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William Kendall said on March 25th, 2011 at 12:01 pm

Excellent review! I did one for the “final” issue of Fantastic Four, and I agree with all that you said here. Very insightful.

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I’ve been on the fence about picking this up since I first heard about the direction F4 was taking. It seemed interesting to me, but in less-capable hands the whole Future Foundation thing would be a joke. Your review has pushed me into giving this title a shot.

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The Wizard, eh? He’s a bit of an oddity, in that he can be a fairly decent villain, or a complete joke. Even when played straight, he’s competent but not overly so: I think he was the one guy arrested for Acts of Vengeance.

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So spider-man willing joined up? All that “We’re locking up all your friends without trials” during the Civil War just water under the bridge?

Spider-man is such a tool.

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You could say that about almost any Marvel character who is talking to any other (or is on the same Avengers team with) that was on the other side, Zenrage.
It’s more a case of “selective editorial plot-convenient continuity-amnesia” than of a fictional character being a “tool.”
It looks like characters aren’t being written to remember Civil War as exactly the same story as the one we read, so writers aren’t totally straight-jacketed by having to hew strictly to continuity established by a mediocre event-driven story.
Not something I can get all that upset over, really; after all, it’s just crappy old Civil War.

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I just read FF #1, having not read Hickman’s previous FF work. (Well, I ordered the first two trades when I decided to get the new series.) I ordered based on Hickman’s work on Secret Warriors, and to a lesser extent SHIELD.

I liked it a lot, but thought it focused maybe a bit TOO much on the small, familial aspect. I would’ve liked to see the big, crazy ideas that both Hickman and the FF are known for. I know the big stuff is likely coming later, but an intro issue should set the tone for the series.

I thought Spider-Man fit in very naturally, but I have some concerns over the shared universe nature of this. If Peter’s part of the team, there’s no good reason for him not to move in to the Baxter Building. Nor is there any good reason for him to continue working at Horizon Labs over in ASM. Like I said, it makes sense for this story but not within Spidey’s larger storyline.

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So why don’t they just go ask God to resurrect Johnny the same way they asked him to resurrect Ben?

Seriously, once you pull out the literal “Reed figures out a way to go to Heaven and talk to God” card, you’ve pretty much killed drama, haven’t you?

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John, God straight out said he closed that door to make sure Reed couldn’t get in there again. The fact is, God let him in there in the first place.

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Of course Spider-Man is a tool.

He starts out as Ben Parker’s tool and every once in a while when some organization (SHIELD, FF, Avengers) needs his help, Spidey gets star-struck and will derp along for a while until they don’t need his web-slinging butt at which point he goes back to being Ben Parker’s tool.

Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

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clay: When you get and read those first trades of Hickman’s FF run, you’ll find the big crazy ideas you’re looking for. Several things are briefly introduced and played with, and will be followed up in the future.

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That’s irrelevant to my point, which is that shitting on Civil-War-established continuity is to be encouraged.

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I am surprised you never mentioned Dooms stroke

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@Dane, Regarding John Seavey: I thought God just said that the machine Reed rebuilt, the one Doom originally built, had been destroyed – they weren’t going to be able to use it to get back.

But then again, he could just as easily use the Ultimate Nullifier to “reboot” all known existence like he did in the Abraxas Saga. That’s how he wound up with a daughter in the first place…

Frankly I’m still disappointed in Johnny’s “death” in the way it was depicted. Still feels like he went down pretty easy…no sign of a Nova blast ANYWHERE.

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I do think though, what would make for an interesting narrative for when Johnny DOES come back, is the revelation that Johnny has always been perceived by Reed, Ben and Sue that he’d been the weakest link of the team for all these years. Why else would Reed, comparatively speaking, not hesitate to go to the afterlife and challenge God himself to get Ben back? Why else would Susan refuse to believe that Reed was dead, when she saw him and Doom (appparently) reduced to ash before her very eyes? Because they’re too important to what the FF are and what they do.

But what if on some subconscious level, each of them couldn’t help but think that just a tiny bit of every mission was spent keeping one eye on Johnny and making sure he didn’t get himself killed?

After all, when one of the other team members left, they were just replaced by one person. Who’d they replace Johnny with? Not only the one other superhero his own age, but a WHOLE SLEW OF CHILDREN.

Now imagine what Johnny would think about that, after fighting his way out of a lengthy stint as Annihilus’ favorite prisoner…

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Also, who remembers that Lyja was in the Negative Zone….

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Mary Warner said on March 27th, 2011 at 4:08 am

I haven’t read this yet. I read a couple of Hickman’s Fantastic Four issues from a year or so ago, and I thought they were pretty awful– not as bad as Millar’s, but still pretty bad.
But I may get this, just to see how well Spider-Man fits in. I don’t like the idea of him being on three teams at once, though. I hope they can convince Bendis to drop him for a while. He’s been an Avenger long enough already.

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Okay, I got the first two of Hickman’s FF trades, and they do contain the whiz-bang sense of wonder and exploration that I was looking for.

I can see why Hickman is sometimes compared to Grant Morrison. (At least, Morrison’s mainstream superhero work.) Both come up ideas that are both far out and yet that feel like a natural extension of the existing universe. (Ex. the Council of Reeds, or the Universal Inhumans.)

But also, they both are refreshingly anti-decompressionist; the concepts come fast and furious (and maybe even a little too fast). The “four cities”, for instance, each of those was introduced in a done-in-one issue. If someone like Bendis had done this, each city would’ve been introduced in a six-month storyline, and by the time it was all done, you would’ve forgotten why they were important in the first place.

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Good issue, but better than Batman Inc? pft. Yeah, right. Are you for serious?

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I agree with the guy above me. Batman Inc was far, far better.

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Tales of the Boojum said on March 30th, 2011 at 1:12 pm

Please. Like Johnny’s not going to be back in time for the 50th anniversary of Fantastic Four #1 in November? I believed Aunt May was dead back in the 90s. To quote a certain ex-President: “Fool me twice… Duuuh …Won’t get fooled again!”

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While Hickman is a good writer, killing johnny & putting dr fucking doom in the ff team is a dumb move!

while dr doom is indeed an awesome character he is a DICTATOR. He’s a SUPER murderer. He’s sent dissidents (criminals or not) and old ladies to Hell! He’s kidnapped and tortured and brainwashed and destroyed more lives than corporate America.
And Valeria is all smiles. She’s just pleased as punch that she’s so clever and working this all out with old mister Unka Doom. And what does she think he’s going to do once he’s smart again? Turn his evil fortress into a candy factory?No. He’s gonna kill people! He’s going to kill lots of people! That’s what he does. His name isn’t ironic. What you see is what you get.
It still baffles that writers make Reed even SEE the guy in front of him without spitting on him, remember Unthinkable? Emperor Doom? Onslaught? Or any other time he tried to kill them?

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[…] spoke about Hickman’s run on the title a while back when FF #1 came out that Hickman was delivering what ongoing superhero comics needed: the illusion of change. And his […]

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