All-New Invaders 5, Fantastic Four 5

All-New Invaders 5
J. Robinson (w) and Pugh (a) and Guru eFX (c) and Petit (l)

Everything works out because Winter Soldier breaks out Aarkus and he and another Eternal find the God's Whisper while Torch knocks out the watching Kree soldiers and Steve uses a computer virus laced shield (??) to shut down the Supremor for a time while they make their way off-planet. Back on Earth, Namor returns to the deep, Bucky goes back to wherever it is Bucky goes, and Cap recruits Jim to SHIELD while they muse over what Aarkus could be doing with the Eternals (hint: controlling Galactus in the Negative Zone with the God's Whisper if they should ever need him).

That "everything works out" bit above is only there partly because I'm lazy. Moreover, though, it's there because that's the spirit of this issue. It's very much a book that revolves around the old school style "I only wanted you to THINK I'd missed when, in fact, I was aiming at that device above you that's currently toppling on you" or some such that I swear happened in every other issue of AVENGERS back near the start of its run. Here it's all meaningless misdirect as Bucky buys time, Cap has a computer virus on his shield (not how that works, for the record, don't care what kind of comic book technology you have), and Torch ups the radiation in the room with Cap waving it off by literally saying "I'm immune." If the solutions are ridiculous then the stakes are meaningless. It's like being in an imaginary shootout with a child who keeps saying "no, you didn't hit me! I have a forcefield and the shot bounced and hit you!" You can make up the rules all you want, that doesn't mean I'm going to be on board with it. Pugh's art is pretty good though.

Total Score: 2/5


Fantastic Four 5
J. Robinson (w) and Kirk (p) and Leisten and Magyar (i) and Aburtov (c) and Cowles (l)

The Fantastic Four are on trial and the prosecutor is dragging them through the mud about every major superhero thing they've played a role in and how many people it hurt and it ends with a ruling that we don't get the full sense of yet but means the kids of the FF are shipped off to Camp Hammond to be watched by new SHIELD agent Jim Hammond (very quickly making his first SHIELD appearance from above). Oh, and in other news on this book, it made me as angry as any other book I've read in the past year and a half and I can't believe Marvel decided to charge five dollars for a book with five extra pages in it (albeit with art from all sorts of different artists).

Seriously. The courtroom superhero drama hasn't been compelling since the first time it was done and, when it's done this poorly, it throws everything into question. There's a writing trick wherein a writer knows exactly how a sane character would get out of a problem but dutifully ignores that solution because there's no drama in it. That's what Robinson's doing but it's not just Robinson who knows how to get out of it, it's every single person reading this book ever. The prosecutor has the shakiest grasp on how to prosecute and his terribleness and the terribleness of the entire plot draws the lawyering abilities of She-Hulk, the F4's lawyer, into severe question. It's a rare book that can take a completely separate book that I really like (SHE-HULK) and call it into question by painting its protagonist so weak. It's choppy writing at best and it's a terrible and cliche story that's executed about as badly as it could be. It feels like it was an excuse to get a bunch of guest artists in (who all do admirable work, though it sometimes feels like it's Marvel trying to hard sell their other books as Samnee draws some Daredevil related business and the Allred's pop in to draw Galactus and the Silver Surfer) and to charge an extra dollar for five extra pages and the book is garbage. Literally within the first three pages I was angry at this book.

Total Score: 1/5

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

All-New Invaders 4, Fantastic Four 3

All-New Invaders 4
J. Robinson (w) and Pugh (a) and Guru eFX (c) and Petit (l)

The Invaders have been captured by Tanalth and the Kree with the help of Ikaris, the Eternal they control with the God's Whisper. The Supreme Intelligence wants to dissect the Vision (already off in another chamber for testing), Human Torch, and Captain America to try to make their own forces stronger but they have no plans for Bucky, who launches forth as if to try to escape. He is shot and pronounced dead by the Human Torch. Namor is brought back to them and Tanalth and the Supreme Intelligence demand they fight Ikaris for the amusement of all present. Cap, Torch, and Namor manage to hold off Ikaris long enough for Bucky, obviously not dead, to sneak away and break Vision out, which had been the plan all along.

Story
For the first time, all our players are generally in the same area and rather aware of the situation. The story right now is the fight against the Kree and against the God's Whisper which gives everything something of an old-fashioned feel, sending this team away from the perils of Earth for a minute to deal with a possible alien war before it can become one. Okay, that's not really what makes it feel so old-fashioned but we'll get to that. The twist of Bucky being alive isn't so much a twist as it is another sort of call-back to a simpler times in comics (specifically to the time when everyone would go "I only wanted you to THINK I'd missed!" before a shield/arrow/Mjolnir/avalanche hit its intended strategic target. The God's Whisper is certainly compelling but even that can only take us so far. 4/5

Character
Cap's the strategist, Torch is proud of being more human, and Bucky doesn't want to be made a mindless slave as he relates in an all-too-long tirade while he's trying to enact an "escape" that would cause his "death." You can very nearly give him a pass for that strange and sudden speech because maybe he's just overacting but it is still a jarring sort of speech. Namor shows real emotion as he admits that it was his pride that put them all in this position and killed Bucky (he was not aware of the plan). It's an okay moment to see him open up to the only people would who really call him a friend but it still seems rather out of place, even in the midst of all of this. Namor isn't really a character who apologizes or recognizes his own pride. Honestly maybe a little too easy to get a grip on these characters. 3/5

Writing
The old-fashionedness I was talking about above comes out most of all in the writing. There's a lot of over-explanation for a plot that I have to imagine everyone understood as soon as Bucky was pronounced dead. It's like in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when Voldemort (spoiler) thinks he kills Harry and has one person whose been grumpy with him all book check to confirm, then goes "WELL THAT OUGHTA DO IT." But even worse here for the brilliant strategist Kree, they let one of their ENEMIES check on their other ENEMY and totally believe him. It's the kind of basic suspension of disbelief that pulls you out of any sort of story. On top of that, the characters do feel so sort of cut-and-paste copies of themselves that it's hard to really be worried about any of them, which is particularly sad because I love the Invaders. This isn't me coming from a place of "oh, these characters are okay, I guess, I don't really know much about them or know why I should care." I love these characters through and through and I'm not invested in a single thing that happens to them in this book. Ugh. Whatever. 1/5

Art
Art's fine. Maybe a little too reliant on face lines for me but it gets the point across. I'm just depressed, okay? 4/5

Miscellaneous
Oh, who cares?

Total score: 2/5


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

Johnny's powers have been wiped out since science. Something about the Negative Zone and Johnny's time there and the antigens in the bomb Reed had to make on the fly. Either way, his powers are gone now and Reed will work on getting them back but, you know, no promises. Meanwhile, Fury has detained all of the inert monsters from that other zone and plans on disposing of them until Reed learns that, underneath their monstrous exteriors, they're all humans. While Sue takes the kids on a field trip through Atlantis, Johnny and Ben walk through Times Square talking about his power loss only to be attacked by the new Frightful Four, led by an apparently healed Wizard.

Story
There's something specific going on for each F4 member, meaning that they're all more or less on their own as this story starts to take shape. While all of this is happening at home, Valeria has left for Latveria to spend some time away from her family and to hang out with ol' Uncle Doom. The Fantastic Four has always been about unity and family so keeping them apart as the series starts to really move could lead to something more interesting. There are hints that we'll be examining the love life of everyone as the story progresses as Ben and Alicia rekindle a relationship, Johnny mentions the Skrull Lyja he once loved and explains that he searched the Negative Zone for her but couldn't find her, and Namor guides the field trip Sue sets up while also looking adoringly at her. While the rest of the story is starting to take some shape, I'm not a huge, huge fan of multi-faceted love stories? So I have some concerns about that. We'll air those when we get to it though. 4/5

Character
Like with the above ALL-NEW INVADERS, it feels almost like these characters are too easy to grasp. These ones are maybe a little less carbon copy of the normal F4 representation (mostly in that Ben seems quieter and Johnny is more wistful than powerful) than the ANI are of the Invaders so far, but it's still not making for an altogether engaging story. I just don't have a strong enough connection to these characters right now to make much of what they go through dramatic for me. Now, I admit that that may have more to do with these characters over the long haul (I've never been a huge F4 fan) than about Robinson's new run, which is still very young. Still, I'll need to see more out of these characters to get behind this series. 2/5

Writing
References to the rest of the F4 Universe seem to be the order of the day for FANTASTIC FOUR as Nick Fury drops in and everything from the FF's encounter with Doom at the end of the recently ended FF series to Wyatt Wingfoot, Darla Deering, Lyja, Doom, Namor, and the Negative Zone are all referenced. Certainly Robinson wants to establish the depth of this corner of the world but references like these seem often to  be there just for fan service and that ends up being tricky. Of course, a lot of it, I'm sure, is sowing seeds for the future of this book but there's no need to put it all here in issue three. Let the book find its footing before you start plotting out its future. 3/5

Art
The art sometimes looks a little too soft for me but i tend to project what I'm feeling about a book onto its art so maybe I'm not the best judge of this one. I think the book is moving a little slowly in its tone, even for one that's seen so much action and life-shifting in just three issues. There was an issue of HAWKEYE where Clint set up a DVR and it was more engaging than any of these three issues where there's been an invasion of Earth, powers lost, and shocking revelations. Tone means everything. The art helps too, I guess, since we're in the art section, right? Look, I'm maybe not on my game today. 3/5

Miscellaneous
This book feels very much like it wants to be darker than it's currently coming off. Right from the get-go this creative team has promised major changes to this world, including Johnny's lost powers and the possible arrests of Ben and Dragon Man, not to mention the harsher red costumes instead of the classic blue ones. Still, there's very nearly nothing dark about this tone through three issues. It's hard to tell a great story if you can't get your tone, writing, and story to match up.

Total score: 3/5

Amazing Spider-Man 700.4, Amazing Spider-Man 700.5

Amazing Spider-Man 700.4
Casey (w) and Green and Wong (a) and Simpson (c)

Spider-Man is still, pre-Superior days, in the Black Lodge, the little hospital for supervillains, but he knows his time there is short and that someone will figure him out soon. However, he still isn't well enough to move and he thinks he might push his luck and stay a little longer. The Surgeon General decides to inform the other patients of Spider-Man's identity and let them loose on Spider-Man, swearing not to inflict damage himself but knowing that Spider-Man cannot be left to destroy the hospital. The villains attack and Spider-Man still manages to outfight them. One of the nurses, though, messes with Firebrand's medicine too much and causes an explosion in the hospital. The Black Lodge nurses and doctors, led by the Surgeon General, pack things up while Spider-Man saves the villains from burning inside. He then goes home to rest.

This series still flummoxes me and I can't tell if I don't care about this storyline because I can't fathom why it exists or if it's because I truly don't care about this storyline. If forced to make a bet, I'd say it's a little from both columns there. It's just a little boring and it's not exactly wonderfully written. It's a step up from purely poor writing but there are weird things that Casey gets into, including really forced quips and working in a strange attraction to one of the nurses. He also cannot stop telling us that the members of the Black Lodge will CERTAINLY soon find out that he's Spider-Man, which may be less a fault of Casey's and more a fault of Spider-Man's, who has a penchant for this kind of repetitive inner monologue. Don't worry, I bet I won't have to review another one of these. WHAT'S THIS...?

Amazing Spider-Man 700.5
Reed (w) and Chen and Florea (a) and Sotomayor (c)

Okay, so I think I've heard this is the final one of these books for real. Anyway, Johnny Storm shows up at Peter's apartment saying that he has to protect this potential universe ending mechanism from getting into Reed's hands until the end of the day. The rest of the Fantastic Four are on Johnny's trail and asking him for the mechanism but Johnny believes he can't trust them with it and flees again. Spider-Man joins up with the other three as they track Johnny to MJ's apartment (to Spider-Man's frustration). They all arrive at MJ's and decide to sit with the package until the day ends. Finally, Spider-Man opens the bag the Calvin Mechanism is in only to find that there's a note from future Ben (who delivered the package and instructions to Johnny) that reveals it was a prank.

So this one again doesn't really fit anywhere into continuity beyond "it's before Superior and Peter is dating MJ" BUT, and this seems like it might answer the question I asked in the last review, I did find myself enjoying this one. There were funny bits throughout and they idea was at least interesting enough to keep the comic moving at a decent pace. This is one of the better ways to view the Fantastic Four in general: from an outsider's point of view. They have these quirky little stories that may not come across particularly well if we're just living out their lives but when they dump Spider-Man into the middle of it, it's not a bad little story. Definitely the most fun of this little inexplicable series.

Daredevil 33, Fantastic Four 14, Indestructible Hulk 15

Daredevil 33
Waid and Samnee (s) and Copland (a) and J. Rodriguez (c)

Daredevil, slipping away from reality as he suffers from a severe gunshot wound, dreams of himself and Foggy (or his representation of Foggy, having never seen him before) at the ocean, talking about things, when Foggy walks into the sea with Matt helpless to stop him, unable to move. He awakens to find himself surrounded by the gang of monsters from last issue, wrapping him up tight with the mummy's bandages to stop the bleeding while Satana and Jack attempt to use their magic to close the wound. They manage it, despite Matt's misgivings, and he's quickly back on his feet asking Jack about the Darkhold. Jack reluctantly tells Matt about the book, which is in his possession, and about missing pages from the book, which he believes are in the possession of a man in town named Lucien Sinclair, who seems tied to the Sons of the Serpent. They've attempted in the past to get the pages back but found themselves driven nearly mad by the hallucinatory sights and sounds on the way to Sinclair's home. Daredevil takes off for it instantly and finds himself in a similar predicament, though he need not see what they've seen. The gauntlet he has to run through is one made up almost entirely of the suffering of other races (particularly African-Americans) and the message that whites and the Serpents are the true rulers of the world. It nearly breaks Matt but he's able to push through and, as he reaches a doorway, he begins to worry that more horrors that he won't be able to cope with lie ahead. He realizes, though, that this isn't a torture mechanism; it's a test. True Sons of the Serpent would have no problem traversing the hallucinations, they'd revel in it. Enraged, he bursts through the door and sets the entire house ablaze, grabbing the pages he needs (and keeping them hidden from the monsters) and tossing Sinclair to the others waiting outside.

Guys, this was my summary after I cut things OUT. Anyway, it's a really powerful issue and one that covers a lot of ground. The Sons of the Serpent are an oft-seen hate group in the Marvel Universe and I think it's easy to kind of push them aside; we've all seen hate in real life and we've all seen prejudice and the KKK and things like that, so sometimes it's easy enough to wave these guys away as just another sect of that, a villain group that is 100% villains with no subtext to them and one that should be and typically is dispatched by our stalwart and righteous heroes. The true extent of their hatred rarely really comes across with the vitriol and power that it does here. Pretty tough one to get through and Daredevil's pain is real, even if it's mental anguish over physical, which makes his rage palpable when he finally breaks into Sinclair's. Good book and solid fill-in art from Jason Copland with ever-perfect colors from Javier Rodriguez.

Fantastic Four 14
Fraction and Kesel (s) and Kesel (w) and Ienco (a) and Mounts (c)

Old John Storm isn't exactly Old John Storm, as it turns out, he's Alternate-Universe John Storm. He tells the F4 that he's afraid that his F4 was partly responsible for the degenerative disease afflicting the F4 now and that they can definitely cure it, though it will require going to his universe, one ruled by Doom, Kang, and Annihilus. With no other options available, they travel to the other universe and find themselves greeted by a barrage of missiles and a distinct inability to properly control their powers. Sue manages to protect them with forcefields for as long as she can but it drains her immensely. Other John Storm goes out to distract Doom and his team, leaving Johnny behind because  activating his powers will leave him stuck in flame form. An electromagnetic barrage hits the ship and knocks out all the mechanics, leaving them hurtling towards Earth and defenseless to the missiles coming at them. Sue pulls out her last trick, a whistle given to her by Medusa that brings Lockjaw to them, who transports them to the ground before taking Val and Franklin back home to their own dimension. All is not well, though, as Johnny was still hit by shrapnel from the exploding ship and needs to activate his flame powers to burn the metal out. He's bleeding and the team needs to stitch up the wound to save him, using the last of Sue's powers to create a needle and some thread from the unstable molecules in their uniforms. She manages it then passes out herself as Reed and Ben realize that Johnny will die of dehydration within a day if they don't get him help. Meanwhile, Kang betrays Doom (who was, of course, planning to betray him) and takes a device meant to control the Negative Zone, making him the ruler of time and space.

Geez, another long summary. This iteration of the series is winding down and the action is stepping up as a result. Things are clearing up as we see the alternate dimension Johnny is from with a little more clarity and we get to see the two F4 teams meeting up at the end of the issue. Big things in store for the next couple of issues. There's not a ton of room, though, for characterization in these last couple issues, which comes as both a bit of a surprise and a bit of a let-down. These are big things that are happening and they're somewhat unprecedented in F4 history. I'd like to see exactly how they're weighing on the team. Granted, this whole series has done an awful lot of character work and now feels like the time to focus on story, but the voices are starting to blend together a little bit. There's another argument to be made that the F4 is the oldest and most consistent team in the Marvel Universe and that they don't really need a ton more by way of characterization. However, I'd say that the start of this volume saw a lot of big character moments that changed the way I viewed these characters in a couple ways. It's a little sad that they'll have to shift over to plot to end the series. Also, did Doom really not see Kang betraying him coming?

Indestructible Hulk 15
Waid (w) and Jacinto (a) and Staples and Loughridge (c)

Banner is separated from Hulk who has just received a double dose of gamma making him Hulk-squared, an even stronger and more uncontrollable force. Banner is excited for a moment, realizing that he's suddenly separated from Hulk, everything he'd wished for, but quickly understands that he might be the only thing capable of stopping this Hulk, as they're in the time before the Avengers, the Defenders, Thor, whoever else. He's the best chance at righting history, and he's given extra motivation when he learns that all of this meddling as erased Betty Ross from time. He attacks the Chronarchist, who reveals to him that this is all Zarrko's doing, and manages to push them back just far enough in time to link him with Hulk again and to reach through time to stop Zarrko. It's...it's confusing and extremely timey-wimey. Everything is set mostly right and Betty herself, in Red She-Hulk form, reaches through to pull him back out and bring him back to the present. Everything is right again but Banner can't help feeling like there's something very slightly different in his past but he can't zero in on what it is, though it certainly seems big enough for someone to be curious about it, as we see a file stolen at the end of the issue with the test results for Project Gamma.

There was a fair amount of cool stuff through this Agent of TIME arc and it was a story that I would say was mostly worth telling. It harkens back to the Stan Lee days of "everything changes, everything stays the same," where all of the crazy convoluted soft-science and timeline crossing is ultimately pretty ignorable because everything returns to the way it was again at the end. Obviously it's setting up a bigger game here with something in Banner's history changed enough to make an impact somewhere down the line but BOY if this wasn't the windiest road we could have taken to get there. Not a bad arc overall and not a bad story to wind it up, with a couple of nice character moments sprinkled throughout (Banner gets to unabashedly yell at General Ross, Banner attempts to leave the Hulk to someone else, Banner expresses his love for Betty, etc.), but it's hard to feel as if this wasn't just a little bit unnecessary. A story that ends more or less the same as it started with a big twist likely planned somewhere in the future but ultimately distracting us a bit from the goings-on prior to this; Banner's science team is just about the only non-powered superhero assist team I've found myself wondering about when they're not appearing (sorry Deadpool and Wolverine's teams).

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 10, FF 9

Fantastic Four 10
Fraction (w) and Bagley and Farmer (a) and Mounts (c)

The news is breaking now amongst the family that their powers are killing them. Sue is the newest member of the F4 to see her powers breaking down as her invisibility is on the fritz, making her skin invisible but not her internal organs and the like. Reed explains what's happening and what he's been doing and why he hasn't told them. As expected, it's not met well. Reed doesn't exactly have time for that, though, as he's decided that the breakdown of their powers isn't natural; it's an attack. The F4 end up in 1776 on the trail of a Skrull messing with the Declaration of Independence (oh, Skrulls). Now they have to deal with in-fighting, Skrulls, and power breakdowns all while trying to figure out how to save themselves.

Fraction has been pretty phenomenal at making this team feel like a family, which is at the heart of what makes the Fantastic Four different. It's not unlike what he's doing with the FF but this team is actually a family so it resonates a bit more. He's had them face petty squabbling, he's had them ignore one another, he's had them focus too much on one another, he's had them fight, he's had them love, and it all feels like a real family (to an extent, assuming your real family is headed up by the smartest man on Earth and he's maybe not that good at human emotions). That makes it particularly palpable when Val tells Reed that he's a jerk and she hates him. Of course, it's not all Fraction, it goes back to series past where we've built this relationship that Fraction inherited and, I think, improved on, but it's well engineered and it's the cornerstone of what makes this book interesting. Granted, we have an interesting plot all by itself with the degradation of their powers and with the added intrigue of it being an attack rather than the natural progression of their molecules, but it's firmly held together by the family itself. A Fantastic Four book can't work any other way.

FF 9
Fraction (w) and Quinones (a) and L. Allred (c)

The FF has been restored to the way it was at the start (with new additions to that team in Ahura and Luna of the Inhumans) for the first time since Alex ran off and Medusa was mind controlled. The entire group is invited to a pool party at Julian Enterprises by CEO Charles Cotta and, despite the strange circumstance, decide to find out what it's all about (and go swimming). Meanwhile, Bentley-23 is making a documentary in what he's decided is the style of Werner Herzog for an assignment She-Hulk gave them that required they understand another culture by talking with fellow FF members. He's chosen the Uhari, Vil and Wu. He decides that there's something dark and sinister to them and he wants to get to the bottom of it. While he makes his documentary at the pool party, Charles Cotta reveals to the adults of the FF that he's actually the alien who posed as Julius Caesar back in Fantastic Four 5 and he'd like to help the FF the way the F4 helped him.

It's another very entertaining issue. The kids of the FF are wholly interesting and well personalized but Fraction has clearly realized that Bentley-23 is the spirit of the group. He's essentially Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes but he's not ready to classify himself as a hero the way that Calvin instantly has. Here's the thing though: Calvin and Hobbes is great, so it's hard for Bentley not to be great. Add to that the previously hinted re-emergence of Caesar to the story and what options he brings the team with the F4 gone long past what they had assumed (we learn why in F4 10) and we have ourselves a solid story. I've liked Michael Allred's art in this book and Joe Quinones has done a great job whenever he's had the shot to fill in. Quinones emulates Allred's style well while also adding his own touches and flair to the story. I'm also a little biased towards Quinones as my girlfriend went to the same school he did and, guys, that's pretty cool, you know?

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.