We have reached the conclusion of the Dan Slott era on Fantastic Four, and he decides to go out with a huge cosmic saga.
Fantastic Four: Reckoning War Alpha #1 (2022)
written by Dan Slott
pencils by Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Fonteriz & Carlos Magno
cover by Carlos Pacheco & Rafael Fonteriz
This is a pretty complex storyline; a little TOO complex in my opinion, and by this point Slott was starting to lose steam in the book.
I will mostly focus on the stuff that is vital to the basic concept or that involves Doom, not just because he’s the star of the retrospective but because this saga is so complicated that I’ve forgotten a lot.
For example, I forgot that someone BLOWS UP THE MOON during this!!!
As of that wasn’t enough, Earth is being invaded by the Badoon.
If you’re not familiar with the Badoom, they’re just standard evil reptilian aliens. But blowing up the Moon should be WAY outside of their weapons, something Doom immediately picks up.
Investigating things, the Fantastic Four learn who is behind this: a different race calling themselves The Reckoning.
And they find out from an unexpected source: Nick Fury! The ORIGINAL Nick, who left Earth after the nearly unreadable mess that was the Original Sin crossover.
And looking around the technology of the Watcher, Reed discovers the origins of The Reckoning.
Which are rooted into deep cosmic lore: remember the Prosilicans from Tales of Suspense #53, the aliens that were gifted atomic energy by the Watchers before they took that name?
Yeah turns out that weren’t just given atomic energy, but the full technological prowess of the Watchers. Which turned them into the warlike Reckoning.
They were SO dangerous, in fact, that the other races of the universe united against The Reckoning and deployed a weapon that destroyed NINE TENTHS OF THE UNIVERSE.
That’s the secret origin of the Watchers vow of non-interference, complete with the revelation of what they were called before they were the Watchers: they were “The Luminous”.
Hey we lost nine tenths of the universe, but they got a better name out of it.
And we close the issue with Reed absorbing all the knowledge stored by the Watchers, as a last resort to eventually stop The Reckoning.
I don’t think Doom is going to like this development.
Fantastic Four vol6 #40 (2022)
by Dan Slott & Rachael Stott
The Human Torch is STILL stuck in flaming mode after being cursed by Doom, and unfortunately Reed’s newfound near-omniscience comes at the cost of his conscience.
Speaking of Doom, he recovers a toy being kept by the US government. We’ll see it shortly.
As if things weren’t bad ALREADY, The Reckoning are gifting Watcher-level weapons TO EVERY WARRING RACE.
Back at the Watchers homeworld, our old pal Uatu summons the rest of his race.
They truly find him annoying, don’t they?
Fantastic Four vol6 #41 (2022)
by Dan Slott & Rachael Stott
Despite Uatu’s plea, the Watchers decide to do nothing.
Fantastic Four vol6 #42 (2022)
by Dan Slott & Rachael Stott
While A LOT is going on in the war, Nick Fury is dispatched to the Watcher homeworld (he’s invisible to their sight thanks to some tech provided by Uatu) to figure out what’s going on.
And Doom goes to Florida.
That’s never a good sign, for either Doom or Florida.
Fantastic Four vol6 #43 (2022)
written by Dan Slott
pencils by Rachael Stott & Andrea Di Vito
cover by Carlos Alberto Fernandez Urbano
Well, look who finally decided to show up!
One of the main enforcers of The Reckoning, Cormorant, has been beating up several superheroes… including Squirrel Girl.
In this storyline Slott is revisiting basically all the Marvel characters he worked with… She-Hulk, the Initiative, the Great Lake Avengers… and remember that he was the one to rescue Squirrel Girl from obscurity.
Kind of ironic that he makes it a point to have the villain defeat Squirrel Girl when Slott will be succeeded on the book by Ryan North, whose breakout at Marvel was with Squirrel Girl.
Speaking of the She-Hulk series, Slott used a character called Southpaw there who used a piece of alien armor. Turns out that the reason Cormorant is on Earth is to pick up all those pieces.
The other Slott series connected to this was the Initiative, where he introduced the alien superweapon Tactigon. We never learned what that thing actually was, until now.
OF COURSE he already figured out the plot.
Doom gets a Big Dumb Cosmic Fight out of this.
Doom even summons the alien controlling Cormorant…
…and kills the man controlling him, without even listening to his origin story.
Which is a good thing: a letters page from the following series reveals that he was originally supposed to be Kristoff… maybe?
Tom Brevoort just says that the reader suggesting Kristoff wins a No-Prize for this guess, which is not exactly the same thing.
I don’t think it would have made ANY sense to have Kristoff in that role, the main controlling Cormorant has all the clues of being an alien.
More surprising than that, though, is the fact that Doom doesn’t use this newfound tech to control Cormorant or steal his powers… he just hires him.
Fantastic Four vol6 #44 (2022)
written by Dan Slott
pencils by Rachael Stott, Andrea Di Vito & Davide Tinto
With Nick Fury’s help, Invisible Woman has infiltrated the Watcher homeworld and freed Uatu.
That’s where they discover the truth behind The Reckoning…
…and we get another bombshell revelation: it was the Watchers who destroyed nine tenths of the universe, with their greatest weapon… the Ultimate Nullifier.
I believe this is the first concrete origin given to the weapon: it had previously been implied to have a link to Galactus, but never explicitly.
Speaking of Galactus, he ALSO plays a role in this… because thanks to the actions of The Reckoning, he’s been fused with The Destroyer.
Yeah told you this is a VERY complicated saga.
It’s been a while since we’ve check on Reed. How’s he handling his newfound near-omniscience?
The Watchers aren’t doing much better, once Uatu shares what he learned.
Take a moment to appreciate how this must feel: they spent billions of years in isolation because they felt responsible for not stopping another race for destroying nine tenths of the universe… and it turns out that THEY were the one to create the weapon AND pull the trigger.
With Reed busy having his brain melting, it’s up to Doctor Doom and Cormorant to fight The Reckoning.
Aaaaand it’s not enough to defeat their leaders.
Things are so bad that Reed ends up using the Ultimate Nullifier to destroy the dimension they’re in.
Fantastic Four vol6 #45 (2022)
by Dan Slott & Farid Karami
This gets rid of The Reckoning, but at what price for Reed Richards?
No cost!
This is a bit shaky. The idea behind the Ultimate Nullifier has always been that unless you’re VERY precise in how you use it, you could end up destroying yourself and your universe.
The fact that a Watcher’s mind is good enough to fire it without collateral damage fits remarkably well. The fact that this somehow restores Reed’s brain? Not so much.
The damage to the Watcher world was so massive that everyone has to flee.
This whole ordeal has left every Watcher completely blind (!!!).
Except Uatu, who is now THE Watcher.
In fact, Uatu has absorbed SO much energy that he’s able to RESTORE THE NINE TENTHS OF THE UNIVERSE that had been destroyed.
This kind of comes out of nowhere and has a very “we don’t have enough pages left to make this even more complicated” feel about it.
I’m sure Uatu will use this new power responsibly.
Cormorant departs, still in debt with Doctor Doom…
…and deciding to keep guard of the M’Kraan Crystal, where the Watcher who built the Ultimate Nullifier is now imprisoned along with the leaders of The Reckoning.
Uatu fixes the Moon…
…and he leaves the Ultimate Nullifier, along with his former home, to Nick Fury.
Fantastic Four vol6 #46 (2022)
by Dan Slott & Carlos Alberto Fernandez Urbano
Doctor Doom doesn’t show up in the final issue of the Slott run, which also ends Volume 6.
It’s where Reed finally comes to around to finally fix the Human Torch’s powers.
The Thing is offered a similar treatment, but at this point he knows better.
Doom significance: 1/10
From what I can tell, as of 2026 the new status quo for the Watcher and Nick Fury is still in effect.
It’s possible that someone will remember Cormorant still has a debt with Doctor Doom, but considering how generic he was I don’t expect anyone except Slott to bring him back.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
On the Marvel scale, the sheer cosmic insanity is a bit Silver Age.
Will it stand the test of time? 7/10
Like I said at the beginning, by this point the Slott run had started to lose some steam. One of the reasons might be that this storyline is WAY longer and WAY more complicated than it really needed to be, and at various points it feels like the story is stalling for time.
It also relies a bit too much for the reader to be knowledgeable about the little bits of lore that Slott has scattered in other series. Other than some light foreshadowing he did in the She-Hulk series, which is acknowledged and discussed, none of the others have this privilege.
Unless you’re read and remember those stories, stuff like Southpaw and the Tactigon feel like they come out of nowhere. Heck I read and liked all these Slott series and it STILL felt out of nowhere.
Also despite the buildup, Doctor Doom’s contribution ultimately didn’t amount to much beyond slowing down the main threat a tiny bit.
I felt like Slott was trying to do too much here: he’s trying to tell a gigantic space opera operating on multiple fronts AND connect the dots he’s left in over a decade of comics AND tie up about a dozen subplots that have been running in the series.
The idea behind The Reckoning’s origin is great, and it works surprisingly well with the established lore, but the rapid-fire escalation of threats gets ridiculous so fast that at some point you get numb.
When a saga begins blowing up the Moon and IT BARELY AFFECTS ANYTHING, that’s a huge problem!!!
Despite my criticisms of the final storyline, I feel that Dan Slott was unfairly criticized during his run. It’s an extremely solid one that will probably be re-evaluated at some point.
In my opinion his greatest success will be in finally turning Franklin into a fully-fledged character, ending the will-they-won’t-they relationship between the Think and Alicia by having them marry, and introducing their adopted alien kids.
The fact that Ryan North doubled down in integrating Alicia and the kids into the family dynamics of the following series hopefully indicates that the growth brought by Slott is here to stay.