Jason’s Corner – What the FF?

I have never been a fan of the Fantastic Four.  I never much cared that they were going to kill one of them off and cancel the series.  I suppose I hoped that it would be Mr. Fantastic.  But didn’t he die back in the 90s? 

Still, killing off the Human Torch made the most sense.  This way, Thing can be guilt-ridden and tormented.  Thing is only interesting when he’s brooding and angry.  You can’t kill off Invisible Woman because she’s the milf of the Marvel Universe.  And as I said, they already killed off Mr. Fantastic.

So if I dislike the Fantastic Four so much, why would I ever pick up an issue of FF #1?  For the same reason any comic book nerd buys a book he normally doesn’t: because of the cover, duh!

Just look at that art and tell me it doesn’t scream retro-awesomeness!  Tell me you didn’t think of those awesome covers to the Venture Bros. DVDs and their wonderful parody of the FF.  And while I’ve always loved the classic blue and white uniforms of the Fantastic Four, those black and white costumes with the hive symbols are sick.  Finally, add Spider-man to the team and you have a Human Torch replacement until Johnny comes back from the dead, or the past, or the Negative Zone, or wherever.  If Marvel is going to loan out Wolverine to every super group, it only makes sense to do the same with Spidey, and the FF is a perfect fit. 

Overall, the contents were what one would expect from a first issue – a lot of exposition.  We find FF stands for Future Foundation.  The Baxter Building is now the residence of several super-scientific-minds-in-training.  So many, that they include a bio-page at the end of the comic. The conflict comes when A.I.M. breaks The Wizard out of prison. Our heroes arrive just in time to see The Wizard leave and threaten to reclaim one of the residents of the Baxter Building who is apparently his child clone.  So nothing very exciting happens.

The best part is the cliffhanger.  Let me just say that Spidey isn’t the last person to join the FF.

Overall, the cover art made it worth buying this issue.  But I doubt I should be buying any more.  I give it three skulls.

Other reviews:

Uncanny X-Force #6 – Still the best written superhero comic out there.  While issue 5 was a bit confusing, and I’m not a fan of all the alternate reality, time travel storylines, issue 6 helped to clarify things.  Fantomex and Deathlok kill off the undead cyborg versions of your favorite heroes (Captain America, Spider-man, Hawkeye, and Elektra).  Then we get a nice expositional explanation from  “the great patriot of capitalism’s brains.”  Fantomex plugs him into his living computer ship thingy and we see an alternate future where superheroes are killed and turned into cyborgs resulting in a utopia that is soon to be corrupted by an Apocolypse that Fantomex just shot through the head in issue four.  See.  Confusing!  Still, this book is loads of fun.  Five skulls.

War of the Green Lanterns – This storyline is already three issues in, which is perfect because individually each of these issues is not very strong, but reading all three in a row (Green Lantern #64, Green Lantern Corps #58, and Emerald Warriors #8) makes for a solid beginning to a story where your favorite Lanterns are going to have to battle the entire Corps. Three skulls.

Fear Itself #1 – Where most first issues stumble or ramble, this one moves along quite quickly.  I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.  Oh, and get the variant cover with the tribute to Fantastic Four #348. Three skulls.

Batman Incorporated #4 –

 Dear Grant Morrison,

Please stop slowly killing this series.  No one cares about the history of Batwoman.  Could you pick a bigger loser for a villain than a woman with a giant blue scorpion helmet?  If you don’t want to see this title go the way of Frank Miller’s latest, write something more engaging.   Thank you. 

Sincerely,

 Everyone-who-wants-to-forget-the –pixie-Robin-days.

Two skulls.