I finally looked it up, and Jeph Loeb had not begun his run on the Ultimates yet as his issues of this began coming out. But he was about to, and due to the delays, the final issue of this and his first issue of that hit the same month.
Suddenlyyyyyy… life has new meaning to meeeeeee…. It’s come to this. Billy Ocean references. Anything is more entertaining than a Greg Land comic.
Travis Charest Spider-Man again. 2nd panel Spidey has a weirdly Dan Jurgens look. I guess Fury’s gonna spill the exposition now. Nick flashes back to how this nonsense started, with Ben receiving a grievous wound that disappeared immediately despite being the impetus for this entire series because Greg Land sucks, and to Fury rejecting Reed’s probes. And then…
So Doom tampered with the thingies and everything else happened. How on Earth is this happening? Nick Fury may be ruthless, but Dr. Doom? The powers that be ok’d this? Good grief. Spider-Man says “We have to find Reed Richards!” like that hasn’t been the plot of most of this series, and we move our scene to Reed, unconscious, as that guy who drugged him, Emil Burbank, unreels his own origin story. I guess he’s the Lex Luthor of this piece. He goes on to detail how he created the thing ravaging the world at the behest of a US Military that wanted something to kill Hyperion, which also had recovered one of Reed’s probes. So they used it as a scapegoat. What? What did Doom do, then? This is stupid.
But first, a 2-page splash of the wrestler Triple H, uh, I mean Thor, flexing for no reason. He was taking a flex break from beating on Hyperion, who I guess he’s defeated, but then Power Princess attacks him. It’s only been 24 hours since I read last issue and I don’t even remember where these characters were. Who cares? Dr. Spectrum also attacks, but Human Torch puts him down, so now Thor can threaten Hyperion some more.
Charest Spider-man.
This series really sucks. Not buying it back in the day was very smart. Way to go, 30 year old me. Elsewhere (Could be anywhere!), Quicksilver convinces Wanda to do… something… And various Squadron Supreme people make some faces. Meanwhile, Reed is about to escape when Storm, Cyclops and Wolverine break in to rescue him. But then the roof comes off, and…
The original Squadron Supreme. Fine, man, why not? As they are from yet another alternate dimension, this isn’t a crossover with the main timeline, but it’s a step closer. I can’t believe they made a comic with the Whizzer in it in 2008. Pee Pee Man to the rescue!