A surly Ben “the Thing” Grimm takes his unwanted ward, the
childlike superhero Wundarr, to the Central Park Zoo. While Ben is distracted
buying cotton candy and griping about the situation, Wundarr frees all the
animals from their cages. Ben wrestles with several animals, forcing them back
in their cages while the confused Wundarr cries. Nearby, Steve Rogers and
Sharon Carter are on a date; when they see the ruckus, Steve dons his
Captain America outfit and rushes in to help. As Ben rounds up the animals, Cap tackles
some punks trying to rob the concessions. Namorita and her roommate Annie
Christopher come upon Wundarr and stop Ben from yelling at him, offering to
have the young hero come live with them. Ben is delighted. When Cap and Sharon
arrive, Ben explains the Wundarr situation to them and invites them back to the
Baxter Building for tea….
Back at the FF’s HQ, Reed Richards is making some
adjustments to Doctor Doom’s time machine, assisted by Medusa, when Ben arrives
with the guests. As they leave the lab, Ben unwittingly hits the switch that
powers up the time machine. Later, as they are relaxing, they hear a scream
from the lab. Rushing in, they find a frightened woman in futuristic garb,
pleading with them to explain what is going on. Sharon tries to calm her by
pointing out that they are Captain America and (some of) the Fantastic Four but
the woman insists they have been dead for a thousand years. She dashes into the
next room and when she sees the New York skyline through the windows she
faints. Reed tells them that the time machine indicates the woman is from the
year 3014….
When she awakens, the woman gives her name as Tarin. She
explains that in her time, Earth has been conquered by the alien Badoon, and
most of humanity was wiped out, the remainer being enslaved. She reveals that
Captain America is their symbol of liberty and the Guardians of the Galaxy, the
leaders of the underground, have named their ship after him. Cap asks to go to
the future to see what he can do; Sharon and Ben volunteer to go with them as
Reed must work the time machine. They must be back at the landing site in 24
hours so Reed can bring them back to their present. They take off…
…and arrive in the future New York City. But they are
spotted by the Zoms, lobotomized humans who serve as police for the Badoon. A
fight ensues with difficulty for the heroes as the Zoms cannot feel pain or
lose consciousness. Then an iron-jawed creature called the Monster of Badoon is
unleashed; it knocks out Thing as Cap and Sharon are overpowered by the Zoms.
Tarin alone escapes, with a vow to return in power….