FF 5, Scarlet Spider 15

FUN FACT: I like this team-up of books because they're my displaced books this week. I would have matched them with Fantastic Four and Superior Spider-Man (for seemingly obvious reasons) but both of those books were direct tie-ins to Age of Ultron so it seemed silly to split it that way. A LOOK INTO THE PROCESS, dear readers.

FF 5
Fraction (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred

Quick second fun fact (because we're all having fun): I don't think I would be at all upset if Laura Allred decided to color every single one of her books entirely red.
The FF is a little bit falling apart. Medusa is a bit...problematic, at the moment. Scott is freaking out about losing Alex who Darla assures him is 18 and well within his rights to leave if he wants. Old John Storm is still pretty crazy and has wandered off himself. She-Hulk and Darla both seem okay but it's still not an easy position for anyone to be in. In a beautiful bit of homage to early Fantastic Four, John Storm wanders into the former bowery mumbling about how it's as good a place as any for him to mix with the other derelicts in the city. John's lines in this scene are direct quotes from the first appearance of Namor in F4 from way back when. Johnny, then, was also walking around the bowery mumbling to himself before stumbling into Namor, who has lost his memory and made himself at home among the city's derelicts. Whether it's done to indicate that John is aware of his past or crazy or whatever it might be, it's a wonderful little toy that still fits pretty well in the story even if you don't know the history. Fraction is among the industry's best (I think in general, but specifically) at fitting in nods to the past in his work and it's almost always a delight. Anyway, here in FF 5, John then gets his flame on and starts to burn the city down little bit by bit. The F4 rush out to try to stop him and are aided by two members of the Future Foundation, old Atlanteans Vil and Wu, who summon a many-spouted beast from the river to help keep John extinguished. A member of the press catches the team at the site and belittles them in the paper. Then, cliffhangers abound as Alex shows up at Castle Doom to talk about this new FF and Medusa brings Bentley to his father, Wizard (who refers to Medusa as his wife). Weird and creepy.
There are a lot of fun things happening in the forefront of this book with just as many sinister strings waiting to be pulled just under the surface. It's an interesting place for this book to come from and it's interesting to watch it all come together. I particularly like what Scott's going through right now, as he hasn't really been looked at since he was resurrected in Young Avengers (not that he knew he was resurrected) and after his daughter's death shortly after that. In this issue, he snaps a bit with Darla as he screams about everyone just being stupid kids. There's a lot going on in his head and I'm excited to see more of it. Another fun issue.

Scarlet Spider 15
Yost (w) and Pham, Edwards, Siqueira, Pallot, Bit, and Olazaba (a) and Fabela (c)

Speaking of books that have gone to an interesting place, Scarlet Spider. After two issues ago saw Kaine killed and last issue saw him revived and giving up his humanity to try to save Aracely. This issue finds Kaine as a hideous spider-like monster, now calling himself and/or deeming everyone else "prey," intent on killing just about everything. He finds Aracely and the two wolves and stabs one of the wolves through the chest. The other grabs the fallen wolf and rushes him away hopefully to safety. Kaine lunges at Aracely and, just before he's about to kill her, she's able to get him to revert back to human. The experience, naturally, upsets Kaine a bit though it opens his eyes as to his possible true nature. It's an interesting look into the mind of Kaine and exactly how he's feeling about everything that's been going on in his life over the last few weeks. We're also getting closer and closer to figuring out who is behind everything here and what Aracely's true role in everything is.
I'll be honest I've gotten a little bogged down in this story. I think that's probably on me, in truth, and the amount of books I read. I kind of can't believe this series is already at issue 15. I don't think I've missed issues along the way but I've definitely pushed some to the back of my mind here and there and I think that's all going to come back to bite me as Aracely takes center stage for whatever story eventually comes our way. I don't know if it'll be the next arc the focuses on Aracely or if it'll just be something that makes its way to us over time but I feel equally uncomfortable delving into Aracely-centric stories. Maybe, though, that's the way I'm supposed to feel. She's touted as a mysterious character who kind of sprung up out of nowhere and has some amount of power but seems unsure on using it. Maybe I'm supposed to know exactly as much as I feel I do (very little) and that it will be revealed over time. I'm going to go with that.
Overall not a bad issue. Some things come to a head. I don't remember the specifics of last issue but I wouldn't be surprised if this and the last one could have been combined. Not my call and I sure don't feel like digging up that issue to nitpick. I think there was probably enough in each that neither would could be effectively cut down to half an issue or less, so both might have ended up feeling a little padded out but were still worthwhile.