Staying Current Quickie! Fantastic Four #588

Fantastic Four #588-“Three ,Epilogue- A Month of Mourning”
Cover Date April 2011 Price $3.99
Writer/ Artist-Jonathan Hickman/ Nick Dragotta
Cover Tagline: “Final Issue"

What Happened: I'm going to forgo the usual longwinded summary, because frankly, I didn't like this issue. I'll get to that in a second, but let me sum up what happens. This issue deals with the fallout of the death of Johnny Storm, but does so without the use of dialogue. Told in snapshots from a "month of mourning", we as readers are treated to a visual feast by artist Nick Dragotta.

As the month rolls along, we see Sue push Reed away, Reed threaten Annihilus with the Ultimate Nullifier, and the Thing throw down with Thor and Hulk all in the name of grief. Doom even appears in a few spots, having lost his position as ruler of Latveria to his successor Kristoff Vernard. We also find out that the kids of the Future Foundation have a new mission: "Kill Annihilus." And finally we're treated to a backup tale featuring the Amazing Spider-Man consoling young Franklin Richards with his own tales of loss. The cliffhanger of the issue? Nathaniel Richards, the time-hopping father of Mr. Fantastic, appears from a temporal vortex, and with him comes word balloons.

What I Thought: So why didn't I like this issue? Well, it's the words "Final Issue" that really get to me. When I think "final issue" of a series as iconic as Fantastic Four, I tend towards delusions of grandeur, as if somehow everything that could be said about these characters is stated with such climatic fashion that you can't help but feel a sense of closure. Instead, this "final issue" feels like nothing but a stop along the way. While the new Future Foundation series (which starts this month) spins directly out of the events of this issue, I fear for the longevity of the concept. I almost feel as if Marvel could have done a "Future Foundation" maxi-arc (that sounds so wrong) within the pages of the Fantastic Four title and all would be well.

But I shouldn't be surprised. The FF have been canceled and relaunched before, and they tend to even out in the long run. It's just this time the gimmick is hurting an otherwise great story (Hickman's epic) instead of inflating a mediocre money grab ("Heroes Reborn"). I've said it again and again that Hickman's bigger story is something to behold, and Marvel wants to market it in all the wrong ways. But then again, I'm buying all the issues, so maybe they're on to something.

And it's not to say this story was awful by any means. It was perfectly acceptable and at times downright heartfelt. The choice to use a completely visual bookend to the series is a rather interesting idea. I hated the art upon first look, but I soon realized that Dragotta's Gene Colan-esque style is meant to be a homage of sorts to Fantastic Four co-creator Jack Kirby. While I would have preferred Steve Epting completing the entire "3" arc, I can appreciate how Dragotta plays a vital role in the storytelling here. Heck, without the dialogue, the pressure is squarely on his shoulders.
As for the "future" (little pun there) , Hickman has promised a lot of the stories from Fantastic Four will be tying up in the relaunched title. Plots such as the Valeria/Doom deal, the war of the 4 cities, and Franklin's status in the MU are finally going to come to a head. Now if we can get some more Namor/ Sue moments, I may forget how I felt about this issue. So until "dead means dead" isn't an insanely laughable notion, vive la fantastique!

Staying Current (Audio Review) Fantastic Four #587

Fantastic Four #587 Hits Stores Tomorrow!

Kello here with a short reminder that Fantastic Four #587, the big "death" issue, hits stores tomorrow! Yes, I know tomorrow is Tuesday, and Wednesday is officially "new comic day." But Marvel is going all out in the gimmick department and releasing this issue for public consumption a day early. So if you're lucky enough to live near a comic shop, go and pick up a copy. If not for yourself, do it for me. My copy won't arrive until the weekend....

So until my copies of FF get hand delivered by Stan Lee himself, vive la fantastique!

3 Freedoms Plaza?

As we head into the home stretch of the FF's "3" arc, the World's Greatest Comic Magazine seems to be pulling out all the stops. Just today, Marvel announced that issue #587 of Fantastic Four will be polybagged (how come no one in the 90's ever called it "ploybagging"? Seems more accurate), will NOT be sold on newsstands, and will NOT go into extra printings. A variant edition will come out the week after the initial issue's release, with a spoilerific cover (which I assume will show Johnny getting eaten by Galactus) by John Cassady.

Apparently Marvel's rationale for the "no overprint/ newsstand" policy is to drive up demand and keep the issue from being spoiled by the dreaded liberal media. Many of us can still recall comic events such as Captain America's death and Barry Allen's resurrection being first reported on by highly circulated news outlets such as USA Today.

While all of the items above rightfully blew my mind, the biggest part of today's announcements came in the form of the following quote from Marvel's press release: "This January Fantastic Four #587 marks the end of the Fantastic Four and the penultimate issue of Marvel’s longest running series. "

We all know that killing off a member of the FF is a giant publicity stunt, but Marvel is showing a real commitment to the idea of "3" being a complete game changer. And hey, you know what? I believe them now. In an era with 2 Captain Americas, A Bruce Wayne who publicly associates with Batman, A Spidey who sleeps around, and a thriving comic that gets away with having the same name as a restaurant chain ("Red Robin....Yum"), there is the distinct possibility that the Fantastic 3 are here to stay.

And while I am more curious than enraged by the future of the F3, I can't help but feel my blog is going to look seriously out of date. I mean, I don't want to change my banner! Oh well, They'll always be the FF to me. So until the title gets pared down to the "Fantastic One", vive la fantastique!

"3" Starts this Week

Hey FFans, Kello here with a quick reminder that the year's biggest(and I'm hoping best) Fantastic Four storyline, "Three", is set to begin this Wednesday with the release of issue #583. And as incentive to all you FF holdouts, I will guarentee that this arc will have both Dr. Doom, and absolutely awesome art (by Steve Epting). If that's not enough, then you should probably stop just reading Marvel Comics and go get something from Image.

Check out the cover's countdown below (it says "Countdown to Casualty 4,3,2,1"), apparently death has never been this expected!

Oh, and check out the variant by Art Adams!

So......Who's in?

Fantastic Four #291

Fantastic Four #291-"The Times They Are A' Changing!"

Cover Date: June 1986 Price $.75

Cover Tagline :"The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!"

Writer/Artist: John Byrne

What Happened: The story opens with the image of a flying car touching down in a dark alley in Greenwich Village . The car is from the spy organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D, which is an acronym for some technical sounding branch of the government. Suffice it to say, S.H.I.E.L.D is like the F.B.I , C.I.A., Department of Homeland Security, and Star Trek all rolled into one. Those in the car include Sue and Johnny Storm, the jade skinned powerhouse known as the She-Hulk, and the gruff war veteran Nick Fury. The foursome get out of the delori--I mean hover car, and explore their surroundings, trying to get a bead on the differences they sense. Fury tells the others that he is all too familiar with the area, because they have landed in his old neighborhood...in the year 1936!!!

While the team stands in a bit of astonishment, Johnny mentions that Sue is in charge, as Reed Richards is now dead. Geez, what happened?! It's only been 3 issues since my last trip to "the box." Anyway, Sue says that Reed would indeed know what to do, and who to contact. As anyone whose seen Time Cop knows, it can cause irreparable damage to the time stream to interact with anything the past. As Sue talks, Fury alerts her to the presence of a dreaded garbageman, who will assuredly be startled at their appearances as he turns the corner. Sue deftly handles the situation by cloaking everyone and the S.H.I.E.L.D car with her invisibility powers. That garbageman could have forever altered the Marvel Universe....

Thanks to some quick thinking, Fury then uses an imaging device in the S.H.I.E.L.D car's internal computer to make it stand out less. While the images available do not include 30's models, Fury makes the car look like a U.P.S. truck ,which is inconspicuous in the 1930's landscape apparently. She- Hulk even makes a snide comment, revealing John Byrne's politics underlying attitude about U.P.S' aesthetic choices. Man, this is comics, get off your soapbox.

As the team drives through the streets trying to think of some contacts they could meet with to solve their chronological predicament, a police car turns on its siren behind them. In a clear case of time based profiling, Fury states that the cops must have seen the truck's unchanged license plate from 50 years in the future. As Fury speeds away, he evades the police and is startled as he turns the corner and finds that he and his passengers have gone back...back to the future!

Yes, for some inexplicable reason, the team appears to be back in their own era. Johnny "worst teammate ever" Storm immediately jumps out of the car and tells everyone that he has to go make sure his fiance Alicia's okay. He flies to her apartment, and she says everything's fine. Johnny asks her what she has been doing since all the time warp stuff happened, and she tells him its only been 3 hours since they last spoke. Johnny is confused, since he believes he has been gone a long time, what with all fighting in the Negative Zone and watching Reed die and such.

As Johnny goes to explain his whereabouts, he suddenly finds himself back in the past, with Alicia nowhere to be found. Johnny takes to the skies in flame form, and forgets that whole "don't mess with the past" rule. But it's okay, because he has "air brakes", a la Willie E. Coyote. Just don't look down, matchstick.

On the other side of town, we find that Nick Fury has crashed the S.H.I.E.L.D car into a wall, seemingly on purpose. It seems that S.H.I.E.L.D. often uses holograms to mask secret entry ways around town, and as Fury drove towards one in the future, the timeline switched back to the 30's. Fury's knocked out cold, and in need of a doctor. Sue tells She-Hulk to watch over ol-one eye, while she gets help. As she leaves, Fury's radio pipes up with a message from agents who are aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite called Space Platform One. As She-Hulk talks to the agents, they are a bit surprised to find out they're calling 1936.

We cut to a scene with Sue wandering the streets of New York, the places she's familiar with all but unrecognizable now due to the time travel. As Sue explores, she ponders the gravity of her new responsibility as team leader of the FF, as well as the reality that her husband is dead. We get a nice "when Sue met Reed" history lesson, and my theory that John Byrne must have had a Fantastic Four "origin recap quota" written into his contract gains more validity as we see another small flashback to that event.

As Sue continues to worry, we jump back to the She-Hulk, who is still on the horn with the satellite. She explains to the agents that her team is stuck in 1936, and they tell her it must be a localized issue, because all their instruments scan a normal Manhattan setting. Shulkie tells the agents to hold on, as she sees a car about to run over a guy in a trench coat.

Knowing the lesson that she shouldn't trifle with the past, the She-Hulk decides to intervene anyway, and stops the car from running down its intended victim. His attackers call the She-Hulk a devil and flee the scene, and she asks the smooth looking gentleman she just saved to tell her his story. He obliges, and tells her that he's "Licorice" Calhoun, a Clarinet player from a local jazz club.

It seems Licorice's dreams always come to fruition, and this was a trait which his boss was trying to exploit by making him dream of riches. Licorice explains the men in the car wanted to run him down because he didn't dream of riches, but blood and fire. The blood and fire, he found out, were the bosses horse stables, which burned to the ground.

While the deaths of horses makes for pleasant conversation between She Hulk and Licorice, Nick Fury awakens in the hover car and tunes in the radio. After hearing a report about something in "a German leader in Berlin", Fury flips out and takes off in the flying car. She-Hulk tries to stop him just as Sue returns. The women, along with "Licorice", watch Fury fly away, and Sue says they have to stop Fury. Because Sue knows that Fury is going to try and kill Adolf Hitler, an action which could severely disrupt time and space. Didn't they learn anything from Time Cop!?

What I Thought:It's getting harder to judge these issues for quality. Coming in from the standpoint of not knowing what happened to Reed, how the team got the past, and why they were with Nick Fury in the first place, I actually felt as discombobulated as some of the characters in the comic. I'm not saying that as a criticism though, it was actually kind of fun to try and decipher what happened. I think as usual some of this issue feels stretched out, especially scenes like the team almost getting discovered by the garbageman. But still, that kind of "story stretching" beats the heck out of some of the offenses found in modern comics, where whole issues could be axed without losing any of the story.

As far as the plot, I was intrigued by the whole switching back and forth between eras concept. The time travel bit with the "should we save Hitler?" question is cliche, but for a character like Fury it at least has a little bit of relevancy. I would like to think Fury would know better nowadays and just leave the timestream be. To give this issue a little more credit, I was curious enough about what would happen next that I went online and bought issue 292. I'm actually a bit saddened that I'll soon be reviewing FF books that aren't by John Byrne.

And while I rag on Byrne for including the FF's origin so much, I understand that comics and related bits of information were not as readily available at the time as they are now. The fact that Byrne so masterfully recaps Sue's whole life in one page either says a lot about his abilities, or very little about Sue's personal life outside of Reed.

So until Marty McFly joins the FF, vive le fantastique!