FF #13
So, previously in FF, old John Storm built a portal to bring the Fantastic Four back, and Doom blackmailed Alex into trying to kill John to prevent that - but before John could even switch his device on the FF mysteriously vanished.
It emerges that Scott knew about Alex's plans and shrank them all down to hitch a ride on the Impossible Man, who teleports them to the Watcher's house on the moon, somewhere Doom and co can't spy on. Scott says he understands that Alex was under duress, but the FF look up to him as a big brother and he let them down with his behaviour in front of them. In giving that lecture, he realises that he's been doing the same thing with the way he's being going after vengeance on Doom, and it's time to take a different approach.
This was the first episode of FF written by Lee Allred to Fraction's outline, and while the plot stuff with Scott and Alex was solid enough, the wacky hijinks the rest of the FF get up to on the moon felt a little bit too cracktastic to me - silliness and funny lines at the expense of in-character responses and the established take on the Watcher. There were points where it just felt like an outright parody comic to me, rather than lighthearted and funny but still grounded in Marvel 'reality' like it was before. (Scott's "I'm so disappointed" speech to Alex also struck me as a bit off - "They look up to you, so you have to be perfect in front of them at all times, never making mistakes"? - but I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a reflection on Scott's character that he thinks that way.)
Lots of chances for Mike Allred to have fun with the art, but between the overly wacky comedy and the fact that the story arc still seems to be about 10% plot to 90% unrelated hijinks even as it approaches the end, I'm a bit disappointed. I hope things pick up again for the last three issues, and that Doom's part in the ending actually amounts to more than the page or two per issue he's been getting so far.
It emerges that Scott knew about Alex's plans and shrank them all down to hitch a ride on the Impossible Man, who teleports them to the Watcher's house on the moon, somewhere Doom and co can't spy on. Scott says he understands that Alex was under duress, but the FF look up to him as a big brother and he let them down with his behaviour in front of them. In giving that lecture, he realises that he's been doing the same thing with the way he's being going after vengeance on Doom, and it's time to take a different approach.
This was the first episode of FF written by Lee Allred to Fraction's outline, and while the plot stuff with Scott and Alex was solid enough, the wacky hijinks the rest of the FF get up to on the moon felt a little bit too cracktastic to me - silliness and funny lines at the expense of in-character responses and the established take on the Watcher. There were points where it just felt like an outright parody comic to me, rather than lighthearted and funny but still grounded in Marvel 'reality' like it was before. (Scott's "I'm so disappointed" speech to Alex also struck me as a bit off - "They look up to you, so you have to be perfect in front of them at all times, never making mistakes"? - but I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a reflection on Scott's character that he thinks that way.)
Lots of chances for Mike Allred to have fun with the art, but between the overly wacky comedy and the fact that the story arc still seems to be about 10% plot to 90% unrelated hijinks even as it approaches the end, I'm a bit disappointed. I hope things pick up again for the last three issues, and that Doom's part in the ending actually amounts to more than the page or two per issue he's been getting so far.