Fantastic Four #395

[iamrman]

Wolverine is trying to make peace with the Thing when the Mad Thinker's goon squad attacks.

Ant-Man stowed away on the Fantasticar.

Comments

[blueprintstyles]

Nice to see Hank not presented as a maniac.

[tcampbell1000]

That's Scott.

[sabertoothlotus]

right. He'd stepped in after Reed "died." As I recall, Ben wasn't too pleased with the idea of someone replacing his best friend.

[cainofdreaming]

Ain't that always the case. Even when Hank looks good it isn't even him.

[super_fly]

That is still technically "Hank not being presented as a maniac"

[tcampbell1000]

Can't argue with that!

[blues32]

...those are supposed to be bone claws? They look very metallic.

[super_fly]

The ones in the closeup panel are white and have little bits of shading that look like they're meant to represent a bone-like texture

IMO realistically they wouldn't look much different apart from lacking the sheen of an adamantium coating. IDK maybe if they break they grow back different.

[blues32]

They're usually given a more yellowed color, rather than a shiny white.

[icon_uk]

So were the FF constantly bedevilled by an action figure sized Super Adaptoid every few days after this? Because I can't see it giving up, just because it's teeny, and it can probably swim.

[tcampbell1000]

This freakin' era, man.

I don't know if I mean "Nineties comics generally" or DeFalco FF, specifically.

There's a pretty solid pitch underlying this comic, even if it is for a Wolverine story instead of a Fantastic Four one. Wolvie used to do berserker rages a lot, and most of them were oddly consequence-free; there's potential in the idea of him trying to make amends and not being sure he can.

But this is the age of posterrific art-driven comics. And even when the art is at the center of the Liefeld-Lee axis, which is to say competent but nothing special, characters can't talk about their feelings for long without some kind of fight-scene backdrop. This was the decade where Northstar came out by shouting "I AM GAY" in the middle of another slugfest.

Plus, on Ben's side...I'm not sure I buy this. We've had dozens, possibly hundreds, of stories about Ben feeling fugly, and this isn't even the first time creators have scratched their heads and said, "Well, he's over the worst of that, but maybe we could recapture the classic vibe if we...made him FUGLIER?" But there's not much you can do to deface a pile of orange rocks. Even this story has to admit the scars don't make a big difference. So okay, it's about the vulnerability, the violation! That's good, right? Sounds rapey, and therefore mature! Except...if Ben doesn't care about the scars, then all that's left is that he got painfully beaten up. Ben does that every other Tuesday! He does it almost as often as he complains about his looks!

Maybe if the real talk in the issue weren't glossed over with a jaunty "Talk they do!" caption, it might’ve convinced me. But I don't think I'm the target audience for this comic. Or for Nineties-flavored comics in general.

[zylly]

I miss when Scott was competent like this.