Oh, yeah, watch out for those MAJOR SPOILERS.
Fantastic Four volume 3 #45, $2.25 US, published by Marvel Comics
Writers: Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Marin & Jeph Loeb; Pencils: Jeff Johnson; Inks: Joe Weems; Cover: Pacheco
Rating 4 out of 5 stars
I have never been an enthusiastic follower of the Fantastic Four. The characters normally leave me a bit dry, and often their adventures seem like pointless rehashes of old plots ("Okay, team, let's go explore the Negative Zone yet again"). I liked some of John Byrne's work on the title years ago, as he was able to tweak the formula in various ways and give the book something of a new direction. I also enjoyed the issues by Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan in the mid-1990s. The fact that the DeFalco/Ryan run is often reviled by long-time Fantastic Four fans certainly demonstrates my difference of opinion regarding the series!
I bought the first few issues of volume three, which began with the promising team of Scott Lobdell & Alan Davis. Unfortunately, that didn't last very long. They both quickly departed, and the next thing I knew Chris Claremont was writing the book. His overwrought, suffocating dialogue quickly drove me away. Just in time, too, as a few issues later he dropped the FF back into the Negative Zone (although I did come back for one issue when the Red Skull showed up to liven things).
After Claremont's departure, artist Carlos Pacheco was handed the book, not just to draw, but to write. I flipped through his first few issues, and wasn't impressed: the Grey Gargoyle (yawn), the Trapster (double yawn), and, yep, you guessed it, another trip to the Negative Zone (arrrgh!) didn't promise much in the way of innovation. I understand the long-time FF fans loved it, though. Well, I'm certainly glad they did. After all, I'm sure that the casual reader, upon skimming through the latest issue of Captain America, might very well utter, "Oh, hell, I can't believe they're using Batroc again!" Oh, wait, I can't stand Batroc anyway. Well, you get the picture.
So why pick up Fantastic Four #45? For several reasons. First of all, it is a self-contained story, almost always a plus. Second, it has some superb fill-in artwork by Jeff Johnson & Joe Weems. Third, it has a dramatic, ironic role reversal that hinges upon the long-established history of the FF, a stunningly effective piece of writing by Pacheco and his collaborators that instantly caught my attention.
"You Can't Get There From Here" juxtaposes the Thing with the Human Torch. The Thing, aka Ben Grimm, is the original hard-luck hero of the Marvel universe. Yeah, yeah, I know, Spider-Man is supposed to be Marvel's hard-luck hero, but the Thing came first, and besides, Peter Parker was never unfortunate enough to turn into a walking pile of orange bricks. Anyway, as seems to (temporarily) happen every four or five years, the Thing has regained the ability to return to his human form. At the same time, Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, has found himself in the exact opposite circumstances: he cannot turn off his flaming ability, and is stuck in torch form
The timing of this situation is ironic, because it completely reverses the established relationship between the two characters, as well as their individual circumstances. Ben Grimm is a decent guy who for years has been stuck in the monstrous form of the Thing, forever separated from humanity. Johnny Storm, on the other hand, is a handsome, devil-may-care type who has taken advantage of his position in the FF to gain a measure of fame and lead an active social life, especially when it comes to relationships with beautiful women. Johnny has also been rather notorious for his insensitivity, often ribbing the Thing in regards to his physical appearance.
Now, though, they have swapped places. Ben has the ability to become human, and Johnny is stuck as the Human Torch. Ben finally sees an opportunity to be with his long-time paramour, Alicia Masters. Johnny, on the other hand, in the midst of a relationship with Namorita, suddenly finds himself cut off from human contact. "I just want to walk down the street and be able to hold my girl's hand!" he utters in despair. "I want to be normal. Doesn't anybody get that?" Ben Grimm, hearing this, sadly mutters "Yeah, kid. Some of us do."
Receiving a letter from Alicia, and now feeling he can commit to a relationship, Ben leaves the team to go live with her. The rest of the FF follow, worried by his abrupt departure. Finding Ben, they discover that Alicia's notorious stepfather, the semi-reformed criminal known as the Puppet Master, was the one who really sent the letter. In another desperate attempt to make Alicia happy, he has used his mind control powers to bring her and Ben together. Once the deception is revealed, Ben and Alicia examine their feeling, and they realize they no longer feel the same way about each other. Too much has happened over the years to complicate things between them, and they have grown apart. So, sadly, although Ben now feels he is in a position to offer Alicia a normal life, he no longer loves her as he once did. In the end, though, they do still care about each other, and vow to remain friends, providing the story with a bittersweet ending.
An interesting subplot to the issue is that the Puppet Master is now actually working for the government (probably SHIELD, judging by the uniforms of his minders). The government has helped him amplify his powers so that he can "reprogram" criminally insane prisoners with new lives. The government agents tell the FF that all the participants have volunteered. And this does give them the chance for normal lives that they otherwise would not have. Nevertheless, there are some rather troubling moral issues surrounding this. The potential for an abuse of power, either by the Puppet Master or by his government minders, clearly exists. Indeed, the Puppet Master does take advantage of his amplified powers to try and bring Ben and Alicia together. And the wide-eyed, grinning expression on the Puppet Master's face certainly does not communicate a reassuring hold on sanity. It's too bad that the moral questions are pretty much brushed aside. With everything else that is going on in this issue, Pacheco and his collaborators probably didn't have room to address those issues. Nevertheless, the seemingly casual dismissal of the government's activities by the FF is rather disappointing.
Of course, I do wish the Puppet Master was written more consistently. The last time I saw the character, towards the end of volume one of Fantastic Four, he was depicted as being quite lucid and intelligent. Here, though, he seems to have regressed back to an earlier, somewhat unbalanced state of mind that is not completely connected to reality. It would have been nice if his character could have been more in line with recent developments.
I enjoyed the artwork by fill-in penciller Jeff Johnson. The first time I saw Johnson's work was several years ago on the Wonder Man series. At the time I didn't care for it too much. Either Johnson has improved, or my tastes have changed (or both!) but his work on Fantastic Four #45 was very good. In a story with such an emphasis on emotions and relationships, Johnson superbly renders the characters, making them very human and expressive. It's too bad that nowadays there is a dearth of ongoing titles being published, as I would definitely like to see Johnson get a regular book once more. Then again, I can sadly say that about a number of talented comic artists.
All in all, Fantastic Four #45 is a well-written, well-drawn issue that stands on its own, and is certainly accessible to even a casual reader such as myself. Aside from a couple of quibbles with the subplot and the characterization of the "villain," I think it is a quality book. Certainly it's one of the best examples of an individual issue of a long-running, monthly series that I have come across in the recent past.
Superman: The Man of Steel #116, $2.25 US, published by DC Comics
Writer: Mark Schultz; Pencils: Doug Mahnke; Inks: Tom Nguyen
Rating 3.5 out of 5 stars
DC's all-out intergalactic war crossover "Our Worlds At War" is currently blazing its way through the Superman family of titles, and assorted tie-ins. For the most part, I've been unimpressed with this storyline. There have been continual efforts on the part of DC to convince the readers that this is a really, really important story by destroying real-life cities (I'm sure readers in Topeka, Kansas were thrilled to learn their hometown had been atomized by an alien war machine), showing the majority of the Justice League get severely wounded in combat, apparently killing Aquaman and Guy Gardner (yeah, right), and juxtaposing the action sequences with quotes by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. These efforts haven't been entirely convincing, especially to a jaded comic reader such as myself.
I do think the last couple of chapters have seen the story on the upswing, fortunately. Last week, in Adventures of Superman #594, the new Suicide Squad released the engine of destruction known as Doomsday (the creature who once killed Superman) and brainwashed him into fighting the invading alien forces of Imperix. In the process, most of the Suicide Squad lived up to its name, getting massacred before Doomsday was finally mind-controlled. Superman and Doomsday, ironically fighting side-by-side, cut a path of destruction straight to Imperix. Whereupon Imperix casually destroyed Doomsday with an energy blast, and nearly did the same to Superman, but for a last minute rescue by a Boom Tube.
This brings events to Man of Steel #116. Superman's rescuer is none other than Darkseid, lord of Apokolips. The tyrannical New God has temporarily allied himself with Earth and assorted other worlds to fight Imperix. Darkseid's reason for rescuing Superman is, of course, not in the least altruistic. The ruler of Apokolips wants to place Superman in a suit of armor made from one of Imperix's own destroyed weapons and launch him at the enemy. And Darkseid won't take "no" for an answer.
After a struggle with Darkseid, Superman escapes Apokolips and returns to the JLA's moonbase, to check on his ally, John Irons, aka Steel, who was badly wounded while helping to free Doomsday. Superman finds that an unknown party has attacked the helpless John Irons in the interim. Steel now lays either dead or dying. And ready to claim him is the Black Racer.
The Racer is a mysterious, enigmatic being who was introduced in Jack Kirby's original New Gods series. I am a great fan of Kirby's Forth World books. However, to be perfectly honest, I have never cared for the Black Racer. Visually, his appearance is somewhat goofy. And exactly who or what he is or is supposed to represent was never made very clear. Is the Black Racer death itself? An agent of death? How exactly is he connected to the New Gods? Why does he only appear during the deaths of certain New Gods? Perhaps if the original series had continued on, Kirby would have eventually gotten around to clarifying the Black Racer's significance. As it is, when the series was canceled, the Racer was left a barely-explained, confusing element. And he has remained so in the thirty years since.
I think Mark Schultz's take on the Black Racer is probably the best use of the character in a long time, perhaps ever. Schultz succeeds in making the Racer ominous and mysterious, at the same time actually adding a bit of humanity to him. The issue is sort of narrated from the Black Racer's viewpoint. Some of the prose is rather overwrought and clunky, but on the whole most of it is effective in conveying a grim, apocalyptic mood.
Superman's efforts to save Steel's life allows for a pause in the non-stop action of this crossover, to delve into Superman's grief and regret over the horrendous events that have occurred. Hundreds of thousands of innocents have already died, his teammates are in critical condition, and his parents might very well be dead. Now Superman finds a close friend ready to be claimed by the Black Racer. Despite his weariness, despite the beatings he received at the hands of Imperix and Darkseid, he won't back down from the Black Racer. He sees himself as having lost battle after battle in this war, and he won't stand back and let another one, the battle for John Iron's life, be lost. "I can't fail again. I won't. You can't have him." And, on the next page, "Don't. I am warning you… This is too much," Superman tells the Black Racer, almost pleading.
Man of Steel #116 certainly manages to bring across to the reader the scope and tragedy of the conflict, something I think most of the other "Our Worlds At War" tie-ins have failed to accomplish. Between the Black Racer's grim narration of the situation, and Superman's weary desperation, we get a true feel of just how costly this war has been.
On another note, the brief battle between Superman and Darkseid is well done. Darkseid seldom engages in physical combat, normally having his lackeys fight & die for him, or almost impersonally blasting his enemies with his Omega Beams. But here he takes matters into his own hands. The fight between him and Superman is brutal, at close quarters, with the foes trading staggering blows. That Darkseid was so determined to use Superman as a living weapon that he was ready to physically beat him into submission shows how even the ruler of Apokolips is feeling the desperation of the war. Additionally, the fight demonstrates exactly why Darkseid is such terrifying figure who is feared throughout the universe. Though he prefers to leave the dirty work to others, if he wants to he can take on Superman himself without breaking a sweat.
Despite the story's numerous strengths, there are a couple of weak points. The major one is that, come the end of the issue, we still do not know if the Black Racer has decided to claim Steel, or if he has been persuaded to spare him. The question is left very much in the air, which is frustrating, as it was the central conflict of the issue. Presumably this will be resolved elsewhere in the crossover, something I do not care for. The lack of resolution left this otherwise strong issue with a very weak ending. Such is often the problem with individual chapters of crossovers.
Another problem, storywise, was the narrative structure of the issue. Man of Steel #116 opens with Superman confronting the Black Racer over Steel's fate. On page, four, it flashes back to Superman's crash-landing on Apokolips, his confrontation with Darksied, and his escape, before going back to the present, where he is facing the Racer. There's nothing wrong with this, except page three ends with the Racer blasting Superman. Then, cutting to page four, we see Superman getting blasted and landing on Apokolips. It took me a few pages to realize that the Racer hadn't actually blasted Superman to Apokolips, but that this part was going back to the end of Adventures #594, with Superman's rescue by Darkseid. Unfortunately, the way the story is presented, I was confused as to this. I am uncertain if this is the result of Schultz's writing, or Mahnke failing to adequately distinguish to the reader what was going on.
Despite my above complaint, the art for this issue was very well done. Mahnke & Nguyen's work ably establishes the grim atmosphere of the tale. Their renditions of both the Black Racer and Darkseid are outstanding. The opening splash of a gaunt, weary, defiant Superman definitely draws in the reader. I certainly liked the cover artwork, showing Superman standing atop a shattered statue of Darkseid. Although this scene appears nowhere in the issue, it is nevertheless highly dramatic. Along with the cover blurb "Friendly Fire," it sums up the tension between Superman and Darkseid, two bitter enemies forced into an alliance of convenience.
Aside from the glaringly unresolved fate of Steel, this issue is an otherwise well-done and sufficiently self-contained story that works almost as much on its own as it does as part of a larger crossover.
X-Treme X-Men #3, $2.99 US, published by Marvel Comics
Writer: Chris Claremont; Pencils: Salvador Larocca
Rating 2 out of 5 stars
I made mention earlier in this column of Chris Claremont's penchant for cumbersome dialogue. Fortunately, that aspect of his work is not too prevalent within the pages of X-Treme X-Men #3. Nevertheless, the issue suffers from other failings.
"Hell To Pay" is the aftermath of long-time team member Psylocke's brutal death at the hands of the mysterious Vargas. No doubt this came as a shock to most long-time readers who have witnessed countless last-page splashes with someone hollering "Dear God, [insert character's name] is dead!" Which is how the previous issue of X-Treme ended. But, as this issue opens, Psylocke is still dead. Come the end of the issue, her mortal remains are being carried off to England for burial. Yes, amazingly, Betsy Braddock does not do the expected thing and return from apparent death, hale and whole. Of course, there is always the future.
The main focus is Psylocke's teammates dealing with the tragedy of her death. Claremont does a decent job of showing the X-Men in mourning. But it is impossible to take these scenes too seriously, because we all know that the odds are that Psylocke will eventually return from the grave. Such is the result of decades of contrived resurrections, that an issue such as this is greeted (by me, at least) with an air of incredibility.
One of the main weaknesses of the issue is the effort by Claremont to prove that the freshman X-Man, Neal Sharra, aka Thunderbird, is horribly devastated by Psylocke's death because he loved her. The problem is that the romance between Thunderbird and Psylocke has never been very convincing. In the decade that Claremont was away from the X-titles, Psylocke entered into a deep, meaningful, long-term relationship with Archangel. Then Claremont returned, and suddenly Psylocke pretty abruptly dumped Archangel and took up with Thunderbird. It was a rather unconvincing piece of writing by Claremont, having Betsy suddenly end a long-term relationship to shack up with a brand-new character she hardly even knew.
Claremont, to convince us that Psylocke and Thunderbird really did care for one another, throws in a couple of flashback scenes in this issue: Betsy & Neal flirting in the Danger Room, and Betsy & Neal having a romantic interlude, with her dressed as an Indian princess. Unfortunately, it just isn't all that convincing, and the long time reader in me keeps shouting "What about Archangel, darn it?"
On the more interesting end of things, X-Treme #3 also focuses some long-overdue attention on Sage, the newest member of the X-Men. Sage is, of course, Tessa, the long-time personal aid to Sebastian Shaw, who was leader of the Hellfire Club and one of the X-Men's deadliest enemies. Quite how Tessa came to be working with the X-Men after years of service to the Hellfire Club was something of a mystery. Soon after Claremont's return to the X-books last year, Tessa abruptly resigned from the Hellfire Club and, next thing anybody knew, she was working with the X-Men, no questions asked. This caused some consternation among readers, as it seemed decidedly odd for the X-men to accept a long-time enemy into the fold seemingly at the drop of a hat.
In this issue, Claremont finally gets around to revealing the exact circumstances of Tessa's allegiance with the X-Men. It turns out that all the years she was with the Hellfire Club, Tessa was really a double agent, supplying information back to the X-Men's mentor, Professor Xavier.
Admittedly, this is an interesting idea, that Tessa/Sage was actually acting as a spy for Xavier in the Hellfire Club since day one. Unfortunately, it does not make very much sense, given what has gone before, in numerous different stories, including ones written by Claremont himself.
First off, if Tessa was really providing Xavier with info on the Club all this time, then why were the X-Men always getting caught flat-footed by the Club's schemes? Surely Tessa would have known about them, and warned Xavier. And then comes the big whopper: at the end of the New Mutants graphic novel, Tessa asks Xavier to let the Hellfire Club deal with Donald Pierce. Xavier agrees, albeit *very* reluctantly, because he does not trust her. Now, why would Xavier not trust Tessa if she was actually working for him all this time?
Admittedly, Claremont did write most of these stories nearly twenty years ago. I certainly couldn't tell you, off the top of my head, what I was doing two decades ago. But Claremont ought to have some basic knowledge of what he's written over the years, especially since he was the writer who initially put so much bloody emphasis on continuity in the first place. And, if he really wanted to, I'm sure he could dig up copies of his old stories to check for reference.
Now, if Claremont had written it so that Tessa had switched allegiances during the untold six month gap in time that was set before the first of Claremont's new stories last year, and produced a valid reason as to why she left the Hellfire Club, then I could believe it. But tossing in a retcon like this, which makes little sense in the context of numerous past stories, is difficult to credulously accept.
At least Claremont does have a moment of reflection by Tessa/Sage that adds some much-needed ambiguity to the character's circumstances. Sage considers that Xavier discovered her at around the same time as he did her current teammate, Henry McCoy, the Beast. Xavier had the Beast become one of the first X-Men. But Xavier did not extend the same offer to Tessa. Considering Xavier's actions, Sage asks herself "What did you see in Henry that made you recruit him for the X-Men? What shadow did you see in my soul that made you send me down another road? Why was he worthy to be the hero? And I chosen by you to be a spy?" The introspection by Sage hints that, in the end, Xavier might not have trusted her as much as she thought. Perhaps Xavier had Tessa infiltrate the Hellfire Club as much to test her nature and keep an eye on her without risking making her a member of the X-Men. She is questioning her own character as much as she is Xavier's actions. Certainly there's some potential here for having Sage discover that things were never quite as she assumed, both as far as Xavier's intentions and her own nature. Unfortunately, Xavier is not one in the regular cast of X-Treme, so it is doubtful that we will get to see any interaction between the two in the near future.
Ironically enough, perhaps the best characterization in the entire issue is of Bishop, who Claremont didn't even create. Claremont makes good use of an oft-neglected aspect of the character, his former career as a law enforcement officer from a future timeline. Bishop has the mindset of a cop and an investigator, and it is this that enables the team of X-Men to cooperate and coordinate with the Spanish police. Considering how often the X-Men are usually regarded as fugitives, it definitely casts Bishop in a positive light that he is so effectively able to bridge the gap between his teammates and the authorities.
The only thing I didn't care for in terms of Bishop was his mentioning that, in the future, Thunderbird will be remembered in the history books. Claremont attempted something similar in an issue of X-Men a year ago, when Cable mentioned that the group of villains the X-men were fighting in that issue were known even in his time period, two thousand years in the future. Now, as then, this smacks of a quick attempt to make characters seem formidable & important by having someone say that they will be remembered in the future. Claremont would be better off actually developing Thunderbird into a credible, well-rounded character, rather than attempting to pass off his importance with a throw-away line about future history.
Probably the weakest aspect of the entire issue is Vargas. Great pains are taken by Claremont to emphasize that this is a villain who knows the strengths & weaknesses of all the X-Men, who is always two steps ahead of them, who could kill them any time he wanted. Clearly Claremont is overextending himself in attempting to make this Vargas fellow an all-powerful foe. A suggestion is even made by Sage that the only way Vargas could know how to kill the X-Men is if he had access to Professor Xavier's protocols for eliminating the X-Men if they ever went rogue. This seems a forced effort to create an atmosphere of paranoia. While Xavier has certainly been depicted as a manipulative bastard at times, and has been shown to have a dark side to him, the idea that he would actually dispatch an assassin to murder his former students because he doesn't agree with their current mission is far-fetched. Besides, Xavier is not the only individual to have seen the Protocols. Onslaught, an amalgam of the evil sides of Xavier & Magneto, would have known about them. The X-Men's computers have been hacked into enough times that somebody could have come across the Protocols. The X-Men themselves accessed them in Excalibur #100. Even if Sage is right, and Vargas has access to the Protocols, that doesn't mean that Xavier is involved.
Well, having gone on at great length about the story, I ought to offer a few comments about the artwork. Salvador Larocca's pencils are uninked. The art goes straight from pencils to coloring. The effect is rather distinct. Most of the time it work. But in several places, it seems the art could really have benefited from inking. Either that, or the computer colorists at Liquid went overboard with the coloring and shadow effects, making the art murky. Aside from that, Larocca's art is quite good, although he seems determined to draw the women with as large breasts as he can manage. Hardly a unique occurrence in superhero comic books, I know, but that's not going to stop me from complaining. The women's costumes are also a bit too racy. Psylocke's costume looks like it has garters on it, and the skintight leather outfit Sage wears is barely a step up from the kinky dominatrix-style get-up she wore during her Hellfire Club days.
I have to give Larocca credit for some dramatic layouts and scenes. He draws some exiting sequences, all the while staying rather close to the traditional grid layout of older comics. This allows his work to be dynamic without it becoming indecipherable. And the scene on page six, of Psylocke's corpse being zipped up in a body bag, her lifeless eyes staring out, is genuinely chilling. Yeah, I know, Psylocke will probably come back eventually, but at least Larocca provides an atmospheric sequence as the deceased is taken away from the scene of battle.
If you are a die-hard fan of Claremont's work, you will probably like this issue. If you're a casual reader, you probably will not. As it is, X-Treme #3 does show some indication of the distinctive writing and characterization that made Claremont one of the industry's top writers in the early 1980s. At the same time, unfortunately, it also contains the convoluted plotting, one-note characters, and awkward dialogue that has characterized his work in the last decade. X-Treme X-Men holds more promise than Claremont's disappointing stint on the X-Men books last year. But he still has a long way to go to recapturing the quality of his earlier work.