Fantastic Four Tie-Ins Review

[Doctor Doom]

Since Nutcase offered, I intend to do reviews of the two, in my opinion, most important tie-in series, Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man. FF is a tricky beast. BOTH series were written by JMS, but one is far, far superior, so as to make the shared writing almost unrecognizable. Without further ado....


FANTASTIC FOUR 538:

Doom's Deconstruction: The F4 are gathered around Johnny's hospital bed after Civil War #1. Sue and Reed have a brief argument which Ben breaks up, and he then offers to take watch. There's a brief but amusing sequence as Ben talks to Johnny's unconscious body, then Sue relieves him. Ben watches on television and discovers there is trouble in Yancy Street.

He sees Ms Marvel battling Silverclaw but does not intervene either way, going straight to the street. There, he discovers the Yancy Street Gang are causing trouble for the police, so he speaks to them. They basically object to the law a lot, and he responds by telling them he doesn't agree with the law but he won't fight his own government. In the end, he leaves, both sides unconvinced. It is revealed that the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker are supplying information to the Gang. Meanwhil,e in Oklahoma, a certain D.B. picks up Thor's hammer and flies away....

The View of Doom: The first issue isn't exactly strong but it does show some promise. There is nothing of Johnny and very very little of Reed or Sue, both of which were needed. Considering JMS will go on to only really show Ben, that's a bad thing. Still, Ben's view is made clear and it's solid and makes sense. In his argument, both sides make sense. I also love seeing classic FF villains behind the scenes again, but this issue can hardly be distingushed for anything, being merely a bog standard issue which sets up the return of Thor which will occur Over a year later[/u] and shows us te view of ONE member of the FF.

Doom Decrees that this issue shalt be given... six point five gold Dooms Out of Ten.

[Doctor Doom]

Fantastic Four #539:

Doom's Deconstruction: Underground, Cap's Resistance are supplied with the location of some transported prisoners by the Yancy Street Gang. Meanwhile, the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker discuss their scheme- which, basically, is to cause chaos and kill heroes by taking over some helicoptor pilots, supplying the information to Cap on the convoys and planting a bomb to cause mayhem.

The Thing catches word of a protest in Yancy Street and heads there. Cap's Resistance attack the convoy and there is a chaotic melee. THe Thing wanders into it and both sides entreat him to help, but he refuses to help either side. Then a Yancy Street Gang member, under Puppet Master's control, plants a bomb.

The Thing manages to contain the blast of the bomb- but not before it kills one of the Gang. He then holds his body and roars at both sides, basically shouting "A Plague on Both Your Houses!" Neither Iron Man nor Cap get it, both entreating Ben to join them again. Ben chooses at last; he picks neither side and says he's moving away and may not come back.

The View of Doom: The most solid issue of Fantastic Four JMS will ever write. It should be noted there is NO Sue, NO Johnny and NO Reed. To a degree I understand, as this is post-CW4 in storyline but pre-CW4 in publication and they don't want to give things away, but for God's sake then WHY DID JMS make 538 practically Reed-less, Sue-less and Johnny-less as well? JMS writes a good Thing but this is starting to feel like the Fantastic One. That doesn't say much for JMS' writing skills with the team.

The battle, even if it's basically a duplication of the one in ASM 534, is written well. The events make sense and it reads with ASM very very nicely. The Puppet Master and Thinker's schemes are pretty weak, but JMS writes them well enough and they've never been the most high tier villains out there.

The conclusion is clearly the best part, I love what JMS is saying here: BOTH sides are wrong, and BOTH sides have become so blinded by their ideals that they refuse to see how their war is hurting others. It makes perfect sense, and it makes more sense that Ben Grimm is the one who notices and calls them out. And Ben also takes the only route he can; really this is an average issue with a beautiful finish.

Doom Decrees THat This Issue Shalt Be Given.... Eight Gold Dooms Out Of Ten

[Doctor Doom]

Fantastic Four 540:

Doom's Deconstruction: Reed Richards is working on transporting a prisoner to the Negative Zone. A soldier hums "Werner Von BRaun" to himself while Reed thinks about the numbers and only the numbers. The prisoner escapes and Reed goes after her.... only to find she's gone, turned invisible. He calls out Sue, who steps into view.

The Invisible Woman and he argue, basically for half the issue. Reed says the law is the law and he has to protect her, she calls him a Nazi and makes a very poor comparison which he totally fails to respond to, she makes a rational argument while he gibbers like a buffoon. In the end, she storms out.

Reed then returns to thinking about the numbers. Ben comes and says he'll be leaving for France, but Reed doesn't greatly care and doesn't dissuade him. We have a repeat of a scene from ASM 535 as Reed explains some godawful motive about his uncle to Peter Parker and gets owned for it. Reed then begins to sing Werner Von Braun.

The View of Doom: And it all came tumbling down. After two serviceable issues, JMS lets the FF collapse into the worst book he has written yet, of ANY comic I've read. Civil War 4 opened up enormous potential and he manages to totally contradict it. Sue never once brings up Clor killing Goliath, which is pretty surprising since it's a COLOSSAL PLOT POINT and the REASON FOR HER DEFECTION.

Their argument is also insane; she makes all sorts of inaccurate comparisons and JMS refuses to have Reed argue back properly. But what's worse is that he writes a hideous Reed- a Reed who believes the law is always the law and you should always follow the law, flying in the face of four decades of Fantastic Four stories, and this "think about the numbers" and "uncle retcon" rubbish which make no sense.

The ONLY character to be written well in this travesty is Ben. Perhaps it's a GOOD thing JMS didn't write much Reed and Sue in his previous issues now we've come to it, and still no Johnny at all. A very bad issue from a very good creator.

Doom Decrees That This Issue Shalt Be Given.... Three Gold Dooms Out Of Ten

[Doctor Doom]

Fantastic Four #541:

I refuse to review this. Suffice to say this: Ben goes to France. That's it. It has zero relevance to CivilW ar really, is a joke issue which isn't even funny and is wildly out of place. IT's also JMS' last issue, thank God. I give it a zero out of ten, suffice to say in his four CivilW ar tie-ins, JMS focuses three on Ben and never ever shows a conscious Johnny. A hideous end to an average run. I pray McDuffie can do better....

[Doctor Doom]

Fantastic Four #542:

Doom's Deconstruction: Johnny and Reed meet in a restaurant, automatically giving us more Johnny than we've had in the past four issues. They have a brief discussion- basically, Reed knows Johnny has joined the Resistance and can't prove it, Johnny wants a reason why Reed does what he does. Reed spews this "protecting you, the law is the law" stuff and Johnny calls him on it, calling it what it is. Reed is about to say something else, but stops himself. He then decides to get someone else to check his equations.

The lair of the Mad Thinker. He is confronted by Johnny and Reed, who "persuade" him to return with them to the Baxter Building. He does, and they encounter Damage Control rebuilding the Building after Sue stormed out (the cost is exactly what he predicted last issue incidentally) and have an altercation with the kids, where we see Reed is now taking good care of them. Johnny heads off.

Reed shows the Thinker a room where he has hundreds of equations- basically, he liked Asimov's psychohistory so much that he invented it as a kid, his first entirely new science. Off in France (sigh), Ben fights some Hydra loons and is told to return to America. Johnny flies over and speaks with him, leaving a Fantasticar segment in case Ben changes his mind.

The Thinker says he can find no flaws in Reed's equations; without the SHRA and a precise series of horrible events, the entire world is doomed. They have a brief chat and the Thinker basically says Tony Stark is a true hero because he knows what he's doing and how much he stands to lose but is doing it anyway for a better world, but Reed naively thought he could do these things at no cost to himself. He then tells Sue to "come out now", saying he knew she was there by common sense. Sue says to Reed that now she knows his true motives, etc, and she's angry at him for lying to them. She says she's going with Cap and they're going to win this war. "No, don't you see?" he responds sadly. "You won't."

The View of Doom: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAHHHH! GOOOOO MCDUFFIE! This is a brilliant issue, and even better in comparison to past issues. First, let's run it down: BOth children there! ALL FOUR of the FF active and with lines! Motive for Reed! Alicia mentioned! Wacky new sciences used! Interaction with characters acting in-character! Reed Richards scary-smart! I AM READING A REAL FANTASTIC FOUR COMIC ONCE AGAIN!

This issue gives us a good, deep motive for Reed. It's building on Millar's from Civil War 2 and improving it, and really it makes perfect sense for Reed's character. It also shifts the dynamic of his relationship with the others from "Why are you doing this!?" to "Why did you lie to us about it??" McDuffie skillfully not only retcon s the uncle crap, but actually explains why Reed was making such bizarre and out of character jsutifications in 540... Now the explanation leaves a little to be desired, but it's still much more than I expected. He even wraps up the Thinker plot from 539!

Johnny has an actual part, and is written skillfully, which rather astonished me after so long being basically Johnny-less. Ben was only in a few pages and they STILL said just as much as the past four issues of Fantastic Four! We had a cool cliffhanger to set up the finale of civil war. The Thor-Cyborg was actually mentioned! CHARACTERS INTERACTED WITH ONE ANOTHER>

This issue is a ray of sunlight breaking through the stormclouds.

Doom Decrees That This Issue Shalt Be Given.... Nine Gold Dooms Out Of Ten.

[Nutcase65]

so you would rate this run as 6.5 gold Dooms out of 10 on an average.

While doing this review did ou come across anything that you hadn't noticed before?

[Doctor Doom]

Well I technically didn't review 543, which was a civil war epilogue.

Besides, this was two runs- and take out the McDuffie issue I averaged the JMS FF tie-ins as roughly 4.5 out of ten!

The major thing I noted is how seamless the transition McDuffie makes. He doesn't just ignore JMS' horrible stories, he builds off them, explains away JMS' inconsistencies and wraps up threads JMS had jsut left hanging.

[Nutcase65]

Another thing I'd like to add to your review Doom is this. Each of the other series dealt with one main aspect of the story, be it politics, friendship, enforcement, whatever. I liked how this run concentrated on the effects the war had on families. Like the original Civil WAr here in the states, or as we in the south say 'the War of Northern Aggression' you had members of the same families fighting diiferent sides of this war.

I think they did a really good job bringing out this aspect of the story.