Hey everybody, welcome to another week in Ye Olde School Café! This week, we’ll be continuing our look at the Fantastic Four story In Search of Galactus! Previously, we learned that Johnny Storm decided to stay behind while the rest of the team headed out into space to help a woman whose people are under siege from the Skrulls. Once they arrived, they were thrown right into the battle, and at first they made a huge difference, but then the Skrulls used some high-tech weapons to capture them. On Earth, Johnny is about to become the victim of an evil villain named the Monocle. The team in space manages to escape their captors, but then are attacked by an unknown ship in space that thinks they are Skrulls….
As we watch the Human Torch light up the night sky, he’s unaware that he’s been mind controlled by this new villain to enter the Baxter Building and steal a file about weapons. Just as he was controlled, so were quite a few other students from the university, and they all are bringing different things of importance to the Monocle. Inside the office, the Monocle is being called by his superiors. He’s told to break off this operation, but the Monocle disagrees. He then decides to break off on his own, and it seems that this may come back to haunt him later on. In the meantime, Peter Parker is assigned to check out this new “university.” He gets checked in and the Monocle tells his men to keep an eye on him. Peter then gets an uneasy feeling, so he checks out the place. He hears something going on outside, and he is shocked to see a bunch of the students get aboard a few trucks and head out. The kids are then dropped off at an army base where they begin to attack the soldiers. The Torch then joins in on the action by blasting some of the soldiers trying to fight off the kids. Spidey jumps into action and helps out as much as he can, and then waits to confront Johnny back at the dorm. Johnny doesn’t remember any of the night’s events, so Spidey shows him pictures that he took during the fight. Just as they start to formulate a plan, a group of the mind-controlled students attacks them. At first, Torch helps Spidey, but then when the Monocle shows up, he orders the Torch to attack Spidey. He quickly webs Torch and goes after the Monocle, but the villain escapes to a rocket. We get a glimpse then of the “Enclave” in Europe, as they plot their next mission with another captive superhero…Medusa!
As their ship is being decimated, the Fantastic Four are thrust into space. Luckily, Sue uses her force-field powers to encase them in a bubble. The ship that blasted them out of the sky is the ship that the Sphinx and his crew are on. One of the crew is Richard Rider, A.K.A. Nova, and he then sees on the monitor that they blasted the wrong ship. He flies into space and grabs the team, and then brings them inside the ship. Once inside, the team is dumbfounded by the presence of the Sphinx. Ben immediately goes on the attack, remembering the last encounter with him (FF Annual #12). The Sphinx easily shrugs off his attack, and then Reed questions what he’s doing there. Before he can really get into it, though, he begins to disappear, and Reed then thinks he understands why the Sphinx is coming to Xandar. He means to become one with the Worldmind, and also infinitely powerful in the process. Everyone tries to stop him, but the Fantastic Four are starting to feel the effects of that aging ray that the Skrulls shot them with. Back on Earth, Johnny Storm makes the decision to use the tech at the Baxter Building to join his family in space. The team is elated to see him, but they then inform him of the imminent peril that the universe is in. Prime Thorn, the keeper of the computer, realizes that there is a threat, so he summons the heroes to aid him. The FF, Nova, The Comet, and everyone else that can use a weapon, heads towards the Worldmind, but they are too late. It doesn’t take them long to understand that he has now become all powerful, and intends to show them violently if need be. At this point Reed tells the group that there is only one being that may be able to stop him…the devourer of worlds, Galactus!
Well, that’s it for now, but return next week for more cosmic action as we see, literally, the search for Galactus himself! We’ll see Reed’s new robot Herbie make his debut, aliens, drama, Skrulls, and Terrax the Tamer! Do not miss it!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net