F4 1 (2014 edition)

[terrykun]

In any incarnation of the Fantastic Four, under any writer, there will always be adventures. Always be exploring. Always some variant tale of Doom, the Negative Zone, Subterranea, Galactus, or the Skrulls.

And there will always be the underlying theme of family. After the great character cast expansions we've seen under Kirkman and Fraction, I was a little nervous about the latest reboot. What would happen to the Richards kids? To the rest of the Future Foundation? To Bentley, the Moloids, and Dragon Man?

Mister Robinson, to you I say... you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention.





 

Comments

[dewinged]

Ack, was hoping to see Alex.

[terrykun]

Sorry, I realize we are one blonde short. I fixed the tags.

He's probably off talking to girls about his perfect SAT score, like Reed advised way back when.

[crinos]

So their costumes are red now?

Are they gonna change their costumes every time we have a new comic? cause if so I approve.

Also, why is Valeria in Latveria and angry with Reed and Sue?

[long_silence]

Last volume Reed found out that he, Sue, Johnny and Ben were all dying presumably because of the accident that gave them their powers. There was no way on Earth for him to figure out to fix them all, so he took the whole family off of Earth to find a cure . But he didn't tell any of them they were dying, they just thought they were on a intergalactic family roadtrip through time and space. Franklin and Valeria (and Johnny) didn't know what was going on until towards the end.

[crinos]

Ah, right.

So now she's hanging out with Uncle Doom then?

[mastermahan]

I kind of feel like Reed and Sue ought to have laid at least some ground rules:

"Look, Val, we understand you're angry at us, and that you're hyper-intelligent and astonishingly mature for your age. Nevertheless, we're really not comfortable with you living with Dr. Doom. I know we can be very friendly towards him at times, and he is sort of your godfather, but that doesn't change the fact that he's a murderous dictator who once kidnapped you and trapped your brother in hell. We have lots of friends who don't psychotically hate your father. Maybe you can live with your Aunt Jen instead?"

[crinos]

"Counterpoint: Uncle Doom lives in a castle and has ponies. Plus he has that thing now that he gets uglier if he does evil."

[mastermahan]

"We gave you a pony. You named it Research Specimen 248, and you experimented on it."

"Her name is Princess Research Specimen 248, and I improved her! She runs on diesel now!"

[shadowpsykie]

.... some one needs to draw these.....

[mastermahan]

I would LOVE that. I've got this image in my head of Valeria as a little girl mad scientist building pink mechas that shoot heart beams and weaponized rainbow death rays. It's kind of awesome.

[jaybee3]

Considering that Valeria tend to think exactly like Reed the logical thing would be for to understand why he did it. Of course she's 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or I give up. She's still younger than Franklin, right?

[bewareofgeek]

Which is actually one of my fundamental problems with the issue... she's at most FOUR. Her intellect doesn't come into it... she's far too young to make her own decisions regarding where or how she wants to live.

Add to that the whole "Hey! Let's make Reed Richards a failure, and Johnny a vapid celebrity!", and I've basically lost all interest in what Robinson has to say.

(Seriously... how many times has Johnny "learned responsibility" at this point?)

[mastermahan]

I have a theory Johnny's "responsibility dance" is a side effect of his powers. Much like how Deadpool's healing factor also regenerates his cancer, Johnny's flames burn off any accumulated maturity. Perhaps his powers stopped certain aspects of his aging, so despite a decade of experiences including getting married and ruling his own dimension, he perpetually has to deal with the same teenage hormones he had when he first got his powers.

That, or Johnny's ditzyness is an integral part of his character, and a mature Human Torch just isn't as interesting. But that's less fun to speculate about.

[silverhammerman]

Not to mention, wasn't the Fraction helmed stuff firmly on the "Doom is an irredeemable asshole rather than noble but misguided" end of the spectrum? What exactly makes them comfortable leaving their kid with him?

[crimsonmoonmist]

No, no, no, Reed.
You're supposed to be a d-bag so there'll be drama, angsting about how awful your lives are and maybe even a fight between you since you're heroes and all!

...It's good to see that while the costumes may change,
somethings never change, and thank god for that.
Still, for now I'm not certain what HAS changed with this writer switch is a good thing, but it's still early, so I guess we'll see.

[crinos]

Also: I want a chocolate ray. I demand one right this instant.

[selke]

I love seeing Franklin as an actual kid.

[captainbellman]

I'm so glad that Robinson has stepped in to wipe away the positive vibes and hope for the future that we picked up under Matt Fraction & the Allreds.

Thank god the Fantastic Four are back to their core principle: misery, loathing, and Sue's entire character reduced to wife/mother!

(I mean, come on, people. You know the run is going nowhere when it literally starts with a flash-forward of Sue despairing about how everything fell apart.)

[chrisdv]

Still can't get past the ugly new costumes.

[his_spiffynesss]

The desgin wouldn't be bad if it was in the traditional blue. I just don't think the red works on them.

[book_of_daniel]

Weird characterizations aside, it really bugs me to see them sitting around casually in their stupid skin tight spandex style uniforms. They don't own casual clothes? Even the kids? It's just weird and artistically lazy.

I really hope unstable molecules are self cleaning otherwise the funk coming off those things from being worn 24/7 must be intense.

[arbre_rieur]

Dude, it's the Fantastic Four. They've ALWAYS been like that. At this point, it'd be weird if they didn't.

Heck, everyone except Sue wore their costumes during Reed and Sue's wedding, even.

[tonybennett3]

The MU secret is: Unstable molecules act like a big diaper! It's easier just to have your bodily functions IN costume. That's why some heroes get so comfortable in them. It's just easier to just wear your street clothes over them and never take them off. It's f'n nigh-indestructible! Pants that shunt your pee to the Negative Zone! Gowns that be kept in a purse! That's why the FF don't have financial problems. It goes for Millions per square yard. Reed sends Janet VanDyne the bill for 100 yards of chartreuse UM cloth, and you can by 2 Pogo Planes! Now you know why MU heroes get so happy when Reed gives them a costume...