Fantastic Four #338
Kangs for the Memories!!! Or Guess Who's Coming to Dinner!
The Fantastic Four, Thor, Iron Man and the FF time sled are trapped within a swirling quantum vortex some twenty years into Earth's future. Johnny Storm has passed out and it is taking all of Reed's piloting skills to keep the time sled in one piece. From the outer rings of the vortex, images of Kang the Conqueror, Ravonna Lexus Renslayer and her mental slave, Dr. Druid, can be seen.
They finally pierce the distortion wave and solidify inside the time bubble. Time is moving at such an extremely slow rate of speed, that the entire futuristic city appears frozen. A probability field (powered by the Rad-D unit in the present) keeps the time sled outside of the distortion zone.
The Fantastic Four discover that they are not the only time strangers here. The 82nd century bounty hunter known as Death's Head has arrived in this era as well. A group called the Time Variance Authority had hired Death's Head to travel to this era and determine why the time bubble had not collapsed upon itself as expected.
Death's Head roars up in his sky circle and the FF and he trade shots before settling down to learn of each other's mission. As they continue exploring the city inside the time bubble, Kang the Conqueror arrives and tries to destroy the probability field keeping the time sled out of the distortion effect. Iron Man blasts Kang out of the air, and Death's Head interrogates him. Tearing his helmet off, he finds that this version of Kang is a reptilian alien and is not the same Kang that has plagued the Avengers for so many years.
In an uncharacteristic display of anger, Johnny Storm suggests that they kill Kang. Reed and Sue are shocked to hear him declare such a thing.
Reed Richards uses a scanning device to see if he can pinpoint the origin of the time bubble. He concludes that the bubble was generated from somewhere within the Andromeda galaxy. Thor spins his mystic hammer, Mjolnir, and teleports the entire group to that location.
What they find is a huge space station that is roughly the size of an entire galaxy. It is generating its own gravity well and slowly absorbing the celestial content of the universe into it, like an artificial black hole. The FF and Death's Head venture into the metal canyons of the station, carefully navigating around beams of light that are being drawn to it by the station's gravity pull. The probability fields surrounding the time sled and Death's Head's sky cycle keep them from falling deeper into the core of the station.
Without warning, a group of attackers emerge. These are chronal variants of Kang the Conqueror. The Kangs open fire on the heroes, and the heroes fight back with fist, flame and hammer. The Human Torch has had enough of this nonsense and he unleashes the full power of one of his nova blasts upon one of the Kangs, incinerating him. Reed is shocked. He thinks that Johnny has gone insane.
The Human Torch takes off towards the core of the station and the FF try to follow him. Death's Head's probability field is damaged during the earlier scuffle with the Kangs and he is forced to return to the 82nd century. The Fantastic Four try to chase after Johnny and catch him before he fully enters the system's core. It is at this time, that the Fantastic Four finally realize the true culprit behind the artificial gravity well. It is the planet devouring cosmic entity known as Galactus!
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Ben Grimm, Ms. Marvel), Iron Man, Thor, Death’s Head, Council of Cross-Time Kangs (Kang-Nebula, Kang Earth-Mesozoic 24, Kang of Earth-12488.23497, Chairman Kang), Doctor Druid, Galactus
Continuity Notes
The Time Bubble, according to Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four, is designated in the future of Earth-8810. In this story Reed states that the Time Bubble exists between the years 2005 and 2020. Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 this should be considered a topical reference. As the Sliding Timescale moves forward, then the dates that the Time Bubble exists should change and should be generalized in the context of this story. The Time Bubble exists 15 years in the future relative to this story . This story was published in 1990, thus 15 years from that perspective is the year 2005.
The woman in the blue skin is "Kang-Nebula" who was last seen in Avengers #297 where she and Dr. Druid got caught in the Time Bubble. She is not who she seems to be...:
In Avengers #291 when she joined the Council of Cross-Time Kangs she claimed to be the space pirate known as Nebula.
In reality she is actually Kang's lover Ravonna who was put in a death like coma in Avengers #24. She was later revived by the Grandmaster, as seen in Avengers Annual #21, after Kang gave up the power to save her life to instead try to destroy the Avengers (as seen in Avengers #71). When the Grandmaster revealed the truth, Ravonna decided to get revenge against her lover, developing the Nebula cover to infiltrate the Cross-Time Kangs and get her revenge.
"Nebula", Dr. Druid, and the three remaining Cross-Time Kangs were all last seen in Avengers #297 when they were trapped in the Time-Bubble. Following his appearance here, Dr. Druid is next seen in Avengers Spotlight #37 when he gets free of the Time Bubble.
Kang-123488.23497 is a divergent version of the original Kang. His appearance here is marred in some temporal confusion that is not fully explained here. The details:
As revealed in Avengers #267-269 every time Kang traveled through time he created a divergent version of himself. During these issues the "Prime" Kang began culling his counterparts until only he existed. He was later driven mad by his future self Immortus and sent out into temporal Limbo.
As revealed in Avengers Forever #9 Kang killed himself which triggered a device that transferred his mind into a new body in his native 40th Century and left a divergent self behind in the past (the Kang who appear in this story, who joined the Council of Cross-Time Kangs).
During the time of this story, there are two version of Kangs active in the modern era. The Kang featured in this story was later identified as the Diverged Kang (or Kang-123488.23497) in Avengers Forever #9 (The one who became a member of the Council and last seen in Avengers #300). The other is the "Prime Kang", who was observing everything from shadow, as seen in Avengers Forever #9
Presumably, per Avengers Forever #9, when Kang-123488.23497 dies here his memories are transferred to his "Prime" counterpart.
The Fantastic Four previously met Death's Head back in Death's Head #9. They made a deal with him, which was to send him home back to his time. But they realized too late that he's a cold-blooded killer, and Reed tried to stop the teleport, resulting in Death's Head getting transported to Earth-8410, which explains the animosity between him and the Four here.
The Time Variance Authority hired Death's Head to do his job. Reed states here that he has heard of that organization. They first appeared in Thor #371-372. They did not encounter Reed in that story, how he heard of them is unrevealed.
Kang Mesozoic-24 mentions how the Council of Cross-Time Kangs is seeking what they believe to be a Celestial weapon hidden within the Time Bubble. They were attempting to accomplish that feat in Avengers #296-297.
