the past and retrieve this element in order to restore Alicia's vision.
There the Fantastic Four are attacked by an Egyptian army that takes them, prisoner, when their powers fail them. Brought before their master, the Pharaoh known as Rama-Tut, the Fantastic Four learn that he is a time traveler from the year 3000 who came to this time because his future was one without conflict and adventure and he had grown bored. He explains that upon arriving in Egyptian times. Upon his arrival, Rama-Tut lost his vision but soon restored it with a radioactive isotope from his ship and was able to conquer the area and rule. Hoping to entice the Fantastic Four to travel back in time, he planted the hieroglyph so that he could battle the historic figures.
Making Sue his "queen" and putting the other members of the Four into slavery, all seems lost until the Thing spontaneously returns to normal due to exposure to the Egyptian sun. Escaping, he is able to get a hold of Rama-Tut's Diode-Ray and free Sue, however, the radiation from the weapon returns him to his Thing-form. Freeing the others, the Fantastic Four lead up a rebellion to bust up Rama-Tut's kingdom. With no means of defending himself, Rama-Tut fled this era in his time ship, leaving the Fantastic Four to find the isotope that could restore Alicia's vision. The Fantastic Four then use their Time-Platform to return to the present. However, upon traveling through Dr. Doom's time machine, Reed realizes that it won't transport radioactive substances, and so they return from their mission empty-handed.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Alicia Masters, Rama-Tut
Continuity Notes
Fantastic Four Annual #11 explains that although the time machine used by the Fantastic Four here is referred to as the Time-Platform created by Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four #5, it is actually a replica created by Reed Richards. The original time machine is still located at Doom's American castle, as seen in Avengers Annual #2.
Rama-Tut is one of many incarnations of the time traveler Nathaniel Richards, past incarnations include Iron Lad and Kid Immortus. Rama-Tut would later go on to become the Scarlet Centurion, Kang the Conqueror and finally Immortus.
It is later revealed that Rama-Tut doesn't come from a possible future of Earth-616 but that of a parallel universe, designated Earth-6311 also known as "Other-Earth". This world did not enter a dark age in the 6th century like on most worlds and technology continued to advance as revealed in Fantastic Four #273. This connection to Rama-Tut's future world is established in What If? (Vol. 2) #39.
There are a lot of events going on in this story behind the scenes that have an impact on the events of this story.
Rise of Apocalypse #1-4 shows that at the time of this story Rama-Tut was attempting to manipulate En Sabah Nur, the mutant who will later become Apocalypse. Nur is responsible for the revolt among Rama-Tut’s people.
In Doctor Strange (vol. 2) #53 reveals that Doctor Strange sent his astral form back in time to this era and the mystic uses his magical powers to assist the Fantastic Four in escaping. Particularly, his magic is the true reason for the Thing’s sudden reversion back to human form.
Lastly, the West Coast Avengers also found themselves sent back in time to this era as seen in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #22. They are responsible for preventing Rama-Tut from unleashing his robotic forces on the Fantastic Four.
