Fantastic Four #356

[iamrman]

Well, here's the DeFalco/Ryan Fantastic Four. You only have yourselves to blame.

The rest of the Fantastic Four are alerted to the kerfuffle.

 

 

Comments

[mazway_75]

This is actually a subtle fun bit as Lyja really is blind as part of her cover so her "no" when she hears it's Puppet Master is because she realizes she's given herself away as the real Alicia would instantly recognize his voice.

[beyondthefringe]

Oh no.

(Also, you’d think “Alicia” would have been briefed better about “her” stepfather…)

[blues32]

I get that he's an enemy and all that...but you'd think Puppet Master would mention what he's already figured out. I mean, this is his stepdaughter we're talking about. Surely he'd want to find the real one.

[tcampbell1000]

IIRC, he does that next issue, as soon as he gets a little breathing space.

[mastermahan]

"I... um... of course I recognized your voice, Puppet Master... I mean Philip... I mean Dad. I was just pretending to not know you. To, um, teach you a lesson? It's not like I'm a Skrull infiltrator ha ha ha!"

[scorntx]

With cautious optimism: Well, this doesn't seem so bad...

[iamrman]

This is only the first issue of the run. That being said, the other issues I have read weren’t actually bad. Some of them were a bit boring, but nothing that actually pissed me off. Nothing could be as bad as the Englehart run.

[tcampbell1000]

"Nothing could be as bad as the Englehart run": I have to admit this is pretty damn hard to imagine, although the Josh Trank movie may have managed it. The "Doom's Master" storyline was pretty nonsensical...but no, there's really nothing that's got the same special place in hell as "She ain't pullin' away!"

Still, DeFalco's run is a lot of things I don't like all vacuum-packed together: unlikable characters, clunky faux-Silver-Age dialogue, Nineties trend-chasing, and a huge pile-up of personal tragedies that never got adequately unpacked or resolved.

DeFalco was really the last longtime writer to commit to the idea of the Fantastic Four as a feuding family. Lee and Kirby could really play up the conflict between the title characters now and again. But in post-Silver Age comics, you can only get away with so much of that before they start looking like assholes. The reason we started making fun of Superdickery in the 1990s is that for the most part, comics weren't written like that anymore. And for the most part? Good riddance.

I've of two minds when it comes to the reveal of Lyja:

PRO: As crazy-assed comics annulments go, it's better rationalized than Spidey and Mary Jane or Atom and Jean Loring. Low bar, but still: Lyja's backstory makes a solid amount of sense.

CON: Johnny and Alicia's initial hookup was one of the FF's best subplots: it felt honest, natural, and true to both characters. It gave Alicia an agency that would be sadly rare for the character until the 2010s, while the retcon stuck her back in the victim role.

PRO: On the other hand, there wasn't a lot of juice in the pairing after the big moments of their growing together, their sleeping together, and Ben finding out. Even the wedding was kinda eh. After Byrne, the only attention given the relationship seemed to start with "What if Johnny...CHEATED ON ALICIA (DUN DUNNN DUNNNNNNN!)??"

CON: The reveal revolves around Ben screaming and raging and carrying on as if he's trying to pound "Alicia" into hamburger, and even if he's trying to provoke a shape-shift and is motivated by lingering love for his ex, it is still very much Not A Good Look.

PRO: It was a stepping stone to modern Alicia, and modern Alicia is pretty damn awesome. Ryan North and Dan Slott have made her a character I'd read a whole miniseries about.

CON: Lyja is one of the clearest examples of diminishing returns in comics. The fallout from her exposure put Johnny through a few installments of romantic conflict, but then she died, and then she came back to life, and Johnny was still drawn to her, but WHY, again? It wasn't like she acted anything like "Alicia" or appealed to their shared history or even seemed to know Johnny all that well; they were just mutually attracted because continuity and/or because drama. "Because continuity and/or because drama" seems to sum up a lot of the DeFalco era, really.