Fantastic Four (Vol. 3) #59

Mar 6

Mar 6 Fantastic Four (Vol. 3) #59

The Ever-Lovin', Blue-Eyed End of the World: Part 3

The Fantastic Four are racing against the clock as the Thing and an army of evil berserkers grown from his skin are about to return from a pocket universe created Reed Richards. With no solution in sight, the entire world could be decimated by the army of Things that will appear on Earth once the pocket universe collapses. Sue and Johnny help Reed assemble a device that Richards hopes will solve the impending crisis. After conferring with the Congress of Reeds -- a group of alternate reality versions of Reed -- agreed that the solution may come from a shed piece of the Thing's rocky hide which Reed has placed on the device. Reed intends to use the device to hyper-evolved the chunk of rock a few thousand years ahead in the hopes that it may offer a key to solve the problem.

Meanwhile, in Reed's pocket universe, a battle rages on between an army of berserker clones of the Thing against their "father" and his group of beneficence duplicates. Ben and his allies have been fighting off their enemies with highly dense weapons constructed out of cars that litter the empty utopian city they have found themselves in. However, the battle is increasingly becoming a pointless one as so long as Ben remains in his Thing form his body will continue to produce nodes that will grow into new berserkers. Deciding to prevent this -- at least for a little while -- Ben reverts back to human form. Seeing this one of the good Things tells him not to show himself in his human form to the others as it upsets them. Faced with losing his loyal army, Ben is forced to revert back to his Thing form. Soon there is a massive battle between the two factions that rocks the entire planet.

Back on Earth, Reed’s device is a success and the chunk of Ben's hide is evolved in a sentient pile of rocks. As the battle rages on in the pocket universe, Reed communicates with the sentient rock pile which offers a solution to the problem but Reed believes it is too much of a price. While in the pocket universe, Ben learns that his duplicates are angry over the fact that they are basically destroyed whenever he reverted back to human form and have grown to hate him. Time runs out and soon the Things are transported back to the Baxter Building. There they rest of the Fantastic Four join Ben in trying to hold back the horde when suddenly the sentient rock begins beaming energy at the Thing clones. Not only are the evil clones destroyed, but the nodes stop growing on the Thing's body. Everything is put right when the future casting television reports that the crisis was averted and resumes a previous prediction where the Thing is hailed as a hero in the distant future. In the aftermath of the battle Ben explains that in order to stop the evil Things and prevent more from being born, Ben had to have his ability to change back and forth between human and Thing form removed.