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This would be the Fantastic Four portion of the CBCU. Same rules apply, 1 point is awarded for each acceptable issue, 0 for the ones that suck.
Oh yeah, Spoilers Ahead.
Catching Up – Fantastic Four:
-Black Panther #’s 31-32- Black Panther and the rest of the FF left using the frogs from the Skrull infested Zombie world and ended up trapped by the Psycho Man. The strong will power of Black Panther and Storm defeated Psycho Man (which was pretty anti-climactic) then the frogs, which now have a life of their own, send the FF to the Skrull gang-world where the Thing went to many years ago. They never say when this took place, but I did some research and found this to be a Kirby/Lee creation way back in FF #’s 91-92. So the FF fight, and all of them are captured, except Storm. Guess they will all be fighting to the death. Yawn on both issues account. They didn’t really feature anything too groundbreaking, Psycho Man was a waste of time, and more Skrulls in this title? Oh, the frogs seem to have a mind of their own and have a vendetta against Panther which is the only interesting thing happening these two issues. We’ll go 0/2 here.
-Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #’s 28-30- Issue #28 is a cute story where Silver Surfer is looking for acceptance and finds a self-help TV doctor. She changes his image and Surfer starts doing good deeds, like giving everyone money and ending famine. It backfires on him and the FF show him the error of his ways. They still have to defeat the self-help doctor and her odd crew but, that’s pretty much academic. The comic takes a turn with a new artist and it seems a bit darker. #29 sees the FF meeting up with the Hulk, who is destroying planes left and right. It is due to a scientist trying to provoke the Hulk so his weapons could be sold. Hulk and FF save the day and everyone finds out Hulk is actually Banner! So much for his secret identity! #30 for the first time that I can remember doesn’t show the main protaginest of the villain. That may be because Johnny is pissed that the FF are not helping with the locals and only saving other worlds. Reed shows him that all their good deeds are for a reason and it really is a good story. These are just fun reads, and a perfect introduction to the FF and comics in general for any youngster looking to pick these titles up. I’ll go 3/3 here and not feel bad about it at all.
-Fantastic Four #’s 550-552- FF #550 finally ends the Initiative banner on the title. Let’s see, the FF must save Eternity (the character) from the virus he has. Watcher interferes (again) and gets Gravity to help with the surgery on Eternity and you know what, I can’t make this stuff up. This was definitely way too out there. The Black Panther and Storm leave the team at the end. I didn’t like this storyline at all. Good riddance. #’s 551-552 started a new story where Dr. Doom from the future comes back to warn the FF that Reed’s 100 ideas cause a big problem in the future, especially idea #101. Reed doesn’t believe him but Doom brought Namor and Black Panther with him to convince him. When Reed learns Sue left him for Namor, he shoots his head off! The next issue we find out they are robots, and Doom and the FF fight, with the FF being vanquished. The future FF show up at the end. Time-traveling stories are usually confusing and this was no exception. I enjoyed the first part of the story but I don’t know about the second one, yet. We’ll call this 1/3.
-Ultimate Fantastic Four #’s 46-48- Issue 46 ends the Psycho Man story and he’s featured a lot more strongly than in Black Panther. The FF and Silver Surfer team up to stop him in what was a pretty iffy conclusion involving Reed’s sister and the Earth returning to normal with no memory of anything. It was passable. Issues #’s 47-48 saw Reed being controlled by something and locking himself into a room. Sue is brought to Russia under the pretense that she’s attending some sort of science meeting. She is captured by the Red Ghost who wants to use her body to heal his dead wife. His assistant has a Crimson Dynamo glove and she kills Ghost, wanting to take Sue’s power for her own. The FF show up in #48 and fight the Crimson Dynamo. They stop and Crimson says he can help them find Sue. Sue wakes up right before she is killed and dodges the attempt by the female assistant, who becomes some sort of beastial monstrosity at the end. I doubt Red Ghost is dead, it’d be a waste to introduce him then kill him like that. This was the best of the FF mainstream titles this month and I don’t have a problem going 3/3 for them.
-The Bottom Line- Ultimately the one word that I can think of is forgettable. Most of these stories were indeed forgettable which is very sad considering FF is one of Marvel’s premiere titles, at least it was. The final tally looks like 7/11 but the Ultimate titles I was pretty easy on. The Black Panther and FF left a lot to be desired and when your best stuff on the first family of Marvel is in a kid’s all-ages book, that’s a problem. I hope Millar and Finch can breathe new life into this dying title.
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