The Fantastic Four Just Redifined the Big Bang

The Fantastic Four are in some serious trouble. After their worst enemy, Doctor Doom became Sorcerer Supreme, one of his first orders of business was to “cure” The Thing by stripping him of his powers. This was, of course, a lie and plot by Doom, as not only are Thing’s powers gone, but the rest of the Four’s are fading as well. The only way to stop Doom is to restore their abilities, and the only way to do that is to reexpose Ben to cosmic rays the same way they were the first time. Marvel’s First Family tried going to an alternate universe and going back in time to when they first got their powers, but so far nothing has worked. That was until Valeria Richards came up with the perfect solution. If they want to expose Thing to cosmic rays, their best option is to go straight to the source. The Fantastic Four need to go back to the Big Bang.

The Fantastic Jump Back to the Start Everything

The idea came to Valeria at the end of their last attempt to restore Ben’s powers. Now, traveling back to the explosion that kicked off everything sounds insane, and it is. After all, Reed points out that no ship could possibly survive even a single second there without being incinerated, and that’s why Valeria plans for them to only be there for a few nanoseconds. The plan is to go back in time just long enough to expose Thing to the cosmic rays, then immediately return to the present before they become the universe’s first toast. Sue can use the last of her powers to create a shield that will hopefully buy them enough extra protection, and Johnny can absorb enough heat to hold everything together. It’s a longshot, but it’s their only chance to get the power they need to stop Doom from ruling the world.

Of course, nanoseconds are way too short a timeframe for any human to react, so they’ll need a robotic pilot to bring them home. They nominate their longtime buddy and robo-assistant HERBIE, who is more than happy to help however he can. They upgrade HERBIE’s processors so he can think fast enough to handle everything, and the Four load up in their ship. Ben tells Reed that he doesn’t have to go, as Reed won’t be able to do anything like the others, so he’d only be risking his own life. Mr. Fantastic tells Ben that there’s no way he would ever let them take this kind of risk without him, and the family gets ready for their shortest adventure yet. Having said everything they need to, they launch themselves back to the start of it all.

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They land at one times ten to the negative thirty-two power seconds, right after our concept of physics has kicked in. Ben is exposed to the cosmic rays as planned, but as HERBIE tries to bring everyone back to the present, the time engine fails. In the slowest motion possible, HERBIE realizes that the Big Bang damaged their ship way beyond expectations, and they have nanoseconds before they are torn apart. Of course, HERBIE was modified for exactly this type of thing. He reconfigures the ship to transport just the five of them back to the present, but realizes that won’t work either, they’re too much matter. Without hesitation, he sends the Four back, and sacrifices himself so they can live. In his last moments, HERBIE realizes that with his enhanced brainpower, he can truly understand what love is for the first time. He’s always loved the Fantastic Four, and now as he sees that he is truly alive, he gives up that life to save the people he loves most. HERBIE swallowed up by the Big Bang, but the Four return to the present, all of their powers restored.

Everything’s Over, But There Are Still Questions

Later that night, Valeria and her dad talk about something that was bothering both of them: baryogenesis. Effectively, every currently accepted model of the Big Bang says that matter and antimatter should have been released evenly, thus destroying each other and leaving nothing left. However, for some as of yet unknown reason, matter won out and we have our universe. HERBIE and their time ship were extra matter that got added into the universe-making explosion, and Valeria is understandably freaking out, thinking they may be the very reason that the universe exists at all. Reed, however, calms her down, and points out that when they made a new HERBIE from his old save data, his new version stated that if he ever did sacrifice himself, he would want it to be out of love. Reed concludes that there’s no way to know if what they did accidentally led to the creation of everything, but if it was, then the universe was made on the foundation of love, and that’s not such a bad thought.

So there we have it, the Fantastic Four might be the reasons the Marvel Universe exists. Honestly, it’s a beautiful story that also symbolizes how they are the characters that put Marvel on the map. In a way, they did help create the Marvel Universe, and they are nothing if not the ultimate showing of love. 

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