EARTH-49487
Type: Alternate Earth, Core Continuum Designation:
Earth-49487
Environment: Earth-like
Usual means of access: Vibrational attunement
Dominant Life Form: Humanity
Significant Inhabitants: Avengers (Ant-Man/Henry
"Hank" Pym, Iron Man/Anthony "Tony" Stark, Thor, Wasp/Janet "Jan" Van
Dyne) Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Girl/Susan
"Sue" Storm, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm)
First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#387 (April, 1994)
History:
(Fantastic Four I#387 (fb) - BTS) - The history of Earth-49487 largely mirrored that of Earth-616, with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers both forming at relatively the same time. The FF took up residence in the Baxter Building, and had at least one run in with the alien Skrulls, while the Avengers had to do without the Hulk and hadn't located Captain America (yet). At some point in the past, the Doctor Doom of Earth-616 visited Earth-49487. His automated trans-mat system logged the journey, allowing Doom to easily return there if needed.
(Fantastic Four I#382 - BTS) - Following the apparent
death of Reed Richards at the hands of Doctor Doom, the surviving
members of Earth-616's Fantastic Four retrieved the computer core of
Doom's time platform, which included all of his most recent temporal
excursions.
(Fantastic Four I#387 - BTS) - The Invisible Woman (Susan Richards) told the team's technical advisor Scott Lang (Ant-Man) to hook up Doom's transmat-data with the FF's Timesled to explore the alternate realities he'd been to, convinced Latveria's ruler was keeping her husband Reed prisoner in one of them. Lang eventually uploaded all the destinations, even creating an emergency retrieval system by feeding the coordinates into the old time platform the FF once took from Doom. However, the Malice possessed Psi-Lord (an alternate reality Franklin Richards) invaded Four Freedoms Plaza, knocked out Lang and escaped with the Timesled to Earth-49487 in an attempt to contact his father. After recovering, Ant-Man joined the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and the Thing on the time platform, bound for Earth 49487 even as Psi-Lord tried to get familiar with his new surroundings.
(Fantastic Four I#387) - Earth-49487's Reed Richards was working in one of his Baxter Building laboratories when the Earth-616 FF appeared. Spotting what she thought was her husband, the Invisible Woman ran to Richards and tearfully embraced him, with the others looking on in similar emotion. However, Reed did not recognize her and carefully pushed her aside even as his teammates arrived to see what the commotion was about.
(Fantastic Four I#388 - BTS) - The Dark Raider, intent on killing all of the Reed Richardses in the Multiverse, spotted Earth-49487's Mr. Fantastic and decided exterminating him would be his next priority. Not even the Watcher was able to convince him otherwise.
(Fantastic Four I#388) - Earth-49487's volatile, headstrong Thing was ready to tear into the intruders, only to be stopped by Mr. Fantastic who pleaded with his teammates to let cooler heads prevail and allow their presumed future counterparts to explain themselves. Sending the Invisible Girl to get refreshments, Sue Storm couldn't help but look to her future, alternate counterpart with disdain and disgust. As the two teams tried to get along, Psi-Lord decided the best way to get some alone time with his father was to create a diversion. Using his psi-abilities to convince Earth-49487's Thing their guests were actually Skrulls, he caused a fight between the Things and the Torches. Ant-Man, who until then had been feeling like the proverbial fifth wheel, decided to join in and used his cybernetic helmet to summon New York's ants.
(Fantastic Four I#388 - BTS) - Ant-Man's cybernetic distress
call was picked up by Earth-49487's Ant-Man (Hank Pym). Worried someone
might be trying to trick or hoax them, he ordered the Wasp to call in
the other Avengers Thor and Iron Man who quickly responded to the alert.
Together, they travelled to the source of the presumedly false distress
call: the Baxter Building.
(Fantastic Four I#388) - Earth-49487's Fantastic Four were
engaging their 616 counterparts, with the young Invisible Girl trying to
get the drop on her older counterpart. Easily defeating her far less
experienced alternate self, Sue pleaded with Mr. Fantastic to stop and listen.
Psi-Lord even got involved in the fight, revealing to the 49487-Reed that
he was in fact his son. Before Franklin could explain, the Dark Rider
arrived to slay this reality's Reed Richards. Meanwhile, the Avengers
arrived to break up the fight between the 616 and 49487 Things, Torches
and Ant-Man. While Lang used ants to distract 49487's Thing, the Human
Torch managed to extinguish his younger counterpart's flame. Falling to
the ground, Johnny Storm was rescued by the arriving Iron Man while
Ant-Man found himself besieged by 49487's Ant-Man and the Wasp who
took control over Lang's ant army. While the Human Torch of Earth-616
tried to re-enter the Baxter Building, he was caught in a freak gale
called forth by Thor's traditional *tap-tap* weather summons. In return,
the Thunder God was struck by the Thing of Earth-616 who hit him in the
back to disrupt his concentration, allowing the doused Torch to return
to safety. Back inside the Baxter Building, the Dark Raider had knocked
out the 616's Invisible Woman, allowing him to focus on Reed Richards.
Easily defeating the relatively inexperienced hero, he was ready to kill
him only for Psi-Lord to intervene. The Dark Raider effortlessly took
care of Franklin by forcing his psi-armor to return to its pocket
dimension through a forced ionic short circuit pulse. Disturbed by the
events, Franklin sent out a general psi-alarm, dispelling any and all
illusions of their future counterparts being Skrulls and alerting the
combatants outside of the Dark Raider's presence inside. Despite the
intervention of the FF and the Avengers, the Dark Raider succeeded in
killing Earth-49487's Reed Richards, as well as Susan Storm, before
teleporting away. The 616-FF awkwardly stood around while the young
Johnny Storm mourned for his sister and the Avengers tried to console
their fellow heroes. With Psi-Lord already gone, Ant-Man urged his
teammates to return home before they risked messing up their own
timeline.
(Fantastic Four I#388 - BTS) - Uatu the Watcher observed
Earth-616's Fantastic Four leaving Earth-49487 via Ant-Man's automated
recall function built into Doctor Doom's time platform.
Comments: Created by Tom DeFalco (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks).
It's a little hard to determine if Earth-49487
is an offshoot of "our" 616, caused by the Fantastic Four's involvement
or if it's a seperate reality altogether. The Avengers lineup appearing
in this tale, with Iron Man still in his original golden armor, places
this in-between Avengers I#2 and
#3. I suppose it's possible the
main "root" is 616, given the fact Doom travelled there first (Doom
never does anything without it (in)directly benefiting himself).
At the end of the day, next to Days
Of Future Past of X-Men
fame, Fantastic Four I#387-388
featured the first alternate reality events I really got into.
No, no...there's no screaming... Hear me out: The DeFalco/Ryan run is
widely defiled for being unoriginal in its shameful tendency to rehash
the classics. And yes, there's more than a little merit to that. Heck,
one could fill an entire blog on just how Tom DeFalco has ripped off
stories or beats from past creators all in the name of "homaging" their
work. The opening pages of Fantastic
Four I#387 for instance featured a sequence with the FF
chasing a time lost prehistoric bird, which mirrors a similar scene from
the 1964 Lee/Kirby classic Fantastic
Four I#23. Still, as fate would have it this tale, with the
current 90s FF interacting with their early 1960s counterparts,
coincided with the death of Jack "King" Kirby back in February of 1994.
All comics cover dated April of that year memorialized Kirby, but this
particular FF storyline truly paid an unexpected but nevertheless
charming tribute to the man's work on Marvel's first family. If
anything, DeFalco had the voices of the early 1960s FF down pat and the
exciting, nervous energy of the early years of the mighty Marvel
Universe were on full display here.
Profile by Norvo.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Earth-49487 has no known connections to
Founding members of Earth-49487's Avengers, the tiny adventurers were very much aware of the activities of New York's insect community. When Scott Lang of Earth-616 used his cybernetic helmet to summon ants in his defense, the call was picked up by Ant-Man (Henry Pym) who was startled to find someone else was using his identity. After alerting the other Avengers, Ant-Man and the Wasp used their trademark pneumatic tubes to launch themselves towards the Baxter Building where they confronted Ant-Man (Lang). Pym proved to be the one with more control over the insect herds, eventually forcing them to leave the Thing of Earth-49487 alone. In the end, both heroes were unable to prevent the Dark Raider from killing their reality's Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl.
--Fantastic Four I#388
Young and immature, the Johnny Storm of Earth-49487 still regarded being a
superhero as one big adventure. Even encountering his far more experienced,
older counterpart from Earth-616 didn't help to change that. The older
Torch watched in amazement as his alternate reality self still juggled
with fireballs and made silly jokes, all things he'd long since abandoned.
When Psi-Lord made Earth-49487's Thing believe their alternate selves were
Skrulls, young Johnny valiantly tried to fight the elder Storm... only for
his still immature flame powers to give out mid-way during the confrontation.
He was saved from falling to his death by the arriving Iron Man, but was
still unable to prevent the Dark Raider from killing Reed and his sister.
The other heroes looked on, stricken with grief, while Johnny held his
dead sibling's body, lamenting he was all alone in the world now
--Fantastic Four I#387 (Fantastic Four I#387-388
Susan Storm of Earth-49487 was still getting used to her new role as the
Invisible Girl. Highly protective of both her young brother and Reed
Richards, who she secretly loved, she didn't take kindly to the fact an
older version of herself suddenly appeared in the FF's Baxter Building
headquarters, seemingly enamored with her. Susan briefly fought the older
Invisible Woman when Psi-Lord made them believe the alternate reality FF
were Skrulls. During the fight, she was startled by how hard and cold her
other self acted, fearing she might one day become just like that. In the
end, Sue sacrificed her life trying to save her Reed from the Dark Raider.
Both died in the process.
--Fantastic Four I#387 (Fantastic Four I#387-388
Anthony Stark of Earth-49487 was a founding member of his reality's Avengers. He responded to Ant-Man's distress signal and arrived right on time to save the young Human Torch after his flame gave out. He briefly joined his fellow teammates in opposing the Fantastic Four from Earth-616, before joining forces with them against the Dark Raider. Iron Man was unable to stop the villain from killing his reality's Reed Richards and Susan Storm.
--Fantastic Four I#388
Young, eager and curious to discover new insights on anything, the Reed Richards of Earth-49487 was initially fascinated by the arrival of the 616-version of his team. Despite the fact that version's Susan hugged him as if they were married, he still kept a scientist's objectivity and forced his feisty fellow teammates to extend their guests every courtesy while they investigated their claims. When Psi-Lord (Franklin Richards) made the 49487-team believe their counterparts were Skrulls, Mr. Fantastic still tried to mediate. He was only slightly stunned when Psi-Lord showed himself and revealed he was in fact Reed's future son. Not too long after that, Earth-49487's Mr. Fantastic, along with his Invisible Girl, perished at the hands of the dimension hopping Dark Raider, a villain intent on killing every single Reed Richards in the Multiverse.
--Fantastic Four I#387 (Fantastic Four I#387-388
Grumpy, ill tempered and barely used to being stuck in his new, monstrous form, Ben Grimm of Earth-49487 was ever ready to pick a fight. When he encountered his supposedly alternate reality future 616-self, he was less than pleased by the prospect he'd be stuck resembling a pile of bricks for the rest of his life. Psi-Lord, hoping to create a diversion to allow himself to meet Reed Richards, utilized a simple, psionic suggestion to make the Thing believe the future FF were actually Skrulls. While the Things duked it out amongst themselves, Ant-Man (Lang) summoned an army of ants that expertly managed to distract the younger Grimm. He recovered in time to join the future FF and the Avengers in trying to oppose the Dark Raider, only to see his world's Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl killed by the multidimensional murderer.
--Fantastic Four I#387 (Fantastic Four I#387-388
Working at a New York hospital with his nurse Jane Foster, brilliant surgeon Donald Blake was called to action when Ant-Man (Pym) and the Wasp summoned the Avengers following a cybernetic summons from another Ant-Man (Lang) near the Baxter Building. Changing to Thor, Blake joined Iron Man and the others in fighting Earth-616's Fantastic Four. The Thunder God even managed to douse the flames of the 616's Human Torch, calling forth a freak downpour with a trademark *tap-tap* from his elemental hammer Mjolnir. Thor was then struck in the back by the 616-Thing, hoping to knock the Asgardian out. Despite this low blow, Thor joined the others in opposing the Dark Raider who had come to kill Reed Richards. The Odinson was unable to prevent the deaths of both Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl. Even as the grieving Human Torch held his sister's dead form, Thor commented: "Tis tragic, the frailties of you mortals."
--Fantastic Four I#388
images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four I#387, p30, pan1 (Earth-49487 main)
Fantastic Four I#388, p6, pan1 (Earth-49487's FF and 616 FF)
Fantastic Four I#388, p21, pan 2&3 (Earth-49487's Avengers join the fight)
Fantastic Four I#388, p20, pan5 (Earth-49487's Ant-Man & Wasp)
Fantastic Four I#388, p19, pan1 (Earth-49487's Human Torch)
Fantastic Four I#388, p4, pan5 (Earth-49487's Invisible Girl)
Fantastic Four I#388, p19, pan4 (Earth-49487's Iron Man)
Fantastic Four I#388, p22, pan3 (Earth-49487's Mr Fantastic)
Fantastic Four I#388, p19, pan7&8 (Earth-49487's Thing)
Fantastic Four I#388, p21, pan4 (Earth-49487's Thor)
Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#387 (April, 1994) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Paul Ryan
(pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Fantastic Four I#388 (May, 1994) - Tom
DeFalco (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph
Macchio (editor)
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Last Updated: 05/19/14
Non-Marvel
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