Comic books have always dealt with ancient alien races.

The concept is as old as Superman, survivor of the doomed planet Krypton.

DC and Marvel Comics have always told tales involving characters from other planets, other dimensions or ancient cosmic beings.

Marvel, for example, has the Skrulls, the Krees, the Shi’ar, the Badoon, the Celestials, Galactus, the Watchers, etc. But in the past few years, Marvel has reached even deeper, almost in a contest with itself to create new “old” alien civilizations, or older origins for its already established alien cultures.

And these new “old” cultures are a larger threat than even the already old alien cultures. Threats so ominous that superheroes need other superheroes in their own titles to help stop the madness. 

So it goes with the latest “Fantastic Four” collection, “Reckoning War” Part I, which includes the Avengers and other heroes fighting a new “old” alien race.

Here, the Watchers, best known for watching civilizations across the universe without interfering to hurt or help, must go back on their ancient vow. 

Billions of years ago, prior to taking their oath of non-involvement, the Luminous, the people who would become the Watchers, shared their knowledge, talents and technology with inhabitants of other planets.

One planet opted to turn those gifts to war and conquest rather than peaceful purposes. They became the Reckoning, which led to the First War. It took the combined might of populations from across the universe to stop them. The Luminous reshaped the universe to destroy, contain and exclude the Reckoning. 

The Luminous vowed to never interfere again. The Luminous became the Watchers. And all was well for eons until one of the Reckoning reentered the universe. The threat is so great that Uatu, the Watcher who watched over earth in Marvel Comics, has returned from the dead and to his home on the moon.

To get Uatu, the Reckoning destroys the moon causing mayhem on Earth and prompting the FF, Avengers and other superheroes to intercede in this latest Marvel epic.

There’s nothing wrong with “Reckoning War.” People read comic books for the fantastic, the incredible, the amazing. But I reckon it seems just a little much that every year introduces a new “old” civilization posing an existential threat.

By the way, given how often comic characters return from the dead, the moon should be better in no time.