Six masterminds, bashing each other from behind.

[thanekos]

In Fantastic Four: Big Town, Reed Richards fixed everything.

Of course, he really didn't. Sure, he and the other smart guys got together and made the world better, but you really can't spend four issues examining Tony Stark's overhauling of public transportation or Spider-Man as licensed brand.

You've got to have conflict in Arcadia; luckily, there's an all-star lineup of serpents to act out vengeance.



Doom, of course (I hope you got it in two), who harasses Reed's Big Town with both his Knights of Latveria and a certain mindwhammied pawn:



And just why does he hate the future Reed spearheaded?

Well, after everyone drives off his latest incursion, he tells us:



(Shouldn't the note have come at the first mention of Latveria? I don't imagine it'd fuck the bubble spacing up too much..)

Yes, not only does he want to be the one remembered as deliverer, but he wants to bring his dominion into the bargain.

And he's not alone:



Two men, one half-man, one mutant, one mutate (here, it seems, Banner just went Hulk one day and never looked back), and one-in-three robot(s), each of whom have ever been at odds with human society for their own reasons.

Reed's utopia further marginalizes them, and so they have come together.. in the loosest sense of the word:



(It's a strained alliance on Magneto and the Red Skull's parts; the best is how they promise a reckoning with each other, when this dust settles.)

Their interaction's one of my favorite parts of this mini, next to the superhumanly enriched quality of life; it's fun to see them prickle each other in attacking the Big Town.

It's even more fun when Hulk and Namor are the voices of, um.. reason?



(Love Doom's "my house, my rules". Nothing else would've worked, really..)

And, of course, when simple men throw in with the madmen to retard progress for the sake of "too much, too soon". Good thing he gets his comeuppance..

(Fourth issue really delivers on that for everyone.)

Comments

[chocochuy]

This is going to end well.

[cypherfdp]

Forcing Magneto and Red Skull to work together, making Doom the leader of Team Mega-Ego, and including Hulk.

I can not see how this could possibly go wrong.

[jlbarnett]

I hated this mini. There was just no logic to it at all. And considering this variation on What If? was never attempted again, I don't think it was a success

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Seriously. It was a neat concept, but it was almost impossible to tell why these villains felt the need to team up (for all the progress being made, why would Magneto and Namor even need to be villains?) and the ending was weird as hell.

[pallas_athena]

Hee hee. Doom's comparing his "thing" to Magneto's.

[auggie18]

Magneto seems like he'd have the advantage over two, maybe three of the people in that room.

[dr_archeville]

I know Stark's made anti-magnetic armor so he can go toe-to-toe with Magneto, and I believe Doom has, too. Doom's got magic, too, which Mags can't really do much against.

But the Ultrons should be FUBAR'd, yes.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Why is the Red Skull still alive? Granted the bit with the cigarette holder was funny, but "your kind," should have been the last words he said before that cigarette holder made its way down his throat, through his intestines and out whatever part of his body Magneto thought would be most painful.

And getting Doom, Namor and The Hulk together on one team is only slightly more plausible.

[schala_kid]

Magneto and Red Skull on the same team? Seriously? That's a big no no especially all of the shit Max Eisenhardt went through.

Especially when Red Skull said "your kind" and brought up the Aryan race bit, seriously, why didn't Magneto kill him? Also Acts of Vengeance anyone? After that I am sure them both would never be able to stand in the same room without trying to kill each other, seriously.

[tammy_moore]

In that first scene in the latverian embassy-it looks like Mags is just standing there casually poking Red Skull with a stick.

[ogrebear]

Big Town was a very interesting take on 'What If the Heroes used their powers for the World!' but it suffered badly from being cut down from an ongoing to a mini very late in the day as I recall.

Also the ending was fiddled with by the Editors according to the writers.