Random Happenstance

Good idea: making a list of all the Earth X/Universe X/Paradise X books I've bought additional copies of, to see what I need to complete another run of that. Better idea: maybe putting that list somewhere I'd actually be able to read it while I'm looking, like in my phone or something? No, that makes too much sense. And I'm at least 40% sure I hadn't bought another of this one, anyway: from 2000, 4 (Universe X) #1, plot by Alex Ross, plot and script by Jim Krueger, art by Brent Anderson, additional inks by Will Blyberg. Cover by Alex Ross.

Unlike most characters in the Earth X setting, at the start Ben Grimm is happy and thriving, largely retired, and living with his wife Alicia and their two boys, Buzz and Chuck. (Alicia had gained some kind of sculpt-to-life powers in the Terrigen Mists, and maybe wasn't blind anymore, so she was doing way better than a lot of the people changed thusly.) Reed Richards, however, is a wreck; having not only lost Sue and Johnny, but also Franklin: as X-51 recaps at the start of this one, Franklin was Galactus now, but unaware of who he had been prior; Reed couldn't tell him without changing him back, and Galactus was needed to eat planets and keep the Celestials' numbers down. Still, Galactus had been summoned to earth previously, and defended it, when called as Franklin; now he asks X-51 to tell him of Franklin Richards, trying to determine why that name meant something to him.

Meanwhile, at Castle Doom, problems continued to pile up: Adam Warlock had returned, although Ben wonders why he wasn't trying harder to find Her. Even as Reed's "human torches" worked to burn away the Terrigen, Warlock and Her's son was the source of a lot of strife with mutated humanity, so Reed stashed the kid the last place anyone would expect: with Namor, who was still half on fire, since killing Johnny Storm. This triggers a sidebar about the nature of mutation, at least in the Earth X mythos, that might give 'Galactus' a clue as to what he had become. (Basically, if stage 1 mutation was random and stage 2 somewhat more of what the mutant wanted, stage 3 was like becoming what the universe needed you to be; which may have meant the end of what you had been.)

Reed send Ben to Namor, with one instruction: "Don't hit him." Yeah, you're sending the wrong guy then, Reed. In the underwater fight, Ben inadvertently frees Orca, Tiger Shark, and TS's sister Diane; the latter of whom had been mutated by the Terrigen as well. Ben's helmet is smashed, but he's saved by Namor giving him mouth-to-mouth, which is beyond mortifying for him. Namor then introduces him to Warlock's 'son,' the reborn Captain Mar-Vell, who Ben calls Marv; that name might stick. Marv explains, there was nothing for Ben to be mad at Namor about, it wasn't his fault. Then, the kicker: the afterlife, for super-heroes and villains, wasn't heaven but not quite hell: everyone that had died and gone there, thought they were still alive, and that those still alive were dead instead! So, grudge fights continued, as Sue and Johnny thought Reed and Ben were dead, and were still fighting Doctor Doom. Marv was in both universes now, appearing in the dead one as an adult with the Enigma Force, as he has a conversation with Stephen Strange and the Micronauts' Commander Rann, who had given Marv the Enigma Force. (The dead universe is also color-swapped: the Scarlet Witch was green there, Doom's usual green cape was red; Sue and Johnny's FF uniforms were now orange and the numbers were backwards!)

X-51 continues to explain-without-explaining why Reed had called 'Franklin' and 'Galactus' had come: after first meeting Uatu on the moon, Reed would have realized, the Watcher had always been watching, and maybe not as a friend. The FF had travelled back into the past (more than once! But FF #19 is referenced here) and Uatu would have seen that, before they actually met him. Uatu would've known of the Inhumans, the secret origins of vibranium, the creation of Adam Warlock: all of this might have inspired Reed to investigate the Microverse and the Negative Zone, perhaps looking for a place away from prying eyes...In the dead universe, Marv plans to reunite Reed and Sue: not by killing Reed, but by bringing Sue back, if they can convince her that she was really dead. Johnny had been convinced, but Sue tells him the only thing that would convince her would be to "get Victor Von Doom to come to me and apologize for his entire existence."

An aside: to keep the narration clear, X-51 is given caption boxes with like a circuitry underlay. They're really annoying to read at a glance, you have to focus there! But, pressed further, X-51 explains how Frankin's mutations had affected him: he'd been turned into an adult, back to a kid, a teenager for a bit, kid again, with the Celestials later keeping tabs on him after he had created the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe. Galactus forces X-51 to admit, Franklin had been a threat to the Celestials; which doesn't add up for him, since 'Galactus' thought he was the only threat to the Celestials. Back in the dead universe, Johnny faces off with Doom: almost literally, as he unmasks him, to show him his scars were gone. Although, he does threaten, he wasn't quite sure how it worked there, but probably could scar him up again if needed.

Forced into a corner, X-51 shows 'Galactus' the final fate of Franklin Richards: killed by Sentinels in X-Men #141...huh? 'Galactus' accepts that explanation, and annoyed that he wasted time talking to a robot, leaves. X-51 is confused, since he knows it didn't go down like that, at least for his world, and is grudgingly forced to consult with Uatu. Namor takes Marv and Ben back to Castle Doom, but then leaves, saying he wanted it to happen but he couldn't be there for it. Marv asks Reed to tell him about Sue, and he breaks down, since he had never even really been able to mourn her. In the dead universe, Sue does get that apology from Doom, who explains everything, from how his hurt pride led to everything he had done, to how he had always been able to manipulate Namor by not letting him split his time in and out of water correctly, to trying to kill Reed with a 'suicide' bomb. It wouldn't really have been suicide, Doom had planned to teleport away; but he chose to kill Sue instead to hurt Reed more, then his teleport failed and he died as well. Looking back on it there, Doom is able to see...yeah.

Now that Sue accepted her death, Marv was able to bring her back: using Reed's right arm as the clay, Alicia sculpts Sue, then Warlock gives her the soul gem, returning her to the living universe. This isn't a sacrifice for Warlock: Ben had thought his soul had been in the gem as well, but Warlock says he was now free, and takes his leave to go find his wife, which should get an "atta boy" from Ben. And back on the moon, X-51 offers to plug Uatu back in, so he can at least hear the world; if he can explain why he was seeing different histories...to be continued, in Universe X #1? Good lord, I thought we were further in than that. But, along with being a satisfyingly dense read, this issue shows how they were able to take something editorially inconsistent like Franklin's multiple age changes, and make them make sense. Sure, you have to go around the long way, but it gets there!