*Squee* They're HERE!
Okay, so some time ago, during the mass online back issue buy I did, I ordered a shitload of comics, most of which were to complete series I had one or two issues off and wanted to know how the fuck it all came together. And a few just for me to fangirl over (and to replace ones that had suffered a fate worse than death at the hands of my mother some years back... *WEEP*). Anyway, they're here, finally and I've been neck deep in comics all day yesterday and most of today. :D I was fangirling pretty hard yesterday, I must admit... and many of you were subjected to this fangirling over on EFFN... sorry... but I'm going to do it again.
Let's start at the beginning, shall we?
Yes, that's right. I am now the proud owner of the whole series... several of which are nowhere near mint, but this is me so not caring. I just wanted to read it all, and I already had issues #3 and 5, so hubby, being the saint he is said "Get the rest." GAH! *happy dance* So I did. :D
Even issue #8... yes... its a little waterdamaged and all (because even I'm not insane or rich enough to spend $40 on a single issue... I don't care what appeared for the first time in it), but now I can read all about the birth of the Black Suit (that's right, the black suit taht eventually became Venom... Oh. fucking. Yeah.)
Now, for those of you unfamiliar with this little tale, here's the short version. Big thing appears in Central Park. The heroes (yes, damn near all of them) go to check it out, and *POOF* get transported across the universe. They're told that they are to battle their enemies and the winners will get whatever they desire. The enemies... well, aside from Doom, Galactus and Magneto (who actually shows up with the heroes first), they're pretty B-list, but that's not important.
Anyway, so this big huge war starts between the heroes and the villians, some innocent aliens get fucked up (wait... do I need the "up" in that sentence? LOL), and all ends well. Good family fun all around. lol
Highlights? Well... Molocule Man dropping a mountain range on the heroes... yes a Mountain Range... that was fun. Made everyone work together... good times.
Professor X being a douche and thinking "Yeah, we're the good guys, but we're not working with the human good guys... lets be like... a strike team... yeah, that'll work... let's go hang with Mags..." Dick. Seriously. Dick. If I were one of those X-Men, I'd have raised my hand and respectfully told him to shove it, but that's just me.
Janet getting "kidnapped" by Mags and spending some "quality time" with the Master of Magnetism. Yeah, girl.
Alien healer chick? *shakes head* *sigh* Johnny Storm... you are the Marvel U's answer to Captain Kirk, I swear it. Of course, I don't ever remember Kirk getting dumped for a mutant... speaking of...
Fails Well. Lets see. We're smack in the middle of the original Piotr/Kitty love story. He's stuck millions of miles away from the woman he loves and he literally spends a total of five panels (yes, I counted) contemplating his love and how much he misses her. Five panels... in the five issues before he meets... Whatever the fuck her name is. Not that it matters, but still. So, instead of just having a "Hey, that alien chick healed me and she's kinda cute" moment... he forgets about the love of his life and is all "Hey, look at her making out with the Torch. I want that... get off the alien chick, she's mine!" Yeah. That's totally in character. Right. In BIZARRO WORLD! Ugh..
That is the big OOC thing that Jim Shooter threw in, but its by far not the only one. He's got some pretty random stuff cramed in there. He's got characters who under the hand of a better writers by far, tout the "It doesn't matter who or what you are" line, going on about the differences between humans and mutants... not in a clear "I don't like mutants" rant, but its implied. Its horseshit, but its implied. No... actually... implied isn't the right word... you're actually beaten over the head with it. Seriously. How did this man become EiC?
An extention of this problem is how Shooter deals with exposition. He seemed to think that having the characters explain everything at length was far better than using those handy little yellow boxes to give any sort of pertinent information that doesn't make any fucking sense in a conversation! Ugh. Yes, Reed Richards is long winded, but these speeches are pushing it, even for him. Seriously.
So in conclusion, if I can ignore some OOC moments (big ones, but still...) its a good story. Too bad they beat the dead horse with the idea of Secret Wars and ruined it. It is nice to know where it all came from.
Fantastic Four #299, #300 - Yeah... I'm a dork. I know. I just... I couldn't resist! LOL Why couldn't I resist? Well... FF #300 is the wedding of "Alicia Masters" and Johnny Storm. Yup. That's right. This was, unconsciously the beginning of my favorite ship. LOL But, I don't think Roger Stern had any idea it would go there, so that will have to wait.
So... in #299, we have Johnny being the sensitive soul his is and asking Ben, (Alicia's ex, lets remember) to stand up for him at the wedding. Yeah... *shakes head* I love you, Johnny, but dear god, you're a moron. I mean, I understand the logic. Ben is like a brother to him, Ben had just come back to the team after staying behind on (yes, you guessed it) the planet Secret Wars happened on, he wanted the big guy to feel like a part of the family again. But Jesus, Johnny! *smacks him upside the head*
So most of the issue is She-Hulk and Ben drinking, Jen listening to Ben whine about how Alicia dumped him for Johnny before he got a chance to break things off (yeah... apparently being dumped IS harder than doing the dumping. *rolls eyes*) and then demolishing a city block to blow off some steam.
The other side of this is Johnny and Spidey (yeah, I was thrilled) talking out Johnny's idiocy on a rooftop. Its nice. Really. And its Spidey in the black suit, pre-evilness, which makes me smile no matter what. So, while they are sitting around having this little chat, some ornery old bitch a few floors down overhears about the wedding and leaks the info to the Daily Bugle. So much for keeping it a secret.
Eventually, Johnny and Spidey go find She-Hulk and Ben, who have finished demolishing the block (which was going to come down anyway, apparently) and Ben agrees to be Johnny's best man. Aw.
Then comes the wedding, and in true comics fashion, it is proved once and for all, Alicia must be fucking blind. Yeesh... I get that the artists are at that point all men, and it is 1987, but my god. You'd have to be blind to plan a wedding this ugly. LOL
So, again, in true Marvel style, the bad guys think, "Hey, lets fuck this shit up!". Puppet Master (being Alicia's step-father) decides that his dear step daughter deserves better. Fine, but does he just do what a normal person would do and tell her that he doesn't approve? Nope. Of course not. He hatches a plan to have Ben kill Johnny as soon as the ceremony is over (because then she's a widow and gets all his money... yeah. That's good thinking there, buddy. *rolls eyes again*).
Anyway, Mad Thinker and the Wizard get involved too, hanging back and waiting for the invevitable crunch of the groom's head. But on seeing how happy his step daughter is standing at the alter, Puppet Master changes his mind (*collective AW moment*) and instead sends Dragon Man (his chosen form of transportation out of Long Island apparently) after the other two villians.
So the wedding goes off without a hitch and Doom even sent flowers. Aw.
Now, this tiny little mini arc is very sweet. I have to admit it. It really is. Its actually far better written than I had anticipated too, which was a pleasant surprise. Granted, its 1987 so the art is... meh, but still. Totally happy I picked it up.
And after that... I had to complete the happy bits...
Fantastic Four #356-358 - "The Monster Among Us" Hell, yes. *squee* This right here... this little arc by Tom DeFalco made me go freakin' nuts many moons ago. Yes, this was a part of the original collection that met an end long ago, and now I have it back. *glee* This, right here is the birth (well... okay, the reveal) of my favorite 'ship. This is the reveal that the Alicia Masters that Johnny married was actually a Skrull.
So, the premise is simple. Reed has decided to up the security in the Freedom Four Plaza and thinks that brain scans of everyone that lives there would be the best way to do this. Right... okay. So Alicia's not too happy with this idea and everyone's like "Buh? Huh? What's the problem?"
Anyway, while all this is going on, Puppet Master gets a call from an old Jail buddy, the Mad Thinker (yes, the same one in on the whole, lets kill Johnny at the alter plan) and Thinker has figured out why his step daughter has been acting so strange, not recognizing his voice when he had Marvel Boy kidnap her... not visiting her mother's grave... that kind of thing. Puppet Master freaks out a little and takes off, finding Ben (who has been insaning grumpy lately, even for him) and tells him that he and the four are the only ones that can save Alicia. Huh? What? Okay...
There are hints all over the first two issues here that something is amuck. Alicia's art style has taken a 180 degree shift, she doesn't want to fix a piece she did for Ben years ago because she "doesn't do that anymore". She shows up in a hallway after Ben finds someone in Reed's lab trying to fuck up the brain scanner thingie, and she didn't hear or sense anyone else in the area... hmmm... fishy...
Eventually, Puppet Master convinces Ben of the truth, Ben loses it and attacks "Alicia" chasing her through the labs etc. Reed has figured it out too apparently, so he doesn't stop his rampaging friend who finally forces her to reveal that she is indeed a skrull.
This leads to the whole big confession speel... which includes the whole, "I never meant to, but I fell in love..." bit.
Johnny freaks (who wouldn't?) but she insists that it was her that he married, her that he spent his life with and she's now pregnant. WOO!! *happy dance*
There's some major angsting... Johnny trying to figure out what to do with all this. I just wanted to cuddle the poor guy through most of it. *huggles Johnny*
Anyway, Lyja agrees to help them rescue the real Alicia. They fly off into space, fight a shit load of crazy Skrulls, Piabok goes to shoot Johnny in the back and Lyja has her big moment of self sacrifice. She tells him that she isn't really pregnant. That she just wanted him to stay with her and that she truly loves him. He tells her he loves her too, despite everything and she "dies" in his arms. *tear*
Anyway, Reed gets Alicia out, and sabatoges the space station. They all go back to the space ship and Alicia wakes up and goes straight for Ben. Awwww...
This... this right here... I think we can blame this arc for my 'shipping tendencies. This is where it all started. After all I was only about 10 at the time. LOL That's right... I've been 'shipping Johnny/Lyja for damn near two decades. Now you know why I was so hyped up when they brought her back. LOL Its a really... well, this one hits me hard. I can't tell you why, exactly, but... yeah. Its well written (what happened to you Mr. DeFalco?? What happened???), again, early 90s art, so... meh, but it's... *tear* it's touching actually.
So that's what I've been doing... I got the rest of the Spider-Man Human Torch LS too, but I had to step back and take a few deep breaths before reading that... otherwise I may have just exploded with fangirl glee... and I don't want to clean that up. ;)
Yeesh... sorry for the crazy long ranting too... *blush*
Let's start at the beginning, shall we?
Yes, that's right. I am now the proud owner of the whole series... several of which are nowhere near mint, but this is me so not caring. I just wanted to read it all, and I already had issues #3 and 5, so hubby, being the saint he is said "Get the rest." GAH! *happy dance* So I did. :D
Even issue #8... yes... its a little waterdamaged and all (because even I'm not insane or rich enough to spend $40 on a single issue... I don't care what appeared for the first time in it), but now I can read all about the birth of the Black Suit (that's right, the black suit taht eventually became Venom... Oh. fucking. Yeah.)
Now, for those of you unfamiliar with this little tale, here's the short version. Big thing appears in Central Park. The heroes (yes, damn near all of them) go to check it out, and *POOF* get transported across the universe. They're told that they are to battle their enemies and the winners will get whatever they desire. The enemies... well, aside from Doom, Galactus and Magneto (who actually shows up with the heroes first), they're pretty B-list, but that's not important.
Anyway, so this big huge war starts between the heroes and the villians, some innocent aliens get fucked up (wait... do I need the "up" in that sentence? LOL), and all ends well. Good family fun all around. lol
Highlights? Well... Molocule Man dropping a mountain range on the heroes... yes a Mountain Range... that was fun. Made everyone work together... good times.
Professor X being a douche and thinking "Yeah, we're the good guys, but we're not working with the human good guys... lets be like... a strike team... yeah, that'll work... let's go hang with Mags..." Dick. Seriously. Dick. If I were one of those X-Men, I'd have raised my hand and respectfully told him to shove it, but that's just me.
Janet getting "kidnapped" by Mags and spending some "quality time" with the Master of Magnetism. Yeah, girl.
Alien healer chick? *shakes head* *sigh* Johnny Storm... you are the Marvel U's answer to Captain Kirk, I swear it. Of course, I don't ever remember Kirk getting dumped for a mutant... speaking of...
Fails Well. Lets see. We're smack in the middle of the original Piotr/Kitty love story. He's stuck millions of miles away from the woman he loves and he literally spends a total of five panels (yes, I counted) contemplating his love and how much he misses her. Five panels... in the five issues before he meets... Whatever the fuck her name is. Not that it matters, but still. So, instead of just having a "Hey, that alien chick healed me and she's kinda cute" moment... he forgets about the love of his life and is all "Hey, look at her making out with the Torch. I want that... get off the alien chick, she's mine!" Yeah. That's totally in character. Right. In BIZARRO WORLD! Ugh..
That is the big OOC thing that Jim Shooter threw in, but its by far not the only one. He's got some pretty random stuff cramed in there. He's got characters who under the hand of a better writers by far, tout the "It doesn't matter who or what you are" line, going on about the differences between humans and mutants... not in a clear "I don't like mutants" rant, but its implied. Its horseshit, but its implied. No... actually... implied isn't the right word... you're actually beaten over the head with it. Seriously. How did this man become EiC?
An extention of this problem is how Shooter deals with exposition. He seemed to think that having the characters explain everything at length was far better than using those handy little yellow boxes to give any sort of pertinent information that doesn't make any fucking sense in a conversation! Ugh. Yes, Reed Richards is long winded, but these speeches are pushing it, even for him. Seriously.
So in conclusion, if I can ignore some OOC moments (big ones, but still...) its a good story. Too bad they beat the dead horse with the idea of Secret Wars and ruined it. It is nice to know where it all came from.
Fantastic Four #299, #300 - Yeah... I'm a dork. I know. I just... I couldn't resist! LOL Why couldn't I resist? Well... FF #300 is the wedding of "Alicia Masters" and Johnny Storm. Yup. That's right. This was, unconsciously the beginning of my favorite ship. LOL But, I don't think Roger Stern had any idea it would go there, so that will have to wait.
So... in #299, we have Johnny being the sensitive soul his is and asking Ben, (Alicia's ex, lets remember) to stand up for him at the wedding. Yeah... *shakes head* I love you, Johnny, but dear god, you're a moron. I mean, I understand the logic. Ben is like a brother to him, Ben had just come back to the team after staying behind on (yes, you guessed it) the planet Secret Wars happened on, he wanted the big guy to feel like a part of the family again. But Jesus, Johnny! *smacks him upside the head*
So most of the issue is She-Hulk and Ben drinking, Jen listening to Ben whine about how Alicia dumped him for Johnny before he got a chance to break things off (yeah... apparently being dumped IS harder than doing the dumping. *rolls eyes*) and then demolishing a city block to blow off some steam.
The other side of this is Johnny and Spidey (yeah, I was thrilled) talking out Johnny's idiocy on a rooftop. Its nice. Really. And its Spidey in the black suit, pre-evilness, which makes me smile no matter what. So, while they are sitting around having this little chat, some ornery old bitch a few floors down overhears about the wedding and leaks the info to the Daily Bugle. So much for keeping it a secret.
Eventually, Johnny and Spidey go find She-Hulk and Ben, who have finished demolishing the block (which was going to come down anyway, apparently) and Ben agrees to be Johnny's best man. Aw.
Then comes the wedding, and in true comics fashion, it is proved once and for all, Alicia must be fucking blind. Yeesh... I get that the artists are at that point all men, and it is 1987, but my god. You'd have to be blind to plan a wedding this ugly. LOL
So, again, in true Marvel style, the bad guys think, "Hey, lets fuck this shit up!". Puppet Master (being Alicia's step-father) decides that his dear step daughter deserves better. Fine, but does he just do what a normal person would do and tell her that he doesn't approve? Nope. Of course not. He hatches a plan to have Ben kill Johnny as soon as the ceremony is over (because then she's a widow and gets all his money... yeah. That's good thinking there, buddy. *rolls eyes again*).
Anyway, Mad Thinker and the Wizard get involved too, hanging back and waiting for the invevitable crunch of the groom's head. But on seeing how happy his step daughter is standing at the alter, Puppet Master changes his mind (*collective AW moment*) and instead sends Dragon Man (his chosen form of transportation out of Long Island apparently) after the other two villians.
So the wedding goes off without a hitch and Doom even sent flowers. Aw.
Now, this tiny little mini arc is very sweet. I have to admit it. It really is. Its actually far better written than I had anticipated too, which was a pleasant surprise. Granted, its 1987 so the art is... meh, but still. Totally happy I picked it up.
And after that... I had to complete the happy bits...
Fantastic Four #356-358 - "The Monster Among Us" Hell, yes. *squee* This right here... this little arc by Tom DeFalco made me go freakin' nuts many moons ago. Yes, this was a part of the original collection that met an end long ago, and now I have it back. *glee* This, right here is the birth (well... okay, the reveal) of my favorite 'ship. This is the reveal that the Alicia Masters that Johnny married was actually a Skrull.
So, the premise is simple. Reed has decided to up the security in the Freedom Four Plaza and thinks that brain scans of everyone that lives there would be the best way to do this. Right... okay. So Alicia's not too happy with this idea and everyone's like "Buh? Huh? What's the problem?"
Anyway, while all this is going on, Puppet Master gets a call from an old Jail buddy, the Mad Thinker (yes, the same one in on the whole, lets kill Johnny at the alter plan) and Thinker has figured out why his step daughter has been acting so strange, not recognizing his voice when he had Marvel Boy kidnap her... not visiting her mother's grave... that kind of thing. Puppet Master freaks out a little and takes off, finding Ben (who has been insaning grumpy lately, even for him) and tells him that he and the four are the only ones that can save Alicia. Huh? What? Okay...
There are hints all over the first two issues here that something is amuck. Alicia's art style has taken a 180 degree shift, she doesn't want to fix a piece she did for Ben years ago because she "doesn't do that anymore". She shows up in a hallway after Ben finds someone in Reed's lab trying to fuck up the brain scanner thingie, and she didn't hear or sense anyone else in the area... hmmm... fishy...
Eventually, Puppet Master convinces Ben of the truth, Ben loses it and attacks "Alicia" chasing her through the labs etc. Reed has figured it out too apparently, so he doesn't stop his rampaging friend who finally forces her to reveal that she is indeed a skrull.
This leads to the whole big confession speel... which includes the whole, "I never meant to, but I fell in love..." bit.
Johnny freaks (who wouldn't?) but she insists that it was her that he married, her that he spent his life with and she's now pregnant. WOO!! *happy dance*
There's some major angsting... Johnny trying to figure out what to do with all this. I just wanted to cuddle the poor guy through most of it. *huggles Johnny*
Anyway, Lyja agrees to help them rescue the real Alicia. They fly off into space, fight a shit load of crazy Skrulls, Piabok goes to shoot Johnny in the back and Lyja has her big moment of self sacrifice. She tells him that she isn't really pregnant. That she just wanted him to stay with her and that she truly loves him. He tells her he loves her too, despite everything and she "dies" in his arms. *tear*
Anyway, Reed gets Alicia out, and sabatoges the space station. They all go back to the space ship and Alicia wakes up and goes straight for Ben. Awwww...
This... this right here... I think we can blame this arc for my 'shipping tendencies. This is where it all started. After all I was only about 10 at the time. LOL That's right... I've been 'shipping Johnny/Lyja for damn near two decades. Now you know why I was so hyped up when they brought her back. LOL Its a really... well, this one hits me hard. I can't tell you why, exactly, but... yeah. Its well written (what happened to you Mr. DeFalco?? What happened???), again, early 90s art, so... meh, but it's... *tear* it's touching actually.
So that's what I've been doing... I got the rest of the Spider-Man Human Torch LS too, but I had to step back and take a few deep breaths before reading that... otherwise I may have just exploded with fangirl glee... and I don't want to clean that up. ;)
Yeesh... sorry for the crazy long ranting too... *blush*