Fantastic Four #588: How Superheroes Deal With Grief

[astrakhan42]

In the final issue of Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four before it switched over to FF, the Thing is mourning the loss of a teammate. How does one of the world's strongest superheroes work out his anger?



There was actually no dialogue to begin with in this sequence; a lot of the issue is wordless.

Comments

[chalicother]

Impressive. Though I do wonder..Do the Hulk, Thing, and Thor all occasionally hang out?

[astrakhan42]

Thor's been at the Thing's poker game several times and they do strike me as drinking buddies. I'm not so sure about the Hulk, considering his status quo changes all the time.

[locuatico]

IIRC, they have a rivalry of sorts and Bruce considers Ben one of the few peope that could stop Hulk if he ever get's out of control completely.

[burkeonthesly]

Although at the same time, I don't think Ben's ever actually won a straight-up one-on-one fight with the Hulk.

[wizardru]

He has, at least during the Mr. Fixit days. They had a two-fer; Ben won the first match-up on pure strength (as Grey Hulk is smarter but weaker than Green Hulk), but Mr. Fixit won on the rematch, using cunning (or dirty tricks, depending on your viewpoint) to win.

[burkeonthesly]

Hey, go Ben! Woo!

[cainofdreaming]

This was also during the time when Benjy had mutated further, and was wearing a helmet because of it ruined his good looks. I think he was supposed to be stronger than normal.

[leoboiko]

Oh yes…

[long_silence]

So I take it that Thor was still sometimes Donald Blake at this point?

[astrakhan42]

He regained the ability in JMS' run... then may or may not have lost it again at some point. I remember him appearing as Donald Blake when Tony lost his brain during Siege since Blake had power of attorney over him.

[long_silence]

I lost track a while ago too. I was wondering how the Donald Blake thing was being handled now that Odinson can't use Mjolnir anymore and Jane Foster was Thor

[cainofdreaming]

He's not actually part of Thor any more, since Fear Itself. He got separated from Thor and then Amora turned his body into a monster and imprisoned his decapitated, still living, head somewhere.

Dunno if that's changed/changes after Secret Wars, though.

[gnarll]

I always thought Blake, the man who Walked With Gods, was much more interesting than Thor. Should have become some sort of Indiana Jones using the memories of Thor and better brains.

[silicondream]

This doesn't make me not think they should end up in a giant cuddlepile, I'll tell you that much.

[scelestus]

Why is the Thing grieving?

[astrakhan42]

Five-year-old SPOILER! (This is right after the climax of Hickman's Fantastic Four run, which you should read because it's both awesome and the first part of Secret Wars... yes, the current Secret Wars pretty much started back then.)



The Human Torch had sacrificed his life to seal off the Negative Zone. Ben tried to make the sacrifice but he had been depowered for a week and only got his powers back after the door was sealed. He watched as the Torch took on the Annihilation Wave and... it didn't look good.

[scelestus]

Oh, ok- I do remember when the Torch sacrificed himself. Thanks for the clarification!

[chalicother]

So looking at this...is this the first time Donald Black and Bruce Banner have hanged out in thier "mortal" forms? I just realized they make good foils to each other..