Fantastic Four #44 (Legacy #689)

[shakalooloo]

Oh Susan, you've said that so often now that it's lost all meaning.

Still, here we are at the penultimate part of ThE rEcKoNiNg!!!! (barring any epilogues, aftermaths, &c.) Seems like Slott is sorta re-doing Spider-verse. A family of super powerful villains hopes to obtain control of the centre of the multiverse in order to attain ultimate power.

Comments

[scorntx]

"Nothing will ever be the same again. This is not hyperbole. This is happening. There will be consequences."
- Marvel's solicits department earning their paycheck for most gratuitous use of BS for the month.


Reed'll be fine.
(I mean, the solicits for Judgmnt Day even say he's alive again.
Which is nice of Marvel. Doing their part to reduce the amount of tension going around, which is one of the world's leading health problems.)
Now, if only the next writer along wouldn't just use the same old "Reed learns his family are What Really Matters" beat for the kajillionth time...


So that's what the Reckoning were after?
... wait, hold on, how is that anything to do with reckoning?

[shakalooloo]

The Reckoning plan to share the pain they have suffered at the hands of the Watchers with all people in the multiverse. Yeah. That'll show 'em!

[scorntx]

That's the plan they spent however many years they were locked up working on?
Wouldn't it make more sense to, I dunno, try and kill the Watchers or something?
(Or have they already tried that one?)

[shakalooloo]

They beat up the Watchers a little with the M'Kraan Crystal (because EVERY MacGuffin must be in here somewhere) but want them to sit and watch while the multiverse gets royally trashed.

[numeronone]

I mean, only a couple of chapters ago Doom was boasting about the AWESOME POWER of the Cormorant, named for a sea-bird whose defining behaviours, to my knowledge, are shitting all over its own feet and bullying other birds so as to devour their vomit.

Probably he just likes the sounds of big words. Some writers do. The guy who makes "9 Chickweed Lane" does.

[sabertoothlotus]

not the first time Reed's been dead. He was gone for a while in the '90s, too. He got better.

[cainofdreaming]

I would really prefer if this time didn't come with alterations to Sue's costume, though.

[shakalooloo]

The classic gender-switched fridging, where a male character is killed off solely in the interest of giving a female character some costume devrelopment!

[cainofdreaming]

This was more of a case of undevelopment.

[deh_tommy]

I’m afraid I haven’t been keeping up with this, so I’m a bit lost. What exactly is the Reckoning War? Apparently it’s been built up for years? Is it over already? What did Reed do this time that caused Sue to be so cross with him? How does this connect to the Watcher interfering with Galactus’ initial invasion of Earth?

[shakalooloo]

The Watchers lied to Uatu when they told him the world would be better if he had not interfered with Galactus. The real reason they don't want to interfere is because it was their creation and use of the Ultimate Nullifier that destroyed so much of the universe in the original war, and they resolved never to interfere again on principle, rather than judging on a case-by-case basis.

Sue is annoyed because Reed is hepped up on watch-balls, hence his baldness and glowing eyes. The excess knowledge is burning out his brain.

The Reckoning War is so subdued because these 'ultimate weapons' that are being used just seem to be... bigger guns and swords? Nothing especially primordially awesome, and very un-creative.The badoon blew up the moon, oh noes, but now they're fighting a ground war with the human military on equal terms because while they have Big Guns they can still just get shot and die like a regular person. Apparently superior weaponry didn't come with any decent armour to go along with it.

[numeronone]

Un-creative? In a Dan Slott story? It's more likely than you'd think...

[scorntx]

Reed stealing the power of the Watchers is the worst thing he's ever done?
For reals?
Even worse than the time he shot Franklin with a depowering gun? Or sided with the SRA because THE MATH told him to? Or all the things he and the Illuminati did?
This is somehow worse than all of those?

A'right, Sue.

[windleopard2]

Wasn't the thing with Franklin supposed to be about stopping his powers from going out of control?

[icon_uk]

Yes, but it was done in a very ham handed way which has not aged well.

Reed and Sue clearly genuinely loved their son and thought they were acting in his best interests, but there are many, deeply unfortunate, analogies that can be made to Reed going: "My son has a condition which might be hard to handle, rather than use my super science to help him develop and control this power, let's essentially medicate him to the point of incoherence because that'll be easier for us to handle"

[windleopard2]

I feel like the situation is far too removed from any such real life examples since we are talking about a kid that could potentially destroy the planet, or at least cause a significant number of deaths, due to uncontrollable powers, something that has been a problem in the MU at several points. That's a lot more severe than "a condition that might be hard to handle".

You could read such an analogy into it, but I feel like that requires ignoring a lot of context there.

[windleopard2]

The badoon blew up the moon

Would it be a cliche to say Dragon Ball did it better? Twice?

[shakalooloo]

To be fair, this F4 arc does have way more buff green dudes than DBZ.

[dan_ingram]

You'd think that them going toe to toe with the Watchers would be a bigger thing

I mean, it's not like the Watchers use their power much, but they aren't pushovers. When Doom stole one Watcher's powers, it took the FF and Inhumans to bring him down.

But nope, just shootey lasers. Plus some toys that belonged to underdeveloped characters.

[cainofdreaming]

So, were there only two? A mentor and a work learner, or something like that. With laser swords.

[shakalooloo]

There were a few others besides Wrath and Rapture. Ruin (he has a braided beard) gets taken out by Franklin, and Reject (the grey-haired one) that the Cormorant tears in half.

[cygnia]

Are Franklin's powers back?

[skjam]

I'd find it funnier if they weren't, and Ruin was taken down by a normal (but highly trained) preteen child.

[shakalooloo]

The kids trick Ruin by luring him to a place where thoughts become reality, where he imagines that he's won. Of course, in a realm of pure imagination, Franklin Richards cannot be defeated.

[icon_uk]

And now I am imagining Franklin singing

"Come with me and you'll be
In a world of pure imagination

Take a look and you'll see
Into your imagination

We'll begin with a spin
Traveling in the world of my creation

What we'll see will defy
Explanation"

[scorntx]

Always two, there are. No more, no less.

Except the mentor keeps irregular working hours because they're getting close to retirement, damnit!

[zachbeacon]

I still can't figure out if Slott is so much worse in A-List comics because of editorial or because he uses all his best ideas on comics that are essentially auditions for those jobs like She-Hulk, the Spider-Man/HT mini, the Thing, and Silver Surfer.

In any case, I thought the mysteries behind Rulk and Jane Thor took WAY too long and they've got nothing on the Reckoning War.

[iamrman]

Everybody was saying that this series wasn't any good, but my needless optimism kept me reading. It couldn't be as bad as people could be saying, right? I think all this Reckoning nonsense has eroded my optimism and now I just don't care.

The solicits for this issue didn't help. 'Nothing will be the same again! Everything changes!' Yeah right, Marvel. Just like Star is the greatest find in the last five years.

[zachbeacon]

Star? That's the newest version of evil Carol Danvers, right? Were Moonstone and Doctor Minerva busy that weekend? Where's a brainwashed Rogue when you need one?

Honestly I'd describe Slott's F4 as less bad than disappointing. I don't agree with some of what he's done - especially with Franklin - and the pacing has been terrible - especially the Johnny arc - but there are still some great ideas like Ben and Alicia's kids. I think the Kang story might be remembered fondly in the future and - at the very least - I'm happy the Watcher is back.

[thanekos]

If we do get a Donny Cates-written Fantastic Four run after this, the tone and quality will be consistent.