SUPER QUICK REVIEWS: Fantastic Four 4, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu 1

Fantastic Four 4
J. Robinson (w) and Kirk (p) and Kesel and Leisten (i) and Aburtov (c) and Cowles (l)

The new Frightful Four (Wizard and the Wrecking Crew) have been powered up by some genius, apparently, who wants the city at least partially destroyed. It takes the combined might of the Fantastic Four (even Johnny as a powerless distraction) and She-Hulk, Ant-Man, and Darla Deering showing up at the right moment to take them down. They hand them off to SHIELD then return to the Baxter Building to find Maria Hill and some more SHIELD and NYPD officers denying them access to the building and giving Reed summons to appear in court.

It's hard not to feel like there's just a little too much exposition throughout this one. It feels like an older comic with new comic art, which is a bit strange. Robinson wants to make sure everyone knows what's happening at every moment, including name dropping everyone who appears and giving a little bit of history for a number of them, plus some clunky dialogue to make sure we're all caught up with what's happened already in the series and what's happening at current. I think there's a story here that's probably worth telling but sometimes it can be hard to get to it beneath the writing.

Total Score: 3/5

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu 1
M. Benson (w) and Huat (p) and Yeung (i) and Aburtov (c) and Sabino (l)

Leiko Wu, an agent of MI6 and a former love of Shang-Chi, has been hunted and killed in London's Chinatown. Shang requests time off from the Avengers (after successfully bringing in a fleeing Crossbones) and goes to her funeral. Though he claims he does not want revenge, he can't help visiting the place where she was killed, where he is quickly attacked by a few random agents claiming to work for White Dragon. MI6, led by Black Jack Tarr, swoops in on the scene and Tarr, an old friend of Shang's from his days with MI6, warns him not to pursue Leiko's killer but knowing that's bound to send him to it even faster.

DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU, a four issue limited series, kicks off with the unenviable position of needing to cover a lot of ground. People unfamiliar with Shang-Chi will likely find themselves unsure who many of these people are and what their connection is. However, it's certainly manageable and Shang-Chi on the trail of someone who killed his first love will likely lead to an intriguing story. As a huge X-MEN LEGACY fan, it's also pretty neat to see Huat and Yeung back on the case.

Total Score: 4/5

Captain America 11, Fantastic Four 12, Indestructible Hulk 13

Captain America 11
Remender (w) and Pacheco and Janson (a) and White (c)

Cap has returned twelve years later back to the present day of Earth. Drs. Banner and Pym run all sorts of test on him and do what they can to remove any remaining Zola influence and fix any remaining injuries Steve has while Maria Hill questions him on his time in the other dimension and the whereabouts of Sharon. Hill recommends Cap stay in touch with SHIELD to help him recover but he prefers to get back in the field. In another room, Fury is questioning Jet Black who is proving difficult. Eventually Cap retrieves her and takes her back to his old home, which is stuffed with memorabilia of his past. He promises he'll help her start a new life here and tells her that she has to let go of the past. She points out the irony in this as they stand in his museum-like house and he concedes the point. Not one to be a hypocrite, Cap gathers everything and piles it on the roof, setting it aflame in the rain. Meanwhile, broken Weapon Plus Program participant Nuke has decided to continue a war America thought failed in Eastern Europe, which will no doubt come to a head in the next issue.

There's a lot of memory out of Steve here as he recalls the death of his mother and the lessons she left him with, including letting go of the past and never giving up the optimism that this country brings. It's a really nice backstory to make Steve's family not that far removed from immigrants so they have the hope and ideals of the country so ready, even if they haven't particularly succeeded yet. It gives a nice optimism to Steve's history and puts him closer to the classic idea of the American dream than a lot of other heroes have been. The memories also serve as a nice story for Steve to fall back on to ground him again in the present after so much in his life has, once more, changed. He's able to use the memories of his mother and what she instilled in him to reorient himself in this different world. It's, presumably, what he had to fall back on to find himself when he was unfrozen after WWII. Overall, it's a nice characterization and it fits with Steve's longstanding character as well as the character that's been established with memories and the like by Remender in his short time on the book. Putting him against Nuke and alongside Jet will be an interesting storyline as it gives Cap someone on his side (hopefully) who knows what he's been through and who is dealing with similar problems of her own while pitting him against someone who feels abandoned and has fought all of his life for ideals. Exciting things to come.

Fantastic Four 12
Fraction w/ Sebela (w) and Bagley and Rubinstein (a) and Mounts (c)

The Fantastic Four is still separated, with the Johnnys, Reed, and Val stuck in Celeritas' past and Sue, Ben, and Franklin looking for them with the not-so-helpful help of the Preservation Front. Eventually the two groups find one another, meeting up pretty far back, between the Big Bang and the dawn of man on Celeritas. Of course, that means dinosaur fights, so there's a good amount of that. The Preservation Front, preferring not to be arrested, leave without the F4, stranding them in the past up against a slew of dinosaurs with their powers going in and out. Ben's rock skin starts to break, Sue has an episode which allows the Front to leave, the Johnnys seem okay but the air  in Celeritas is different than they're used to, etc. The team manages to hold off just long enough for help to arrive in the form of the grandchildren of the Preservation Front who detest their grandparents' ways and love the F4, going so far as to repair their ship for them and bring it back to this point in time, as time travel is readily accessible in Celeritas' future. The issue ends with a lot of question marks, still mostly regarding the powers of the F4 and future John Storm, with the immediate problem being Ben's rapidly breaking down body.

The powers going haywire continues to make for some compelling storytelling and Ben's rocks breaking off makes him a weaker (physically) character more prone to injury and fatigue while still looking like Thing. Kind of the worst of both worlds, if it keeps up. The question of John Storm is the more intriguing one, though, as he keeps hinting to events in the future, both of the team and kind of of his own future. It's particularly interesting because we also have the future John Storm in FF. Is this John Storm from a point before or after that John Storm? Is this one who knows the outcome of the team? Is this, in fact, a completely different entity also posing as (or believing itself to be) another John Storm? No questions have really been answered about him with any sort of definition; both Johns have been identified by people close to them (Wyatt Wingfoot for the FF's John Storm, Johnny himself for the F4's John Storm) but even that's not a definite. Still a lot of places to go with this book even as Fraction's time on the book winds down (not sure if he's still providing story or some scripting from this point on; my thought was that he was off the book but I thought he was off after this one and he's still listed on the preview of the next one).

Indestructible Hulk 13
Waid (w) and Scalera w/ Jacinto (a) and Staples (c)

Hulk and the Bannerbot have arrived in the time of King Arthur to find that the Chronarchists have expelled Arthur and his knights from Camelot in an attempt to take over Europe at a very formative time for the world. Holding power now, he could completely alter major events following the Middle Ages. On top of that, he's upped his game from bringing dinosaurs as weapons to bring major warriors and weapons from all over the timestream to defend his new kingdom. Working alongside Arthur, Merlin, and the knights, Bannerbot gets Hulk in position to attack the Chronarchist and, with the help of the Ebony Blade, rips this one back into the timestream as well, restoring the legend. As Bannerbot tries to keep Hulk enraged (to keep him as Hulk), he's interested to learn that Hulk is staying Hulked out but seems to have a higher intellect, which makes him believe the Chronarchist is toying in Hulks timeline now. This proves true as we see some tampering at the gamma bomb site where Hulk was created.

Another interesting issue that deals with the ramifications of past events on the future. There's maybe a little overkill in explaining that and, in truth, a bit much by way of summarization of where we are and why we're doing what we're doing. It's not so much that it's particularly bothersome but it's enough that it starts to pull the reader out far enough to say "hey, yeah, we get it." The same is true, I would think with most comic readers, as we keep getting into the butterfly effect, though it's toned down well enough to simply serve as a reminder of what's at stake. Otherwise, the issue is another solid one as Waid continues a team-up of Banner and Hulk and as we start to see Banner becoming more comfortable working with Hulk. It's a weird sort of buddy cop plot in that the two are so different but that the straight man knows the wild one so intimately. It's a neat little formula and it's working out so far. I expect it to move nicely forward into the next issue. It will be interesting to see if Hulk has Banner smarts at this point in his timeline and if the two get along worse for it. In and of itself it's a cool idea, putting Hulk and Banner inside their own timeline as the Chronarchists attack their attacker a little more aggressively. Neat story.

Thor: God of Thunder 11, Fantastic Four 11

Thor: God of Thunder 11
Aaron (w) and Ribic (a) and Svorcina (c)

How do you beat a bomb that kills every single god through every second of time and that's going off RIGHT NOW? You kind of don't? That's the immediate takeaway here and it's certainly what Gorr would have you believe but fortunately for every god ever, present Thor doesn't buy it because he's wielding two Mjolonirs. What can possibly stop him? Turns out not much. He fights through the pain of dying in every second of his life to take on the godbomb, sparing the other gods by taking the weapon unto himself. As a result, a Thor cloaked in the black weapon, revealed to be called All-Black the Necrosword (in a rather phone-it-in naming attempt), emerges to defeat Gorr once and for all. Gorr's levels of crazy go unabashedly up as we hear he created his wife and child out of all of this mess and it was his own created child, a part of him, who betrayed his plans to Thor. Then the whole thing is written away as the narration explains that these gods would, in short time, forget the events that had happened here (hence why present and future Thor don't know how this ends from their own past).

Let's get this out of the way first: the art here is stunning. Esad Ribic has immense talent and Ive Svorcina does too. The two combined created a story of epic scale to fit the wide-ranging events that take place in this arc. The story ends a little flatly, beyond the two Mjolnirs and Thor cloaked in All-Black. Up to that, I was totally onboard. It's the several pages of narration that follow that weakened it for me. I don't really know how you avoid clearing a few things up (like the memories of gods) but, while it provided a fine denouement, it felt a lot like Aaron responding to questions that I'm not sure anyone was asking. I, for one, accepted it when the Thors way earlier said that, having been alive for millennia, they don't remember everything in their past; it was a kind of weak explanation then but it's serviceable so I'm not sure why you draw attention to it again, attention which makes me just go "hey yeah, wait, he really forgot the time that every god in history almost died in every second through time and then a version of him used two Mjolnirs to take that pain himself? He died! And was, of course, immediately resurrected! The narration even says he died for the fourth time which is kind of a cheeky nod to the comic public who is aware of rampant resurrections in comics but instead it now feels a little like 'hey, he's only died four times, not four thousand, how could he forget ONE IN FOUR?'" It's true. I said all of that upon finishing this. Even when it got meta and my questions asked questions. Good arc, good ending right up until that second half of the ending. Still took a little long for my liking. Next time, Jason Aaron takes Thor back to Earth!

Fantastic Four 11
Fraction and Sebela (w) and Bagley and Rubinstein (a) and Mounts (c)

Val is still mad at Reed but she has to put that aside because Reed needs her help. However mad she is, and however right she is to be mad, she's brilliant and a fresh set of eyes for Reed's problem. She demands they go to the futuristic development planet, Celeritas, which has, with its vast intellect and abundant resources, decided to turn inwards and improve itself rather than helping other planets. Val knows if there's an answer, she can come to it there. However, things quickly go awry on the planet when time terrorists calling themselves the Preservation Front strike and open up a portal to send the building Reed, Val, and Johnny are in to the end of the planet's timeline. The Preservation Front hate the futuristic society of Celeritas and want only to restore traditions, which they attempt to do by displacing parts of this world in time. It sets both teams of F4 members (Val, Reed, and Johnny in the future and Sue, Ben, and Franklin in the present) to work trying to figure out a solution. That's not all for surprises: Johnny arrives in the future to find future John Storm there, like the one in FF right now. What. Is. Happening.

For people who aren't fans of too much pipe-laying and soft science, PARTICULARLY soft time-travel science, this book is kind of a major miss. I'm not really one of those people (at least where soft time-travel science is involved, too much pipe-laying is never a good thing) but even I felt its weight here. It's a little tricky to get through and there's frankly too much introduced here for a standard 20-page book. We're meeting a new planet and trying to understand that, we're seeing jumps in time, we're meeting new enemies, we're meeting new possible friends/enemies (in future John Storm), we have a crisis within the F4 (in their powers deteriorating) and now a crisis with future Celeritas (where the planet is quickly being eaten away by time, essentially, and Val wants to create more time. It's all very strange). There's a lot happening here, is what I'm saying, and there aren't enough panels in a book to get it all efficiently across. I think the book is certainly weaker for that but it's still not a particularly weak book. One of the impressive feats of both Fraction and his predecessor Hickman has been making  Val and Franklin essential members of the team and showing us why they're necessary while not letting them get too precocious or childlike WHILE FURTHER allowing them to remain children. This issue helps bring that forward too, so I'm not about to be upset with it. You can be. That's your call.

Fantastic Four 9, Indestructible Hulk 9

Fantastic Four 9
Fraction (w) and Bagley and Farmer (a) and Mounts w/ Guru eFX (c)

After Ben's reveal that he believes it's his fault that Doctor Doom is the way that he is, the gang needs a bit of closure on the subject. Fortunately, this is the type of gang who is liable to travel around with an observational time machine (something that allows them to travel through time but not be seen) so Ben and Reed decide to peek in and see what they can find. Reed first explains to Ben that, no matter what happens, nothing is ever as simple as "you bumped into that guy and messed with his lab and now he's evil," which is the situation Ben is leaning towards. Victor, he continues, had a very difficult childhood that led him to many dark places and it's hard to say what is, let alone what could have been. Still, they go back to the day of Doom's "birth" and intend to view what happens. They're surprised to see a score of other Dooms doing more or less the same thing, invisibly witnessing the transformation from Victor Von Doom to Doctor Doom. Reed tries to use this fact to soothe Ben, saying, more or less "look what an egotistical jerk this guy is, he would have gone crazy anyway" but it doesn't really help Ben. Finally, as a young Victor is about to climb into the machine, Ben reveals himself and tries to keep him out of the accident. The other Dooms uncloak and a fight breaks out. Victor immediately recognizes Ben and scolds him, nothing that nothing that Ben could have done would ever have impacted Doom. Ben and Reed leave, dejected that Doom would choose this knowing something would go wrong, and have another talk about Doom's nature and the causality of time. Meanwhile, Doom becomes Doom.

This is definitely an interesting look into the creation of Doctor Doom and it's nice to have that "I think I caused this" angle from Ben. There's also, Reed points out, reason to believe that it was Reed and not Ben who caused this because he knew Victor's math was wrong in the experiment that deformed him but he backed down when Doom refused his help. However, Reed isn't nearly as bothered by this, which is telling for both characters. Of course, Reed's character is supposed to be one who looks into the future and doesn't think on the past whereas we're getting a far more introspective side of Ben that would be driven by some regrets. Even after seeing that the creation of Doom, ostensibly, wasn't his fault, he still feels that the accident that spawned the F4 was some sort of karmic retribution for trashing Doom's lab. It's not a happy place, Ben's mind, and it's clear that we're not quite done with it yet. In related news, I find myself more and more enjoying the Marvel Universe's representation of Reed these days, between Fraction's books and Hickman's New Avengers. Solid stuff.

Indestructible Hulk 9
Waid (w) and Scalera (a) and Staples (c)

The full terms of Banner's deal with SHIELD are revealed as we learn that Banner put some sort of insurance on himself. If he doesn't report in to his own agent to assure him that SHIELD hasn't tried to drop Hulk into the sun or something, his agent is supposed to rain hell down on Maria Hill and the rest of SHIELD. That's why he chose, as his agent, a lawyer with superpowers. Matt Murdock is constantly checking in with Banner and the two plan a meet-up while SHIELD brings Hulk to take down a super high grade arms-dealer. Daredevil meets up with Hill as Hulk is launched onto the large vessel, quickly accusing Hill of dropping Hulk into an unknown situation wherein he's charged with facing off against supremely high ordnance weapons. Hill waves Daredevil off, explaining that this is why they have Hulk and it's far less of a risk than sending her agents, one of whom promptly falls through the hole Hulk created. Daredevil dives in and saves him, teaming with Hulk down below to bring down the arms dealers. The weapons are very powerful and have some sort of sonic element to them, making Daredevil incredibly outmatched against them. Hulk is able to shut down the organization and Daredevil is able to calm Hulk back to Banner before he kills a surrendered enemy. Daredevil and Hill talk about the sway that Daredevil has on him, as Banner within can hear the tone and pull himself out of the rage, particularly if the tone is coming from someone he trusts to have his best interests at heart. Banner, when he returns, notices that a gun is missing and he and Daredevil track the lone remaining gun dealer to a shady bar that Daredevil and Hulk enter. Another big fight breaks out with the enemy managing again to escape in the confusion. He brings the gun to an address of someone he's heard would be interested and, somewhat unwillingly, presents the gun as a gift to Baron Zemo.

Hulk team-ups have the potential to be really interesting things. Often, especially in Hulk's history or in media involving Hulk, they lead to whoever's teamed up with Hulk either realizing that Hulk's maybe not as dangerous as he seems or being outraged with the monster that is Hulk. Those aren't interesting things. Waid here gives us a different look; someone who really does have Hulk's best interests at heart and has a pretty decent method for calming the monster down. There's no surefire way to stop a Hulk rampage but Daredevil is probably one of the more capable heroes to do it in the Marvel U, when you get right down to it. He can monitor Hulk's pulse at any time and he understands the power of sounds and tone, as well as the power of keeping a level-head. It also doesn't hurt that he's the man without fear, which probably helps when facing down an indestructible monster. This is a great team-up of two characters who Waid has worked his magic on in their own solo books. It's a solid premise and it's got a lot of fun moments, including some nice dialogue between Hill and Daredevil and a great scene where Daredevil and Hulk walk into a bar. Excited for the next issue.

Fantastic Four 7, FF 6

Fantastic Four 7
Fraction (w) and Bagley and Hennessey (a) and Mounts (c)

The Fantastic Four go into prevention mode as Franklin saves the team from the sun and Blastaar explosion by sending them through time and space to the end of the universe, just before the aliens who sentenced Blastaar to being the first death in the universe send him back to it. They arrive and instantly head it off with the aliens, who help repair their ship and talk to Reed, Susan, and Ben about how their bodies are decaying. They know that Reed's cellular structure is decaying while something is happening to Ben's mind. Ben is angry Reed didn't tell him, but has more pressing issues. The next day is the one day a year where he transforms out of the Thing and into Ben Grimm for 24 hours and he'd like to be able to spend that day himself. Reed promises to be done with what they're doing at the end of the universe by then to allow Ben to choose where ever he wants to go. The whole team works together to pull one over on the aliens (after the aliens fix up and improve the F4's ship and everything) by rescuing Blastaar for themselves. If he isn't sent back in time to the start of the universe, he'd never explode there and they'd never be caught in the explosion. Johnny asks the question "what sparks us to come back here if he never explodes?" opening up a loop of time travel issues, but Sue rebuffs him by simply demanding he not ask. Val creates a containment unit for Blastaar that should keep him from exploding and helps prepare the ship. Everyone plays a role in the long con and eventually they end up leaving with Blastaar, who they drop off in the Negative Zone. Reed asks Ben what he wants to do with the rest of his day (they've taken out an hour doing this) and he asks to go home.
It's a nice little issue that has a lot of layers to it. There are nice mentions from the aliens of Franklin (when they first see Franklin, who is unconscious from the effort to bring them there, they tell him he's not the first Franklin Richards they've seen) and Valeria (the head alien says "while your species as a whole may not have survived this long, everyone knows of Valeria Richards"). It all fits in nicely with the F4 mythos without dominating too much of the story. Now 3/4 of the Fantastic Four know that their powers could be killing them, which will likely bring out some more tension as we continue. There's also a Reed-defining moment as he says to the alien, once the long con is complete, "your society, this civilization, you might have a few billion years on me and mine, sure...but I'm Reed Richards. Nobody's smarter than me." Fun issue. By the end it does feel rather like a heist movie (hence all the long con references) with all the pieces coming into place. Nicely done.

FF 6
Fraction (w) and Quinones (a) and L. Allred (c)

We get a fun look into the Baxter Building (complete with map of the tower) as Dragon Man searches for his roommate Bentley-23, who we know has been taken by Medusa. Dragon Man's character has been pretty fun in this series, if far removed. He's constantly off to the side, reading a newspaper and making "hmm" kinds of sounds. This issue starts the same way, though with several more "hmm"s. He searches the general area and starts asking about Bentley, but no one can tell him anything. At breakfast, he brings it up again, as Ahura (Medusa's son) brings up that she's missing. Meanwhile, Scott has been having trouble sleeping because of an incredibly depressing dream about his daughter that's keeping him from rest. He too questions where Medusa is as She-Hulk shows Darla the paper, which has hacked cell phone pictures of her trying on different headwear (as seen last issue). Darla is furious but has to get over it to go to a gig at Carnegie Hall. Of course, the Yancy Street Gang, who has joined the modern age as hackers, is behind it. Tong, one of the Moloids, expresses to his brothers that there's something inside him now that "there is a girl inside of him" and she dons a dress and asks for their understanding. They grant it and parade through the Baxter Building, to the enjoyment of She-Hulk and Darla and the confusion of Scott. She-Hulk and Ahura meet with his father Black Bolt to tell of Medusa's disappearance. It's actually a pretty funny scene as Black Bolt and Ahura communicate telepathically and Black Bolt continually gets closer to his son's head. Ahura reveals that Black Bolt has given them permission to take Lockjaw with them (rad) to help them find Medusa again. Darla's gig goes badly as everyone in attendance has been brought there by the Yancy Street Gang and are all wearing Thing masks and throw things at her to force her off the stage. Scott has seemingly disappeared on her and she eventually meets up with him at an internet cafe. He's invited the heads of the YSG to the cafe and reveals to them that he was with them as they went home that night, watching as they hacked things. He got all of their passwords and sent them around to any other hackers or news organizations or embassies they've embarrassed. He tells them to back off and it seems to have the desired effect. It's nice for Scott to finally win one. They return home to find that Dragon Man has connected Medusa and Bentley-23's disappearances after all, just in time for the whole building to be sent to the Negative Zone.
If this recap seemed like it jumped around a lot, it's because it did. There are a lot of things going on at the Baxter Building these days and a lot of storylines Fraction wants covered. He switches back and forth between them effortlessly and doesn't really seem to care if you're comfortable with the pace. There are places to be and things to do. I think it's a solid way to approach this book, which he's set up as being a pretty hectic time. Of course it would be hectic, there are 15 or so children living in one building with four adults (three right now) who don't quite know how they fit with one another yet, or how they fit into the lives of the children. The jumping back and forth at random and quickly, without allowing us to get too comfortable in one story, helps show how chaotic the FF life is. When I said above it was nice that Scott was able to win one, I meant it. It felt like such a victory for him in that it was a near-total victory over the YSG and it was so needed. Will it help stem the tide of emotion over Cassie? No, of course not. But it's nice to win occasionally. Good book. Next issue we send everyone into the Negative Zone. Fun stuff ahoy.