Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #4

[history79]

8 pages of 24

Comments

[zachbeacon]

Watching the kids troll Osborn is hilarious.

[kirayoshi]

The cherry on top is when Norman and Val are walking away, you can clearly see Val sticking her tongue out at Gargan.

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, I think I may have missed it when reading the floppies but these scans inspired me to reread this on Unlimited. Seeing the panel blown up makes it really obvious.

[crinos]

I can only imagine how much fudge Normie is dropping in that last panel.

When one of the original Mama Bears of fiction, AND the single most powerful member of the Fantastic Four, and indeed probably one of the most powerful super heroes in the greater New York Area tells you to back off their kids, YOU FUCKING DO IT. At what point did Osborne think this was a good idea?

[donnblake]

I mean *shooting* at the Richards kids? Leaving aside what Sue is more than capable of doing to him, I'm shocked that this ended without Ben breaking every bone in his body.

[goattoucher]

And (and this is important) she -will- kill you.

Afterwards, when the time for angst and regret starts, she will stand there, steeley-eyed, and regret nothing. She'll go out into the world and do good and save lives and fight non-lethally, but if you mess with her children...

This is, frankly, the only logical attitude for superheroes with public identities. Her enemies know she has children, they know where she lives, and they know that if they mess with her babies, she will end them.

The fifty year progress of Sue Storm-Richards from damsel in distress to girlfriend to voice of reason to iron fist in a velvet glove is in the running for best character development in comic book history, IMHO.

[goattoucher]

I mean, imagine how this would go: if -anyone- could stand up to Osborn, it is the FF. They are universally beloved, ridiculously wealthy, and long established to be the best friend (Reed's Intelligence) or worst enemy (Sue) you could possibly have. If she popped Osborn's head like a cherry tomato right here, what would anybody do?

[remial]

If she popped Osborn's head like a cherry tomato right here, what would anybody do?

Cheer?

[goattoucher]

One of the things I like better about Marvel than DC: For the most part (Spidey, for example, is an exception), if left with no choice, they will kill and not feel too bad about it if it was necessary. There is certainly no emotionally disturbed billionaire moralist who will come and scold/arrest you.

An yet, the MU does not delve into Wildstorm levels of bloodlust (WS as a satire of Marvel's more brutal anti-heroes was... ineffective to say the least, particularly when they took the ball and ran with it to new depths of blood, gore, and shock death).

[crinos]

And I love how simple it was to begin that change.

They took her power, which was the most passive and least useful for combat of all the FF, and made it so she actually projects invisible force fields.

Then she went from Sue Storm, useless token female character with one note power, to Susan Richards, Marvel Green Lantern equivalent.

[crinos]

Also it reminds me of an episode of the old Ben Ten Series. At one point, Ben got outed as an alien Super hero (this is later in the series when he and his friends are all teenagers) and so a bunch of Ben's old enemies, led by a Joker Expie called Zombozo, go after their loved ones. It ends with Gwen (Ben's cousin, who we recently learned is the descendant of a race of powerful magical aliens who are basically beings of pure energy) confronts Zombozo while he is tormenting Ben's Mom. She basically goes full energy being mode, and gives Zombozo a warning to pass to the other villains: They want to go after Ben and her that's fine, that's the life they chose, but if any of them mess with their families, it wont end well for them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_vzYjOOSos

[stubbleupdate]

Now I really want to post Roberto Aguirre Sacasa's Predictably Unpredictable scene.

[thanekos]

Norman Osborn sees a costume Spidey mask and thinks " target practice ".

[captainbellman]

"Doot doot doo, time to go to my interview with the world's smartest man, a force-field-wielder, a man who is on fire and a man made of bricks. And I...will...briiiing...myyyy...handgun!"

[zachbeacon]

I like that he brought Venom as his backup. I know Stark destroyed a lot of SHIELD's files on his way out but does Osborn not know ANYTHING about the symbiote's history with Reed or its weakness to fire?

[thanekos]

He would've come in the Iron Patriot armor, but it was getting serviced that day and he couldn't put this off.

[bradygirl_12]

A pity the Joker doesn't make his way over to this universe and threaten Sue's kids. The DCU would be a lot better off.

[goattoucher]

Dimension hopping Joker: :does whatever to terrorize the Richards children:

Sue: :explodes Joker:

Dimension hopping Batman: :Stern Judgement:

Sue: :Icy Glare:

DHB: :Stern Judgement:

Sue: :Icy Glare:

DHB: :Grumbles, swinglines away:

Sue: Who wants mach 'n cheese?!?

Kids: Yay!

[agent8]

didn't she threaten von Doom that way once. Something about causing multiple strokes by projecting little force fields into his brain.

[kirayoshi]

Grant Morrison's Fantastic Four: 1 2 3 4, IIRC. She also pointed out how foolish it was for Doom to continue a senseless vendetta against her family when he should be applying his intellect to curing cancer or taking his people to the stars.

[zylly]

I love that Val isn’t even remotely cowed by Gargan’s posturing.

Also? Agreeing with the above comments. Norman is extremely lucky he isn’t dead with his body dumped in some pocket dimension no one will ever find.