Fantastic Four 16, Thunderbolts 20

Fantastic Four 16
Main story: Fraction and Kesel (s) and Kesel (w) and Ienco (a) and Mounts (c)
Backup story: Kesel and Lee Allred (s) and Kesel (w) and Quinones and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

The Fantastic Four and the Other Fantastic Four are locked in combat with Doom the Annihilating Conqueror and quickly realizing that their powers are no match for him. As a last ditch plan, the F4 agree to take on the full power of the Other Fantastic Four, effectively doubling their own power. It works and they manage to take down Doom, in a manner of speaking. In truth, Doom has been spread about the cosmos, welcome to reform in any other universe if he should ever figure out how. In the course of the battle, the F4 died but the Other F4 revived them almost immediately so no harm done, I guess. After all this time traveling, the F4 finally return home. They talk with Old John Storm and some weird time travel stuff happens and he returns to his home dimension, setting off an explosion that distracts Doom the AC long enough to give the teams the chance they need to defeat him. It's a sacrifice that actually does cost him his life (for more than a minute, presumably) so the F4 celebrate him by throwing a party in the backup story, which finds everyone from the F4 to the FF catching up and hanging out before a final page send-off for the books and these creative teams.

It's the end of an era for the Fantastic Four as the current series ends. Although Marvel's first family will get a new book as soon as next month, it's still a giant era coming to an end as superstar Marvel editor Tom Brevoort ends his historic time with the title. There's a nice letter from him at the end of the issue that's worth checking out to get a glimpse at the man behind the curtain (who also has a tumblr where he answers even the most petty of fan questions with varying degrees of humor, brutal honesty, and "wait and see"s). As for this issue itself, it serves, particularly with the backup story, as a nice little ending to the series (I don't know this for certain but I wouldn't be surprised if the same backup story appears at the end of FF 16). The execution of the main story is a little lacking, with maybe a little too much of an emphasis on time travel to really work for me. People who have read my reviews of ALL-NEW X-MEN and AGE OF ULTRON and various other time travel books this year will know that I hold the "rules of time travel" in pretty high esteem. I don't believe that I do it because I think there are set rules that must be obeyed; instead, I do it because I think time travel is impossible to set rules to, which means there will always be questions that could otherwise be avoided. I think the "rules of time travel" are absolutely necessary because they're so ridiculously complex that it means any story involving time travel has to be so meticulously planned out that it can't be used lightly. Once the time travel genie is out of the bottle, good luck sticking it back in there. The most recent major example, I think, is probably Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I think Rowling did a good job to work within certain parameters of time travel and tell an engaging story but it didn't stop every single person in the world from suddenly looking at all of the events of the series and saying "well if a time-turner exists, why wouldn't you use that to stop everything?" In the case of this issue, there are too many weird little rules that are kind of followed and kind of not, like Old John Storm's synaptic-relay arm that transfers memories between himself and Johnny and that then he uses to know he goes to the moment in time when there's an explosion that distracts Doom and dies but how does he even exist if the F4 defeated Doom in that and, ugh, time travel. It's often just not worth it. Boy this went longer than I hoped it would.

Thunderbolts 20
Soule (w) and Barberi (a) and Silva (c)

The Thunderbolts have reached their destination, an old, abandoned research facility that fronted as a diner before it shut down. Ross leads the others down to the facility and deems it acceptable as a new base. Deadpool brings out the hat again to choose a name but Ross says it's time for one of his missions. The mission in this case, of course, is to take down Mercy. The Leader proposes a perfect solution, assuming they can enact it: send Mercy to Hell, where she'll have no end of souls who clamor for death. It's up to the T-Bolts to figure out how to actually get her there and Flash and Ross have a plan. They seek out Johnny Blaze, original Ghost Rider, and enlist him to call Mercy to them and then send her through a portal to Hell that Blaze will open up. They set up in the research facility and form a five-pointed star (Blaze would prefer a seven-pointed star but Punisher refuses to take part and a six-pointed star does no good at all so he and Elektra both sit out) and Blaze tells them that, if the spell is done right, Mercy will appear before them and then be sent to Hell. Everything starts moving and then the T-Bolts in the star find themselves in Hell with Blaze saying "Oops."

Another front-to-back really fun book. There are great little moments spread throughout, like Deadpool somehow managing to accidentally pick the "impossible to pick" sequence of songs on a jukebox that opens the way to the research facility or the re-emergence of his ridiculous hat or murmurs of a failed Hollywood career for Johnny Blaze after appearing in two terrible movies (I'd like to note here that a lot of comics tend to start drawing characters a little more like they appear in the movies, if they appear in movies, but I'm both appreciative and amused that Johnny Blaze never started to look like Nicholas Cage). There are also human moments throughout the book that really help establish character more, like Elektra's very human "at least we're out of the van" line and her talk with Punisher about why he's still with the team now that his mission has been achieved. This is one of those rare team books where I'm never wishing we were focusing on someone else; when the story calls on a moment for the Leader, I'm not thinking about the time we could be spending with Deadpool and vice versa, all over the team. It's just a really enjoyable book with a solid cast (I think only improved by Ghost Rider if this issue is any indication of the way Soule will write him) and a really engaging plot. I'm not sure there's another book out there more fun than this one right now.

Fantastic Four 15, FF 15

Okay guys, time to get serious. Today shall be the QUICKEST OF QUICK HITS because it's the holidays and no one wants to read all these reviews. Let's hit it.

Fantastic Four 15
Fraction and Kesel (s) and Kesel (w) and Ienco (a) and Mounts (c)

The F4 are in that other dimension and trying to stop the bonding of Doom, Immortus, and Annihilus all while restoring their powers which were apparently toyed with by the F4 of this dimension. Everything in that respect sort of works out, things with the villains do not as Immortus gets Annihilus' powers and goes to kill Doom but then Doom flips it around and gets all of their powers.

Still a rather interesting story though one of the neatest bits about this storyline is also one of the most confounding. I find it extremely interesting that both FANTASTIC FOUR and FF are kind of doing the same story but evidently in different universes with slightly different outcomes and different ways to fight it. This book is uniquely able to do this sort of thing and it's a really cool idea but I think execution is a little lacking. The F4 side is a little boring and the FF side is a little obnoxious. I think it would be going better if it played it just a little more straight on both ends.

FF 15
Fraction and Lee Allred (s) and Lee Allred (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

In this universe, Immortus didn't get so close as in the universe the F4 are in currently to achieving "annihilating conqueror" status. Instead, Doom seems to have done what Doom does and conquered there. The FF plan is complicated and presented in 12 rhyming parts and one not rhyming part. Robots controlled by the kids from a remote area attack Doom's lair and the replacement F4 show up to wail on Doom after he takes power before Scott shows up to finish the job.

This book has suffered, particularly since Fraction left, from tonal problems in that there's something of an incredibly serious threat going on and something of a tone-for-a-five-year-old going on. I think Fraction toyed with this a bit, giving the book a lighter feel and Mike Allred's art matched it wonderfully but he knew when to pull back and the way to bring it back to seriousness. It's a really hard spot to find and I don't really blame Lee Allred for not totally hitting it because he was kind of thrown into it and now wavers a little too much to the goofy side which makes coming back to serious particularly hard. As a result, this book gets a little intolerably cutesy and drags. Ah well. Still a cool idea, I suppose.