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.