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Reed has been cooped up in his lab, as usual, building a massive interdimensional gateway he calls "The Bridge." He wants to review and examine all of his past failures and see how things could have gone in other realities. Susan and the others aren't too happy about Reed getting side-tracked from building Franklin's "Hover-Horse" but that is the least of their worries. Several HAMMER agents have just been given word that Norman Osborn has pulled The Fantastic Four out of The Initative and stripped them of all their rights. He wants HAMMER to take them down and bring them in. HAMMER breaks into The Baxter Building, which alerts everyone (except for Reed who is too busy focusing on The Bridge as well as Franklin and Valeria who were outside of the Building when HAMMER attacked) of the situation. Susan, Johnny and Ben get try to make a getaway but accidentally end up in a Time Machine...which has left them stranded 1,000,000 years into the past...during the time of The First Celestial Host. Meanwhile...Reed makes a Quantum Leap into another Universe.
All in all it was a great issue, Sean Chen's artwork is clean and crisp and Jonathan Hickman's writing is fantastic. It's definately worth picking up...even if Arishem the Judge and Ziran the Tester are the only two Celestials who get face time. 
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Once upon a time before Blink was introduced in The Age of Apocalypse her Earth-616 counterpart died tragically after being pulled into some sort of anti-matter temporal rift in the fabric of time/space...but What If she hadn't? To be blunt the Multiverse begins to unravel, The In-Betweener attempts to kill Blink, Blink replaces him, accidentally creates more problems and after sacrificing herself is resurrected once more and becomes The In-Betweener's apprentice. All in all the idea that had Blink not died would cause the destruction of The Multiverse is a little far-fetched. She isn't Galactus who must remain alive so that Abraxas doesn't escape so I don't see how her not dying affected every reality in existence.
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What was once an unfair one-on-one turns into a brawl of epic proportions as Dr. Strange, Major Victory, Talon, Nikki and eventually Aleta (as the new Starhawk) take on the Captain Universe-empowered L'Matto. As for Charlie he is unconscious and is beginning to suffer the consequences of refusing to throw the fight and trying to take down L'Matto all on his own. He's suffering from severe internal injuries and to make matters worse a blood clot is forming in his throat. Kevin West does a fantastic job on the art once more, I only wish the Aleta vs. L'Matto sequences could have gone on just a little longer instead the writer decided to use Dr. Strange as a Deus Ex Machina and quickly end L'Matto's reign of terror when Aleta and Dr. Strange unleash everything they've got at L'Matto until he finally collapses. Aleta makes a threat and makes her way to the Drydock so she can once again fall into the arms of the man she loves, Dr. Strange and Captain Universe return to Earth-616, Charlie starts choking on his blood clot, and Brother Royal discovers Charlie's Dagger which will have great consequences for the Guardians later on down the line as it helps to further advance The Badoon Empire faster than it should have.
Oh and Dormammu is hiding on the Drydock. All in all this issue rocked, however Vance's attempts at trying to be more like Captain America were lame to say the least. I only wish that before the original series had ended they would end up crossing paths with another evil Captain Universe. Well...with DnA using the full spectrum of Marvel Cosmic characters in Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova we might get to see a fight between a new Captain Universe and Starhawk that will be fair unlike this one was. Again if you happen to come across Guardians of the Galaxy #30-33 get them all. This story arc is just too good to even think of missing.
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In one brief moment The Silver Surfer had nearly snatched The Infinity Gauntlet from the hands of Thanos during Infinity Gauntlet #4 but missed! However in this tale Norrin Radd succeeds but instead of willingly handing over the Gauntlet to Adam Warlock he takes for himself and in doing so brings peace to all worlds, goes a little crazy, kills Mephisto, turns Death into something that is not to be feared, nearly kills Shalla-Bal and then presumably he and Shalla-Bal are killed when Norrin wills The Infinity Gauntlet to blow itself up though it turns out that somewhere far, far away where not even Galactus can find them Norrin and Shalla-Bal have returned to their normal, powerless state of being and prepare to live out the rest of their lives on the Paradise they have created for themselves.
Pieces of the art were done by Kevin West though not enough was done by him as the story's main artist was just awful. Nevertheless the script is what really saves this book. It shows exactly what would happen to a person who is as level-headed as The Silver Surfer should he gain more power than he is capable of wielding as well as that Love can overcome anything...even the corrupting influence of The Infinity Gauntlet.
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To make things short and sweet: Charlie-27 refuses to let Nikki or Talon face the Badoon Gladiator that they have agreed to fight one-on-one which, if they won this battle, would force Brother Royal to reveal the location of their Hatchling Incubation Facilities and therefore lead to the complete and total annihilation of the Badoon race (they were in the 26th Century at the time of this story and with the complete destruction of those facilities the Badoon would not be able to continue on as a species). Charlie ties Nikki and Talon up but leaves the mointors on so they can watch the fight.
To Charlie and Nikki's horror his Gladitorial Opponent is L'Matto, a high-ranking Badoon Scientist...and currently the new Captain Universe. L'Matto has been chosen by The Uni-Power (as seen in Issue #30) to make sure that The Guardians of the Galaxy do not succeed in committing an act of Genocide in a time period that they do not belong in. So while L'Matto gives Charlie a serious beating we are treated to a number of somewhat confusing subplots involving Rita DeMara, the Rancor/Doctor Doom alliance and a hint of Dormmamu's vile presence. Oh and did I mention that L'Matto is planning on killing Brother Royal after he finishes off Charlie and becomes the all-new, all-tyrannical "Emperor Universe" of The Badoon Empire? Now aside from the confusing subplots that would not be resolved until later in the series cluttering up parts of the comic (such as Rancor making a deal with the newly revived Doctor Doom) the main story was excellent and has to be one of the best GotG storylines to have ever come about during the course of the original series in my honest opinion. The way L'Matto as Captain Universe had been portrayed easily makes him one of the most incredibly feasome enemies The Guardians and Dr. Strange have ever faced. If you ever happen to come across issues #30-33 at your local comic book store I highly recommend getting all of them.
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In "What If the Age of Apocalypse had not ended?" it took two years longer to defeat Apocalypse then it should have but in the end he was destroyed. In the days since then tensions between Humanity and the Mutants are on the rise as both sides struggle to rebuild what was lost but then during a mission to the Moon, Magneto and his X-Men (along with several humans and superhumans) discover the abandoned abode of The Watcher and are shocked to discover that the machines have been recording Galactus and The Silver Surfer as they get closer and closer to Earth. With little time to spare Humanity and the Mutants must put aside their differences in order to find a way to either destroy Galactus or at the very least drive him off-world and they do with one of the stupidest Deus Ex Machina's imaginable. Not to mention that Wolverine somehow kills The Silver Surfer single handedly just by puncturing his chest once.
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