Planning Ahead
Writer Jeremy Adams
Art Adrián Gutiérrez
Colors Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letters Josh Reed
Consulting Editors Tom Brevoort & Mark Basso
Editors Katie Kubert & Andrew Marino
I have to apologize — I completely spaced reviewing this comic! I read it back in November 2025 when it first came out, and I started planning what I was going to say about it, but then … something happened and I never got around to writing about it. Until today. So anyway, this is part of the great DC/Marvel crossover that readers like me have been waiting nearly 30 years for. But instead of anchoring this event with one major miniseries, DC and Marvel have decided to do a bunch of disjointed one-shots this time around. The Flash was fortunate enough to be paired with the Fantastic Four (one of my favorite Marvel teams). Unfortunately, DC chose to make this comic a digital exclusive on their DC Go! platform — a vertical scroller designed for phones. I personally find the format unbearable — even when I switched from my iPad to my phone — but I suffered through it for this comic.
Our cover shows the Flash and Fantastic Four battling an absurdly gigantic Gorilla Grodd. I have no idea why he’s so massive here. He is pretty big in the story, but not this large. That said, I don’t mind this cover — it is rather exciting. But it’s not a great indicator of the story inside.
For reasons never explained in this brief tale, the Fantastic Four now live in the DC Universe. Although they open the story with a game of “Gothamopoly,” they all appear ignorant of the Flash and his rogues gallery. But the Flash (Barry Allen in this story) and Gorilla Grodd seem to know quite a bit about the Fantastic Four. So much, in fact, that Grodd decides to use his mental powers to take control of Barry with the express purpose of ambushing the Fantastic Four in hopes of finding some piece of incredible technology.
Barry instantly runs into one of the Invisible Woman’s force fields, which just happened to be enough of a jolt to free him from Grodd’s control. Grodd, however, quickly takes control of Mr. Fantastic and uses him to send the Human Torch, Thing, Invisible Woman, and Flash away with a dimensional pen thing. But Grodd’s not satisfied with that device, as he can sense Reed Richards trying to conceal the location of a mental amplifier from Grodd. So while Grodd searches for that amplifier, Barry and the others try to find a way home.
Luckily, Reed’s pen didn’t send them to a different dimension, but just forward through time. Luckier still, Barry is able to follow the trail of tachyons that the pen emitted while transporting them through time and space. So the Invisible Woman creates a force field chariot for her, Thing, and Human Torch to ride in, while Flash pulls them through time — conveniently passing by Jay Garrick, Wally West, and our lovable Bart Allen.
The comic never says when this encounter happens exactly. Bart is looking a bit grown up, but I’m not sure if that was intentional. Anyway, he was battling Abra Kadabra when Barry passed by with his new friends. Bart takes time out of his battle to inspect the Thing’s rocky skin and the Human Torch’s fiery exterior. Oddly, Bart addresses the Flash as “Barry” instead of “Grandpa.”
Barry refuses Bart’s help and continues to follow the trail of tachyons until he arrives back at the Fantastic Four’s lab. Unfortunately, he was too late to prevent Grodd from finding the mind amplifier. Fortunately, Reed had tricked Grodd. The device was actually a de-amplifier, which left Grodd with the mind of a baby gorilla. With the day saved, Reed and Barry decide to play a few games of chess.
I have to admit that I was a bit let down by this story. Not only did the format bug me to no end, but the story felt completely rushed and shallow. Nothing terribly interesting happened, and the Fantastic Four were essentially treated as a glorified cameo. You could have replaced them with any other comic book character and the story would have remained exactly the same. Still, though, I will always be happy to see Impulse included. Even if it is in such a small role.
