Warning: Contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #25
Mr. Fantastic has always been the Fantastic practice Resident genius, but sometimes he manages to outdoors himself. After the team ends up trapped in an “alien” world, only to discover that they never left their original location, they have an impossible choice. In response, Mister Fantastic develops an equally impossible solution and makes it work in a way only Reed Richards can – by using technology to change the Marvel Multiverse.
Fantastic practice #25 – Written by Ryan North, with art by Carlos Gomez – sends the crew on an accidental expedition to an alien world as they try to bypass Doom’s magic dome over Latveria. They encounter an entirely new Marvel alien species, the untranslatable “kkkkkk,” which resemble massive many-tailed insects.
Reid eventually realizes that they have been in the same place all along. The CCCC are from Earth at a time when no collision with the planet Theia occurred, and Mister Fantastic invented the Quantum Flux Accelerator to “add a time space-time frame to the multiverse” so both Earths can survive separately.
Reed Richards’ Last Incredible Fear: Technologically Changing the Marvel Multiverse
Fantastic practice #25 – Written by Ryan North; Art by Carlos Gomez, Jesus Aburtov, & Joe Caramagna
By developing the Quantum Flux Accelerator, Reed was able to change the multiverse in a way no one else had managed.
Strange occurrences are the typical modus operandi of the Fantastic Four, and they are certainly no strangers to encountering unknown species. The CCCC are incredibly hospitable, with Human Torch even forming a romantic relationship with one of them, making the decision they are eventually faced with even more difficult. When Reed realizes that the two planets are actually the same, it seems like the only answer is to choose which species will survive by choosing the surviving timeline. It is, as he puts it, an impossible choice, and one they really have no right to make.
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Rather than dooming the KKKKK to save humanity, or vice versa, he actually outdoes himself. Reed Richards has come up with all manner of inventions. He has traveled through time, waged war against vampires, and can generally make anything work when inspiration strikes. Still, by developing the Quantum Flux Accelerator, Reid was able to change the multiverse in a way no one else had managed. There is no magic or chance involved, just science and his own mind. It puts an inordinate amount of power in Reed’s handsAnd the only sacrifice it requires is that the two universes remain separate forever.
But it has its limits
Although used with relative ease and safety in the climax of Fantastic practice #25, Reed’s new Quantum Flex accelerator could have a major impact on the Marvel Universe down the line.
The quantum flux accelerator seems to require very specific circumstances to work. Reed can only separate the universes during one highly specific moment in timeSo in his current state, it wouldn’t give him the ability to split timelines completely on a whim. Yet it still does the previously unimaginable. It can isolate other volatile points and remove them in their own timeline, which is particularly relevant with Dr. Doom as Sorcerer Supreme. The whole debacle with Kkkkk is seemingly caused by Doom and an unintended side effect of the Latverian dome, which means further instability could occur.
Meanwhile, Victor von Doom may not realize that he nearly extinguished life as they know it, but Marvel’s supergenius Mister Fantastic cleaned up his mess with a radical invention. Although used with relative ease and safety in the climax of Fantastic practice #25, Reed’s new Quantum Flex accelerator could have a major impact on the Marvel Universe down the line. Mr. Fantastic is the first person to create a new branch in the multiverse using technology, and it may not be the last time the Fantastic practice does it
Fantastic practice #25 is available now from Marvel Comics.