2×11: Hopelessly Impossible

Before binge culture, before rewatches, before the sacred art of the pause button – there was the clip show. A budget-saving bottle episode, stitched together from recent adventures, often too soon and too transparently. But in this case? It’s not just a clip show. It’s a cosmic fan letter wrapped in green-and-purple chaos.

Enter the Impossible Man: over-the-top, uninvited, and absolutely annoying – in the best ways. He’s a shapeshifting tourist from the planet Poppup, crashing the Fantastic Four’s headquarters not to conquer, but to curate. As he rummages through their greatest hits, we’re reminded of something quietly profound: in an era without streaming, DVDs, or even reliable videotape, these moments were ephemeral. One and done. Unless someone – some impossible someone – preserved them.

So yes, it’s a clip show. But it’s also a celebration. A retrospective through the eyes of a fan who’s loud, chaotic, and deeply invested. Sound familiar?

Maybe the Impossible Man isn’t just in the episode. Maybe he is the audience. Maybe, just maybe, he’s us.

Bored and on vacation, a green-and-purple alien from the planet Poppup infiltrates the Fantastic Four’s empty headquarters, eager to snoop through the lives of his heroes. As he rummages through their mementos – replaying their most charged moments – he discovers he’s not alone. The Super Skrull, still smarting from his recent defeat, has returned with a grudge and a plan to destroy the Fantastic Four once and for all.

Inside the building, Johnny Storm dreams of Crystal – until he’s jolted awake not by alien intruders, but by Lockjaw, the teleporting Inhuman dog, who’s somehow breached the negative barrier surrounding Attilan. Elated by the chance to reach Crystal and her family, Johnny races to act – only to come face to face with the Super Skrull and his unexpected companion: a nosy alien tourist who calls himself the Impossible Man.

As Johnny battles the Super Skrull – with erratic help from the Impossible Man – Lockjaw teleports them to safety. The trio lands outside the Great Refuge, and Johnny’s hope surges. But the Super Skrull attacks again. This time, the Impossible Man transforms into a chatty, over-the-top version of Galactus and drop-kicks the Skrull off the planet, sending him hurtling back to Skrullos.

But Lockjaw has vanished, and Johnny can’t breach the barrier alone. Forlorn, he returns to New York aboard a rocket-shaped Impossible Man. As the alien prepares to head home, Lockjaw reappears – elsewhere – chasing a blue ball across dimensions…

Just like Deadpool and She-Hulk, the Impossible Man knows he’s in a television show and can break the fourth wall. He makes references to pop culture continuously. In this episode alone he transforms into multiple creatures, including Galactus, Lockjaw, the Hulk and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. He also does a Scooby Doo impression and also pulls off a passable Captain Kirk, a la William Shatner, referencing Spock and Scotty from Star Trek. He even asks Lockjaw if he has Spider-Man’s phone number and whistles the theme from The Twilight Zone!

If it all sounds familiar to you and takes you back to childhood, it’s because he’s voiced by impressionist and actor Jess Harnell, who famously also voiced Wacko Warner, one of the Animaniacs.

As a clip-show, this episode features multiple clips from various episodes this season, apart from Behold, a Distant Star, the previous episode. The entire season from Doom right through to Inhumans and Galactus is covered, but no footage, presumably for legal reasons, is shown from Season One. The plot itself is from Fantastic Four #11.

Breaking the fourth wall at the end of the episode is Lockjaw, casually carrying a familiar-looking blue ball. It closely resembles the one young Franklin Richards used to create a pocket universe – his desperate wish to save his parents and Earth’s heroes during the Onslaught crisis, as seen in Marvel Universe: Onslaught #1 and Heroes Reborn.

POPPING IN FROM POPPUP!

The Impossible Man first crash-landed into Marvel continuity in Fantastic Four #11 (1963), courtesy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. A Poppupian from the planet Poppup in the Tenth Galaxy, he’s a one-man group mind with the ability to shapeshift into literally anything he can imagine. His origin? His species evolved rapid molecular control to survive a planet so dangerous it makes the Savage Land look like a spa weekend. But unlike his peers, Impossible Man didn’t just adapt – he got bored. So he came to Earth looking for fun. And chaos. Mostly chaos.

His first encounter with the Fantastic Four was less villainous and more… annoying. He robbed a bank for lunch money, turned into a rocket ship, and declared himself the most powerful being on Earth because no one else could shapeshift like him. The Four couldn’t stop him, so Reed suggested everyone ignore him. It worked. Impossible Man got bored and left, declaring Earth too dull for tourism. That was the end – until it wasn’t. He returned in Fantastic Four #175 (1976), impersonated Sue Richards, visited the Marvel offices demanding his own comic, and became a recurring headache with a cult following.

Over the years, he’s impersonated Jimmy Carter, Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, the President of the United States, and even Deathlok’s target. He’s fought the Frightful Four by accident, short-circuited Molecule Man’s schemes, and once saved Earth by tricking Galactus into eating his own planet. (Galactus got indigestion. Poppup was destroyed. Impossible Man didn’t blink.) He’s had a wife – Impossible Woman – and a son named Adolf Impossible, because of course he has. He’s appeared in New Mutants, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, and even Doctor Strange, where he brought his dog, Ralf, into the Sanctum Sanctorum. It went about as well as you’d expect.

The Impossible Man isn’t about stakes. He’s about disruption. He’s the narrative wildcard, the cosmic jester, the shapeshifting migraine that reminds Marvel not to take itself too seriously. And yet, beneath the green-and-purple chaos, there’s a strange kind of pathos. He’s the last of his kind. A lonely alien who just wants attention. And maybe, just maybe, a little love. But don’t tell him that. He’ll turn into a kazoo and play the Star Wars theme until you beg for mercy.