Co-Mixed

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[co-mixed]

The Savage She-Hulk

Now there's a run you don't really need to read, or that’s what so many people would say. Even before I started, people kept telling me this run is skippable. But I do like my bigger picture. So yeah, throwing it away and pretending like I’m not missing something important wasn’t exactly an option. Do I regret that?

Spoilers ahead

Well. If you just want to know She-Hulk's origin, you really are better off just starting with Sensational She-Hulk. It's rehashed on two pages right there in the first issue, and there’s not a lot you’d miss. But still, there are reasons to check out the debut run as well. 

For a superhero, their first run can either define them for decades to come or present an opportunity for a reinvention down the road. She-Hulk definitely didn’t retain any of her early qualities. Back then, she was still Jennifer Walters first and had a secret identity that remained concealed from her family and most of her friends. Like the Hulk, she was trying to suppress her mean and green side and not let it ruin the everyday life of Jen-the-lawyer. Was she successful? Not so much. 

The first run is so far the longest time we've spent with Jen. And there are things you’d instantly like about her. She doesn’t have it all together (who does?), her job title is prestigious, but she constantly has to deal with insane men trying to ruin things for her, and her father is… well, let’s say in terms of anger he could give the Hulk a run for his money (if he had any, those purple pants don’t have pockets). Jen might be optimistic, but she is filled with self-doubt and the need to prove herself.

We meet her in the middle of her own adventure, if that’s a fitting enough name. That’s an interesting and uncommon choice, too. We usually witness the very beginning of a hero’s arc, with Jen, we’re thrown into an already ongoing legal conflict with Trask (not Bolivar) — LA’s own local kingpin of crime. His goons are following Jen with a kill order, and they shoot her in the back just as she’s about to get in the car. Luckily, she’s accompanied by her cousin, Bruce. In a less-than-scientifically accurate twist, Bruce performs an emergency blood transfusion, and the rest is history. 

Wait, that’s exactly the history we’re here to discuss. 

Jen transforms into the She-Hulk, and just like with Bruce, at first, it happens whenever she feels anger. Unlike him, Jen remains in relative control over her alter-ego. She-Hulk isn’t exactly Jen, but she’s not something different. If I had to sum her up, I’d say she’s everything regular Jen would want to hide. She-Hulk is her anger, her power, her strength, her unapologetic self. Pretty much everything you experience but fear to show because you’d be called “emotional” or ummm savage? But She-Hulk doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. She could swipe anyone off the board with ease, fear is not in her vocabulary. Maybe that’s why her decision to remain She-Hulk at the end of the run, while written off as her getting rid of Jen’s problems, feels justified. It even feels right if you think about it and consider the era. Besides, She-Hulk has her share of issues. 

Some are adventures, and some are pain in her green behind 

Throughout the run, both She-Hulk and Jen have to deal with a lot. Some of the wildest baddies include mad scientists, robotic versions of She-Hulk and an elephant, different superpowered beings who turn out to be just one guy, poisoning, and maybe the most random of all – a girl who can’t sing. The last one is… questionable at best, but I’m not gonna speak on that. I’d rather point out an interesting detail about the run as a whole: it’s well structured. The story spends enough time with Jen and She-Hulk, both get personal stories, both get in each other’s way when it comes to relationships and life in general. Throughout all that, the run maintains a strong continuity and solid pacing. The events aren’t rushed, and seeds for every story are planted in advance. There is a villain of the week, and there is a big bad. 

I talk often about missing that slower storytelling on more modern comics, so that was pretty nice. 

Jen and the men around her 

One of the main problems in this run is every male character Jen deals with. And I don’t mean villains, I mean specifically the good guys (well, mostly).

Jen’s colleague is Buck, who is a flashy, misogynistic, condescending lawyer with an annoying attitude who likes to trigger Jen. Why does he do it? Probably because he can (it’s the 80’s and… you know, based on the real world). In the beginning, it’s Buck who causes the death of Jen’s best friend (he thought SH was attacking her, while she was trying to save her). Halfway through the run, he realizes that and dives deep into blaming himself. He does get what he deserves, more or less. 

Jen’s father, the sheriff. He is dating a scammer, who drives a wedge between him and Jen. But his problems really go deeper than that. He constantly criticizes Jen for her career choices and misses the good ole’ days when his daughter was obedient and wanted to please him. Naturally, his resentment started as soon as Jen showed signs of independence. According to him, it started after her mother’s death, but that does sound like bs he invented to justify himself. 

Zapper is a young med student whom Jen used to babysit. He convinces himself he’s in love with Jen and proceeds with stalkery behavior. Sure, he helps her all the time, but all his actions are not selfless in the slightest. He expects her to return his feelings and eventually gets that from She-Hulk. Now there is room for an argument that Jen liked him back, but was too well aware of everyone else’s opinion regarding her dating a younger man. Naturally, SH had none of those concerns. 

But it’s the way Zapper gets pushy and gets angry that she doesn’t return his feelings that makes me write him off instantly. 

Richard Rory is a very random guy. His main feature is that he’s unlucky. Even after hitting a jackpot at a casino, he manages to lose all his money. He has his own set of hopes tied to Jen, and it seems like she gets together with him out of pity. 

The problem with all these men is that even when they are trying to help Jen (or SH) and even when they worry about her, they always think about themselves first. How does it affect me that She-Hulk was captured by a big bad? Jen’s disappeared, but I need her to tell me whether we’re dating or not, so I’ll look for her. It’s always framed like that. 

I almost never say that, but it seems fitting here: Jen and She-Hulk both deserve better. 

[co-mixed]

Moon Knight and his Midnight Mission

(Yeah, I know it's not Marc)

Jed MacKay isn’t the first or the only writer to have done Moon Knight justice. But it’s his run that grants MK long-overdue depth and purpose.

Yes, Marc Spector is once again in his atonement era. Only this time, he has to clean up Khonshu’s mess, not the other way around. After the Age of Khonshu, which in Marvel’s great tradition lasted for about a week (okay, a month at best – it was really hard to say), Marc was left with a broken mind and shattered reputation. 

Oh, massive spoilers ahead

The reputation part was well covered by another great narrative tradition – somebody else was pulling the strings (or Khonshu made me do it). Fair enough, Khonshu has been whispering in Marc’s ear for a while now. It’s only fair to write off Moon Knight’s misdeeds as Khonshu’s shenanigans. 

But it’s his mind that’s under a microscope now. He is doing Avengers-ordered therapy, he is trying to forge some semblance of peace between his selves, and he is still looking for ways to pay back his debt. What’s important, though, is that for the first time, it’s of his own accord. 

Previously on…

Before opening the Midnight Mission, Marc was atoning for his mercenary days' sins. And boy, did he have blood on his hands. It’s a religious experience of his resurrection that put Marc on this path for the first time. It’s then that he originally crafted Steven Grant and Moon Knight. It’s then that he first asked the question of whether it’s justice or vengeance that he’s to exact. 

He struggled with the concept throughout his history. He went from punishing criminals to trying to save them. Just think of Scarlet and how hard he was fighting to help her. He tried to be truly vengeful, he tried to maim and kill those guilty. But… he always did it out of obligation. He owed his life to Khonshu, he didn’t really feel remorse, and thanks to a chain of retcons, those he murdered had mostly deserved to end up on the receiving end of Marc’s mercenary achievements. 

He’s always had a moral compass. A loose one, but it's been there nonetheless. 

Now is the first time in Moon Knight's history that he takes full responsibility for his superhero career. He needs to earn back the trust of his colleagues, and he can’t shake off the guilt for Khonshu’s little coup. Those are, indeed, circumstances to be considered, but Marc is still doing all that because he feels it’s right. And he gets very little supervision from Khonshu, since his god is imprisoned on Asgard. 

Family of sorts

Moon Knight’s story starts with building a team. He doesn’t know it yet, but redemption is a tough and rocky path, and he can’t walk it alone. In theory, he could, but who would remind him daily that he can do it and that resorting to his old methods isn’t the way? He needs a supporting cast to keep him from losing himself (remind you of anyone?)

He gets that in Reese – a baby vampire, Soldier – a reformed Hydra goon who ends up becoming a vampire (a bullet with a vamp’s blood, can you imagine it?), Yehya Badr, aka Hunter’s Moon, or the good son of Khonshu, and Tigra, sent by T’Challa to spy, I mean, look after Marc. Over the course of the story, the team expands, but there’s something these people all have in common – they’re lost. Moon Knight finds them, and his Midnight Mission becomes their mission as well. 

In a way, Marc settles somewhere between saving and punishing. He isn’t exactly losing his touch, still pretty damn terrifying when he wants to be. But more often than not, he just chooses not to kill his enemies when the opportunity presents itself. I mean, he still has to answer to the Avengers. 

In a very modern move, MacKay quickly takes away Steven’s unlimited funds and leaves MK with no other option but to support his pricey habits with the money he liberates from the former members of the Сollective. Yes, those same guys who sent him after Jack Russel that one time. 

But Marc is pretty good at justifying robbery and at covering it up, too. He uses the disguise of one of his former villains and goes out of his way to stop Tigra from investigating it. That plan falls apart and almost makes her walk away from him, but what do you know, they end up getting even closer. (even though Marc, Steven, and Jake are an undatable disaster)

He tried on someone’s face, but ok

Okay, let’s talk Moon Knight’s love life. After years and years (and years) of never-ending Marlene drama that culminated in them attempting to build a family, he’s finally moved on. Let’s not pretend it’s a bad decision. First of all, superheroes rarely end up with their first love. Maybe because their first love tends to fill the damsel in distress role, or maybe because superheroes are hardly suited to date regular people. And that’s a whole other pie for an entirely different meal. But Marlene sure lasted long, longer than she should have by all means. And I know I shouldn’t be blaming her, but having a child with that man? Marlene, my girl… no. 

Anyway, she’s history now. Along with the kid that didn’t fit into any Moon Knight story, no matter how hard Bemis tried to make her fit. 

Instead, Marc teams up with Tigra, and their friendship grows into something more. Now, Tigra, I can understand. She knows Marc, but he hasn’t put her through hell just yet. And when it comes down to catching baddies, she can give Marc a run for his money (which he doesn’t have anymore). I mean, she even caught him… 

They make a pretty well-suited couple, too. Besides, Tigra chooses him over the Avengers and makes him trust her. That’s in part because she doesn’t judge him, and that’s quite important.

Marc knows there’s a lot he could be judged for. He has not only his past and recent misdeeds to deal with, he has Steven and Jake (and Khonshu, really, can’t forget Khonshu). And he still struggles with them, too. 

Yes, he may have made his peace with them in Lemire’s incredible trip of a run. But, and that still feels realistic, he’s trying so hard to just be “normal”. He may have redefined it a little, but in this arc, he suppresses his extra personalities, taking up the Mr.Knight persona as his primary one. Mr.Knight is just a mask Marc wears. But Steven and Jake end up locked inside him, with very little to do until he faces the facts – all three of him matter equally, and different personalities manage different aspects of his life (he really should have treated Steven better). 

Marc is fighting himself, and that leaves him with fewer resources for fighting his enemies. It gets so bad, he almost loses. Crawls away from quite a few battles, badly beaten and even more lost than before. 

I have an enemy 

Enemies, Moon Knight has. But see, that’s where we once again come back to what he is. Not who he is, but what kind of character he is and what place he occupies in the Marvel Universe. Moon Knight, not quite Batman, not quite Daredevil, not quite Punisher. A bit of all. 

He gets his first Batman villain. Zodiac is specifically that, an obsessed baddie who would rather help the good guys than see Moon Knight taken out by anyone else. 

Zodiac has an interesting origin. He posed as a friend to Reese and Soldier, as someone who needed Mr.Knight’s help, all the while, he was planning and plotting, scheming and scheduling. He really went above and beyond, and when we finally discovered who he is, it was unexpected. Really, the why didn’t much matter at that point. It was mostly the realization that this guy would keep coming back. Frankly, it’s interesting to see him penned by someone new and hopefully, grow into a terrifying, dramatic annoyance that will keep coming back and destroying the lives of everyone close to Marc. 

Hunter’s Moon is another perfect addition. Spike to Moon Knight’s Angel, in a way. He came at Marc with all he had, shamed and blamed him for not being a good enough Fist of Khonshu. Brought more lore and legends along with him, and eventually, channeled the whole line of Fists as a hero and Moon Knight’s brother. He got blessed with a beautiful arc and a stunning costume. And I’d love to see more of him, maybe even in his own run. 

But they all, even Zodiac, were baddies of the week. Because the truest evil is Black Spectre, aka Robert Plesko, aka Sigmund. Now, this one you’ll know if you remember the Shadow Cabinet – Marc’s short-lived attempt at building a crime-fighting network around Moon Knight. They had a whole block for headquarters, all kinds of connections everywhere, and a ton of money to bankroll the fun. But that concept died with Moon Knight and was buried even deeper with Plesko picking off his former companions one by one. All to get MK to pay attention. All as part of a sick game that was supposed to destroy New York. 

Honestly, Sigmund needed therapy, maybe more than Marc. 

Did the good guys win in the end? 

Yes and no. The baddie was certainly defeated, his evil plan squashed. But Moon Knight, now he got dead. Again. And this time, he had no Khonshu ex machina to resurrect him or bring him back from the brink of death. His last surge of power, Khonshu had spent on his loyal and faithful son – Hunter’s Moon. But we know, the wayward kid will be back anyway, against all odds. Because he always comes back. 

Now, what can I say about this run? It’s a story of painful redemption, and you can absolutely take it out of context and build your whole impression upon it. It’s a very vivid, full image of who Moon Knight is. Of what sorts of stories he has and what his life is like. It brings back the mystic elements from his first appearance, it grounds his adventures, ties them to his past, and sets a road to the future of the Midnight Mission.

Moon Knight might temporarily be out of commission, but his team can carry on without.

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The New Kids

Disclaimer: This is very much my personal opinion, and you are free to disagree as long as you remain polite.

Since day one, X-Men were about a school. A group of young kids, living together and learning how to be a child army superheroes. So if you think about it, teen stories, coming of age tales, and the whole young adult drama have always been essential to mutants. When the original five and the 1975 teams grew up, we got The New Mutants (1982), when those kids graduated, we got Gen X, Academy X (my favorite example of YA Mutant books), and so on. In every generation, a mutant team is born. 

But what exactly makes those books relevant even today? What makes Dani and Sunspot stand out, while current-day teens like Bronze and Calico fall flat? 

Don’t get me wrong, I like Bronze as an idea, I see a ton of potential for her, but she’s not exactly a teenager… I’ll elaborate.

Learn with and from them

The thing that made New Mutants or Paragons and Hellions relevant, memorable, and interesting was never just the way we could see ourselves in them. Sure, there are always similarities we look for while trying to pick a favorite, but their powers or identities weren’t enough to build a story. Their mistakes, however, were. Those kids got into all kinds of trouble because that’s what teenagers do. They lie and sneak out, they mess up and cover it up, they take on too much and don’t share, they believe they’re invincible, they do the wrong thing. 

That’s how they learn, and that’s how we, as readers, especially when we ourselves are young, learn too. 

New Mutants lived with little to no adult supervision; they constantly went off on dangerous missions. Both in their hero and personal lives, they stumbled and fell. They picked up strays like Bird Brain or Warlock along the way; they died together, they absolutely experienced envy, got into arguments and fights, and challenged authority (they did that a lot).

When Xuan, Dani, Sam, Rahne, Berto (and later Amara, Yana, and Doug) were fighting Demon Bear, Hellions, or Shadow King, there were no adults two steps behind them. They had to find a way out of the mess themselves. For the most part, they did. And when they suddenly had to be Magneto’s X-Men or join the Massachusetts Academy, that added layers to each and every one of their characters. Everything they have been through together is what made them a family. Not right away, and not because they needed a team book. They got stuck together, and they made it work.

I’m a massive fan of Academy X, because that book also has it all in terms of Young Adult literature – your first loves, your first failures, misunderstandings, rivalries, death, revolutions. You name it.

That’s what’s missing right now. 

Where we’re at 

It’s more a question of where today’s kids are at. Do they still make the same mistakes, and do they still require fictional guidance from their peers? Yes. But the thing with Uncanny or Exceptional kids is, there are always adults around to bail them out. They rarely go off on their own, and when they do, they get instant backup. I get the worried parents issue, I do, but that really turns every book into a book for adults. And if you want a parenting book, you might just pick up Fantastic Four instead. 

These kids are split into two groups: Calico, Jitter, Ransom, and Deathdream, and (not even a vs) Bronze, Axo, and Melee. Within their groups, these teens barely have any conflict. They are all instantly supportive of each other with a ride or die attitude, which, if you remember yourself in your teens, is not a thing. If they argue, they resolve it immediately with a talk and a hug. A talk and a hug. 

Unfortunately, Bronze, Axo, and Melee aren’t teens. They are what Gen X (the other one) and elder millennials believe Gen Alpha acts like, as they keep calling them Gen Z. Smaller adults who tend to be more mature and knowledgeable than their supervisors. 

The Outliers suffer from that a little less, but the book still doesn’t give the kids room to grow as characters. So far, they are all as forgettable as Lifeguard (remember her?). 

Losing Focus

The problem is — the stories attempt to focus on the teachers and the students equally. That way, neither group gets enough screen time to properly advance, and the narrative ends up jumping around before landing on a rushed conclusion. Most stories feel flat because personal impact doesn’t last beyond an issue. 

Wolverine has PTSD? Well, great, moving on… Kitty encounters her past self? Anyway…  Calico accepts that she’s a mutant? Cool, next… 

It’s not necessarily the writers’ fault, I see some moments that could've led to bigger stories, and I see plenty of them. But they tend to just die down. I feel like editorial decisions play a larger role here, but really, I’m only judging by what we get each month in each book. 

It’s solvable 

I’m not just ranting here; I do have a solution. And my solution is to go back to the formula that worked well. Get some more new kids, reintroduce the school with squads, create some tension, give the kids an antagonist that feels familiar to them. Again, remember what worked for Buffy? Metaphors for everything teens deal with. And for Doom’s sake, spend some time around actual Gen Alpha. They are exactly the same as we were, and we were so far from perfect. Our problems are still their problems. They haven’t gotten magically resolved, and they can’t be in your books. It took Rahne decades to come to terms with who she is (granted, all her character growth was undone, retconned, undone again, and so on). Dani went through losing her powers being a Valkyrie. Berto was hopelessly obsessed with Amara for years. Illyana only recently accepted Darkchild as a part of herself. And these are all the things and struggles that made us love these kids. There's no connection without drama.

I still love all things mutant, and I want to keep enjoying their stories. Sometimes, I do, like I said, there are issues and panels that stand out. But the overall lack of direction still shines through.

[co-mixed]

My Adventures With Khonshu

Moon Knight (2006) by Charlie Huston/Mike Benson

Throughout their careers, every street-level hero inevitably struggles with finding out whether they are a louse like everybody else or a man. Whether they can step over barriers or not, whether they dare stoop to pick up or not, whether they are a trembling creature or whether they have the right.

It took Daredevil decades of comics history to finally stumble and fall over the line. There are heroes who came back from that fully, there are those who turned to evil, and those who never came close to crossing over.  

Moon Knight is his own breed of hero. His whole heroic path is one of redemption; every action since putting on the white sheet over his head had the sole goal of erasing his mercenary past. So when Moon Knight falls, it hits different. 

The Death of Marc Spector 

At the beginning of this run, we find Marc in a wheelchair with a broken body and a decaying mind. His life ended when he killed his former employer, his first real supervillian, the man who took his life – Bushman. But because it’s not mere revenge, Marc also took his face. Cut it off and kept as a trophy (Spider-Man would never). In the process, he got hurt so badly and, just to make things darker, developed an addiction to pills. 

There is no more support system by his side where we find him. Marlene and Frenchie both left, not willing to watch Marc give up; he lost all contact with Gena, and only Crawley occasionally showed up to enable rather than help him. 

Everything here screams “Darker than the original”. It really doesn’t feel like the 90s anymore. Simplified stories that place action center stage are replaced with inner struggles and the concept of insanity. For which Moon Knight lays the perfect groundwork. 

In a true comics fashion, the downfall of a moderately successful hero is organized by a secret organization – the Committee, the children and descendants of that same evil group from MK’s first appearance. They find a sociopathic psychology genius, The Profile, who reads people like they’re a collection of facts. And that’s exactly how David Finch draws it, making him borderline creepy in those red glasses and reflecting his know-it-all attitude through images.

It’s his analysis that leads MK down the path of self-destruction, only to allow him to be later rebuilt in the interests of the Committee. Of course, none of this goes as planned, and the Silver Avenger soars through the night sky once again. 

Khonshu Made Me Do It

There is one problem, though. Marc keeps seeing (and talking to) a creature looking suspiciously like a mix of Marc-the-Mercenary and Bushman (post-facelift), encouraging the hero to kill and maim more people as a tribute to his god. That’s Khonshu, the god of vengeance or justice, depending on Marc’s current state of mind. Well, sometimes he embraces an even more disturbing look.

Here’s when the story creeps closer to what we know of Moon Knight today. Every action and interaction of his is accompanied by a commentary track from the god, and each time he pushes his Knight further and further. Khonshu is not satisfied with just punishments, and he doesn’t care much for MK leaving the baddies packaged for the cops. He wants blood, and he wants marketing. That’s right, not only does Marc have to do Khonshu’s bidding, he has to make sure everyone knows and fears him. 

Here, the narrative takes its most beautiful turn, and that’s something I want to point out specifically. Without losing track of its own plot, the story flows straight into the events of the Civil War.

Whose side are you on? 

Before everything goes down, Marc is approached by both Cap and Stark. To no one’s surprise, neither side wants him – Moon Knight is way too unstable and unpredictable, his methods are dangerous, and his track record – less than stellar. But Khonshu has some ideas, and Marc chooses to register. Some tricks and lies later, Marc indeed obtains a license to operate as a superhero. But Khonshu’s demands grow with every step, and we know he demands branding, so now MK’s calling card is not his signature crescent darts, but a moon carved in the foreheads of his… would it be fair to call them victims? Probably not. 

If that wasn’t loud enough, one of MK’s old nemeses reappears and ends up dead in front of a crowd of the Registration Act supporters. This doesn’t look good for Marc, looks even worse for S.H.I.E.L.D., and reflects terribly on Tony Stark himself. 

Moon Knight is making enemies left and right; there’s a whole manhunt with his name on it, so he resorts to the oldest trick in the book – faking his own death. 

Full Lack of Control

This book takes Moon Knight with all his values and ideas of redemption, and throws him lower and lower into the pit of self-loathing. At this point, Marc has a very hard time justifying anything he does, which, in a way, shows just how little control he’s had over his actions ever since Khonshu appeared to him. Their relationship is painful, to say the least. Marc is addicted to his deity; he turns away from Khonshu in an attempt to break the ties, but comes back and begs for help, for power, for his life back. This happens every time; this is the pattern he has to live with. And Khonshu isn’t a mere shadow in the halls of his mansion anymore – it’s an entity that follows Marc and speaks into his ear. It’s his insanity and guilt wrapped in the body of his victim. Something he, by all superhero canon, should regret but does not. 

Marc is very much a servant to his impulses. He doesn’t make well-thought-out and planned decisions — he has no plan in general. Instead, he falls into every trap, be it set by his enemies or his god. That’s a far cry from that man who surrounded himself by a whole council of experts. 

It’s almost fair to say that Marc Spector is nonexistent, and it’s Khonshu who drives his body. 

But it’s also something Marc is trying to fight. Not actively and not very well. In this run, Khonshu is the only stable presence in his life, and that’s because he’s lost everyone else. 

Through the Cloudless Night 

This run doesn’t leave room for hope. It’s as dark as any, at the same time, it doesn’t necessarily cross the line between necessary gore and epatage. Violence is more of a backdrop to the whole existence and personality of Marc Spector (or Jake Lockley, for that matter, since Steven Grant is presumed dead). It follows him from his old mercenary days into the era of heroism, and that’s what always keeps him in the grey (or rather silver) area. He’s not quite The Punisher, but he’s not Spider-Man either, and he lives in a New York that’s different from theirs. There are no second chances, unless you die and come back to life. But what’s always there is pain and sorrow. That life that Moon Knight keeps choosing, together with his methods, doesn’t leave room for anything or anyone else. 

Does He Have the Right?

Not really. Marc Spector can not kill and evade the consequences; is that the trick of his mind, or is that really a god whispering in his ear? Do the spirits of the dead by his hand haunt him, or is it Khonshu’s way of saying “I own you”? 

It’s the latter. Don’t get me wrong, Marc seems to be able to kill and disfigure without an ounce of remorse simply because those he does it to don’t deserve any. And he might be just the perfect judge on the matter.

He doesn’t regret the action; he regrets the result – he can’t continue on that path of righteousness that allows him to look down on his rogues gallery. Instead, he’s almost one of them, and only when he falls to their level, takes a life for a crime, only then will his god be pleased. 

[co-mixed]

Dynamite Buffy?

Dynamite is the next publisher to try their luck with Buffy. Honestly, that’s a relief after Boom. No shade, but the only truly good thing that came out of that ordeal was reprints of the show’s companion comics. 

With Dynamite, the expectations aren’t high. Mostly, because Buffy comics have always been a mixed bag of slayer weapons.

But there are things I want from my Buffy comics, and who knows, maybe this time there’s a chance of getting them?  

A shared continuity

One of the main issues with the original Buffyverse was the way the two shows lost connection when Angel and Buffy ended up on different networks. The shows didn’t necessarily have crossovers every time it made sense, and while we had some episodes and characters visiting each other, there could’ve been more. Comics don’t have the restrictions, hence they can allow for a smoother reality, where characters interact more. 

Buffy and Angel 

No matter where you decide to start your story, Buffy can’t be Buffy without Angel, and Angel is not himself without her. They bring a lot to each other in terms of both history and core beliefs. He doesn’t find his own path before meeting the Slayer, and without him, she doesn’t see the different layers of demonic beings. Skipping their shared history means, once again, stripping both characters of their identity, of what makes them different from all the other slayers and vampires. 

Staying true to arcs 

That’s an expansion on my whole Buffy/Angel argument. The character work in the ‘verse was so deep, we had Anne go through a full arc over the course of several episodes in two shows. New creators don’t have to repeat the same events, but they need to pinpoint the significant, defining moments and make sure they bring the characters to those points. Angel’s mission can matter to us because we remember how he stumbled upon it. But if it doesn’t have the same gravity in his eyes, it’s essentially meaningless.  

Dives into the past

Buffy might be just a teen, but some other characters like Angel, Spike, Anya, etc, have whole centuries behind them. Flashbacks brought us the best character-centric episodes (Fool for Love, Selfless, The Prodigal, Darla, Destiny). Part of the fun is watching how things from the past affect the character or dictate their choices today. This is something essential to the structure and character development in Buffy, and so many stories are still untold. 

If we’re gonna get a new take, it might as well have an equally rich background prepared for each and every one of the longest living characters. 

No polishing 

Buffy’s Big Bads have always been dark. Her vampires are true soulless monsters with no conscience or remorse. Those who get a shot at redemption have to atone for some unforgivable things. I don’t want that erased. Even over the course of the show, we got a somewhat blurry understanding of what it means to have a soul. I think these rules need to be a little clearer. At the same time, we have to remember that the truest cruelty of soulless baddies is the reason they end up on the pointy end of the stake. 

No good Spike for no reason 

Boom has made this mistake several times. They tried to shoehorn Spike into every story with little to no explanation. If you want him to have a soul or even remain harmless, you have to do a ton of narrative work first. There are rules to the Buffyverse, and even a fresh take has to obey them. Just because you like a character or want them around doesn’t mean they’ve earned the right to be there. 

Metaphors 

The idea behind the original Buffy and Angel shows was always hidden in the metaphor. Every bad (big or small) was a reflection of a very real problem (could be being invisible at school, could be taxes). This is why both shows worked and keep working 20 years later. This is also where most comics lost their way. The funny part – the answer has been given decades ago: working your way from a real-life situation to a demonic manifestation of said situation. 

Nostalgia element 

The creators have their work cut out for them. There’s a lot of balancing work involved. On one hand, you want to draw in the new crowd. But then you also want to keep the original fanbase interested. And keep in mind that the majority of Buffy fans never even cared about comics, and some have only read books. Pleasing everyone is probably not an option, but if you manage to pull off something similar to “In Every Generation”, you’d be close enough. Probably don’t turn Buffy into too much of a modern girl, but be mindful of relying on nostalgia. Take advantage of playing in a new world and make it as timeless as the show. 

No Multiverse 

Just don’t. 

Maintaining the scale

The main reason we kinda gloss over Buffy S8 and so on is the absurdity that the stories reached. From space bugs to birthing a new universe, to time travel, camps for vamps, and of course, giant Dawn, who ends up with Xander. Those were not good stories. Sure, there were moments when it felt like the show, but only a few, and most of those came about when the writers decided to finally scale down. An apocalypse doesn’t need to be huge, and everyone doesn’t need to know about it. Vampires as common knowledge is a fun concept, but it’s just not Buffy. She works in the shadow world, and it needs to feel smaller and more familiar. 

Start over 

One girl in all the world. If Buffy had ended after season 5, that would still be the deal. The S7 solution was great for giving Buffy her freedom and life back. But it broke the status quo. It’s hard to work in this new world, and it takes the whole being special, being chosen, element out of the equation. The truth is, we can get away with two slayers, but three at the same time would be overkill. And they certainly won’t need to camp around the same Hellmouth (Another mistake made by Boom). I would love more stories for and with Kendra, but keeping her around when you have nothing to say about her is a disservice to her character. 

It’s still Buffy’s story; she has to experience loss. 

[co-mixed]

Marc Spector: Moon Knight 

We got to meet Marc, Steven, and Jake in the first Moon Knight run. But now it’s 1989, and it’s time to get reacquainted with the character. 

For his second attempt at leading a solo book, Moon Knight discards his additional personas. It comes right after his stint as a West Coast Avenger, so he comes into this story all polished and frankly, simplified. 

Without Steven and Jake, Marc is literally just himself – still living in a Long Island mansion, still hanging out with Marlene (who occasionally leaves him) and Frenchie (who sticks around), still dressing up as Moon Knight and hemorrhaging money for his pricey hobby. 

Who is Marc Spector? 

While reviewing the first run, I did mention that Marc didn’t have enough of a presence in the story. It mostly went between Steven, Jake, and Moon Knight. But this one is all Marc. At the beginning of the run, right as it found its core theme, Marc was dealing with the echoes of his mercenary past. In fact, he went through nearly all of his old nemeses: from Bushman to Raposa, and his brother Randall. 

He had to confront the results of his mercenary work, and in the case of Raposa, it was quite literally. Marc was arrested and sentenced to death for assassinating the then-acting president of Bosqueverde. He might’ve spent only a short time in prison, but that did give him enough room for reflection. As a mercenary, Marc killed for money, but he still had a conscience – it’s just the consequences that didn’t bother him, and even that until he could see them up close. Writers took extra care, making sure that Marc’s past, while shady, does remain redeemable. And it’s redemption he’s looking for.  

The road to redemption

Throughout this run, Moon Knight redefines his understanding of Khonshu and what the Moon God even wants from him. Of course, without Khonshu there to actually answer Marc’s questions, he has to assume, and that leads to several (short but meaningful) eras in his career. An encounter with Scarlet makes a lasting impression on Marc. That same lady of Vengeance from the first run reacheы out to Moon Knight, begging him to save her. All of that is draped in a shroud of mystery, hinting at a mystical link between the two. Like any controversial figure, Scarlet attempts to kill Marc but ultimately either drowns or convincingly fakes her own death. 

That’s enough to reawaken Marc’s guilt, so he decides that he needs to help the baddies find Khonshu (and their own conscience). Needless to say, they aren’t very cooperative. 

For a while, Moon Knight struggles to force his villains to repent, and neither Frenchie nor Marlene is happy about that. So… you guessed it, Marc goes back to his old ways. It’s the status quo, after all. 

Sidekick is the worst job ever 

For some time, Marc shares his adventures with a faithful sidekick. Because what superhero doesn’t? It’s not just any old boy from the streets, it’s the son of Midnight – one of Moon Knight’s greatest foes you can barely recall from the first run. Jeff (the kid’s name) is eager not to become like his father and to bring justice to the streets of New York. Marc… well, he can’t wait to get rid of the kid. And that he does — Midnight gets captured by Secret Empire (a whole cabal of baddies) and turned into a weapon. In other words, the destiny that befell so many sidekicks before Jeff. 

Naturally, Midnight comes back to bite Moon Knight in the ass, but it’s not like he has any lasting effect on Marc. He has to move on, after all. Especially considering that by the end of the run, he’s dealing with Templars and Infinity Watch, while his bff becomes the Bloodline (don’t ask). 

What’s that all about? 

Really, this run is an experiment. It takes away everything unique about Moon Knight and tries really hard to fit him into one of the more familiar boxes. He’s almost Daredevil, almost Spider-Man, very much Batman, and almost (but not really) Punisher. By the end of the run he has a whole Shadow Cabinet working for him. A bunch of sources (to replace Jake’s diner friends), a psychologist, a cop, a mafia boss, and so on. That whole thing… it doesn’t really work. With all the experimenting, writers seem to have forgotten what makes Moon Knight interesting — his fluid identity (his DID is still not a thing at that time), his balance between mystical and mundane, and his irredeemable past. This run takes everything from him, leaving a few solid stories but no actual staying power. 

P.S. This run stripped Marc of nearly everything and everyone he knew (Steven, Jake, Crawley, and Gena in particular), leaving him with Frenchie and Marlene only. But the following 1998 mini-series by Doug Moench brings them all back, restoring Moon Knight to what he was when we first met him. 

[co-mixed]

Why I Don't Hate Ultimate Reed

Now, here’s a question for you. You’d think, with all the hate I have for 616 Reed, I’m destined to despise his Ultimate counterpart. And I’ll admit right away, he’s awful.

After having read Ultimate Fantastic Four, all the way to his downfall (but not further, not yet), I certainly have some thoughts on this incarnation of Reed Richards. But hate him? I really don’t. 

Let me explain in a long way full of side thoughts. 

An unwanted child 

They make it a point in the very beginning to show us that Reed’s childhood was no walk in the park. Instead of nurturing his natural gifts, his father constantly yelled at him for disassembling house appliances, his mother didn’t bother to stand up for her kid, and he got relentlessly bullied at school. The only friend he ever had was Ben, and he was pretty much the only one who cared enough to defend him. This could’ve gone one of two ways: he could’ve become someone who never wanted anyone else to go through the same thing, or he could’ve sworn revenge on everyone who’s wronged him. 

Reed turned out as a little bit of both. 

A star pupil 

When Reed got to the Baxter Building, his skills were praised and his achievements celebrated. It seemed kind of like what was happening to his 616 version; he even got the girl who, in this iteration, was a gifted scientist. Reed still got into trouble, but now, he had a trusty BFF, a girlfriend, and her tag-along brother, who, what do you know, was still good-for-nothing. If there’s a multiversal constant, it’s that Johnny Storm is a screwup. 

But this ain’t about Johnny. It is, however, about Sue. I have already heard more than once that Sue leaving Reed was what kicked him over to the villain side. 

But let’s not do that. Let’s not blame her for making a healthy choice for herself.

Reed was treated as a young superstar and, for the most part, his projects were not questioned simply because no one could understand what they were about. And well, if there was a military application to his discoveries… You know what’s what. 

The team had many adventures, but what they called adventures, more often than not it was a global disaster and somehow always a direct result of Reed’s misguided research. On paper, he blamed himself for each and every one of them. But accepting the responsibility and avoiding making the same mistake again are not the same. 

If anything, I would assume that every time he got blamed, he took it as simpletons yet again not being enlightened enough to understand his greeted purpose. That’s why he ended up dreaming of a different world, where his genius would be celebrated. 

A smart friend 

Many fans try to pinpoint the moment Reed turned evil. But how do you do that? It was never Sue’s fault (no freaking way in hell) by the time they met, he already had enough anger inside to use all of his inventions for the worst. As if all that hate he received throughout his childhood festered inside of him for a good decade. It was never resolved, and no one even tried to. The only time a therapist even crossed the threshold of the Baxter Building, it was a very evil version of Agatha Harkness who wasn’t even a witch but an entity hatched from an alien egg. And even she was more interested in Johnny. With his obsession with science and research, Reed naturally didn’t reflect on his own issues. And having a relatively strong support system helped keep him afloat for a while. But not for long.

An obsessed scientist

Now, people do love to blame Thanos for Reed’s asshole behavior when he got hold of the cosmic cube. But again, let’s not. He himself chose to tinker with the cube, it turned out he was always the reason for the cube’s existence. So all in all, Reed totally brought it on himself. And hey, that IS why Sue wanted time off from him. Believe it or not, Namor’s green underwear had nothing to do with that. 

Reed’s guilt over having created Doom didn’t really help. No, it only pushed him further into his research and led him to discover alternative dimensions in which Doom was always an evil tyrant. Now it could be one of two things. We do know that Dooms travel the multiverse and such, helping other Dooms ascend to Doomhood, but also, would Reed ever admit that there is a Doom somewhere whose sole purpose in life is to spread love, support, and understanding? Anyway, Dooms are responsible for Dooms, and Richards couldn’t have been more self-absorbed at that moment. 

An inevitable villain 

Now, to the main course. I stated this in the beginning, and I’m standing by my own words. I don’t hate Ultimate Reed. I don’t, because he is the only logical solution to Reed Richards. He is Reed left on his own, he is the Reed that Reed tries to suppress. The true Reed, if you may. 

That is his character growth, that is his natural path, if you consider how he approached every conflict ever, if you consider how heartless he is, and what ripples his actions send across the world. That is why Reed fears The Maker, and that is why The Maker hates Reed. 

The biggest difference between Reed-616 and Reed-1610 isn’t that one has completely stepped over the line and the other hasn’t (yet). It’s that the same actions are viewed as heroic and concerning. Of course, it all becomes a warning sign only after. In the words of Carol Danvers, the world’s been attacked by a pubescent gnome, and no one saw it coming. Except they should have.

Either way, it’s the fact that we accept one as evil while another one is slowly getting his public image reinvented, as if we’re supposed to just gloss over his history. 

Ultimate Reed is horrifying, just like 616 Reed should be. 

[co-mixed]

Who will rid us of Moon Knight? 

It’s the 1980s and Moon Knight is just a one-time adversary-turned-ally in a Werewolf by Night comic book. He got some solo stories but he’s still mostly a question Marc (oh yes, I did). So what could go right if he got a solo book? 

Moon Knight was introduced as a mysterious mercenary hired by a group of rich baddies to capture Jack Russel (the title Werewolf). They gave him the signature costume and insisted that he call himself Moon Knight — something that Marc himself didn’t quite appreciate. But this origin didn’t stick around for too long and when the time had come for Moon Knight to swing into the pages of his own title, his story changed as well. The retcon even tried to honor that early story, turning the whole thing into Moon Knight’s operation. Instead of a sudden change of heart, he now died and came back to life with the help of a certain deity. Back then, Khonshu was a silent statue that may or may not have had any extra powers. But it was enough to birth Marc’s identity crisis that later was turned into DID. 

The new look

So Marc is gliding through the streets of New York, looking for trouble. Despite the city being infested with superheroes of all kinds, trouble he still finds.

When he gives up his merc ways, he adopts the persona of a rich boy Steven Grant who occasionally drives around in a cab and calls himself Jake Lockley. 

There is a strong early Batman vibe during these years, only Marc is struggling with more identities. His main one is Steven but he is way more comfortable with Jake. That’s not something he admits, it’s taken out of the creator’s notes. And a part of why he refuses to confront or even consider that fact is Marlene. 

Marlene is Steven’s girlfriend, and when I say Steven’s I mean just his. Jake calls her “lady”, and with Marc, it’s even more complicated. He was one of the mercenaries who killed her father, he was also the one who saved her from the same fate and we never learn how, but they do end up together. Marlene is the 1980s version of a badass – she fights, she’s not helpless, and while she does occasionally try on the flowery hat of a damsel in distress, that doesn’t happen often. 

In the beginning, she mostly waits for him by the bathtub (and I’m not joking, Steven has a bath in his bedroom and that bath serves as a secret entrance for Moon Knight). As the story progresses, though, we learn more about her but we’ll get to that. 

We mostly don’t interact with Marc - he is the one side MK is running away from and considers to be dead. Truth is, he replaced Marc with both Jake and Moon Knight. One satisfies the thirst for violence and the other is a simple down-to-earth guy, just like Marc was. Marc himself, he died in that tomb next to the statue of Khonshu. 

Marc’s lifestyle is what’s put a rift between him and his family, it got pretty bad too but what I like is that he doesn’t get that beautiful reunion. He doesn’t get anything — he can’t make peace with his brother or his father. Marc has to live with his mistakes lingering around him and that’s another reason he’s so eager to become someone else. If it was up to Marlene, he’d stay as Steven and give up Moon Knight. But we know better, he can’t do that (the Moon will haunt him). The only part of Marc MK is not getting rid of is ironically the baddies from his past.

Backup dancers 

Moon Knight is trying to help everyone else and fails quite often at that. I think that’s what I like about him. He can compromise, he operates in the grey area where he can let a murderer go if the murder is justified. His justice is never black-and-white. Like the Moon, it has spots. 

But he has a backup team to keep him balanced. To help all three personas survive and function. 

Marc has his old friend Frenchie. Frenchie hangs around the helicopter waiting to pick up MK from wherever and the only thing we really know about him is that he had the love of his life and he lost her. 

Steven has Marlene.

But Jake is the most outgoing of all. He hangs out at Gena’s diner, where he orders food and never eats it. He comes to Crawley (a street dweller) for information, and he even knows a cop (although that’s Moon Knight). 

It’s a big cast of characters and all of them get their own moments in the center of the story. Those moments though, are often tragic.  

Crosses 

While other comics of the time are careful with death, this one never shies away from it. Almost every character has a loss to face and each story is quite brutal. Redemption is never a given, certainly not for everyone, and that’s the leitmotif of the whole run. The good fight never truly stops not for Moon Knight, not for anyone. There probably isn’t enough good for Marc to do to erase his past. 

MK’s early stories have a similar vibe to Ann Nocenti’s Daredevil run. It’s always something socially relevant, from nazi sympathizers to crime on the streets as a result of poor economy. Moon Knight is a hero of the people, and his baddies are either unfriendly neighborhood criminals or some overseas crime lords. 

As the run finds its rhythm though, the genre changes. It now borders on mysticism and touches upon horror without crossing the lines of realism. It maintains this grounded approach, the possibility that it all could actually happen. In the world of Khonshu, Moon Knight is still very skeptical when it comes to magic, so his team-up with Strange feels like a door to the bigger universe of superheroes, not just street vigilantes. 

Brushes

There is no talking about Moon Knight without his significant look. For half of the run Bill Sienkiewicz serves as the lead artist, and that’s reason no.1 why this run is a must-read. If nothing else (and there is definitely something else), then check it for the stunning art. You can see how with every issue the visual style matures and changes, finding the perfect tone and balancing between impressionism and pop art. There is magic in these panels, and it makes more sense to see them than to talk about them. 

Stunning covers are present too. 

Early Moon Knight is not Moon Knight as we know him today. It’s a different book and it’s a product of the 80’s. It’s a special vibe and something you have to be ready to submerge into. If you are, you’re gonna have a hell of a great time. 

[co-mixed]

Why I hate Reed 

Fantastic Four has a long history of disaster after disaster. Most of the disasters in question were caused by Reed. Bet you didn’t expect me to jump right into it. 

Okay, fine, let’s do an introduction first.

Fantastic Four has been a Reed-centric story since the day he broke ground on Marvel-1 (known at the time as just a rocket) and took his bff, girlfriend, and her tag-along brother on a ride, to the day his arch-enemy took over the world (that was last week). It’s all about Reed and everyone else just happened to get stuck with him. 

I hate Reed. Maybe not as much as Doom does, but it’s close. 

I have my reasons.

If you know Reed well, chances are, you also hate him. If you don’t know him, you’re lucky. If you don’t hate him… keep reading. 

Reed has always been always the intended protagonist of the Fantastic Four. They might have called it a family book but really, you tuned in every month to find out who is bugging Reed and whether he manages to fix everything this time. That’s who he is, he fixes everything. Mostly through the power of science, occasionally by stretching in the most ridiculous way. 

Reed is recognized by CB writers as a hero, not just a hero in a cape and mask sense (he doesn’t even wear those) but the cool-headed, smart guy, the focal point of the team and the narrative. You are supposed to see yourself in him and imitate his approach. 

Everybody cares about him, everybody talks about him, and in those rare moments when he’s presumed dead, everybody mourns him. 

But Reed just isn’t a good person. There are things about him that don’t just fail to align with heroism, they’re plain vile.

He’s a liar

Reed is a liar. It’s not just that he omits relevant details like, say, forgetting to inform the whole team that they are slowly dying, or warning them that he’s keeping a dangerous gate in the basement. This is absolutely a pattern with Reed and instead of getting mad at him, people just accept it as a part of his character. Even if they do get pissed off, they eventually forgive him. Then all of that repeats. To be fair, I probably should be more mad at the dysfunctional family that enables his behavior. 

But it’s still him. The logical path he loves so much to take inevitably leads him to the conclusion that it’s time for yet another lie. He’s not above covering one lie with another, and it comes off almost childish (not in the adorable sense). What I mean is, he is afraid of being judged because he knows what he’s doing is wrong but he simultaneously believes that he is right because he knows better. Again, this comes down to him claiming to be the smartest man on Earth. Which is ridiculous. The smartest man in physics is still the stupidest when it comes to art or magic. And he admits both things himself yet refuses to accept the fact that he knows almost nothing. 

Besides, both his daughter and Lunella are easily smarter than he is. 

He’s a hypocrite 

Reed is a terrible hypocrite. We don’t talk about that often, because the stories that allow you to notice that lie far apart. During the Civil War, he was all happy to serve the government. It is a big part of his life, he’s always been ‘public’ and ‘legitimate’. In the eyes of the law anyway. So when the question of whether or not to register appeared, he made a call for everyone. Happily so, and he went along with punishing everyone who opposed it. Except for his family, of course. It smells awfully similar to the way dictators operate so I guess we should be thankful Reed doesn’t have those ambitions. 

But when the tables turn and Reed has to answer for all he’s done, he believes that he is judged harshly. Of course, it turns out to be a villain’s plot but he never really stops to think how his actions were questionable at best. And he isn’t prepared to take responsibility the same way he expected others to. He thinks it’s unfair. 

He’s a garbage person 

Essentially, the problem is Reed not knowing when to stop. Reed is stubborn, we already know that. He is convinced that he knows what is best for everyone. He believes that his view of the world and how things should be is the correct one. The mathematically correct one, I mean, he did write all those equations on all those walls. This is what eventually led to the Civil War, and this is what eventually led to the Secret Wars. The two most notable events on 616. Reed’s math allegedly allowed him to predict the future, and in that future, he saw Doom. JK but he did see that superheroes will destroy the world if they keep on unchecked. And he did see the possibility of incursions. So he built 42 and threw his friends there. He experimented on Speedball to the point of torture because the government said it was ok. He got together with the Illuminati pre-Secret Wars convinced that they could definitely stop the incursions and they failed. They would’ve gotten everyone killed and, big shocker, the only ones he ended up saving were himself and his family (although Justice finally said “Hell no!’ and his family perished.)

But Reed sure knew what was right.

With that same attitude of knowing what’s best, he stomps around Latveria, trying to liberate it. He returns there every time and every time acts surprised when he discovers that Latverian people don’t want his liberty. They don’t want him, they like Doom. 

I feel like deep down Reed believes that his unique intellect allows him to see things more clearly than any of us mortals. And because of that, everyone should sleep well, putting their trust in him. Whether he invents another doomsday device (and promises not to use it), keeps Ultimate Nullifier in his nightstand, or stores a gate to anywhere in his basement. Everyone is supposed to trust him until turns out that his 3-year-old accidentally opened it. That’s happened a few times and if anything, we should know by now that Reed is anything but trustworthy. 

He never stops to think “Should I?” Because the answer is pretty much always “No.”

He’s an awful husband 

Back in the day, Sue often ended up on the other side of Reed’s outbursts. His smug attitude toward her was always uncomfortable, to say the least. He diminished her and everything she did because he deemed it irrelevant. It barely changed until the writers elevated her almost to his level by making her a doctor of Archaeology. While I appreciate them giving her some interests other than making sandwiches for everyone who resides in the BB, does it mean that they agree with Reed? That everything she did, whether she wanted to be an actress, ran their company, charities, or simply stayed at home with the kids, is not good enough? It makes sense in terms of their shared interests, but the only thing it gives me is doubts about him even loving Sue. Unfortunately, it seems like he sees her as a trophy wife he never could’ve gotten. When he talks about Sue, he often says that he studied her, like she’s an object that fascinates him. This kind of explains why he can’t relate to her, refuses to trust her, and doesn’t always care how his actions would affect her. 

When Sue was Malice, everything she told him was pretty genuine. There is a trope where heroes say the worst things under the influence, yet these things are rooted in reality. And that’s what happened here. 

There was another piece of truth Reed got when Johnny had a fight with Sue (about keeping from him the fact that the whole team’s powers were deteriorating, and their bodies too), he told her “You’re treating me like he treats you!” Reed didn’t react and that was never addressed again. Too bad, we all know that’s true. Reed has no respect for Sue. Even Reed knows that, I just don’t think he gets it. 

Let’s not forget that Sue served him divorce papers. What a time that was.

He’s a terrible father 

He starts out as an oblivious parent who doesn’t really care. As long as the kid can’t speak it’s not his problem, right? Hence multiple babysitters and Franklin spending half of his childhood with Agatha,  in Attilan, and at Alicia’s place. Franklin is a creator, not a scientific one either and that’s something Reed can’t understand. That’s why he’s been having a hard time even connecting to his son. Okay, he might not be the easiest kid to connect to but with the constant neglect he’s experienced, no wonder he feels like a disappointment to everyone. 

Val has a good father, Doom. He’s actually more of a parent to her than Reed, even if she’s the child Reed actually likes. Unless that’s just him being possessive. Just like with Sue (whenever she had her Namor eras) Reed is jealous of Val’s bond with Doom and as soon as he feels like he’s losing her, he gets mildly irritated. That’s exactly it, he’s not even properly furious – he just gets upset and focuses on work. 

Even all the family adventures they went on, or that time after Secret Wars when Reed decided that Ben and Johnny should believe their family is dead (including the kids), couldn’t make up for that. After all, Reed probably spent more time in his mobile lab than with kids. And when he got bored he happily ditched everyone except Frank and Val. So much for calling them all “their kids”. They are better off anyway because Reed doesn’t consider their feelings. At least he treats them like adults, since he doesn’t consider them either. 

He’s unkind and a trash friend

There is no genuine kindness in Reed. It’s almost like he pretends to be a loving husband, parent, and friend. 

Reed has no respect for his family or friends. If he had, he would’ve considered them whenever he made a decision. Again, it comes back to him believing he can’t make a mistake (check how long he’d been agonizing over the first space mission). Yet the vast majority of Reed’s actions vary from mean to straight-up creepy. 

Even the seemingly selfless gesture of turning his team into celebrities was his pathetic plea out of guilt. He never asked any of them whether they even wanted to be famous or heroes. He felt guilty (that’s something, I guess) for turning Ben into The Thing, and complicating things for Sue and Johnny (although, they probably would’ve been fine). 

But that’s a pattern that follows Reed everywhere and everybody ends up getting hurt.

Despite claiming to love his wife and kids, care about his friend, and tolerate Johnny, he is unkind to them. He views and moves them as pawns to where he wants them to be, all the while faking the perfect family man and good friend facade. And that’s the new Reed, the old one barely pretended. 

Let’s face it, Reed and Ben don’t have much in common except the collective trauma of getting powers and fighting Doom. The funny part is, Reed wants to be friends with Doom but Doom sees through his BS (okay, I might be giving props to the dictator here but ain’t he right?)

He’s way too full of himself

The self-proclaimed smartest man on Earth, Reed lives in the world of science. He is obsessed with math and he believes that math will solve everything. Spoiler: it won’t. He knows that, too. When Doom kidnaps his family and locks baby Franklin in Hell, Reed wastes so much time arguing with Strange over his aptitude for magic, that the kid ends up traumatized. For a while Franklin couldn’t tell the difference between Hell and Reality, all because his father couldn’t accept that he doesn’t know everything. 

This is absolutely a pattern with Reed — he doesn’t believe in ghosts, vampires, probably even werewolves. Meanwhile, he knows actual gods and had a witch for a nanny. If anything, this is a sign of stubbornness and that’s one of the worst barriers for wisdom. So good at math he might be, a genius — I don’t think so. That’s not all there is to it, because there are absolutely people smarter than Reed with a more flexible mind. I have to give points to him for recognizing that eventually and forming Future Foundation but he still has ways to go. So far, math has been a source of trouble more often than not. His inventions and his equations that predict the end of everything force him to take the most ridiculous approach in trying to solve problems before they arrive. And if that’s how we see Reed, imagine how irritating it is to Doom. 

And while we’re at it, they might have changed the origin so that Reed’s original calculations weren’t incorrect but that was wrong. The poetic justice of math, the only thing he truly trusted, betraying him, that was beautiful. If only Reed could understand art. 

He’s dull 

Let’s face it, they can rewrite Reed’s history, they can try to make him fun, they can even hire a really good actor to play him, but Reed is incredibly dull. He’s boring and even his family doesn’t pretend he isn’t. He is not charming, has zero charisma, not funny, and really he’s extremely lucky he managed to get Sue to marry him (because with his other bad qualities and lack of charm idk what that was, unfortunate chemistry?) He’s even more lucky Ben was out of other options friend-wise, and Johnny was just around. Otherwise, Reed would’ve died alone which is frankly, what he very much deserves. 

That’s not even half of his misdeeds, just the ones that were on the top of my mind. But trust me, if you spend almost a year reading about this guy, you will likely hate him just as much. 

[cryptttid]

It’s the way all of these claims can be disproven within Fantatsic four comics 😭. Like if you have an ounce of media literacy and have actually genuinely read the comics which you are pulling from you can easily disprove all of this. Ofc you can hate reed idc who you like or hate that’s your choice and opinion but when you make false claims idk it’s just stupid. Like bringing up the mark Waid thing with Franklin being in hell and how he didn’t “try at all and he was too busy arguing with strange he couldn’t admit he wasn’t smart enough” or something like that he actually does like on panel he does. Reed says “Franklin I’m sorry I’m not smart enough” he admits he’s not smart enough to understand magic and he’s upset cause he can’t save his son in that moment until Reed finds some way to understand it and save Franklin.

Here’s the panel in question that’s just one example the guy pulled where you can disprove of if you take the time to actually read the whole run and issue.

Reed is one of my favorite characters of all times and I love his character if you don’t and can’t vibe with him that’s fine we have different taste. But yall pls stop making shit up or having blatantly false takes cause you hate a character 😭

I will legit make a whole blog about how Reed does genuinely love his whole family and what he does is out of guilt for his mistakes that he is driven to move forward with his family out of love that’s what Reed and the whole Fantatsic four are about.

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The title is literally “Why I hate Reed”. Talk about media literacy…

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Why I hate Reed 

Fantastic Four has a long history of disaster after disaster. Most of the disasters in question were caused by Reed. Bet you didn’t expect me to jump right into it. 

Okay, fine, let’s do an introduction first.

Fantastic Four has been a Reed-centric story since the day he broke ground on Marvel-1 (known at the time as just a rocket) and took his bff, girlfriend, and her tag-along brother on a ride, to the day his arch-enemy took over the world (that was last week). It’s all about Reed and everyone else just happened to get stuck with him. 

I hate Reed. Maybe not as much as Doom does, but it’s close. 

I have my reasons.

If you know Reed well, chances are, you also hate him. If you don’t know him, you’re lucky. If you don’t hate him… keep reading. 

Reed has always been always the intended protagonist of the Fantastic Four. They might have called it a family book but really, you tuned in every month to find out who is bugging Reed and whether he manages to fix everything this time. That’s who he is, he fixes everything. Mostly through the power of science, occasionally by stretching in the most ridiculous way. 

Reed is recognized by CB writers as a hero, not just a hero in a cape and mask sense (he doesn’t even wear those) but the cool-headed, smart guy, the focal point of the team and the narrative. You are supposed to see yourself in him and imitate his approach. 

Everybody cares about him, everybody talks about him, and in those rare moments when he’s presumed dead, everybody mourns him. 

But Reed just isn’t a good person. There are things about him that don’t just fail to align with heroism, they’re plain vile.

He’s a liar

Reed is a liar. It’s not just that he omits relevant details like, say, forgetting to inform the whole team that they are slowly dying, or warning them that he’s keeping a dangerous gate in the basement. This is absolutely a pattern with Reed and instead of getting mad at him, people just accept it as a part of his character. Even if they do get pissed off, they eventually forgive him. Then all of that repeats. To be fair, I probably should be more mad at the dysfunctional family that enables his behavior. 

But it’s still him. The logical path he loves so much to take inevitably leads him to the conclusion that it’s time for yet another lie. He’s not above covering one lie with another, and it comes off almost childish (not in the adorable sense). What I mean is, he is afraid of being judged because he knows what he’s doing is wrong but he simultaneously believes that he is right because he knows better. Again, this comes down to him claiming to be the smartest man on Earth. Which is ridiculous. The smartest man in physics is still the stupidest when it comes to art or magic. And he admits both things himself yet refuses to accept the fact that he knows almost nothing. 

Besides, both his daughter and Lunella are easily smarter than he is. 

He’s a hypocrite 

Reed is a terrible hypocrite. We don’t talk about that often, because the stories that allow you to notice that lie far apart. During the Civil War, he was all happy to serve the government. It is a big part of his life, he’s always been ‘public’ and ‘legitimate’. In the eyes of the law anyway. So when the question of whether or not to register appeared, he made a call for everyone. Happily so, and he went along with punishing everyone who opposed it. Except for his family, of course. It smells awfully similar to the way dictators operate so I guess we should be thankful Reed doesn’t have those ambitions. 

But when the tables turn and Reed has to answer for all he’s done, he believes that he is judged harshly. Of course, it turns out to be a villain’s plot but he never really stops to think how his actions were questionable at best. And he isn’t prepared to take responsibility the same way he expected others to. He thinks it’s unfair. 

He’s a garbage person 

Essentially, the problem is Reed not knowing when to stop. Reed is stubborn, we already know that. He is convinced that he knows what is best for everyone. He believes that his view of the world and how things should be is the correct one. The mathematically correct one, I mean, he did write all those equations on all those walls. This is what eventually led to the Civil War, and this is what eventually led to the Secret Wars. The two most notable events on 616. Reed’s math allegedly allowed him to predict the future, and in that future, he saw Doom. JK but he did see that superheroes will destroy the world if they keep on unchecked. And he did see the possibility of incursions. So he built 42 and threw his friends there. He experimented on Speedball to the point of torture because the government said it was ok. He got together with the Illuminati pre-Secret Wars convinced that they could definitely stop the incursions and they failed. They would’ve gotten everyone killed and, big shocker, the only ones he ended up saving were himself and his family (although Justice finally said “Hell no!’ and his family perished.)

But Reed sure knew what was right.

With that same attitude of knowing what’s best, he stomps around Latveria, trying to liberate it. He returns there every time and every time acts surprised when he discovers that Latverian people don’t want his liberty. They don’t want him, they like Doom. 

I feel like deep down Reed believes that his unique intellect allows him to see things more clearly than any of us mortals. And because of that, everyone should sleep well, putting their trust in him. Whether he invents another doomsday device (and promises not to use it), keeps Ultimate Nullifier in his nightstand, or stores a gate to anywhere in his basement. Everyone is supposed to trust him until turns out that his 3-year-old accidentally opened it. That’s happened a few times and if anything, we should know by now that Reed is anything but trustworthy. 

He never stops to think “Should I?” Because the answer is pretty much always “No.”

He’s an awful husband 

Back in the day, Sue often ended up on the other side of Reed’s outbursts. His smug attitude toward her was always uncomfortable, to say the least. He diminished her and everything she did because he deemed it irrelevant. It barely changed until the writers elevated her almost to his level by making her a doctor of Archaeology. While I appreciate them giving her some interests other than making sandwiches for everyone who resides in the BB, does it mean that they agree with Reed? That everything she did, whether she wanted to be an actress, ran their company, charities, or simply stayed at home with the kids, is not good enough? It makes sense in terms of their shared interests, but the only thing it gives me is doubts about him even loving Sue. Unfortunately, it seems like he sees her as a trophy wife he never could’ve gotten. When he talks about Sue, he often says that he studied her, like she’s an object that fascinates him. This kind of explains why he can’t relate to her, refuses to trust her, and doesn’t always care how his actions would affect her. 

When Sue was Malice, everything she told him was pretty genuine. There is a trope where heroes say the worst things under the influence, yet these things are rooted in reality. And that’s what happened here. 

There was another piece of truth Reed got when Johnny had a fight with Sue (about keeping from him the fact that the whole team’s powers were deteriorating, and their bodies too), he told her “You’re treating me like he treats you!” Reed didn’t react and that was never addressed again. Too bad, we all know that’s true. Reed has no respect for Sue. Even Reed knows that, I just don’t think he gets it. 

Let’s not forget that Sue served him divorce papers. What a time that was.

He’s a terrible father 

He starts out as an oblivious parent who doesn’t really care. As long as the kid can’t speak it’s not his problem, right? Hence multiple babysitters and Franklin spending half of his childhood with Agatha,  in Attilan, and at Alicia’s place. Franklin is a creator, not a scientific one either and that’s something Reed can’t understand. That’s why he’s been having a hard time even connecting to his son. Okay, he might not be the easiest kid to connect to but with the constant neglect he’s experienced, no wonder he feels like a disappointment to everyone. 

Val has a good father, Doom. He’s actually more of a parent to her than Reed, even if she’s the child Reed actually likes. Unless that’s just him being possessive. Just like with Sue (whenever she had her Namor eras) Reed is jealous of Val’s bond with Doom and as soon as he feels like he’s losing her, he gets mildly irritated. That’s exactly it, he’s not even properly furious – he just gets upset and focuses on work. 

Even all the family adventures they went on, or that time after Secret Wars when Reed decided that Ben and Johnny should believe their family is dead (including the kids), couldn’t make up for that. After all, Reed probably spent more time in his mobile lab than with kids. And when he got bored he happily ditched everyone except Frank and Val. So much for calling them all “their kids”. They are better off anyway because Reed doesn’t consider their feelings. At least he treats them like adults, since he doesn’t consider them either. 

He’s unkind and a trash friend

There is no genuine kindness in Reed. It’s almost like he pretends to be a loving husband, parent, and friend. 

Reed has no respect for his family or friends. If he had, he would’ve considered them whenever he made a decision. Again, it comes back to him believing he can’t make a mistake (check how long he’d been agonizing over the first space mission). Yet the vast majority of Reed’s actions vary from mean to straight-up creepy. 

Even the seemingly selfless gesture of turning his team into celebrities was his pathetic plea out of guilt. He never asked any of them whether they even wanted to be famous or heroes. He felt guilty (that’s something, I guess) for turning Ben into The Thing, and complicating things for Sue and Johnny (although, they probably would’ve been fine). 

But that’s a pattern that follows Reed everywhere and everybody ends up getting hurt.

Despite claiming to love his wife and kids, care about his friend, and tolerate Johnny, he is unkind to them. He views and moves them as pawns to where he wants them to be, all the while faking the perfect family man and good friend facade. And that’s the new Reed, the old one barely pretended. 

Let’s face it, Reed and Ben don’t have much in common except the collective trauma of getting powers and fighting Doom. The funny part is, Reed wants to be friends with Doom but Doom sees through his BS (okay, I might be giving props to the dictator here but ain’t he right?)

He’s way too full of himself

The self-proclaimed smartest man on Earth, Reed lives in the world of science. He is obsessed with math and he believes that math will solve everything. Spoiler: it won’t. He knows that, too. When Doom kidnaps his family and locks baby Franklin in Hell, Reed wastes so much time arguing with Strange over his aptitude for magic, that the kid ends up traumatized. For a while Franklin couldn’t tell the difference between Hell and Reality, all because his father couldn’t accept that he doesn’t know everything. 

This is absolutely a pattern with Reed — he doesn’t believe in ghosts, vampires, probably even werewolves. Meanwhile, he knows actual gods and had a witch for a nanny. If anything, this is a sign of stubbornness and that’s one of the worst barriers for wisdom. So good at math he might be, a genius — I don’t think so. That’s not all there is to it, because there are absolutely people smarter than Reed with a more flexible mind. I have to give points to him for recognizing that eventually and forming Future Foundation but he still has ways to go. So far, math has been a source of trouble more often than not. His inventions and his equations that predict the end of everything force him to take the most ridiculous approach in trying to solve problems before they arrive. And if that’s how we see Reed, imagine how irritating it is to Doom. 

And while we’re at it, they might have changed the origin so that Reed’s original calculations weren’t incorrect but that was wrong. The poetic justice of math, the only thing he truly trusted, betraying him, that was beautiful. If only Reed could understand art. 

He’s dull 

Let’s face it, they can rewrite Reed’s history, they can try to make him fun, they can even hire a really good actor to play him, but Reed is incredibly dull. He’s boring and even his family doesn’t pretend he isn’t. He is not charming, has zero charisma, not funny, and really he’s extremely lucky he managed to get Sue to marry him (because with his other bad qualities and lack of charm idk what that was, unfortunate chemistry?) He’s even more lucky Ben was out of other options friend-wise, and Johnny was just around. Otherwise, Reed would’ve died alone which is frankly, what he very much deserves. 

That’s not even half of his misdeeds, just the ones that were on the top of my mind. But trust me, if you spend almost a year reading about this guy, you will likely hate him just as much. 

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Fantastic Drama. 

I know I say it every time, but Dan Slott’s Fantastic Four is my favorite run by far. Apparently, it’s not the most popular one, and yeah, I get why. It crosses paths with several events (Empyre, King in Black, and so on) and that tends to mess with the natural flow of the story. But I’m continuously impressed by the way this book keeps building personal stories within those events. It never forgets what it truly is about. And then, every single relationship is tested. 

Every character gets a story, and no one is sidelined. That’s probably a first for the Fantastic Four, too, because someone always gets left out. 

Wedding bells 

It’s funny but the Fantastic Four starts bringing the actual family feel only when Ben and Alicia get married. We have all been following that relationship (I can’t bring myself to call it rocky), for in-universe decades and it’s always been a ridiculous roller-coaster where everyone knew the endgame, and everything still kept falling apart. After Johnny married Alicia (who turned out to be a Skrull, and yeah, it’s still weird) and Ben almost married whatsherface (I’m not joking, we never saw her again) it was starting to look unlikely that Ben and Alicia could ever tie the knot. But she remained a family friend and a trusted babysitter. 

So we gotta give Dan Slott all the props for making this happen because the perfect family (more or less) in the Fantastic Four has never been Sue and Reed and their kids. It’s Ben, Alicia, Jo, and Nicki. It takes them one run to show up their friends, with Alicia teaching her kids (and the Richards’ evil offspring) art, with Ben denying decosmicrayifying because he was teaching his kid that it’s good to be different. And because they actually get each other. There are slip-ups, of course, because Alicia plays around with that radioactive clay (which is hello, radioactive!) and even attempts to manipulate her son, but she doesn’t do it. And of course, it doesn’t help that Jo kills Profiteer's henchman but these are all solvable issues. 

And you know, this family didn’t have a storybook start. On the contrary, and we’re reminded of that in the wedding special. Ben was still recovering from becoming The Thing when they met, and he was that tantrum-throwing, childlike man. But Sue meddled, and she didn’t let him give up on that or take the choice away from Alicia. Which he’d done later anyway, but the good news is it all worked out in the end. 

Their wedding is all kinds of emotional and take it from someone who isn’t a Ben Grimm fan, it was a very happy moment in Marvel history. And it’s incredibly touching. 

Alicia’s a great parent right off the bat, even though she’s new to it. But what I love is that she gets a way more prominent role as a part of the family. 

The bell tolls 

It’s been a while since writers could find something meaningful and emotionally impactful for Johnny to go through. 60 years and all he ever managed to become was unreliable. There was a brief moment when it felt like he could change (after he returned from the Negative Zone) but that didn’t stick. He’s like an eternal teenager who fails to find his place in the world and that’s because he isn’t even trying to do that. He talks about growing up at every big family event, but he never actually makes any steps toward maturity. 

But then he meets his soulmate. And It feels a little rushed with a quick retcon. But it turns out to be a pretty great story. Johnny and Sky have this across-the-universe romance that should be a fairy tale by all means. 

But what do you do when you’re meant to be with someone you barely know? Johnny and Sky get to know each other, and it’s a much bigger deal for her than for him, too. It’s part of her belief system, her whole society on Spyre is matched up like that, with special bracelets that allow them to be completely in sync with their other half. Let me tell you this, no way Johnny is ready for that level of intimacy. He finds it uncomfortable and it doesn’t help that Sue is on his case (we’ll get to Sue, I got questions for her). But he treats it like another adventure. That’s all this relationship is to him. 

Of course, things get much, much worse when first, Lyja shows up and still wants Johnny (girl, go), and then he sleeps with Doom’s champion Victorious right before Doom proposes to her. 

Now, I gotta clarify things, of course: 

Lyja is taken care of by Alicia (who naturally despises the Skrull) and a blob of radioactive clay. 

Victorious has her own reasons and issues. But she’s an adult living woman who is not related to the Storms, so Johnny is into her by definition. 

Doom’s marriage is a political stunt. 

Sue doesn’t like Sky or Johnny and Sky together. 

All of that happens in a span of several days, and it’s more than enough BS for Sky to deal with. She’s having a hard time dealing with Johnny’s exes (the number of them, to be specific). That’s something her culture doesn’t really deal with. For her, each one of his former partners was at some point his soulmate. That means she already has trust issues.

But Johnny didn’t have to go and prove her right. 

He gets what’s been coming to him from Doom, he gets his powers amplified and can’t flame off. But because of those soulmate bands, that affects Sky as well and she turns into a very cool-looking (although, not from her perspective) bird lady. 

We know that Johnny’s immature but honestly, this level of conscious cruelty is too much even for him. And I say ‘conscious’ because he very well knew what he was doing. He isn’t 16 and he’s been through many relationships. He’d been deceived before, and he should’ve known better than to do that to someone else. I’m not sure if this is the worst thing he’s ever done but it’s certainly up there. Reed is trash but even he doesn’t do that. 

But the Stom-Richards part of the Fantastic Family… it’s like they’re all liars. 

Lies, Lies, Lies. 

Now there’re Reed and Sue. Instead of improving Reed, we now have a Sue who’s sneaking around on secret S.H.I.E.L.D. missions, turns invisible to spy on Johnny and Franklin, and meddles in Ben’s private life. 

What’s up with that, Sue? She’s obviously been hanging out with Reed way too much cause his nonsense totally rubbed off on her. 

She was right about Johnny, sure, but it’s still none of her business. He’s a grown-ass man. A stupid one, but an adult nonetheless. He has the right to make dumb decisions (and boy, does he abuse that right to death).

Still, with all that, I feel like we’re just getting to know Sue. We barely saw the sides of her that weren’t family-related. She’d been an ambassador to the Underwater kingdoms, and she ran the FF businesses (which, turns out, she’s still doing), she runs charities, too. But we rarely see any of that. We mostly encounter her in a battle, taking care of her kids, or dealing with whatever Reed’s putting her through. Oh, and she tried to be an actress, but who hasn’t? 

I came to the conclusion that that’s who she is. That’s all she is; she takes care of people and that is her whole personality. I tried to dig deeper but there might not be any deeper with her. She is who she is. 

More lies

I’m not even joking anymore when I say that every FF story starts with Reed lying. This man has done a lot of damage over the years, and at this point, no one should ever be surprised at his cruelty. This time, he fakes the deaths of himself, Sue, their children, and the whole Future Foundation. Forget what this did to both Ben and Johnny, but some of those FF kids actually do have sane families. But Reed doesn’t care, does he? 

It truly doesn’t seem like he feels any remorse. At all. Ever. And since the run is long, Reed gets so many more chances to lie, manipulate people around him, and pretend he had their best interests at heart all along. 

Why is he doing that? Who is he trying to protect? I don’t even know anymore, because all he brings people around him is hurt. And loads of it. 

Throughout this run, he:  

Endangers the people of Yancy Street by moving in and bringing his insane doomsday toys.

Ignores his best man responsibilities for something he could’ve delegated. 

Launches a rocket out of a residential area. 

Causes yet another destruction of the Baxter Building, almost getting the Fantastix (fresh new team) killed in the process. 

Causes a revolution on Spyre. 

“Forgets” to bring back the FF kids. 

With his stellar reputation, he almost hands Bentley back into Wizard’s custody. 

Promises to fix Johnny and finds a dozen reasons to not do it. 

Reed needs a serious empathy course. It’s not just Franklin who needs to be in therapy, it’s Reed. And, for the life of me, I can’t understand how people keep forgiving him. 

He’s the Xander of the Fantastic Four. 

Now I do have a theory of why he’s like that. And that’s sort of a trope that you recognize in Stark, occasionally Beast, and other mad scientists of Marvel. They are always dancing on the brink of villainy and, in Reed’s case, it’s his family that keeps him from completely destroying the world. It’s just a theory, though, because he might do that anyway. But if his family doesn’t harass him into fixing that, he might not even bother. 

How are the kids? 

The Richards kids are now teens. Because of course, time runs differently, timey-wimey, and boom, they aged up. Speaking of which, compared to so many cb kids, Franklin and Val are not only growing up, but it feels relatively natural when you binge-read through the 60 years of the FF history. That sliding timescale works, y’all. 

Franklin is a teen rebel: he dyes his hair black, freaks out because he’s not a mutant or powerful anymore, ends up in therapy. Which, actually, is a good thing. At least some of the family members might turn out fine. 

Val has an unfortunate crush on a pointy-eared monarch (ew, no, not the same one! Namor’s not Reed), outsmarts Reed at every turn, and forges a pretty good relationship with her cousins. 

Jo and Nicki are a whole other story. It’s very satisfying to see them both get over their trauma and experience love. When they call Ben and Alicia mom and dad, it’s impossible not to well up. It’s that love and wholesomeness that helps them and it’s beautiful. 

The kids, all four of them (Oh, I see where this is going!), really add to this run. They are growing up to be heroes like their parents (except you, Reed). And it feels like they could be better, stronger, more caring. The only problem is, I still want Val to be the villain eventually. I mean, wouldn’t that be just awesome? Unfortunately, it’s Bentley who’s on a slippery road. But we’ll see. We’ll see. 

Dan Slott brought the family aspect to the front. And many have said that it’s what the books are about, but it’s never been like this. This one has the true feel of a home, a messy but a loving one (well, except you, Reed).

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Secret Wars: Why Reed Didn’t Win

Disclaimer: This post is 100% anti-Reed propaganda and may or may not be sponsored by Latverian government.

Secret Wars is probably the most ambitious event in the Marvel Universe. Building the multiverse and the Ultimate for 15 years only to collapse it all, that’s a huge deal. And of course, Jonathan Hickman was there to see it through. With his tendency to rewrite the whole world order, we get a whole bucket of new mythology, and let me tell you, when it was first coming out, it wasn’t easy to keep all the new info in your head. Now though, that everything is released and cataloged, it’s just a matter of a free week. 

So we start...

We actually start with the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and New Avengers. Those are the three “homework” reads that you need to go through to fully dive into the Battleworld and its origin. New Avengers is the more important one here since it’s tied directly to the events of Secret Wars. And that’s really the one that I wanna focus on, cause… RICHARDS. 

This infuriating man is a part of the Illuminati (you’ve heard of them), and they reassemble in the face of a collision. Nay, multiple collisions with other worlds. As per habit, they choose to cover it all up and pretend that they know everything better than anyone else and get to make the calls. This was a collective work of Charles (with Beast taking over later), Strange, Stark, T’Challa, Namor, and Reed. Of course the whole ordeal stinks of Richards and Stark. It’s not the first rodeo for either and don’t for a second think that they act any differently than they have all the times before. 

The solution that this intellectual elite comes up with is what they call “the unthinkable”. Makes it easier to think about it (but not to do it). To save their world, they have to kill every world (meaning the universe) that 616 is about to collide with. We care very little for a random Earth-5786 or Earth-515151 so what’s the problem? Besides, most of the universes were already dead. But there comes a moment when 616 is about to collide with a healthy world where a group of heroes is fighting tooth and nail for survival.

As good storytelling demands, we get to know them before seeing them die. But that’s not even the point. There was a superhero fight, Strange pulled a rabbit out of a hat, but ultimately, the question stood of whether to kill that universe or await the end of 616. And no one could pull the trigger. T’Challa came up to the plate and said hell nah, Richards backed out (because someone else has to save his family, apparently), everyone refused to do it, except Namor. 

Which, sure, you can say he’s evil (and even list one by one all of his shady deeds), but if he hadn’t done it then, there would be no world to save. There would be no raft or Battleworld. Everyone would be dead (on both Earths). But that doesn’t sit well with heroes’ egos. Not with the way they see themselves, they all want to believe that the heroic sacrifice is better than the burden of knowing that you did the best you could under circumstances. 

They all question Namor and really, thank Doom (what, too soon?) Namor was arrogant enough to be able to justify his actions and even walk away. Even alive.

What’s Namor up to 

Namor goes to all the baddies, including Doom, and asks for help. Because it takes a villain to do the unthinkable. You know why? Because heroes don’t want to get their hands dirty. And in the year of our Doom 2025, we know well enough that you can’t remain clean if you want to get anywhere. But the Illuminati, for all their talk, are not just looking for an intellectual and classy solution. They know there isn’t one. So they are keeping themselves busy, trying to outsmart each other and trick the rest into doing the hard part. That’s not what all heroes would do, no. Some would die trying to save everyone, some would save who they can, but these… these guys were trying to save their conscience. And they did, while Namor was getting his hands very dirty alongside Thanos, his Cull Obsidian, and Black Swan (who turned out to be just a Doom cultist, go figure). 

Namor sent Thanos to clear every Earth that was on a collision course until there were only two left. We do care for the Ultimate Earth. 

Doom had other plans

Wouldn’t be fair to say that Doom orchestrated the whole shebang. Doom would probably say so, but we don’t have to believe them. Besides, we know that there was a grand design behind it all. And it included eventual destruction of all that is… was. Of all. Doom merely sped up the process and attempted to control it, which is really not a bad thing to do. It’s the same approach the Illuminati used only much more complex, layered, and clever. Don’t ever say Doom is stupider than Richards. 

Doom did save the world, parts of every world in fact. He did what never even occurred to anyone else. All the Illuminati wanted was to save their hides. Or die in a blaze of glory and live forever as heroes of the multiverse. Because if you’re a skeptic and you really peel layers of care for other people, wanting to save what everyone loves, standing for everything good against everything bad… When you take it all away, there is just saving yourself and all that you love. It just happens to be in this world. 

That’s why they kicked out Cap, that’s why he hunted them down. 

Back to Doom though, we want to give him a hard time for taking on the role of god. We probably even want to praise Strange for not doing it. But we can only really imagine what world would it be with Strange at its helm. Strange, or anyone else acting in anonymity under seven stamps of secrecy. 

The world Doom built was not ideal. Wasn’t even good, I mean, he made sure all his enemies were busy fighting for their lives. He even gave them all targets to aim their heroism at. There was always injustice, there was always someone or something to fight. What he didn’t take into account was villains. He gave them thrones but not a single one of them ever stopped eyeing his throne with envy. That’s villains for you, that’s why their Sinister Sixes and Frightful Fours never work out. It’s always a backstabbing festival, and Doom being god doesn’t change that. 

Not a single Richards in sight 

Doom hates Reed, which makes it hard to hate Doom. But for the most part, Reeds took care of themselves with their cursed council. So was it shocking that there were no Reeds anywhere? Not so much. It was actually a pleasant change. Doom did save Reed’s family though, the family Reed lost during malfunction on the raft. The family he claims he was ready to sacrifice worlds for.

I mean his raft was a great cover to pack all his family and a couple of extra bodies, and head for the hills to “preserve the human race” (didn’t even consider mutants or Skrulls — Reed hates Skrulls). He would’ve gotten on the raft himself (hello, genius!), would’ve packed Val there (again, genius), Franklin can remake worlds so that’s handy, and Sue… well, someone needs to cook for all the great minds? Okay, he was planning to stick her, Ben, and maybe Johnny as security crew. That was the great plan when he failed to save everyone. How is that any better than Nu-Earth, Reed? How are you any better? 

Again, he failed. And everything he did after when Battleworld started falling apart, was merely piggybacking on the idea Doom had with his far more vast resources (his son. Yes, he used his child as a world maker). And it wasn’t even all his idea. Really, he should’ve come to Valeria in the first place instead of running around hiding in secret societies. 

Reed didn’t win, he wasn’t a hero. He was just second. He got the time he needed to tackle the issue, he got what Namor and Doom both gave him. He failed. 

[co-mixed]

Fantastic Four: Reed Lies. Again

Every major Fantastic Four story at this point starts with the same thing – Reed finds something he’d like to keep from the rest of his family. It comes out, everybody hates Reed. 

In this regard, Matt Fraction went with a classic winning formula, and… it won. No, seriously, I know I say that after every run but this one is so far, my favorite. 

Let’s go see some spoilers. 

Fraction continues Hickman’s fresh tradition of splitting the run into two parts. But what I think I enjoy more, is the fact that he brings the team back to their roots. The Fantastic Four and their kids stay in the Fantastic Four run, that’s all adventure in the face of impending Doom. The Future Foundation gets a temporary replacement team/babysitters in the form of Medusa, She-Hulk, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), and Darla Deering. 

I’m gonna have to deal with the Fantastic Four first because there’s a lot to cover.

What’s up 

So like I said before, Reed finds out something terrible: the team’s powers are killing them, destroying their bodies. He knows for sure it’s affecting him, and he has a suspicion it might affect the rest of them. Honest man that he is, Reed decides ‘not to worry anyone' and find a cure on his own. Understandable too, if he lies well enough, he won’t even have to face the consequences. Instead he takes his decaying family on an adventure – a year of travels through time and space… which he personally would spend researching their condition. 

Spoiler: Reed does not find the cure. The cure finds them and it’s actually the future Johnny who brings the news. So there wasn’t even any point in dragging the family through hell while Franklin would literally wake up crying and saying he wanted to go home. 

That’s why people hate you, Reed

No, this run doesn’t make you like Reed or even feel sorry for him. To cover for the team, he tasks every member with bringing in a temporary replacement, and he himself goes to Scott Lang (who’s recently lost his daughter to Doom) to practically push him into babysitting. Is it a good idea to send a clearly traumatized man to do the job? Reed apparently believes so. He even promises that it will be only 4 minutes because space-time travel is like that. It’s not 4 minutes, and I can’t stress this enough, because whatever’s going on in FF while he takes his dying family on a cruise is on his conscience.

It doesn’t take long for Sue to find out, she once again confronts Reed and I gotta say, this man is a manipulator of the highest level because every time Sue is mad at him, she ends up apologizing and reassuring him. For once I wish she stood up to him and didn’t let it slide. And I feel like I keep repeating myself with that but the story keeps going in circles.

Sue tells Ben and then the three of them continue to keep this from Johnny, who is obviously freaked out. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Fantastic Four book without some signature moves from Reed. He defaces a cave with a portrait of the FF, starting a cargo cult among aliens. He comes across Skrulls and turns them into cows (again!). And it’s ironic how just seconds before that he goes on a diatribe about the complexity of heroes and slavery, and the next moment he claims that all skrulls are evil. His racism and obliviousness about it are this little gem that writers often forget about. Now that I think about it, I don’t remember seeing him in the same room as Hulkling… ever? I wonder what that’s like.

He travels to the day of Doom’s failed uni experiment and attempts to find out whether Ben was responsible for creating Dr.Doom.

But through all that, Reed doesn’t find the cure. Instead, he manages to get his family almost killed and almost eaten several times. His plan failed and for all the ‘smartest man alive’ bs we keep hearing about him, he gets upstaged by both Valeria and Scott Lang. 

What we do find out is that Fantastic Four doesn’t even need a Reed. There’s a perfectly fine Stevenson Storm out there, who seems like a great guy. 

Susan, Susan, Susan… 

No matter how much progress Sue makes, she ends up right back where she started. But there is one thing Fraction and his writing team finally did for her that was long overdue – they retconned the age gap. Now Sue is in college when she meets Reed, and he’s getting his third doctorate (which, of course, doesn’t mean he’s old, you can get 15 of those by 12 in the Marvel Universe). Reed instantly falls in love with her and decides that he needs to move out because he can’t focus on his studies. It’s Sue who makes him stay. Sigh. 

She still looks up to him and for some unknown reason, she believes he makes her happy. I would like to see that once because so far everything that happens is her trying to force him to admit he’s hiding something.  

But the fact that Sue helps Reed hide this from Johnny and Ben and their kids, is disturbing. I think, Reed’s rubbing off on her. And before you ask me why should they worry the kids, let me remind you that Val is smarter than Reed. She may be a supervillain in the making (she definitely has higher chances of making it than Bentley) but when she did find out, she immediately started working the problem, and she would’ve figured it out too had it not been for side adventures. 

Anyway, Sue really goes on this “vacation” expecting rest and fun, and she isn’t even hoping to spend any time with her husband at this point. She knows he’ll find a dozen other things to occupy himself with, and she accepts that. Not because she doesn’t want attention or any kind of open communication, it feels like she’s given up on those entirely. 

The more I read about her, the more I think she deserves her own solo book, so we could learn what she’s thinking. Not what everyone else thinks of her or what she is trying to be for them, just who she is. 

The Thing 

Ben nominates Jen Walters as his temporary 4-minute replacement and sets off on an adventure with his best friend’s family… A few days later he already feels out of place. That’s not shocking, since he tends to feel that way (especially when it’s hard to think of something to do for him other than yell at Johnny and punch things). But then he starts having anger fits (that are more angry than usual) and it turns out, Reed and Sue have been keeping the big news to themselves.

That was ridiculously unfair to Ben, since he had it arguably harder than the rest — aside from being a threat to everyone around him, he had his stony exterior fall off and then his skin melted away. I can’t help but think, if things were that hopeless, he probably could find better use for his last year than to get Reed’s ass out of yet another space adventure. So he isn’t mad enough at Reed (and Sue for that matter). He really should take the time off from this codependent friendship.

Ben also goes on a solo adventure during his human form week. I’m genuinely surprised he didn’t choose to spend that time at home with Alicia but well… he decided to go to the 1940s and put the Yancy Street gang in its place. It’s a joke that’s been done and redone, but I guess every once in a while it's still fine to do a side story like that. 

Johnny: still useless? Almost

Johnny forgets that he’s supposed to pick a replacement for the team, so he quite literally calls the first random person – singer Darla Deering whom he’s dating at the time. I would say it’s the most irresponsible thing he’s done so far considering both the implications for her and the kids in the foundation. But Johnny doesn’t really have time to, you know, call Spider-Man… 

So off he goes, and he shares the adventures with the family but when he finally finds out the real reason they’re even taking this vacation, he flips. He actually flips and yells at Sue (because I think he knows at this point that Reed isn’t even considering him most of the time), and he tells her “You treat me just like he treats you” (pointing at Reed). As savage as it is, it’s also true. Sue is upset and hurt every time Reed lies and then she goes and helps him cover up something that causes Johnny to feel the exact same way. It gets to her, I don’t know if it ever gets through Reed’s head but I doubt it. Johnny’s reasonably angry, for all his tomfoolery, he’s an adult and like he said, he died for that family several times.

He should be packing his things and going but they’re on a ship. 

Old Johnny shockingly turns out to be relatively insane but way more serious. And it’s actually he, who helps fix the powers and stop the team from losing control of them (and possibly dying). So good on him for being useful for once. 

Everybody's thinking of the kids 

As a dedicated Reed-hater, I appreciate how Val is losing faith in her father. First, she gets mad at him for not telling them anything sooner (and I covered that, she could’ve handled it and helped), then she gets mad when Reed turns skrulls into cows, and then when he sends Old Man Johnny back to his time to confront Doom and die. She has a point on all three occasions and if that were her villain origin story, I’d take it and run with it. She doesn’t trust her father and that’s probably equally because she’s the only one who can understand the way he thinks and because she does the same thing on occasion. 

Franklin is more of an actual child. But it’s sad to see how all his fears and nightmares are blatantly ignored by Reed. The kid literally says he doesn’t want to go to space, and Reed’s next words are “Let’s go to space”. Congratulations, Reed, you’re as bad a parent as you are a husband (and an even worse friend). 

Meanwhile on Earth 

Yes, yes, the replacement Fantastic Four and the Future Foundation (the run cooked up by Fraction and three Allreds). Shockingly, Scott, Jen, Darla, and Medusa manage to keep it together but not for long. Maybe the Baxter Building is cursed (obviously, otherwise why would Reed live there?) but problems start for the team right away and never stop. Some of them are even custom-made by Ant-Man, because hello, grieving father. After some adventures and misadventures, he decides to go after Doom and bring along the kids. The whole irresponsible approach mixed well with Scott’s personal issues make him a good Reed stand-in, which really just mirrors the FF dynamic. Oh, and he gets together with Darla who, let’s face it, is better off anyway. 

By the way, Darla is a really fun example of a regular human being thrown into the blender that is superhero life. To be fair, everyone is taking Johnny’s pick too seriously, really, they should’ve just called Spider-Man. But she does bring a certain uncertainty and clueless charm of an outsider. 

Jen and Medusa are both former members anyway, so it’s less of an adjustment for them.

And if you thought keeping it together as FF was doable, keep in mind that there are like 10 kids running around the place, and they keep adding more. The Moloids are hilarious, Bentley is adorable with his supervillain goals, The Uhari kids are mysterious as hell, Onome is fun and clever, and Alex Power is making problems. Oh yes, the kid goes off to make a deal with Doom and everything. It’s Puuuuure Chaos! And it’s extremely fun to read. 

So what happens is Scott decides to go after Doom “once and for all”. And every time someone makes this kinda claim, we see them 10 issues later lying on their back asking “What was I thinking”? 

Scott was looking for revenge, he was having nightmares and flashbacks of Cassie’s death. On top of it all, he was trying to keep the team together and safe, all while wondering where the Fantastic Four were. And the mess that he was, he still did better than anyone expected. He was a decent caregiver for the kids, he was attentive to the rest of the team, and he designed an elaborate plan for conquering Doom. 

The most impressive thing though, was his hero moment. Something you don’t expect to see because he is only a temporary “Reed”. He’s supposed to turn everything over on its head so when the time comes and the OG FF returns, they’d be in shock seeing his failures. 

But that’s not how the story goes. He, in fact, defeats Doom and he shows Doom exactly how it felt to lose someone dear to him. No kids suffer in the process. He is reckless in his decision to go after Doom but he is also someone Doom does not expect. Just an Ant defeating Doom. It’s poetic if you remember the first encounter between the Fantastic Four and Galactus.

Let me just say, Doom (the vain little thing that he is) gets a hell of a punishment from the Living Tribunal.

This story once again proves to me (even if temporarily) how Doom and Reed are alike and that this is what makes their never-ending war… well, never-ending. It takes someone different to defeat Doom, and not become him, and Reed is not that person. 

I loved Fraction’s run. The OG team is back doing what they do best – adventure, the Foundation are up to their own set of no good and everyone is happy (except for Reed, which is fine by me). 

[co-mixed]

Fantastic Four (& FF) by Jonathan Hickman

Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four equals a ton of expectations. Capital E. After the original one by Lee and Kirby, this one is probably considered to be the most defining for the team. At least that’s what I kept hearing before picking it up. It’s a fan favorite, hence the E.  So it doesn’t need any extra introductions. 

Next — spoilers, questions, enlightening conclusions, and more reasons to despise Reed Richards...

When I couldn’t come up with anything to say about the previous Millar run, I thought that was because the run didn’t affect anything (seriously, you should see my review — it’s pretty much me going on and on about how Reed messed up again). Turns out, I was wrong. Not about Reed, about the run. It was just a prelude to Hickman’s cooking. 

Almost everything makes a comeback: dead Galactus, living Galactus, Nu-Earth, Doom, Val’s brilliant mind, etc. Topped off with Hickman’s love for large-scale events, his style of storytelling (where time is a flat circle), and even text pages. Don’t worry though, they make an appearance but don’t take up half of the book (yet). 

A lot is going on in this series. When I say a lot, I mean almost overwhelmingly. Hickman’s style is throwing bits and pieces at you at random points and making them come together at another point. Now when’s that gonna be — you never know. This makes his runs fun and just a little chaotic, kind of like life. And if you pay attention, the bits come together like a puzzle where everything fits and nothing is left to chance. 

The narrative also happens in two books: at some point he introduces FF as in Future Foundation, thus solving the question that plagues many a writer — what to do with the kids. 

As much as I don’t care for kids' adventures, these worked just fine, so I don’t even feel the need to defend their existence or convince anyone not to skip them. 

Too many Reeds

There is a whole council of Reeds and we learn that despite being so obviously the worst of all humans on Earth, our 616 Reed somehow turns out to be the best Reed out of all Reeds. Imagine how low the bar is…. Oh wait, there’s no need to imagine if you check out the story of Reed-98570 (Fantastic Four #605). And that creep is one of the founders of the council. 

So between the nazi scientist Reed who stole Doom’s brain, other Reeds who turned their back on their families, and Reed Reed who is just garbage, there’s really only one question: why are all Reeds so awful? 

Hickman proposes a possible answer — his father wasn’t around. Kind of sounds like bs. Look at the Marvel Universe: how many heroes still have their parents? And some parents had been awful. Not everyone turned out like this (except maybe Stark…). No, I say, Reed is bad because of Reed. And Val is probably gonna turn out just as bad. 

There is so much to choose from. At this point, the list of his misdeeds (as I just mean Reed 616) exceeds the list of Daredevil’s dead exes.

It doesn’t take Reed 10 pages of the new run to start lying to his wife. 

But that’s not news. What blows my mind, is how obsessively Reed is trying to prove to Wizard that he’s going to raise his clone into someone better. Pffft, Reed. Take care of your own kids – they’re out of hand. One is making deals with your arch-enemy, and the other is doing god knows what in the middle of the night in his own universe. You have your hands full.

And that is not even remotely close to being all that Reed’s been up to. He starts Future Foundation as a way to bring young forward-thinking kid geniuses together and solve everything. Ambitious and fair, fair because he sees how the existing scientific community has stagnated. The old, experienced scientists have no interest in building a future they won’t get to see. But kids, they do. Val is a perfect fit for this foundation (and so is Bentley-the-Wizard’s-clone) and that’s a great excuse to start neglecting Franklin. You know, build a little competition. If Odin’s guide to healthy parenting has taught us anything, it’s that kids should fight for their parents’ love and approval... Fine, I’m exaggerating but just a little. After all, Reed manages to neglect FF too. Whenever he does, he usually dumps it all on Johnny. 

Johnny’s reign

It’s on one of such days that Johnny ends up locked forever in the Negative Zone. He is presumed dead and it’s all very tragic for the next few months. But it does bring Spider-Man out of his neighborhood and into the family drama. He actually fits in quite well, with nothing to prove and his easygoing attitude (but even he wonders if Sue is fine with whatever Reed’s doing at a given moment). Still, it’s not about him, so none of his personal tales make it into the book.  Of course, Johnny soon returns.

Not only he shows up at the best possible moment, he has Annihilus on a leash and complete control of the Zone (which gives us the ‘hold my Annihilus’ panel). I swear, whenever Johnny sends his ships and troops somewhere, you can feel Reed’s green envy. Reed probably thought he deserved it more… (I don’t have any proof but it seems like something Reed would experience.)

Johnny seemingly matures, he’s supposed to be 2 years older now too, but that doesn’t last long and he quickly reverts to his classic irritating self. As if dying and coming back doesn’t mess with one’s mind. 

What’s worse, he gives the Zone free elections, and guess what? They vote for Annihilus. Again. They got rid of him with pain, sweat, and blood, and they voted him back in. Now that’s just unrealistic! Can’t happen. Right?

That’s probably everything of note that happens with Johnny. I have to assume that writers, for the most part, still don’t know what exactly to make of him. But my guess is his image needs a serious makeover. I don’t know where he’s at right now, but I don’t think this party-hard, drink-’till-sunrise, never-be-on-time, have-no-purpose persona should live past 2012. 

Sue’s enchantment under the sea 

How did Johnny even end up on the other side of the gate to the Zone? Well, Ben was human, Reed was busy with Nu World and Galactus, and Sue… oh, Sue was ruling the seas. 

No, unfortunately, she still hasn’t left Reed for Namor or any other fish person. But she did spend a ton of time negotiating a truce between Namor’s kingdom and other fish in the sea. Even punched Namor, which only made him want her more. 

And I know that’s a whole other book but there was a jealous vibe from Emma, who also makes an appearance, and I don’t know what to make of it. From all we know, she can still have him as a backup if she wants to. Maybe she just hates being a second choice and Sue doesn’t exactly have Jean’s habit of dying and vacating the partner. 

Other than that, Sue waters flowers, kicks celestial ass, and wonders if she’s a good parent. She is (her husband isn’t). She has confidence which is very nice to see. But she still doesn’t give Reed the grief he deserves. He keeps lying to Sue and deceiving her, which leads to bigger and bigger problems and she, along with other heroes, ends up having to deal with it. It’s a vicious circle and it’s an exhaustingly old issue even at that point (2011-12, people, the Avengers just came out!) Don’t get me wrong, I would be complaining if their married life was all suns and rainbows, because that’s just boring. But I need to see her confronting Reed. At this point, she just looks the other way and leaves him to his devices. I’m almost not surprised she jumped at the chance to hang out with Namor, even though he once again showed his more obnoxious side. At least he isn’t spending time with a bunch of himselves instead of her. 

I never not feel bad for Sue, mostly because we still don’t really know her. Writers make small improvements and adjustments for her, and they reassure us that her love for Reed is real, but I can’t believe that. She has nothing of her own, nothing that isn’t attached to her husband, kids, the team, or Namor. She makes sandwiches and cuts off the crust. 

The week of Ben

Now back to Johnny’s trip to the Negative Zone, where was Ben? Right beside him. Only Ben was human because the FF kids created a serum that could turn him human for a week every year. That was so shocking to everyone — the kids have figured out something Reed never could. Only that’s not true at all. Throughout the FF's history, Ben’s become human again at least 5 times, maybe more. Several times Reed figured out how to change him for good, some times he gave Ben the option to turn into The Thing at will. It never lasted but not all of that was Reed’s fault.

Regardless, Ben became human for his week, spent it hanging out with Johnny (worst choice ever if you ask me), but he also reunited with Alicia. The part that does bug me is he still thinks she loves him only for his looks. You know, as if his charming and not-at-all-angry personality is not enough. Also, no one is even mentioning Debbie who just a week ago was the love of Ben’s life and nearly became his wife and Sue’s best (only) friend in the process. But no sense in dwelling on the past. 

Of course, after failing to sacrifice himself instead of Johnny, Ben takes a guilt trip. No, he actually leaves the team to go mope around in the Avengers mansion. And feels that it’s really all he does during this run aside from backing up the team and announcing clobbering time. But we do take a little trip to the future with Reed’s father, and we see what the kids’ serum does to Ben – he only ages a week every year so he gets to outlive everyone and that’s when we get a little moment that reminds us that he and Reed are actually best friends. Something that’s been buried under Ben’s loyalty and resentment, plus occasional (permanent) selfishness on Reed’s side. 

Moloids though, they worship Ben. So that’s something.

The kids won’t be all right

We get to see future versions of Franklin and Val. To call these kids shady is an understatement. They are straight-up nasty creeps. And in a very mutant tradition, they come back from the future to mess around with history. Franklin gives himself his powers back, Val constantly states how much she doesn’t like her kid self.

Meanwhile,, their younger selves, accompanied by the FF, constantly get into trouble. We do address kid Franklin’s issues that I felt were dropped by Millar, his budding envy for Val. And when it comes to Val, I don’t think she’s going to change. She is Doom’s child at heart… everything about her is Doom, her arrogance, her sinister ideas, her elaborate plans. She did get one thing from Reed though — lying. Sneaking around and doing shady things – that’s all Reed. It makes me curious, the more I read about her, the more I want to see her turn into a self-righteous villain. She has everything for the part and she’d make a far more exciting villain than even Franklin with all his world-ending abilities. Val is also more suited to rule Latveria than Kristoff. Not trying to give Doom advice on how to run his land but… just something to think about. 

What’s There to Do(om)?

The Reeds have historically been very unkind to the Dooms. And before we get into it, remember that I’m not giving props to a dictator, but let’s agree that turning Dooms into talking plants or brain donors is certainly not the way to achieve your goals of universal peace and prosperity. But the council of Reeds hunts down every Doom in existence, which I don’t know if it does make our 616 Doom special. He keeps jumping higher and higher up in the power ranking, and at this point, it’s hard to imagine he could be defeated. With some help from Val, he even obtains an Infinity Gauntlet (from a different universe) and creates a whole world. That makes him a god and I know this Doomiurge will return in Battleworld. 

To make things worse (for Reed), through the course of the run, Doom is saving Richards and his family left and right. First, he saves Reed’s absent father (by killing his variant), then he sacrifices himself during the fight with the Celestials, and so much more in between. All while being very nice to Val and not breaking his word once. Oh yes, he’s a better parent to Val than Reed is.

This is once again, a story about the family. Reed’s family, because even when they all deal with their own things, they can be sure that somehow Reed is going to screw up everything and bring about the end of the world.

All of it makes me understand one thing. When you’re writing a Fantastic Four run, you gotta be either pro-Reed or pro-Doom. If you’re pro-Reed, you’ll go out of your way to prove that Reed’s doing the right thing. Even when he does the wrong thing for the right reason, which is a - always, b- a clear sign of a villain. 

Pro-Doom writers don’t argue with Doom being evil and ambitious, but they always try to remind us how honorable Doom is and that his heart may be black but there’s a soft blueish spot in it for Valeria. A bit of healthy disdain for Mr. Fantastic usually correlates with at least some Doom apologism. 

[co-mixed]

CIVIL WAR

In a couple years Civil War turns 20. It's an event that almost everyone knows at this point, it's been adapted for the MCU, and it's one of the most iconic Earth-616 events.

A tale of exchanging freedoms for safety, hugely inspired by the aftermath of 9/11. That was almost 20 years ago, yet we keep circling back to the issue of government control. Is it a friend or a foe and if a law is wrong, how do we go about changing it?

When the time came to go through the CW issues of the Fantastic Four, I decided to go back and review the whole event.

And if you're about to move on, because you haven't read it yet (there are gonna be spoilers), or just bookmarking it for another time, I’ll leave you with my final thought right away: it's a very different experience for a teenager and an adult. For someone who is still sampling the real world and someone who's nearly fed up with it.

The idea to register superheroes wasn't new for Earth-616. In a different version, this bill’s been around since Byrne’s FF (unfortunately, I can’t pinpoint the issue but I referenced it in one of the previous FF reviews). What I do distinctly remember is the hearing, the team went to, and how passionately they tried to stall it. 

Even then though, they knew it would come back to bite their backsides. 

The bill reemerges after M-Day and blooms after the tragedy in Stamford when New Warriors trigger a team of villains while shooting their reality show (talk about your ‘00s essence). Supervillain Nitro uses his ultimate and disintegrates 600 townies, a bunch of heroes, and his own crew. 

The public outcry is insane. There is high demand for masked heads on spikes, full transparency, and maybe some ritual sacrifice (just enough to butter everyone up). The sales of red paint and placards skyrocket, and everyone (knowingly or not) quickly picks their side of the argument. 

Remember just a few years ago Genosha happened? Millions of mutants were brutally killed, and all it provoked was more hate toward them. What do they call it now, the good old days?

What's the plan? 

The grand idea is cooked up by the great minds of Tony Stark and Reed Richards (eww). They go as far as to introduce 100 ideas of how to make sure Stamford never happens again. 

The gist of it all is to register all superhumans, send them to training, then license them and release back into the world. Better yet, pack them in teams and send to each one of the 50 states. It’s superhuman police meets mutant registration and unites in a beautiful concept of a police state. 

There are a few concerns with the plan, right off the bat.

Yes, the first one is data safety. Reed and Tony are smart for sure but for each of them, there is an equally inventive hero or a villain. There are no unbreakable/unhackable data storages. There probably never will be, so all the personal information heroes share will eventually be up for grabs. They guarantee that everything will be locked and hidden away in a digital Fort Knox, meaning they are promising something impossible. They’re setting y’all up.

They did cover their asses here though. What’s the best way to prevent villains from doing villainy things? Rehabilitate them, of course. 

Though it does sound impressive on paper, it's in fact more of a suicide squad scenario. The villains don’t go through any sort of therapy and no one is offering them help. They are controlled and forced to do Stark’s and S.H.I.E.L.D’s bidding.

Some 20 years later Daredevil will ponder a more reasonable prison reform while chilling in his cell. But that wasn’t a common conversation in 2006. Back then we were way more into punishing everyone. 

Stark doesn't hesitate to abuse his newfound power when, through his nanobots, he controls Green Goblin and makes him shoot an Atlantean official. 

All part of the grand design. 

And oh, of course, there is 42, the superhuman prison in the Negative Zone. The pride and joy of Reed Richards – a place where he and Tony eagerly send their former friends to take a time out and think long and hard about what they did. See, neither one of them goes for conversation, they jump head-first into policing.  

Kids with superpowers have to go to military school now. That’s the kids who don’t end up as lab rats for an insane doctor. There is always one of those around and they’re somehow always in cahoots with the officials. 

But chances are you, young superhero wannabe, are gonna go through military training (obviously the best kinda training if you want to help people, amiright?) 

Jumping ahead, we get a nasty preview of one such facility. And guess who's in charge of the program? If the name Gyrich is familiar to you, need I say more? 

It ends in tragedy too. Right away.

But enough criticizing. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. 

Instead, let's imagine that everything works out. There are superhuman peacekeepers all across the US. And there are military schools where kids are screamed at by some YesSirThankYouSir. 

Does that make Earth-616 any safer? 

What happens when Sentry flies off the handle and destroys half of New York? Would it help that you know his civil name? 

How about when Daredevil builds his Shadowland and chills there with a bunch of ninjas? Would you sleep better knowing his home address?

The short answer is no.

Then why do they do it? 

My theory is there’s a reason one side includes Reed, Hank, and Tony. They are virtually the same archetype. All extremely privileged people, rich, famous, adored. They are also scientists – they operate in numbers and technologies, in fixing things. They think they know, which allows them to remain on cordial terms with empathy. 

Looking into the future and using logic to solve the world’s greatest mysteries is the way all three of them choose. 

Ok that might really just be Reed but what can I do, I hate the guy. 

Either way, Reed and Stark both did some math and some thinking and figured that if you can't beat them you might as well lead them. That's why they both jumped at the chance to make the world better (Reed event dragged his family along for the ride). 

It feels like halfway through the war though, the whole for Tony turned into an obsession with winning. Winning by all means necessary and realizing that the ends absolutely justified the means. 

As it always happens, heroes on Stark’s side let themselves go way too far. If unmasking Spider-Man felt uncomfortable (we’ll get to Spidey), then building 42 with extremely harsh conditions just to scare everyone into registering was a full-on dictator move. Building a Robo-Thor (Ragnorak) to balance the power scales was simply outrageous. I told you, Reed, Pym, and Stark have serious issues with empathy. 

Then, they created their first victim – Goliath. We could go into a long conversation about the issue of using a Black character as collateral, but we all know what’s what. 

I remember from years ago the image of him lying in a giant grave. And only now it hit me that maybe it had to be him, to emphasize the metaphor of a giant loss. Because even his grave looks like a mass grave and the way he's laid to rest is similar. And this couldn't play out the same way with Stamford victims, because none of that was personal to the heroes.

You’d think one death of their own would stop them or at least force them to pause. But no, just a few people left the cause after that, among them Sue who unfortunately eventually reunites with Reed. 

She did make a hole in his ceiling though. Good job. 

But hey, Reed’s done the math. Can't go wrong with that.

I kept trying to put myself in Tony’s place to understand where he was coming from. And here’s what I figured. 

There was a voice of “conscience” whispering in Stark’s ear – Miriam Sharpe (a parent of one of the Stamford victims. I couldn't not include the worst 'argument' in history that aged worse than anyone could imagine). There was Happy on life support after having been attacked by a supervillain. And decades upon decades of trying to keep it together as a hero and a person. It was easy to dismiss all that after time had erased most of the details from my memory, but that’s exactly what re-reads are for. He truly believed that something should be done so that even heroes could have it a little easier. 

As a self-appointed leader of the superhuman community, Tony felt responsible for all of them and it was necessary for him to fix everything. This is where his ego plays a huge part because he took it personally and let it cloud his judgment. That’s a human thing but that’s also the thing he allows himself but not other heroes. 

You know what? I'm gonna do something wild here. I’m gonna compare the two heads of the police state and make Reed look good. 

He’s not doing it for power or his ego, he actually doesn’t let emotions play a part. We see that clearly when he continues to work with Stark after Sue leaves him. He puts his pain aside and does what he believes is correct (not right, correct). He's also doing it for the future and his kids and while that can be perceived as emotion, he also backs it by his math. 

Meanwhile, Tony sees himself as the savior, takes control of all the capes, and you can actually see him basking in glory when he reports his victory to Miriam. 

Who's fault was Stamford? 

Let's roll back a little, to Stamford and the incident.

A huge part of the conversation revolves around who is responsible for the accident. We have the New Warriors, who poked the bear, and we have Nitro, who was the bear. The people though, they unanimously choose the only surviving New Warrior (Speedball) to be the scapegoat. Nitro is dealt with in private by Wolverine and Atlanteans (he offed Namora), who seem to be the only ones interested in bringing him to justice.

Throughout the Front Line series, Robbie Baldwin (same ole’ Speedball) is trying to come to terms with his being the most hated person in America. His parents turn their back on him, the government is offering him a registration (to which he opposes), and the people hate him and wanna see him hanged. Of course, Robbie does feel responsible, he is too. But Nitro is not a mine he stepped on. He’s a person, who did the actual killing. 

Not at all surprising, that no one sides with Speedball. Not even his lawyer Jen, who’s trying to help for sure, but doesn’t seem to be hearing him. In fact, she’s more of a liaison between him and the authorities and the one vividly on the latter side.  

Robbie succumbs to his guilt. Everyone sees him as a monster and a murderer, so he accepts it.  

Here's the controversial part – I felt sympathy for him both times. He was reckless and untrained, which is the argument Tony Stark and others put on their flag and ran with. That is the idea – to train and register the heroes. 

But for that to happen, Robbie had to be the scapegoat. And the superhero community might have been able to eventually forgive him but everyone else? No way. 

In the process, he gets shot by one of the Stamford parents (they really aren't making themselves look good there) , and by the end, he accepts the deal under one condition – that the shooter gets released as well.  Robbie walks free but where would he go? He ends up becoming Penance (Not Monet-Penance). 

Which is probably not a great idea anyway, since he's beyond messed up at that point. 

This is a tragic bit of the story. 

It seems like nearly everyone hates Speedball, even more than they would Nitro. I mean, Nitro has a strong argument covering his radioactive butt — he’s a villain, what did you expect? A New Warrior is a hero, so he’s held to an impossible standard. 

What can I say, those in power really did find someone to blame just so those in power could maintain their faces and a clean image. One person is always a very acceptable sacrifice for them.

Are you in or are you out?

I promised you we’d get back to Peter Parker. He is absolutely one of the main characters here. Fair to assume this story was essential for him at the time as well (yes, we’re not peeking ahead because we all know his identity can’t stay public forever).

Obviously, in my teens, I was wise and could see right through the trap Tony Stark was setting for Peter. Tying him to the cause by forcing him to be the first hero to unmask, promising him and his family protection, sharing only bits and pieces of truth? He’s practically spelling it out for Pete: “I own your webbed ass!”

Yeah. Times change. It’s so easy to steer an idealist. And that’s who Peter is, that’s who most heroes are. He still believes in the whole responsibility concept, and by saying “This is the responsible thing to do”, you can get him to do nearly anything. Top it with his admiration and infatuation with Stark, and you have a foolproof Spider-catcher. 

Imagine your ideals being dangled before your eyes like that and tell me you won’t follow. 

Here’s the deal. Whenever I ask people (be it regarding the movie or the comics) whether they would’ve registered or not, they almost invariably say no. Most of us are that convinced that our ideals are concrete, that there is no scenario that could shake us up and force us to the other side of the barricades. 

Allow me to call BS.

So many of us really still view this as a fantasy arc: even if has something to do with reality, nothing like that can ever happen. 

But fantasy simply takes reality and pushes it to extremes. Remove the capes, take away the superpowers, and take a closer look. It’s an ongoing leitmotif throughout history. Hell, it even happened in the same universe before (hello, Mutant Registration)!

So while the idea 20 years ago was to choose between safety for the majority and giving up just a portion of your freedom, in reality, most people always choose the latter. 

Because when you are asked to do so, it’s never really a command, it’s a suggestion. And it’s always coated with a reasonable explanation that benefits you. These things are never a one-day operation. They are carefully prepared for us by propaganda and advertising which even work on several levels. If the simple explanation doesn’t work on you, the complex one might. Either way, you’ll be on board.

You get to choose between easy and difficult. And you only know what you will decide when you come face to face with the problem.

That’s why my answer then was “I’d never register” and my answer now is “I have no idea”.

The right side

It’s easier to choose freedom when Cap takes a firm stand for you. He can do no wrong in the eyes of other heroes (I mean, even Punisher refuses to hit him, that kinda cred has to stand for something). But siding with the squeaky-clean Cap is a pretty picture. We don’t get those in life.

Just like Tony, he feels responsible for every hero. I think, for one it’s a vanity thing, and for another, it’s the leader gene.

It never felt to me like Cap was fighting out of sheer stubbornness or even because he believed he was right (like Tony did). He fought because he believed this was the best course of action for the superpowered community. Heroes and villains alike. The old dying to protect your freedom to be wrong narrative.

He is a 616 icon, he has nothing to gain in all this… 

…Which may be why he lost. He’d put up a great fight, but he never offered an alternative course of action. 

If the registration bill had never passed, what was the other option, where was the guarantee that Stamford wouldn’t happen again? Essentially, this is why he gave himself up and stopped the fight. This is WHEN he did so. He saw the battle in New York as a step away from a mass disaster. So he took off his mask and accepted handcuffs. 

Now did he betray everyone who followed him? 

Yes and no. 

Yes, because without him all they had was a ragtag team of heroes. Without Cap’s credibility or his resolve, they were completely lost. 

And No, because if they couldn’t stand up and continue the fight, they may have been fighting not for something but alongside someone. 

Cap giving up is not an example of an underwhelming resolution. It’s just what you do when the ends stop justifying the means. When the body count grows and you see no way out. 

He chooses to stop getting people killed — something I don’t believe Tony would’ve done. 

I remember being so impressed with Cap’s resolve when I was a teen. What I see now is a grand gesture that ultimately changes nothing. Then again, that’s what heroes do, right? 

At the end of the day, they stand before you and invite you to make a choice. He wasn’t doing it for the other heroes, he was doing it for everyone else. Showing that a single person can be responsible and that’s what they should be trusting in. The fact that they managed to destroy a whole block in New York didn’t exactly give Cap’s side any sympathy points. 

I also get why Stature and Nighthawk defected from the cause — they chose personal safety and comfort over constant risk. 

I get why Ben Grimm left for France. Maybe just now but I get it. Not wanting to fight and to even pick a side. He may look like a coward through idealistic glasses (even though he does come back eventually). And he may be naively ignoring the fact that whenever he goes, the registration law might follow. 

But he goes anyway and it’s hard to say he’s wrong. Sometimes you just want to escape because you know it’s gonna get ugly. 

What was the point? 

The resolution of this war doesn’t give you an answer who was right and who was wrong. That’s the point — there is no point. Never is. The main book went out of its way to draw similarities between Civil War and many famous battles throughout history. You are slightly pushed toward sympathizing with Cap’s side and I bet it hits you hard too when that side loses and later he gets shot.

After all is said and done, in a one-shot called Confession Tony Stark admits to Cap’s dead body that the war wasn’t worth it. An answer to something Cap asked him before when he first was arrested. Kinda hypocritical of Tony to not realize that after Goliath's death.

It’s not the end of the story but it’s the end of the war, and I think between the name of the comic arc, the events, and the final words, you can piece together a pretty good conclusion. 

Cherry on top

I’m leaving the arc I found to be most memorable years ago for last. 

It’s Front Line and specifically the arc of Sally Floyd and Ben Urich. They are both journalists, and they are hunting down the same story. The sides might be different, but the sources, the issue, the story — the story is the same. 

By the end, they’re sitting on this goldmine of an article. Something they have the responsibility to share as professionals who claim to value integrity. But they bury it, because their personal experience during this war gets in the way. 

This part of the book really surprised me as a kid. I loved the fact that we took the time off to see how the real people are dealing with a superhero conflict. And we know that Ben isn’t exactly impartial, he has a long history with every New York hero ever and works for everyone’s favorite Daily Mail substitute — Daily Bugle (where JJJ is on cloud 9 because the damn capes finally get to answer for their misdeeds). 

Sally and Ben find out exactly how Stark orchestrated the fallout from Stamford and how at every turn, he steered the narrative in his own chosen direction. 

They bury it. And I don’t know how to feel about that now. It’s a selfish and selfless choice. This could’ve made them legends but this also would’ve destroyed any control the heroes had over their fates. 

What’s it good for

I used to think this was a book about right and wrong, and I used to think the sides were very obvious. But I was idealistic. While I still believe that this was no way to go, and othering anyone is an awful idea, I get to look at this as a selection of personal stories now. And I can easily see myself (or anyone really) in every one of the roles.   

So maybe it’s more about the choices you end up making (I mean, it does continuously ask you whose side are you on). Or maybe, in another decade I will read it again and see an entirely different tale. 

P.S. I tried to make it simple this time by using the Marvel Unlimited reading guide, but you should know that it’s slightly out of order and incomplete. 

[co-mixed]

The Tragedy of Robin(s)

 After catching up on the most recent Batman stories, especially Batman vs Robin by Mark Waid and Knight Terrors by Joshua Williamson, I’m seriously rethinking my whole impression of Damian Wayne. Not a secret, I’d always considered him to be a little annoying gremlin who desperately needed both affection and a serious talking-to from his parents. He also lost the parent lottery, having to be sired by the two people least capable of either.  

This whole text is pretty much my opinion based on what I’ve read so far and I haven’t by any means read everything, so feel free to disagree, but remain polite about it. 

Mommy issues 

Yes, under all of Damian’s bravado, there is an unloved child. Because it’s really easy to forget that he is just a child, despite his neverending threatening to kick everybody’s ass and often succeeding in that. 

Talia is arguably worse than Bruce. From an early age, Damian was forced to prove himself because of some made-up empire he was probably going to inherit if his mommy dearest chose one day to give up the reigns. That and showing up occasionally to remind him that he’s not good enough is all Damian is getting from her. 

That also explains the kid’s obsessive desire to inherit Batman’s cape and cowl. In Batman vs Robin, that desire gets exploited by the forces of darkness, turning the kid’s dreams into actions. Something that conscious Damian is trying to fight. 

But we aren’t here to criticize Talia’s parenting failures (she sucks), we are here to criticize Bruce’s parental failures. 

Daddy issues

From day one Bruce had no idea how to relate to his son. I’d say it wasn’t the shock of even having a biological son, as much as his incapability to care about someone more than he cares about his mission. That’s his horrific self-programming that his kids (all his kids) are fighting through. Some are more successful like Dick. And thanks to Tom Taylor for reminding us of that with every issue of his Nightwing run. But Dick actually had a loving family, so when Bruce took him in, he already had the fundamental understanding of being a good person. That’s at least partially why eventually he manages to build healthy relationships with people, even with Damian. 

Jason is more of an example of what happens after Bruce’s parenting. Bruce still can’t decide whether he was a mistake and he just trained him to be a good murderer. I’ll make it easy for him - yes, the mistake was on you, Bruce. No, it wasn’t the fact that you trained him.

But seriously, after three attempts Bruce still has no idea how to talk to a kid. 

Alfred did, and that helped Bruce’s older sons, then Dick and Alfred did what they could for Damian. Because let’s face it, after Alfred’s death, the closest thing to a parent Damian has is Dick Grayson, and he lives all the way in Blüdhaven (which is still closer than Alfred). 

Not a bat situation 

I’ve come to the conclusion that Batman knows how to communicate with Robin, so on this level his relationship with Damian seemingly works. But Bruce can’t build a normal healthy one with his son. And that sentiment was verbalized by Damian himself during the Knight Terrors event. The kid understands it, while Bruce himself does not, therein lies the tragedy.

It’s even worse when you see the numerous times Damian had supported his father as if looking for his approval. Again, he might claim he doesn’t need it, he does (thanks, Talia). 

That’s a pattern 

Batman has a serious problem with people. Batman vs Robin was a pretty clear reflection of that, especially when Bats confronted all of his former Robins (and four of his sons). His regrets regarding all of them were not without reason and it becomes clear later that all of his kids hold some resentment against him (especially Jason).

The way I see it, his favorite Robin is Tim (he makes it clear during Failsafe and the Bat-Man of Gotham) his favorite son is Dick (he was the one who managed to heal and not constantly bug Bruce about what he'd done wrong). Unfortunately for Damian, their existence will always make him feel competitive. 

Once again, that’s fully on Bruce. Not on Batman, because I think that Damian can handle not being ready to replace Batman, but on Bruce, because he doesn’t feel the love. I’m not saying Bruce doesn’t love him, but if he does, it’s in his own way and he’s not communicating it well. He always pawns Damian off on more affectionate people. 

What is love

Meanwhile, Damian truly loves his father. Enough to run around following him, sit at his bedside while he’s taking a really long nap, enough to side with him over the rest of the family (I’m still in the middle of Gotham War). That’s what children do when they want their parents’ love and attention, they try to be perfect. 

All of that makes me feel so so bad for Damian. I actually don’t hate him, even if I like to jokingly say that I do when he starts acting like a brat. But he deserves unconditional love and neither one of his parents chooses to understand that. 

For his sake, I hope he grows up and manages to grow and move past this (probably with the help of his family like Jason and Tim did during Knight Terrors). And when he’s old enough and wise enough to make his own decisions, I hope he sticks Bruce and Talia in a nasty old folks’ home.  

[co-mixed]

Mark Waid’s Fantastic Four

It’s rare that a writer perfectly fits the character but when it’s Mark Waid and Fantastic Four, this is exactly the case. This was the first time when I was genuinely excited to read every new issue, and this is the book that’s finally made me like the characters. Well, not too much because Reed is still there (ugh). But you know what I mean. 

Anyway, if you haven’t read it, I very much recommend that, and if you have and want to relive it, go ahead and read the rest! 

The new look

Waid’s run starts with a meta-story that quickly points out what we’d been getting wrong all these years about the Fantastic Four. They were never superheroes, they were adventurers. And suddenly, right there everything falls into place. ‘A group of adventurers’ becomes the leitmotif of the whole run. In a way, this definition is a culmination of everything that came before – journeys through space, time, and the Negative zone, occasionally interspersed with supervillain encounters. But this is also a way to refresh the book by letting us view it in a slightly altered manner. I’d say that’s something the book needed desperately. 

It’s also immediately obvious how the book mixes the classic lighthearted tone with a more mature one. It’s ready to explore serious issues, which isn’t new for the FF, but it wants to keep things bright and colorful. That’s where Wieringo’s art works perfectly in unison with Waid’s stories. And such stories we get! 

FF is for family 

During Claremont’s run, I said that FF started to feel like a family. But everything before still had them as Reed, Ben, and two supporting characters. Even when each of them faced their own stories, and they confronted them together, they never felt like people who had known each other their whole lives. Waid gives them small interactions that remind you how close they all truly are. And it’s not just banter between Johnny and Ben, it’s the way Sue interacts with Reed, admiring his genius and mocking his poor social skills and the way they both interact with their children. The children, by the way, they play a role too. They are very delicately written into the stories, even becoming their center, but never serving as a plot device. I’m gonna go back and talk a little more about Franklin later. 

Waid allows the characters to interact effortlessly, and naturally, so they don’t feel like strangers. 

Call for four

The main four people in this graphic play are of course Sue, Reed, Ben, and Johnny. Here, for the first time ever I can say that I got to know them all. It’s both ironic and sad that it took 41 years for them to finally be portrayed as people, who you kinda want to hang out with (even though you’ll always be an outsider because ‘family’) 

I very much liked Susan here. She is shown as a genuinely happy woman, a strong hero, a great adventurer, a caring mother, and a wife. I’m not saying “good wife” because her not having left Reed years ago makes her either a legend or someone who needs serious saving. A legend if we go off this run. She still gets her jealousy moments that are not entirely justified. Sue gets jealous of Alyssa, obviously because Reed neglected to disclose the nature of their past relationship to Sue. But similarly, she goes as far as purchasing a statue of Namor to make Reed jealous. This isn’t how a healthy marriage works, Susan. And it makes me feel bad for Namor. His arrogant ass doesn’t deserve this. 

But it’s great to see her happy and joking, and spending time with her family while still trying to raise her good-for-nothing brother. 

Speaking of Johnny, Waid probably felt just like we all did - Johnny hadn’t gone through much growth before that. Yes he’d been married, and he’d saved the world, but when it came to living in it, he wasn’t very well-adjusted. Waid changed that by putting him in charge of the FF company (say it with me: nepotism!). Not just that, but we got to see Johnny navigate the business world, and face pretty unfortunate obstacles. I have to say, I felt real bad for him when Sue went off and blamed him for the stolen sample of unstable molecules. But it all worked out in the end. This is how this run started, by reassuring you that the FF has everything under control. 

We’ll get to Reed (ugh!) and everything that went wrong later. 

Back to Johnny though, he has a tough time losing popularity, he even seeks the help of Spidey to learn how to be unpopular with the masses. It leads to a funny arc that honestly, leads me to believe that Johnny’s success with women is just it - his fame as a superhero because he has zero game otherwise. 

Again, not a secret - I never liked the lovable blue-eyed Thing. He’d been quite whiny and manipulative, and from everything I’d seen so far, it was really hard for me to relate to his issues. Waid changes that too, he lets us see why the others like and appreciate Ben, which is not because of him continuously reminding them that he’s lovable, and certainly not for his textbook heroic actions that again, to me often came off as ingenuine. 

He has a sense of humor here, when he bashes good-for-nothing Johnny, his jokes really stick the landing. When he connects to Franklin, he is being 100% transparent and helpful. In fact, I think he’s one of the characters that have the truest understanding of what the kid is going through, and he doesn’t waste a second in telling him that. He is also ready to sacrifice himself and not make it a big theatrical act. And after building up that side of his character, when he dies in Latveria, it… well, it doesn’t stick, this is still comics, but it certainly affects you as much as it does his family. Waid doesn’t let us sit with this emotion but he doesn’t rush through it, showing exactly how deeply it had touched everyone. Especially probably Johnny, who conjured an imaginary version of his friend. And here, Wieringo comes back after a short break and delivers a stunning difference between Johnny’s daydreaming and real life. 

I already mentioned that Franklin stops being a prop and becomes a character. Waid makes him face the good old older child problem - sibling rivalry. When all attention immediately goes to baby Valeria, Franklin misses his quality time with his parents, especially his dad. And that gets you to see him as a little human who is going through his own set of issues. That becomes even more obvious when he is sent to hell by Doom and is traumatized by the event so much, he can’t speak. Waid showed us the toll it took on Franklin’s psyche, and he did it through the adult characters around him, without trying to imagine how it would be, and without making the kid sound wise beyond his years.

Doom politics

I’m gonna get to Reed but first, we need to talk about Doom. Because if I had to pick, I’d say this is where you can truly see the nature and the cause of the Reed-Doom war. First of all, different writers view Doom differently, and while some attempt to justify and redeem him, others go out of their way to remind you how evil he is. Waid is not a Doom apologist. He immediately shows us how ruthless he can be when he kills the real Valeria to gain mystical power and then shows us that the prosperity in Latveria is a smoke screen that’s hiding a small guillotine-equipped human disposal system. So after all the debate, Doom is still a dictator who disappears his critics to silence them and forces people to trade freedom for stability. 

Waid also does to Doom the same thing he does to Lex Luthor in Superman: Birthright. Now they both lose potential friends over a misunderstanding. Only in Doom’s case, he thought Reed had messed with the controls on his machine, which ultimately resulted in him hiding behind a mask. It’s not his arrogance now, but the jealousy he thought Reed felt toward him, that drives Doom. 

This time though, In his evil endeavors, Doom goes further than ever before: he uses baby Valeria to get to the FF, then imprisons Franklin in hell, and tortures the rest of them. He likes Valeria though, that’s kinda sweet. 

Needless to say, when the team finally defeats Doom, and even temporarily sends him to hell (but not before he disfigures Reed’s face). 

Reed (Ugh!)

Here’s the thing, this run didn’t make me like Reed any more than before. Sure, he gets his redeeming qualities, plenty of them in fact, but he keeps messing up big. He even gets mixed up in international politics, which I gotta say was written very well. As soon as Doom disappears, multiple countries (including neighbors like Hungary and Serbia, as well as the US, Russia, and China) are preparing to make a move on Latveria. Meanwhile, in an attempt to deDoomify Latveria, Reed moves his whole family there and takes over the country. That’s a terrible decision on his side, and one that he’s tried to pull off before. My question is, when is Reed Richards going to realize that he’s not a politician or a monarch and stop trying to enforce his vision upon everyone? 

Essentially, there isn’t much difference between what he and Doom are doing. They are both consumed by their own vengeance, and both believe they are making peoples’ lives better out of the goodness of their hearts. Either way, it’s the Latverians who end up suffering. Reed didn’t even make any kind of address to them, before raising his shirt as a flag above Castle Doom and pretending everyone was now free. He needlessly endangered them to prove the FF wasn’t there to hurt them and then invited everyone to loot the castle. Happy 1917, I suppose? 

The visuals in this arc are a little darker. I don’t know the process behind the decision, but this is where we temporarily say goodbye to the larger-than-life bright art of Wieringo and say hello to Howard Porter’s more realistic approach. He especially focuses on Reed’s Two-Face appearance, highlighting the more fitting side for each one of his statements.

Just like the first time around, Reed can’t seem to take over Latveria without a shadow of Doom looming over him. The first time, he was possessed by the armor, the second, however, it was all Reed, only with a physical scar left by Doom. Everyone else (except for Franklin who was in hell, after all) shook it off. But Reed didn’t. He was hell-bent on destroying everything Doom had and built just to make sure he would never return. Ultimately, it led to him imprisoning Doom (and causing his escape because when does it ever work out?)

He also shoots (and kills) Doom-possessed Ben to save Johnny.

Yeah if anyone was hoping this run would make me like Reed, they were wrong. 

Reed reminds me of Buffy. Everything does but hear me out: as the leader of the FF he drags them into wild adventures and some of them inevitably end in disaster. Then it takes writer magic to make everything work out and pretend that all the issues and idiosyncrasies don’t really matter. But they do, everything he’d done up to the end, everything he said be it in service of a bigger goal or not, still matters. He keeps making mistakes that go unnoticed when he comes out on top. 

As a reader, you can like the team and hate the person. And this run has absolutely made me like the team.

Bag of tricks

Waid utilizes so many narrative tricks like the team meeting the Kirby-god to restore the status quo. Once again, ironic meta-stories allow to push the story forward. 

Another trick was kicking the FF out of their comfort zone of being rich and popular. And that is a great callback to the first issue, in which Reed confesses to Valeria that he worked relentlessly to make sure the FF is popular and beloved to compensate for the cosmic rays incident. Because… imagine them having to live like mutants (and blame Reed for that).

Waid forces Reed to come face to face with the one thing he can’t understand - magic.

The dysfunctional Frightful Four’s family dynamics are juxtaposed with those of the original FF, and we see why one works while another keeps failing.

As the herald of Galactus, Johnny encounters a world of sentient ants, making us look back at the first FF-Galactus encounter.

Then the team meets the person behind Galactus, someone who in all honesty, is nothing more than an unimpressed hater. So… nothing shocking about him going around eating worlds after all.

And there is a moment when the team loses powers only to get them back because they can’t imagine being without them now.

All that draws these characters, lets you see them for who they are, good and bad, and leaves you wanting more. 

Final thoughts

Waid’s run is enjoyable in every possible way. It’s very 00s in terms of visuals - cartoonish and bright, with just the right amount of nostalgia especially if that’s your introduction to the comics era. Narratively, it turned out to be deeper than I expected, all the while maintaining that connection to the original Lee/Kirby era. I’ve noticed that this is a trend with Waid’s books, he tries to at least partially return the characters to their starting point, make them recognizable, and rediscover their roots. For the Fantastic Four, it works incredibly well.

If we ever get a Disney Fantastic Four cartoon, I would like it to be based on this run since it’s done a marvelous job of flashing out each person behind the uniform.