Several years after gaining their powers, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm have become the world's most famous heroes. But fame has begun creating problems. Governments want access to Reed's technology, corporations want to exploit his discoveries, and the public increasingly sees the Fantastic Four as something between superheroes and celebrities.Reed becomes obsessed with studying an unusual energy signature discovered beneath an abandoned European fortress. The energy doesn't behave like anything known to modern science. Reed believes it could be evidence of an ancient civilization that discovered a form of energy centuries before modern physics.He is right.Beneath the ruins lies the laboratory of Diablo, a legendary alchemist who lived hundreds of years ago. According to history, Esteban Corazón de Ablo was executed after attempting to create the Philosopher's Stone. But the truth is far stranger: Diablo discovered a way to manipulate matter itself through a combination of science, alchemy, and dark mystical forces.His body eventually failed, forcing him to place himself into suspended animation.Reed's experiments awaken him.
