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After a little bit of a break we are back with the fourth edition of volume two of the Comic Book Catch-Up. This issue is all about the Fantastic Four and their related books. Some good stuff this time around
Spoiler Alert
Catching Up – Fantastic Four:
-Fantastic Four #’s 547-549- The Fantastic Four return from their fight with Galactus as Reed investigates a meteor with Hank Pym. It seems this meteor is a message to Earth. There is something that will attack them and destroy them. Its not Galactus though, it is some other world-devourers. Meanwhile, the new Frightful Four attack Sue Richards, who is by herself on Titan, and they think they are successful in killing Reed. They aren’t, of course, and the FF show up to save Sue and dispatch the Frightful Four. They head to the other planet that had been destroyed and are attacked by the beings. They had a lot of unnecessary stuff in these issues (Ben talking to Ororo about her hair) but overall it was a good three issues. They seem to be running out of ideas if they are using another world-devourer.
-Marvel Spotlight Featuring The Fantastic Four- There’s a Dwayne McDuffie interview that wasn’t too interesting, Paul Pelletier doing commentary on FF #544 which should’ve been longer, a cool look at the Galactus Trilogy with comments by Erik Larsen which, again, should’ve been longer. There’s a cool look at Walt Simonson’s run on the Fantastic Four, a cool Top Ten list of Thing stories, a preview of Silver Surfer Requiem and a nice interview with Stan Lee on his Last FF story. The first interview wasn’t too good but this spotlight was jam-packed with cool stuff.
-Black Panther #’s 27-30- The Fantastic Four return from their battle with the Surfer only to have some monster from the Negative Zone floating around the Baxter. They cannot defeat it so they use the frog to teleport far, far away to leave the creature there. They end up on a Skrull galaxy when the Marvel Zombies show up. Yep, they went to another universe. They needed more Zombie action so we see the Zombies eating a bunch of Skrulls. The FF try to escape since they know they can’t fight them and use the frog to teleport, right to where a new Negative Zone zombie monster is waiting for them. I like the Marvel Zombies but this is getting a bit ridiculous now. They are everywhere and it’s getting gratuitous now. Still, an entertaining four issues.
-Ultimate Fantastic Four #’s 41-45- Issue #41 tied up the Diablo storyline with Reed defeating Diablo with a circuit breaker and his newly powered sister delivering the final blow. The storyline started out great but puttered to an end in this issue. #’s 42-45 looked to cash in on the movie and Reed, in one of his experiments, messes up and brings the Silver Surfer to Earth. He brings his master there, too. Who could it be? No, not Galactus, it is Psycho Master. He imprisons the Earth with his mind-control device and brings them (including the FF) to Zenn-La. While there Surfer tells Reed how Psycho Master trapped him and that Reed is the only one who can save them. This isn’t rocking my world at all, but it’s not horrible.
-Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #’s 24-27- Number 24 is a neat little mystery where Namor’s tridents are stolen and Sue is suspected since it seems an invisible person stole them. Reed unravels the truth in a neat ending. Number 24 is a fun little What If type story, 26 featured the Silver Surfer and the FF dealing with Galactus and 27 has the Inhumans fighting the FF due to a misunderstanding. I love the Marvel Adventures line since they are all one-issue stories, with some great storytelling and always has an ending! Great stuff here.
Overall, the Fantastic Four books were very good this time around. The Black Panther books and the Marvel Adventures books were the best, while the core titles and the Ultimate titles left something to be desired.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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