Best of Marvel: Week of February 19th, 2020

Best of this Week: Fantastic Four #19 (Legacy #664) – Dan Slott, Sean Izaakse, Marcio Menyz, Erick Arciniega and Joe Caramagna

It all began with one fateful foray into space.

Reed Richards, a gifted scientist from Empire State University, his brilliant wife, Susan Storm, her hot headed younger brother, Johnny Storm and expert pilot Ben Grimm board the Marvel-1 in an attempt to explore space. Unfortunately for them, their ship is hit with a wave of Cosmic Rays, sending them crashing back to the Earth and giving them all special powers. For decades, we all thought that everything was Reed’s fault for not having strong enough shields, blessing and cursing his family with powers, but we learn here that that is not the case.

Throughout the last five issues, The Fantastic Four have been fighting against the people of Spyre; A planet of normal people, enhanced people and monsters that have feared the prophecy of the “Four-Told,” beings that would destroy Spyre and their way of life. After Reed exposes their leader, The Overseer, for being the one that released the cosmic rays on the Four, Ben climbs his tower and beats the everloving crap out of him and destroys the tower in the process.

Realizing that the Overseer stands defeated and the eye that watched them is no more, every citizen turns on the FF, proclaiming that the prophecy did happen as the Overseer lay in the rubble. This issue picks up in the immediate aftermath (after a preview of the coming story in the first few pages involving Mole Man and Wyatt Wingfoot). Sue places a barrier over the FF as the citizens, heroes and monsters pelt her forcefield with fists and rock. Previously, the citizens were divided by their classes, but now they’ve united against Reed and the Four.

One of the more interesting subplots that Dan Slott had been weaving is the burgeoning relationship between supposed “soulmates” in Johnny Storm and a Spyrian hero named Sky, a darker skinned girl with wings that may actually be in love with another hero by the name of Citadel. This is one of the few times that Johnny shows an actual longstanding interest in a woman, especially since their connection was made shortly after the Fours first failed mission unbeknownst to him.

Slott had been building this up and getting readers invested in their struggle of love and it’s good to see Johnny loving someone like he did with Medusa or Crystal of the Inhumans.This is further tested as Sky is torn between the traditions of her people and her disdain for the FF after their actions. Of course, she’s not the only one who is irate as the Overseer picks himself back up and calls Reed out for a one-on-one brawl.

Reed’s never been the best fighter in the world, but he’s always had ways to use his powers to his advantage and can still hold himself pretty well. Sean Izaakse portrays that pretty well with a few expertly drawn pages of battle as Reed uses his stretchy abilities to dodge energy beams, punch Overseer from afar and uses his arm as a slingshot to fling boulders at the villain. Izaakse and Erick Arciniega work in perfect tandem to make these scenes exciting with bright colors and dynamic angles.

Things get even crazier as Overseer fights back with his own arsenal of suit abilities. Izaakse draws amazing looking rings for sonic blasts that Arciniega colors with a beautiful yellow. Then switches it up for crackling blue lightning and finally ends things with Kirby-esque bubbles of energy that go from a dark orange to a dastardly purple to match Overseer’s beautiful armor. This fight is absolutely gorgeous to look at even as the panels are mostly medium sized, widescreen rectangles.

Throughout their fight, the two have an exchange that boils down to hubris vs. personal responsibility and both make pretty good points. Reed had always blamed himself for what had happened to his friends and family, thinking that his miscalculations are what put them all in anger and that weight is lifted off of his shoulders with rage at finally punching the cause. Overseer, feared for the lives of his people from the potential threat from beyond by a man that never asked what the greater galaxy wanted. Reed always does things like this and Overseer’s only course of action was to curtail it before things got bad.

As always, Reed does what he does best, uses his brain to talk Overseer down, knowing that he too hasn’t fully mastered the use of Cosmic Rays and suggests that they could accomplish more together than against each other (opposite his conversation with Charles Xavier – see X-Men + Fantastic Four). Reed proposes that the two make a trade of sorts and offers the people of Spyre a chance similar to what Ben has in “The Almost Cure,” something we’ve seen used recently when Ben and Alicia Masters went on their honeymoon and would have allowed him to turn human for a day until he fought the Hulk and landed in a coma.

The Monster Men take umbrage with the idea because Ben had preached appreciating who one is on the inside when he rallied them to fight Overseer, but when one of the Heroes of the Spyre asks if it will work on him too, almost everyone seems to want in on the change. Of course there are others who see the FF’s gift as what will truly destroy their people, showing that some people just can’t be pleased. As their time on Spyre draw to a close, Reed and Johnny bond together like they did when this arc started as Johnny muses on what his life would have been without his powers.

It’s a touching scene and Dan Slott has always been great at things like these. From his time on Spider-Man and She Hulk, he’s shown that he has skill in giving readers heartfelt moments, especially given that we almost hardly ever see the pair together. This is accentuated by Izaakse drawing Johnny with a smile on his face as he flies through the skies with an almost old school look colored by Arciniega with lush oranges and intense reds.

Just as the FF are about to depart, Overseer tells them that only ones soulmate can remove the soul bindings on their arms. After a few pages of searching for Sky, she shows up to Johnny. I think the implication is that she went on some soul searching away from Johnny and when he offers to remove her Soul Binding, she refuses and tells Johnny he can keep his too as she’s joining them on the trip to Earth.

Suffice to say, this is as shocking to The FF as one might expect as they add yet another hero to the ranks, but she likely won’t be on the main team, but more as a supporting role until Marvel decides to give her a miniseries and then sends her back to the Spyre. She’s certainly a welcome addition and it’ll be fun to see what kind of shenanigans she and Johnny will get into as he’s naturally flirtatious and she wants to keep to the traditions of her people. It’s difficult to say that she’s fully in love with Johnny still as she flirts with Citadel before they disembark.

Overall, this was a really fun issue and concludes a story that had a surprising amount of heart and depth. Generally, I like the idea of Cosmic Happenstance and did love the mysterious nature of how the FF got their powers. I might have preferred that things be kept random chance, but honestly, I wasn’t put off by this equally ridiculous explanation either. At the same time, Dan Slott also alleviates some of the guilt from Reed’s shoulders which could be a double edged sword for him in the future if his ego grows too large.

Sean Izaakse and Erick Arciniega also do an amazing job on the art (I can’t leave out Marcio Menyz, but I didn’t really care for the Wingfoot stuff). The pair smash it with the visual storytelling through fantastic facial expressions, body language and utopian setting. One thing that took me time to notice was that all of the people of Spyre were black. It’s a small, but nice touch that makes them stand out amongst the other races that we see throughout the galaxy.

Depending on how the next issue goes, I may stick with the series, but I’ve never been a big fan of Mole Man stories, so I may drop off until the next arc, but this one was absolutely worth the time, a high recommend!

Best of Marvel: Week of January 15th, 2019

Best of this Week: Iron Man 2020 #1 – Dan Slott, Christos Gage, Pete Woods and Joe Caramagna

This shouldn’t work, but oddly enough it does.

Machine life forms in the Marvel Universe have a complicated history in terms of their status as sentient beings and whether or not they feel as humans do. Ultron has always displayed a rage and hatred towards humanity and the Avengers in particular not dissimilar to any number of human or alien enemies of these heroes. On the flip side of that, Machine Man, since his original comic series and until his newfound prejudice against meatbags, has always sought to show just how human that he is in the face of anti-robot discrimination. (see Machine Man, 1978)

This conflict was on full display in Tom King’s amazing Vision (2015) series which saw Vision feared for building a robotic family and trying to live a human life. While robots and AI based beings aren’t nearly as hated and reviled as mutants, Dan Slott’s Iron Man series has been building to this – a human/robot war spurred on by Tony Stark’s brother Arno. Though he’s not quite the Arno Stark from 1984’s Iron Man 2020, he still sees a future in peril from an as of yet unknown technological threat.

Pete Woods opens this book with Arno having a nightmare in the form of a planet sized being that looks like they’re composed of circuits and death. Woods colors the lights of the creature with an eerie purple tone that accentuates its darker purple-ish exoskeleton. Arno appears almost as an insect by comparison as he floats towards this. All of this is made even creepier by Joe Caramagna’s use of stilted, robotic lettering to give the creature a cold and calculated voice of doom. When we do get a close up of Arno’s face, he is stricken with fear.

Arno’s been up to a lot in the background of Tony’s adventures in the Tony Stark: Iron Man series from the last year. He’s resurrected his dead parents sing the same method and technology that Tony did after Carol Danvers killed him (and she DID kill him), he’s taken up the mantle of Iron Man after Tony revealed himself to have been an advanced AI in the form of Tony Stark and he’s found himself a partnership with the money hungry Sunset Bain, who’s now in control of Stark Unlimited after Tony’s revelation. Arno’s been a busy man.

On top of all of this, spilling out of The Ultron Agenda, there’s a crisis among the people over the uprising of machines which Arno eggs on by calling even the most advanced ones lifelike simulations.Janet van Dyne tries to quell the fears and James Rhodes can’t be bothered to talk to the press as he also has robot matters to deal with. One of the first conflicts that Slott and Gage present us with is a hostage situation in which Life Model Decoys of the original Nick Fury try to liberate construction bots. Woods frames it as a dangerous situation with one of the LMDs holding the site manager as a human shield. The numbers of the LMDs look intimidating until Iron Man appears.

Pete Woods does an amazing job in revamping the original 2020 armor for the modern day. Arno looks like a terror with his almost Ultron like faceplate and even more ridiculously oversized gears as shoulder pieces. He retains the standard Iron Man colors and even homages the original golden legs by placing armor over the front of his legs. I would have preferred that all of the leg be gold, but Woods still does well with the redesign and the pose that he gives Arno when he appears – blowing the head off an LMD with lethal force.

Arno quashes this rebellion easily enough, but somehow all of the robots manage to escape. Tensions continue to rise and the same thing happens when anti-robot forces invade a secret robot bar and they manage to escape again. We then find out that one of the heads of the Robot Rebellion is Machine Man (Aaron Stack). Both Machine Man and Arno Stark were the feature characters in the original Iron Man 2020 story so it’s great that Slott and Gage recognized that and revitalized their history in this new story. The potential for their eventual conflict to end in much the same way is pretty tantalizing in my eyes as Machine Man defeats Arno at one point in that original story.

Though, I have to admit that both sides in this story have some NEFARIOUS ways of taking the fight to one another. In an effort to draw out the Robot Resistance, Sunset Bain and Arno blow up a robotics factory after buying it out. Woods draws Aaron with genuine shock and anguish as he watches the explosion on the screen and it really sells how much pain this is causing. After the broadcast, Sunset and Arno look at the rubble as a necessary evil to stop Stack and his followers.

In retaliation, however, Machine Man WIRES A BOMB TO A MATERNITY WARD. I’m usually on board with Robot Rights, even advocating for better AIs in sex dolls, but this is the thing that people are afraid of and Aaron is only stoking the flames of fear here. It’s a reckless move that won’t garner support for the Robot Rights Movement, if anything Arno is just going to fight back against Machine Man and the Resistance even harder out of fear of his nightmare.

Woods draws an amazing stare down between Machine Man and Arno, neither of them really having eyes to blink with. Machine Man gives Arno an ultimatum; either let him and the poor bomb disposal robot escape or the bomb goes off. In five panels, we see the character of both. We get ne close up shot of Arno’s plated eyes with rain pouring down on him and similar shot of Machine Man, then we get a third person perspective with the bomb on one side and Machine Man on the other. Arno takes the bomb and Aaron taunts him as he flies away. It’s tense and the lack of dialogue makes it far more serious than expected from the mostly comedy character that Machine Man has become.

Arno also tried to warn Aaron of what was coming, but I understand why he didn’t want to listen. For whatever reason Slott gave Arno a sudden-ish character change either in a recent Iron Man annual or a little while before a rogue AI invaded Tony’s eScape (2019?). Arno was initially helpful and supportive of his brother and robots like Jocasta, but then all of a sudden he became withdrawn and kind of a dick. This version of Arno had been locked away, unable to move without machines until Tony found him and tried to reintroduce him into the world (Iron Man, 2013), so maybe Slott and Gage are building on his use of the Extremis virus for movement to explain the change?

Alternatively, this is all just a way to retell the original Iron Man 2020 story as Arno inadvertently created the threat he went back in time to stop in that story because he refused to take a moment to see how damaging his actions were and that same recklessness is on full display here with Arno 2.0.

All in all, this story was pretty weird and fantastic. I doubt it will reach the heights of the philosophical masterpiece that is Nier: Automata in regards to it’s “can machines feel human too” themes, but Slott and Gage are doing their best and that gives us a fan story with lots of callbacks to the past. Pete Woods pencils, coloring and inking are phenomenal here and make this book visually appealing. His style and heavy hitting action give the proper weight that an Iron Man story needs and his updated 2020 Armor isn’t bad at all. This one is absolutely a high recommend.

Best of Marvel: Week of September 4th, 2019

Runner Up: Fantastic Four #14 (Legacy #659) – Dan Slott, Paco Medina, Jesus Aburtov and Joe Caramagna

Sometimes you just have to sit back and smell the roses.

Growing up, I actually thought the Fantastic Four were pretty lame. They weren’t exactly high on my radar because they were a family of explorers, scientists and just general nerds. I got seriously into comics around the time their last book hit the shelves prior to all of the Disney/Fox nonsense and that really awful movie which soured me on them even more. Things changed when I began to read Secret War (2015) and realized that there was so much more that I was missing.

I scoured my stores for back issue and trade paperbacks of everything written by Jonathan Hickman, Mark Millar and Reginald Hudlin before seeking out the older stories by George Perez, John Byrne and Roy Thomas. I learned to love their love of science, adventure and family oriented stories, so when they finally made their Marvel return, I was excited and so far they’ve done nothing but impress. This particular issue is one of the best examples of how even just dialogue, dynamics and expressions can build a great foundation for a simple yet amazing story.

The Fantastic Four have been everywhere. Other dimensions,hellscapes, universes and planets, but there’s still one mission that they’ve never completed: their original flight to the stars. After a new gallery opens showcasing the original shuttle that they traveled on in all of its destroyed glory, Reed reminisces of that time with happiness. Ben listens to one of the original black box recordings as they were first getting hit by Cosmic Rays and he’s overwhelmed with negative feelings. Two original Pilots for the space flight thank Johnny and Sue for taking their place, saying that they could have become monsters like Ben and Johnny becomes enraged with Sue having to calm him down.

These moments remind us of who these wonderful characters are and always have been. Reed is a scientific mind that’s always looking to achieve more and better himself and his inventions. Ben still lives with the inner scars of his transformation despite being one of the most respected heroes in all of the Marvel Universe. Johnny is a hothead and Sue, his sister, has always been there to calm him down. The First Family have been there for each other forever, they know each other better than anyone else does. They care about each other.

Paco Medina captures each of their emotions in a Fantastic way with excellent facial expressions and body language accentuated by Jesus Aburtov’s stellar colors.

Reed stands tall as he marvels at the old shuttle with his kids, his face is full of pride and joy while they look mildly unimpressed. Later while he’s working on specs for a new shuttle, we can see how focused he is, how determined. His fantastic beard shows how he’s aged from his previous clean shaven self, but he’s even more refined.

Ben remembers the original flight with trepidation and trembles as he remember his words when he was first becoming a rock monster. He stomps around in his normal grumpiness, but by the end, knowing that Reed, Sue and Johnny know and care about him so much, he smiles and eagerly helps them on their next journey.

Johnny, being the hothead he is, does in fact show his anger as his eyes begin to turn orange after Ben is insulted, but we get an amazing flashback to when he was just a young adult in the shuttle program and the rigorous training that he was put through by Ben. This showcases just how much Johnny wanted to go to the stars and shows us how long he’s been the ultra determined man that we know and love. Medina draws him going through the training with ease, only having space on his mind and the want to prove Ben and the other pilots wrong, becoming the youngest ever back up pilot in that universe.

Sue, being the ever loving sister, is the calm one as she gets Johnny to back off. She’s radiant as a character and Medina portrays as her the linchpin of the family. She’s the graceful one, drawn as serious as Reed, but with her normal beauty as well. She shows just how in love she is with her husband as he works on the specs and lays her head on his shoulder, smiling like she does in the flashback.

Nothing super action-y happens in this issue, in fact, one of the best moments is Johnny and Reed having a bonding moment working on the second shuttle. Both comment on how neither is using their powers to make the work easier and they share a laugh together. It’s just a nice, warm moment between brothers-in-law doing something that they haven’t been able to in years. It was at this time where I just fell in love all over again.

The Fantastic Four are more than just space adventures, aliens and Doctor Doom plots. They are a family in comics unlike any other. Where most teams are just friends that might hang out every once in a while, the FF are a family with a rich history and ever growing numbers with Franklin, Valeria and now Alicia Masters marrying Ben. The love is palpable and I wish I’d understood this for so many years prior. I can’t wait for where this next adventure takes them, but I’m all for it.

Best of Marvel: Week of August 21st, 2019

Best of this Week: Tony Stark: Iron Man #15 (Legacy #615) – Dan Slott, Jim Zub, Juanan Ramirez, Francesco Manna, Edgar Delgado and Joe Caramagna

Tony Stark may not be the man he says he is anymore.

Since the landmark 600th issue of Iron Man, Tony Stark hasn’t been entirely sure that he is actually himself and not just a strange collection of nanobots and machines strung together in the form of the billionaire tech wizard. After the horrible incident surrounding eScape, Tony Stark’s virtual reality world, leads to the deaths of a few people and millions or more in property damage, Tony has to take the stand and address what exactly happened.

He’s grilled pretty thoroughly on what an AI is and how much was his responsibility vs. how much can be blamed on Controller, the supervillain who hacked into the supposedly secure network and caused all of this damage. Overseeing the hearing is a surprising character from another mechanical superheroes past. Senator Miles Brickman, a character that originally appeared as something of an anti-machine/anti-AI character in the pages of Machine Man’s original series, it livid and irate at Tony Stark. Showing a bit of prejudice in his questioning, he asks has Tony Stark ever made any changes to his body using technology, then follows by asking “Can you prove that you’re not some form of artificial intelligence?”

Tony initially tries to dance around the question, but upon being reminded that he’s under oath, reveals that it is actually quite possible as his body was put back together cell by cell while he was in his coma. This shocks everyone, from Rhodey to Bethany Cabe, his head of security at Stark Unlimited, and even his brother Arno Stark who is watching the hearing from his office at Baintronics, the rival technology company.

Things start to heat up as Brickman produces the Tony Stark AI that was used by Riri Williams while Tony was in a coma and asks does this fully functioning, autonomous copy have legal rights and responsibilities. What makes me so uncomfortable about this scene is that it plays on the fear of the unknown. Brickman has tried to have Machine Man destroyed in the past and even knowing that Tony Stark has saved the world in the past, he’s not willing to consider that he still has right once it’s admitted that he may not be fully human anymore. In a way it mirrors some of our own discussions as it pertains to AI and whether or not we’ll allow them autonomy once they become advanced enough for it. There’s a whole discussion for sex robots that no one is qute ready for just yet.

AI Tony calls for a recess after a few snarky lines as we cut to Vision and Wonder Man arriving at Avengers mansion, thinking they’ve been called to assist in Tony’s hearing. Immediately some red flags might want to be set off with the characters involved, especially when Jarvis lets them in and soon after betrays them with a large piece of metal embedded in the back of his head with a familiar design.

The Wasp, Janet van Dyne, flies through a robot protest on her way to meet Tony for lunch and catches him talking to Tony AI. Tony AI agrees to be loaded into the Iron Man suit and they all fly off when suddenly they’re met with a gross amalgamation of Vision and Wonder Man fused together. Ramirez’s art makes him look so horrifying with only half of Wonder Man’s luxurious hair and cracking skin that’s as red as Vision’s. He rushes at Tony in a rage and promises to rip the human and AI halves of him apart, displaying an anger that neither character has ever presented.

In the middle of their fight, Jarvis appears and zaps Janet, who was knocked out of the fight during the initial rush. He places her in his pocket and leaves thereafter. Tony and WonderVision continue their fight, destroying the robot protestors in the process. Tony realizes that they only way to stop them is to use a localized EMP which will also kill Tony AI. The technological Tony isn’t fazed and just tells Tony to kiss Jan a bunch and feel vaguely bad about it later.

Unfortunately, this leaves Tony in the middle of the carnage. He’s surrounded by broken robots, likely to take the blame for all of it and realizes that Jocasta was right, he only sees everything as data. He breathes a small sigh that he’s still alive and that WonderVision didn’t take Janet… until he can’t find her. We then cut to the surprising return of The Avengers greatest enemy as his new gambit to destroy Tony Stark and spark a new machine age is in full effect.

What I liked most about this issue is that Tony’s mistakes really catch up to him in a bad way. He’s always managed to skate by the skin of his teeth when his machines have gone haywire. While Brickman was being an asshole for the trial, he made a good point in that we don’t quite know if we can trust this Tony. Given what we as the audience know thus far, he’s falling hard. Almost going back to the drink, questioning his own existence, not even having the trust of the brother that’s been by his side since his appearance in the mid 2000s (in this universe).

And that ending, finally seeing the seeds of what’s been sewn for months now starting to take form, is always fun. I had wondered what happened to this character since Infinity Wars (2018) and I can’t wait to see where exactly this story is going to go and what the repercussions of that event will be. I also can’t wait to see how exactly he’ll scar Tony and his extended family now that he’s returned. High recommend!

Best of Marvel: Week of August 14th, 2019

Runner Up: Fantastic Four #13 (Legacy #658) – Dan Slott, Sean Izaakse, Marcio Menyz and Joe Caramagna

Before Steve Rogers was saying that he “could do this all day,” Ben Grimm was living that life.

The Thing has always been one of the toughest characters in all of Marvel, going toe-to-toe with just about anyone, be they person or celestial being way above his pay grade. Ben Grimm has never said die in his life and even when he’s on his back, he always stands right back up, dusts himself off and throws even more punches. Ben Grimm is about that life and that action.

This issue of Fantastic Four is just another amazing showcase of that spirit that Ben is so well known for. With less than an hour before he reverts back to his human form for a week, Ben tangos with the Hulk who’s shown up just in time to ruin his honeymoon with his new wife, Alicia Masters-Grimm. The first page starts with a CRACK as the Hulk decks Ben right in the face and Ben acknowledges that the Hulk has ALWAYS been stronger than him. He also acknowledges that if he doesn’t beat Hulk now, well, he won’t have to worry about the age old question of who’ll win in a fight.

Ben tries to convince Hulk to stop fighting for a moment to save the other vacationers, including Alicia as they’re trapped under the rubble. This distracts the real perpetrator of this fight, Puppet Master who’s controlling a clay doll of The Hulk, allowing Ben to get a few good licks in. He tries to plead to Banner if he’s still in there, but given Hulk’s current state, he reveals that he’s kinda into it and willingly goes along with the puppeting. Meanwhile, Alicia takes charge of the other trapped people and starts pulling rocks away to make an exit.

Izaakse’s art really shines in the second third of the book as The Thing trades punches with The Hulk. Everything feels so heavy as these two titans hit each other with all they’ve got. The Thing’s got speed and smaller size on his side and asks what did he ever do to piss the Puppet Master off. Hulk, as the Devil he is now, chimes in that Ben married Alicia without her father’s blessing. Hulk’s got the size and raw power in the fight as his strikes cause small shockwaves and break pieces off of Ben throughout the fight.

Ben laughs and says that she really must have wanted to marry him as Hulk also reveals that she used one of Puppet Master’s dolls to manipulate him into saying yes. Hulk taunts him back by calling him puny, saying that he’s punching above his weight as he continues to knock pieces off of him, exposing fleshy bits underneath the rock. Ben stands his ground for a while, saying that he’s always been punching up, whether in the UCWF, Marvel’s superpowered wrestling league, or in the Marines. Everything he’s learned was on Yancy Street and he headbutts Hulk before getting leveled with one last uppercut.

With just a few minutes left, Ben’s got nothing left in the tank. He tells himself that Alicia’s counting on him, but he can’t do it…until she shows up and gives him the pep talk that only a wife can give, allowing him the Second Wind that he needs. “No one has more heart than My Ben,” she says. Hulk rushes Ben with rage in his eyes and Ben simply cocks back, his wedding band glinting in the light and he gives The Hulk one hell of crushing left, cracking his rocky shell right open as his human timer clicks down to its last second. Hulk is laid the hell out, Puppet Master’s clay doll of Hulk is destroyed and Ben slowly transforms back into a human and slumps over from his injuries.

He wakes up a week later, back in his Thing form and laments that he missed his honeymoon as he and Alicia were gonna “make a family” if you catch his drift. She cheers him up by saying they have the rest of their lives and as a plus side, he finally beat The Hulk, ending the book on a happy note before the horrifying last few pages as The Hulk gets Puppet Master back.

I really enjoyed this book for showcasing a great character that hasn’t really been having an amazing time in recent years aside from his wedding. For the most part, this Fantastic Four book has been centered on him and Alicia and the great strides their relationship has taken. However, at the same time, he was shown to be vulnerable as the Hulk cracked through his outer shell. There’s just a small part of me that’s afraid of what the future holds for him and that this isn’t just a sign of things to come.

But for now, The Thing can finally say he beat The Hulk and that’s badass. High recommend.

Best of Marvel: Week of May 29th, 2019

Runner Up: Fantastic Four #10 (Legacy #655) War of the Realms Tie-In – Dan Slott, Paco Medina, Kevin Libranda, Jesus Aburtov and Joe Caramagna

Franklin and Valeria Richards are two of the most talented teenagers in the Marvel Universe. Franklin, at least before he started losing his powers, has the ability to create universes among other things. He’s also as headstrong as his Uncle Johnny and stronger than his Uncle Ben Grimm. Valeria has the intellect and engineering skills to match or go above those of Doctor Doom or her own father, Reed Richards.

They’ve spent most of their lives surrounded by other kids as special as they are, as smart as them or as powerful as them. They’re also used to the high life and adventure that being in the Fantastic Four brought them, so it’s no surprise that normal life is the biggest struggle facing either of them.

No longer living in the Baxter Building, missing the cute aquatic prince she met in another universe and not having an intellectual match near her age has left Valeria hopelessly bored. Franklin has become angry and introverted ever since he found out that his powers were depleting and he’s acting out because of it. Ben thinks he has just the right idea and makes Franklin help out at the local youth center.

It helps a little until some Yancy street kids try to bully Franklin, who does his best not to throttle them into the next reality. Alicia Masters, frequent friend of the FF and now Ben’s wife sees that the kids haven’t really had time to adjust and Ben then suggests hosting a Yancy Street block party!

Things go well with Reed and Sue finally meeting their neighbors, Valeria meeting an equal in “Moon Girl” Lunella Lafeyette and Franklin maybe developing a crush on Lunella’s older sister.

Things seem to go well enough until the War of the Realms reaches Yancy Street. The older FF does their best to save the people while Valeria and Lunella come up with a solution to get the Frost Giants away. When Franklin sees the regular people of the street fighting back, a fire is lit in his belly and he unloads on the Frost Giants even with his depleting power. Eventually Lunella and Valeria see that Valeria’s inter-dimensional cell tower is what’s attracting the monsters and Franklin destroys it.

Franklin gets over himself and tells his family that Yancy Street will be safe with his sister, Moon Girl and himself while they solve the larger problem.

The FF has always been about family and for Franklin and Valeria, being apart from the Future Foundation kids was equivalent to losing that family. And with the constant adventure hopping, they haven’t had a chance to establish a new family at home. Hopefully there will be more stories around these two in the future, especially with the upcoming Future Foundation book because they’re both great kids and it’ll be interesting to see how they continue to develop as characters.