Issue(s): Fantastic Four #414
Cover Date: Jul 96
Title: "Family business!"
Credits:
Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan - Writer
Paul Ryan - Penciler
John Lowe - Inker
Mike Marts - Assistant Editor
Suzanne Gaffney - Editor

Review/plot:
Digital review warning.

Quality Rating:
Little Franklin Richards is back, and Mr. Fantastic has to hold the Thing back to stop him from beating an explanation out of Nathaniel Richards. Nathaniel reminds the FF that he told them about the dystopian Sentinel future (that we've seen in Days of Future Past) and now tells them that he "failed to mention" that said future has a number of variations across the parallel possible futures. And in one of them, Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers have a child that becomes Hyperstorm.

He also says that in every time line, the FF and a number of other superheroes disappear, and he "can only conclude" that Hyperstorm is responsible.

With hindsight, we know that Nathaniel is really talking about what happens because of Onslaught, and so it seems that all of his manipulations have been due to a mistake. If only he had bothered to look just a little further into the future, he could have seen all the Heroes Returning.

Mr. Fantastic is still convinced that his plan to use Galactus against Hyperstorm will work. His plan hinges on not stating the specifics of it so that Hyperstorm won't learn them. He also planned to go on his mission alone, but the rest of the FF insist on joining him. While they are getting ready to go, the Thing stumbles upon Lyja the Lazerfist transforming out of her Laura Greene persona. The Thing seems to understand the predicament that Lyja is in and doesn't go running to Johnny about it. Later, she tries to tell Johnny but he cuts her off.

Mr. Fantastic tells Scott Lang that he's arranged for Franklin to be taken in by Charles Xavier's school if something happens to the FF on the Hyperstorm mission. It's probably due to this arrangement that Franklin winds up with Generation X after Onslaught. And speaking of Onslaught, while the FF are away, "Charlie" appears, offering to help Franklin unlock his true powers so that he can help his family.

Meanwhile, the FF travel through Subspace to search for Galactus, accompanied by Nagging Naysayer Nathaniel.

Galactus was killed by Morg using the Ultimate Nullifier, but Reed says that the fact that he was only nullified, not killed, means that he is still accessible. But before they can find him, Hyperstorm appears.

But Reed does manage to open a portal to where Galactus has been trapped. And he's hangry.

The Thing objects to the ethics of allowing Galactus to eat another living being, but Mr. Fantastic says that Hyperstorm is so powerful that Galactus is simply eating the infinite energies that Hyperstorm draws from Hyperspace (and boy am i Hyperbored). Galactus and Hyperspace are both sucked back into the dimensional void that Galactus was trapped in. The End!

An underrated part of how crappy the main story from Tom DeFalco's crappy run is how it casually obliterates the meaningfulness of the Ultimate Nullifier. I mean, i guess that's partially on Mike Lackey for having Morg actually use the Ultimate Nullifier on Galactus in the first place, but it's DeFalco who says "oh, Nullified just means pocket dimension. I can still use Galactus.". Anyway, Hyperstorm sucks. As i've said before, it's hard to hate on the Heroes Reborn reboot decision when all the books that got rebooted were in such terrible shape (excepting Captain America, which had been in terrible shape until it was too late).

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This begins almost directly after last issue, but Doom 2099 #43 also continues directly from that issue. Worth noting that Onslaught has been active on some level ever since Uncanny X-Men #322, so his manifestation as Charlie here shouldn't have any bearing on placement.

Cassie Lang is mentioned as being around but isn't seen on panel.

References:

• Nathaniel Richards explained Days of Future Past to the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #376.
  
• Galactus was Nullified by Morg in Silver Surfer #109.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A