Fantastic Friday: Don’t box me in

Posted on January 30, 2026 by Mac McEntire

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Writer Matt Fraction’s dual comics experiment continues with FF vol. 2 #11. With all these characters and storylines going at once, why not have Impossible Man pop up?

Recap. The Fantastic Four went on a journey throughout time and space, leaving behind a replacement Fantastic Four – Ant-Man, Medusa, She-Hulk, and newcomer Darla Deering – to run the Future Foundation in their place. They disappeared, leaving the new team on their own. An older Johnny Storm, now known as Old John Storm, arrived from the future with a tale of an all-powerful Dr. Doom, called the Conquering Doom, who killed the Fantastic Four in the distant future. But then, present-day Dr. Doom has made a deal with Alex Power to spy on the new FF, holding Alex’s parents hostage. Doom wants Alex to kill Old John. For help with this, Alex and some of the other kids consulted Maximus the Mad, only to accidentally set him free.

Plans are under way to rescue the Fantastic Four, with help from immortal alien who met the Four in distant past when disguised as Julius Caesar. Ant-Man, Medusa, She-Hulk, and Darla are in Caesar’s time ship with a plan to go back to the day the Fantastic Four disappeared and stop them. The ship has a bumpy takeoff, and then it disappears. At the new Baxter Building, Alex, Bentley-23, Onome, Ahura, and Tong sneak Maximus through the place, all while Caesar gives a lecture to the other kids on the subject of conquering (!). He catches Alex’s group while they try to sneak past.

The replacement four arrive in the past, only to find NYC turned all green and purple, and seemingly abandoned. Everything gets all twisty-turny until the face of the Impossible Man appears on the side of a building, asking “Did you miss me?” There’s a brief fight, after Impy says he pulled them there as soon as they were unmoored from time, because he has request. He’s heard they run a school now, and he has a kid who needs help.

The heroes dismiss the idea, saying the Future Foundation is not a conventional school, but one with a specific curriculum for specific types of students. Impossible Man says his son needs help because the boy is “entirely too possible.” He offers to help them find the missing Fantastic Four in exchange for meeting the kid. They go to this New York’s library and they’re introduced to the impossible boy, who is impossibly named Adolph.

At HQ, there’s some comedy bits with Maximus disguising himself as a H.E.R.B.I.E, robot to sneak around. In the library, Adolph is a brainy scientist type, who’d rather read books than go to New York. The four make their case for how great the Future Foundation is, and how much fun it is to live in New York. Adolph freaks out, using his Impossible Man powers to trap the heroes in grey boxes. Medusa manages to reach him, saying that the Future Foundation can help him understand and control his volatile emotions. She says that, as a mother, her job is to protect children.

Later, Impossible Man tells Ant-Man that the Fantastic Four are about to be pulled into an alternate dimension where no one can look. We warns them that bad things are coming, and that the replacement team must focus on protecting themselves from “the doomed future.” The timeship takes off with Adolph. On Earth, Caesar finds Maximus in the Baxter Building kitchen, stuffing his face. They shake hands, as Caesar introduces himself as “in the business of conquering worlds.”

To be continued!

Fantastic fifth wheel: Ant-Man pilots the timeship, while also admitting this is the first time he’s ever time-traveled.

She-Hulk is very abrasive to her teammates throughout this issue, so the fight between her and Medusa a few issues back is still unresolved.

Medusa claims that having the city of Attilan floating in the sky over New York makes New York safer than it’s ever been. I don’t know if that’s true.

Darla tries to convince Adolph to come to NYC by describing the great music there. She adds that when she was a child, one of her babysitters was a member of the Strokes.

Multiple H.E.R.B.I.E. robots patrol the hallways of the Baxter Building wearing “hall monitor” sashes. Freakin’ H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot.

Impossible Man says he likes the Fantastic Four and wants to help them. This calls back to the time he was part of the short-lived “Fantastic Seven” team lineup in the ‘70s.

Foundational: Welcome to the Future Foundation, Adolph Impossible! This is his first appearance… maybe? In Marvel Two-In-One #86, he fathered a whole bunch of children, the Impossible Kids. It’s unclear whether one of them eventually became Adolph, but it doesn’t look like it.

Bentley suggests that some of the girls in the Future Foundation have a crush on Alex Power, singling out Onome in particular. She shushes him before he can go further.

Trivia time: Who is Adolph’s mom? That’d be the Impossible Woman, who shows up briefly at the end of this issue. Impossible Man created her from his own essence (!), back in Marvel Two-In-One #60, and they’ve been on-again/off-again ever since.

Fantastic or frightful? His name is Adolph, is it? I don’t know. I guess the joke is that it would be impossible for someone to name their kid that. Fortunately, we’ll see him become an interesting addition to the Future Foundation in issues to come. Beyond that, Impossible Man is no one’s favorite character, but Matt Fraction does right by him in this issue. He’s funny and wacky, but also a genuine character.

Next: You old fossil.

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Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.

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Reading the dictionary: Allen wrench-art

Posted on January 26, 2026 by Mac McEntire

Reading the dictionary front to back! This week we get into mythology, astrology, and – if you can believe it – the nature of art itself.

An Allen wrench gets a simple but effective definition, but then the dictionary insists they only come from the Allen Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Conn. The wrench industry must have some powerful lawyers.

“Help, I need tungsten to live!”

Amazon is neither a website nor a river. Instead, it’s the more classical definition of “a member of a race of female warriors from Greek mythology,” and “a tall, strong, often masculine woman.”

No mention of kangaroos, though.

In another case of “how do you define the undefinable?” ambiguous is “capable of being understood in more than one way.” I’m impressed by how that doesn’t seem ambiguous at all.

Amity gets a one-word definition of “friendship.” I guess its use in the Jaws and Amityville Horror franchises is meant to be ironic. On second thought, the three guys from Jaws do become friends after a bit, don’t they?  

That freakin’ mayor.

Ammonia has the scientific definition of the chemical, but also goes on about how it’s named after the “salt of Ammon,” extracted from the temples of the Egyptian god Ammon. Somebody on the dictionary staff must be a huge mythology nerd.

Amusement Park is “a commercially operated park with devices for amusement (such as roller coasters) and booths selling refreshments.” You could argue that it’s a lot more than that, but the dictionary writers have to keep this short. Also, you’d think a roller coaster would be a lot more than a “device,” but maybe that’s just me.

In sensurround!

Keeping the mythology theme going, ancient is described as relating only to ancient Greece or Rome specifically. I’m sure plenty of other parts of the world also has ancient stuff. I mean, they just mentioned Egypt a few pages earlier.

Angel has multiple definitions. These include a spiritual being, and, separately, a human with wings. It also means “a financial backer,” which says a lot about the world we live in.

“Vampire with a soul” is not among the definitions.

Then we get into a dark place with angry as “showing anger,” angst as “a feeling of anxiety” and anguish as “extreme pain or distress.” What does it say about the English language that these three words are right next to each other?

A couple of weird ones with the verb animadvert as “to express criticism” or “to censure.” This is followed by animalcule, “a tiny animal invisible to the naked eye.” Therefore, if you make a YouTube video ranking all the tiny animals, you can call it “Animadverting animalcules.”

An ankh gets a description of the symbol, also adding that it dates back to “ancient Egypt.” Hey dictionary, you just said “ancient” only refers to Greece and Rome, but now… oh, forget it.

There’s always Ankh-Morpork.

When get to a long runner of words that begin with the prefix “anti,” the dictionary adds a list of just words along the bottom of the page, like footnotes. I guess the idea is that they didn’t have room for definitions of these, but here they are if you need to know how to spell them.

An “antitoxin to venom” is somehow not antivenom, which has no entry. Instead, the proper word is antivenin. Not quite as catchy.

Eddie Brock does not approve.

We get into astrology stuff in this section with both Aquarius and Aries, but they are described not as zodiac symbols but as “zodiacal,” which is another new one. There’s definitions of the symbols and the time of year they relate to, but not any deeper meaning. It’s up to you to get spacy on your own.

Another seemingly undefinable word is art. Beyond being a skill and a division of the humanities, art is “the use of skill and imagination in the production of things of beauty.” Associating art only with beauty strikes me as awfully narrowminded. What about slice-of-life art, or minimalist art, or horror movies even? We’ll have to revisit this when we get to the dictionary’s take on beauty.

But is it art?

Next: England, or Gotham City?

* * * *

Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.

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Reading the dictionary: A-alligator

Posted on January 19, 2026 by Mac McEntire

Reading the entire dictionary front to back! It’s something I’ve always wanted to try. If I’m going to attempt this, why not blog about it? I’ll post any interesting discoveries I make.

Why this edition? It was only 10 bucks.

Of course the first word in the dictionary is a, defined as the first letter of the alphabet, and then defined as “an article to indicate an unspecified or unidentified individual.” Already I can see how maddening it must be to write for the dictionary, when every word you use in any definition must also be defined on its own.

The A, as we all know, does not stand for France.

The first “real” word in the dictionary is, as we all know, aardvark. It’s “a large burrowing African mammal that feeds on ants with its long sticky tongue.” Sadly, this dictionary does not have those old-timey woodcut illustrations, so we have to imagine an aardvark based on this description.

The earth-pig born!

Don’t worry, I won’t go through this whole thing word-by-word, just the ones I find interesting. I wonder if animal descriptions will be the most fun, because abalone is “any of a genus of large edible mollusks with a flattened slightly spiral shell with holes along the edge.” I wonder what’s going in the dictionary offices where they felt the need it was important to include the word “edible” in that.

Abattoir is defined as just “slaughterhouse.” Did anyone NOT learn that from The Simpsons?

The Abominable Snowman is a “creature with human or apelike characteristics reported to exist in the high Himalayas.” It doesn’t say the creature is mythical, or folklore, or – dare I say it – fictional. Do the Merriam-Webster people know something I don’t? This is followed by abominate, a verb described as praying away an ill omen. Cool.

So abominable!

Abracadabra (one word, not two) is “a magical charm or incantation against calamity.” Is that accurate? Magicians traditionally say this upon the big reveal, so I always thought it meant something along the lines of “Look at this!” The internet at large tells me that there are multiple suspected etymologies for the word, and no one can agree on its true origins. As such, the dictionary’s second definition is just “gibberish.”

He would be a Flash villain.

How do you define the undefinable? Abstract is “a quality apart from an object” and “having only intrinsic form with little or no pictorial representation.” Is that helpful? If it is, then how could one possibly define abstract expressionism in one sentence? It’s “art that expresses the artist’s emotions and expressions through abstract form.” Easy as that, I guess.

Ace has multiple definitions, but the one I didn’t know is that the number one dot on dice is the “ace.” You’d think this would have made it into all those Dungeons and Dragons modules.

Acme is not the name of a company, but the highest point of a structure. All the better for Wile E. Coyote to fall off of.

The dictionary doesn’t have a theatrical definition of act, just that it’s “to perform an action.” But then actor is “a person who acts in a play, television show, motion picture, etc.”

A few pages of ordinary stuff later, we get agogo, defined as “a café and disco in Paris, France.” This is followed by agony, which is not just “struggle” and “anguish,” but also a gathering or contest for a prize involving “extreme pain of mind or body.” Now I want to see a French horror movie about this contest called Agogo Agony.

“Douglas was pear-shaped…”

A few more pages of ordinary stuff – including an entire page of words with “air” as a prefix – and we end the first 20 pages with alligator, “short-legged reptiles resembling crocodiles but having broader and shorter snouts.” Man, gators must be sick of always being compared to crocs. Why can’t they be their own guys?

Hi there!

Next: The town from Jaws?

* * * *

Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.

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Fantastic Friday: Steampunk or steam-Funke?

Posted on January 16, 2026 by Mac McEntire

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. It’s off to a distant planet for more time travel action in vol. 4 #11. Also, an Arrested Development crossover?

Recap: Reed has taken the family on a year-long expedition through time and space, which is a front for him seeking a cure for a molecular disease of some sort that’s slowly killing him and his teammates. As the disease started to affect his teammates, Reed came clean with them. In the parallel series FF, there’s a lot of mystery as to what’s become of them, but the main series hasn’t gotten there yet.

This issue begins with Reed apologizing to Valeria about deceiving everyone. Further, he asks for her help. He says he’s stared at the problem for too long and needs a fresh perspective. He agrees to let her choose where the family goes next, no matter what. The then arrive at planet Celeritas, a utopian world that harvests energy from star clusters to rebuild their world. They’re greeted by two hosts, Titor and Michio, who not just know who Valeria is, but are in awe of her presence. She asks for a few hours in their most advanced laboratory… and a sandwich.

Valeria, Reed, and Johnny take off for the lab, while Sue, Ben, and Franklin tour the main city in Celeritas. They ask why the city has what appears to be old Earth buildings, but they’re told not ask questions. Johnny and Valeria bicker for a bit about the kids leaving Legos on the floor, after which she requests a full diagnostic from the aliens.

Then we see a ticking clock, followed by images of the city all twisting and turning around. Titor says “time terrorists” have set off chronal explosives to force history back into the present, hence the old buildings. Then Michio reports that Reed, Valeria, and Johnny were taking forward in time because of the explosion. Titor says only the Preservation Front knows where or when they might be. Then we meet this Preservation Front, a steampunk-looking crew of high tech gear and old-timey style. They spot Sue, Ben and Franklin in the city via their monitors, and their leader, Thunder, plots to steal the heroes’ time ship.

Reed, Johnny, and Valeria find themselves on a version of the planet that’s about to fold in on itself due to all the time disruptions. There are portals all around that Valeria says are dangerous, acting like miniature white holes. Reed wants to figure out a way of fixing things to get back, but Valeria is more concerned about the sense that something else is there, stalking them. Johnny then sees something flying overhead, confirming they’re not alone. He chases the figure, only to discover it’s Old John Storm from the concurrent FF series – Johnny from the future!

With the other group, Titor explains that the Preservation Front are driven by nostalgia, wanting to drag everyone back to the good old days. The P.F. then attacks, on modern-day cars and motorcycles. They fight, with the P.F. throwing bombs that make crazy time-stuff happen, like a tree growing under Ben within seconds. In the other scene, Valeria and Reed can detect the battle happening through one of their portals. The two of them reach a large structure with a glowing globe on top. Valeria declares, “We’re going to build more future and save everything.”

The fight continues, and Franklin’s eyes start glowing. Energy surrounds him, and Sue urges him to focus and control his powers. He shouts, “Stop!” and sends out a wave of energy that knocks out the Preservation Front. Valeria, meanwhile, deduces that the globe is a sort of time capsule, containing all of Celeritas’ history, punching holes in spacetime whenever it is activated. To create more time and repair the machine, Valeria says she needs a lot of heat. Johnny and Old John show up, with Johnny vouching for his future self. Reed has thousands of questions, but they have to get to work on the machine.

Sue negotiates with the Preservation Front, who she’s keeping held in force fields. She demands her family back, just as Ben’s hands start crumbling like they did at the end of last issue. Big Sky, another P.F. member, says he knows what other team is doing, and it will be their undoing. As he says this, we see cutaways to the two Johnnys heating up the machine. He asks Sue to let them go in exchange for saving her family.

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed taking a back seat to Valeria in this issue is about him being contrite about not revealing the truth to his family. He tells his daughter, “You can be mad if you want. I deserve it.” He adds that the only way to make it up to her is to find a cure.

Fade out: Sue tries threatening the Preservation Front, but they know all about who the Fantastic Four are, and they know Sue is overall nicer than that.

Clobberin’ time: Ben spends the whole issue wanting to punch someone, only to be undone by the fast-growing tree.

Flame on: Johnny tells Old John Storm that he’s never really measured just how many degrees of heat he can generate, saying he just pushes it and sees what happens.

Four and a half: Franklin’s mutant powers are reestablished in a big way with him gaining some control over it. Him using energy waves to take out the enemies is reminiscent of how he defeated Mephisto that one time during the John Byrne years.

Our gal Val: Valeria takes on the leadership role in this issue, something we’ll see more from her as time goes on.

Foundational: Old John Storm crosses over from FF to this series, but without his cybernetic limbs and no mention of the future threat of the Conquering Doom. Readers are continuing to wonder what the bigger picture is.

Trivia time: The members of the Preservation Front are Thunder, Phenom, Starstruck, and Big Sky, along with three unnamed members. They have no entry in the Marvel Wiki, despite coming back for more next issue.

This issue’s letters page states that, following the events of Arrested Development season 4, Marvel’s lawyers cracked down on Tobias Funke’s unlicensed FF musical. Editor Tom Brevoort says it’s a shame, because “that theme song is kinda catchy!”

Fantastic or frightful? This is a bit of a confusing one, throwing all kinds of sci-fi concepts at the reader at once, hoping we’ll keep up. I wonder if this was meant to be multiple issues of story condensed into one. I do like the Preservation Front, though, as a quirky group of villains/antiheroes. I can totally see somebody at Marvel bringing them back.

Next: Don’t box me in.

* * * *

Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.

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Fantastic Friday: Breaking the fantastic fourth wall

Posted on January 9, 2026 by Mac McEntire

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Things get wackier than usual in FF vol. 2 #10, when the comic’s own creators show up as characters.

There’s so many plotlines happening, it’s getting harder and harder to recap. The Fantastic Four went on a journey throughout time and space, leaving behind a replacement Fantastic Four – Ant-Man, Medusa, She-Hulk, and newcomer Darla Deering – to run the Future Foundation in their place. They disappeared, leaving the new team on their own. An older Johnny Storm, now known as John Storm, arrived from the future with a tale of an all-powerful Dr. Doom, called the Conquering Doom, who killed the Fantastic Four in the distant future. Plans are under way to rescue them. But then, present-day Dr. Doom has made a deal with Alex Power to spy on the new FF, holding Alex’s parents hostage. I think that covers it for now.

We begin with everyone around the dinner table at, as John Storm says he can sense Dr. Doom’s presence in Alex. A fight almost breaks out. In the bathroom, Alex contacts Dr. Doom, who tells him John Storm has to be killed (!), reminding Alex that Alex’s parents’ lives are in the balance. Cut to the Franklin Park Zoo, where the new team and some of the kids are having a PR meeting with three representatives of Marvel Comics, writer Matt Fraction, artist Mike Allred, and editor Tom Brevoort, the same ones making this issue. It’s meta! The heroes are taking the Marvel guys on a trip through the microverse in Ant-Man’s shrinking ship. Ant-Man assures everyone the trip will be safe, but then he seems unsure of it.

At the Baxter Building, Alex hangs out with a bunch of the other kids on the roof. He asks if any of them know anyone who’s killed someone. Ahura says he does. In the microverse, the ship is the size of an atom, with Ant-Man showing off other atoms. Brevoort is impressed, but he says the Marvel team is more interested in the team’s monthly capers. Ant-Man gets a message stating that a tiger has gone missing from the zoo. Artie and Leech, who’s with everyone on the ship, reveal they used “Pym dust” to shrink a tiger and sneak it on board. The tiger gets loose inside the ship, causing it to spin out of control.

The heroes and the Marvel guys venture outside the ship, looking for the tiger, who has run off. The find it, only to discover it has grown to giant size, or at least giant from their perspective. They fight the tiger while keeping the Marvel guys out of harm’s way. Ant-Man says this will be a fine ending for the comic, but Matt Fraction doesn’t buy it. He says there has to be some sort of unseen surprise at the end. Ant-Man responds, “We’re the FF. Something will come up.”

Ahura takes some of the Foundation kids to the floating city of Attilan. Specifically, it’s him, Alex, Bentley-23, Onome, and Tong the Moloid. They meet with a mystery man whose eyes are hidden behind a metal blindfold. He seems to know about each of them. Ahura reveals this is his uncle, Maximus the Mad. He’s in a cell, and Maximus engages the kids in a game of twenty questions in exchange for them letting him go free.

Maximus confounds the kids with his subject, as they whittle it down to not an animal, mineral, or vegetable, but a concept. Their twenty questions are up, and he gives the answer just as his cell opens. He says, “I am free.”

To be continued!

Fantastic fifth wheel: Throughout this issue, Ant-Man communicates with a place and/or organization called A.N.T.H.I.L.L.1. We get one glimpse of this, an entire team of people wearing black and white Ant-Man gear. The Marvel Wiki has no information on A.N.T.H.I.L.L.1., except to note that this is its first appearance. I’ll assume this is also the last appearance.

Similarly, Darla’s publicist Durante joins the heroes on their micro-adventure. The Marvel Wiki has no info on him except his name.

Medusa is unimpressed with the tiger’s size, saying she’s faced bigger beasts. I’m feeling a little tired this week, so I’ll let you comb through all of Marvel history to find out what giant beasts she’s fought in the past.

Foundational: Who has Alex Power met that’s killed somebody? The Power Pack kids befriended Wolverine on multiple occasions, and we know he’ll kill if he has to. And they certainly saw murder first-hand during the Mutant Massacre crossover and the Snark-Kymelian war. None of those suit his purposes in finding a solution to John Storm, however.

Trivia time: Fictional characters meeting their own creators is nothing new. The trick has been done since way back in Dante’s Inferno (1321), if not earlier. In Fantastic Four, the characters previously met Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, John Byrne, Steve Englehard, and now Fraction, Allred, and Brevoort. There are probably others I’m not thinking of.

New York’s Central Park Zoo, a real location, has been the site for many Marvel tales over the years, too many to list here. Interestingly, the Scarlet Spider, a.k.a. Kaine, has had multiple adventures at the zoo.

Fantastic or frightful? Of course the Alex/Maximus storyline is the good stuff, moving the plot forward, while the microverse stuff is, as the comic admits, a caper. We’re now in the second half of Fraction’s two-series-at-once experiment. It’s been fun, but by now I’m sure readers are antsy to get to the bigger picture.

Next: It’s not Margaritaville.  

* * * *

Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.

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Fantastic Friday: Declaration of Inde-clobbering

Posted on January 2, 2026 by Mac McEntire

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. History comes alive (sort of) in vol. 4 issue #10, in which characters named Ben and Franklin meet… Ben Franklin!

Recap: Reed has taken the family on a year-long expedition through time and space, which is a front for him seeking a cure for a molecular disease of some sort that’s slowly killing him and his teammates. In the parallel series FF, there’s a lot of mystery as to what’s become of them, but the main series hasn’t gotten there yet.

We begin in Philadelphia, 1776. Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and John Adams are debating slavery (everyone start nervously tugging at your collars now). Then we cut to outer space, aboard the FF’s time ship, where Sue’s powers are glitching, causing her skeleton and other innards to show through her skin. Reed finally admits to the whole family that their own powers are making them sick. Johnny and the kids are upset Reed didn’t tell them sooner.  Reed goes over the events of this storyline so far, explaining that he collected molecular samples from the various worlds and timelines from previous issues, only to conclude that this disease is not natural. Someone deliberately infected them. In 1776, Ben Franklin follows a glowing green device to a hole in the ground, only to reveal he’s really a Skrull in disguise. Reed continues that the disease is not just an attack… but an invasion.

Back aboard the ship, Reed and the family brainstorm for some sort of conclusion, only for a still-angry Valeria to deduce that the Skrulls are behind the disease. This is followed by more drama from Johnny, who accuses Sue of being no worse than Reed in this secrecy. There’s a page of Jefferson and Adams still debating slavery, and then it’s back to the ship, where Reed wants to go to 1953 and meet scientist Rosalind Franklin. But then something goes wrong, and the ship gets blasted down to Earth in 1776.

Reed’s computer reveals that a Skrull is somewhere nearby, and that the “chronal-anchor” Reed planted on the Earth is gone, which could be a huge problem. The Skrull impersonating Ben Franklin joins the others, hinting that he’s up to something. On the ship, Reed figures that the Skrull has “phoned home” and other Skrulls are headed for Earth. He wants the FF to stop their rendezvous, while also helping themselves to some Skrull tech to repair their own ship.

Sue and Ben confront the Skrull ship as it lands, for a few pages of fighting. The Ben Franklin Skrull tries to leave while the others debate the final draft of the Declaration of Independence. Reed, Johnny, and the kids, all dressed in 1776-times clothes, show up to confront him, with Reed sneakily speaking some Skrull language to Franklin, and showing off some future tech, so Franklin knows he’s been caught in the act.

Later, Reed reveals the Skrulls’ plan was to be pro-slavery, in hopes of enslaving all of Earth someday. After taking the Skrulls’ molecular samples, Sue reveals to the kids that Reed turned the Ben Franklin Skrull into a cow! (Reference to way back in issue #2.) Reed says he had to do this to restore the timeline, but Valeria doesn’t like it, rushing off in another fit of anger. Reed starts talking about needing another chronal anchor, because they can’t get home without it. Meanwhile, Ben looks down and sees his rocky hands are starting to crumble.

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: The woman mentioned by Reed, Rosalind Franklin, was a real person. Her famous work, Photo 51, was crucial in establishing the double helix model structure of DNA.

Fade out: Reed gives Sue a special harness that can control her invisibility temporarily. She undoes it to frighten the Skrulls at the end of their fight.

Clobberin’ time: After the FF’s ship crash lands in a lake Ben swims it out of the water. Reed calls him “our outboard motor.”

Flame on: Johnny is now the only member of the team who has shown no symptoms of this mysterious disease, but he’s angered at Reed for not telling he’s potentially dying.

Four and a half: Franklin and Valeria are given a chance to talk to Thomas Jefferson at the end of the issue, only to be disappointed by him.

Our gal Val: When Valeria is mad at Reed, he claims she has “become a teenager.” I prefer to think this is not her actual age, but a mere aphorism by Reed.

Trivia time: As of this writing, Marvel is currently publishing the 1776 miniseries from writer J. Michael Stracynski. It’s about a bunch of Marvel heroes teleporting back to the American Revolution to stop a plot by the villainous witch Morgan Le Fay. It’s a bit more comedic and Back to the Future-ish than this serious story. I don’t see anything in the first two issues that reference this Fantastic Four storyline, but you never know.

Fantastic or frightful? I’m sure writer Matt Fraction meant well with all this slavery talk, but it comes off as more uncomfortable rather than having a grand moral center. The issue doesn’t have enough pages to have any real fun with an alien impersonating Ben Franklin. The true story is Valeria and Johnny both being ticked off at Reed, It feels genuine, and it’s something we’ll see carry forward in future issues.  

Next: Fourth wall? What’s that?

* * * *

Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.

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Fantastic Friday: The retcon of Doom

Posted on December 12, 2025 by Mac McEntire

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Writer Matt Fraction continues his time travel epic by revisiting the characters’ own origins in vol 4, issue #9. What is Dr. Doom’s real origin story?

Gimmie a gimmick: Where deep in the era (era) of every issue having variant covers, and I haven’t been tracking them all because who can be bothered? This issue, however, is of note, because the variant cover is “Wolverine throughout the ages,” with a trippy red and green painting of Wolverine freaking out. Why is this of note? Because Wolverine is NOT in this issue!

Recap: The FF are in the midst of a year-long expedition through time and space, as a front for Reed searching for a cure to a molecular illness that’s killing him. Along the way, we learned that Ben is affected as well. Then Ben recently revealed that the accident that scarred Dr. Doom back in the day was actually all his fault!

We begin in the past, at college, for the first meeting between young Ben and young Victor Von Doom. Ben accidentally spills some paint on Doom, and then they’re enemies. Ben catches up with young Reed, so they’re already friends at this point. Later, Ben and two other friends sneak into Doom’s lab and mess with everything. As they’re leaving, Ben discovers the paint is ultraviolet glow-in-the-dark paint, and Doom has scrawled magical sigils and whatnot all over the walls. Ben scraps off part of one as he leaves.

In the present, on board the FF’s time ship, Reed gives Ben a bracelet that he says will allow him to observe the past without disrupting it. This way, Reed says, they’ll be able to know what really happened the night of the accident that created Dr. Doom. Ben agrees to do so, even if he’s insistent that Doom’s creation was all his fault. Reed disagrees, reminding Ben (and us) of Ben’s long and complex origin story, including the supernatural influence of his mother.

The FF’s time ship arrives on the day of the accident, only to find other time ships in the sky over New York, all cloaked (apparently). A bunch of Dr. Dooms from other timelines raise a toast, “to the nativity!” All invisible, they watch as young Reed enters Doom’s lab to correct young Doom’s notes, and young Doom’s refusal to listen. One of the Dooms wants to break invisibility and kill young Reed, but another stops him to preserve the timeline.

Turn the page, and we see present-day Reed and Ben are also there, invisible to their younger selves, and also to all the Dr. Dooms. (Getting crowded in there.) Reed concludes what he always knew, that the flaw was in Doom’s mathematics, not in the tech that Ben and his buddies messed with. He asks about the magic sigils, and Reed goes on the usual rant about how magic is just science we don’t understand yet. Ben, still thinking it’s all his fault, takes off the bracelet and jumps in to save young Doom from being scarred.

Young Doom is genius enough that he can tell the Thing is Ben. Then all the Dr. Dooms take off their bracelets (or whatever) and revealing themselves to attack Ben. Then Reed undoes his invisibility to get young Doom out of the room while Ben fights all the Dr. Dooms. Reed confronts young Doom, asking what he was thinking. Young Doom says, “In the end, I wanted greatness.”

Young Doom grabs Reed’s invisibility bracelet and breaks up the fight, demanding attention from everyone and staring down all the other Dr. Dooms. He tells everyone to leave, saying he doesn’t want them there. Reed pleads with young Doom to reconsider his path. Young Doom takes pride in all the alternate timeline versions of him, rather than be horrified. Reed and Ben teleport back to the time ship. As they do, Ben asks if all this happened because of his actions. Doom says nothing Ben could have done would have affected him. (Freakin’ time travel sentence structure.) He calls Ben an idiot as Ben and Reed leave.

Later, Ben and Reed have a heart-to-heart chat. Ben still feels like Dr. Doom’s accident was all his fault. Reed says the timeline is like a superhighway, full of traffic lanes in all directions. If you tap your breaks for a second, can you be responsible for accidents dozens of lanes over? There’s a flashback to the John Byrne retelling of Doom’s origin, where he got a tiny scar on his cheek, and then he had those creepy monks permanently burn the hot metal mask onto his face. Ben wonders if being the Thing is punishment for what he did to Doom. Reed says, “It didn’t matter. It would have happened anyway. No matter what.”

Reed then says that he feels responsible for Dr. Doom’s creation, because he could have stepped in and done something sooner, but, in his pride, he let the accident happen. He then says nothing would have stopped Doom with going through with his experiment. “Doom is inevitable,” he says, as the final page is all the monks raising glasses in tribute to Dr. Doom in his mask and armor for the first time.

Unstable molecule/Fade out: This is the historic issue where, in the letters page, editor Tom Breevort cops to the fact that Marvel intentionally retconned Reed and Sue background so they are the same age, reprinting that famously uncomfortable panel from the Byrne years. What makes this interesting is the famously continuity-rich Marvel is admitting to a retcon, even though they retcon stuff all the time to keep things fresh for readers.

Clobberin’ time: Ben’s story in this issue leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions. Did his tampering with the sigils have an impact or not? Does he still blame himself for creating Dr. Doom. The comic doesn’t say.

Trivia time: The Marvel Wiki lists only a few of the alternate timeline Dr. Dooms, hand-waving the rest as “others.” There are not one but two Dr. Doom/Dr. Strange hybrids, interesting in how the One World Under Doom crossover just happened in 2025. The infamous goat-legged Dr. Doom of the original Ultimate Unvierse is also here, although this is likely another variant and not really him.

Why don’t Reed and Doom remember this happening? The Marvel Wiki insists that the past timeline is not the Marvel Universe proper, but “Earth-TRN273.” I sure hope the person cataloguing all of Marvel’s alternate timelines is getting paid.

Fantastic or frightful? A while back, there was an issue where Sue said Dr. Doom’s origin has been told and retold so many times that it’s unknowable how badly scarred he was or where the mask came from. This issue pushes against that, suggesting events set in motion and fixed in time and whatnot. There’s also no reference that I could tell about the “Doom the Annihilating Conqueror” foreshadowed in the concurrent FF comic, but not mentioned as much as you think. This issue has some fun concepts, but I’m left with asking… why? What conclusion have we reached?

Next: Fourth wall? What’s that?

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Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.

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Forgotten TV shows I still like – Push Nevada 2002

Posted on December 8, 2025 by Mac McEntire

Forgotten TV shows I still like. With an intriguing mystery, a celebrity producer, and a million bucks on the line, Push Nevada came out swinging in 2002, only to get cancelled before it even got going.

Jim Prufrock (Derek Cecil) is an IRS investigator sent to the desert town (city?) of Push, Nevada, where the local casino has a $1.4 million discrepancy in its books. In town, Prufrock finds quite the conspiracy afoot, leading to murder… and more. One megacorporation owns the entire town, none of the residents have paid income taxes in decades, and Jim’s long-lost father might have something to do with it. Jim keeps getting into more and more trouble, but he just has to crack the case.

If Northern Exposure and Key West were Twin Peaks without the mystery, then Push Nevada is Twin Peaks with even MORE mystery. Everyone has something to hide, everyone is involved with the conspiracy in some way. (Or are there multiple conspiracies?) Why is a stolen Bible considered just as important as the missing money? Why does that one truck driver seem to know so much? What’s going on with Prufrock’s ex-wife and her erratic behavior? And on and on.

It’s asking a lot for the audience to root for an IRS agent as the show’s hero. Derek Cecil is really good as Prufrock, though. He’s a brainy numbers-cruncher, which helps at the casino, and he’s stalwart to a fault in his belief he’s doing the right thing. What sets him apart from Twin Peaks’ similarly stalwart Agent Cooper is how the show keeps putting Prufrock in situations that challenge his ethics, taking him farther and farther out of his comfort zone in every episode.

Mary (Scarlet Chorvat) is the love interest, who works at a bar where men pay women to slow dance with them, as if they’re at the prom. (Remember, it’s quirky!) Also good is Melora Walters as Grace, Prufrock’s exasperated secretary who also can’t help but get involved. John Polito makes some big waves early in the series as a prime suspect to the missing money. A running joke is how useless the local cops are, but one cop, Dawn (Liz Vassey) is of course revealed to be more than she seems.

Push Nevada was co-created by Ben Affleck, and one wonders if this was going to star him as Prufrock at some point. Affleck filmed an intro for the first episode, welcoming viewers to the show. The other co-creator was Sean Bailey, who went to be president of the Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios from 2010 to 2024. He and Affleck also co-created the reality show Project Greenlight. Affleck’s longtime friend and collaborator Matt Damon is also listed as producer, so perhaps Damon was considered to play Prufrock as well.

If Push Nevada is famous for anything, it’s that this wasn’t just a TV show, it was a million-dollar sweepstakes contest. Viewers at home were meant to watch the show looking for clues, and the person who interpreted the clues correctly won the million bucks. Because the show was cancelled abruptly, actor Derek Cecil filmed a short video of him revealing the unaired set of clues, and this ran during Monday Night Football! (Some websites are saying the video ran during the Super Bowl, but that’s not true. It was the night of Oct. 28, 2002.) Wikipedia has a surprisingly detailed breakdown of how the game was played if you’re interested. Basically, the clues added up to a phone number, and the first person who called it won.

Other observations:

  • Not only was the show cancelled, it has the sad distinction of being the first cancellation of the 2002-03 TV season. No official reason is given, although Wikipedia shows 12 million viewers for the first episode, and 5 million or less for each following episode.
  • If Push Nevada has any signature moment or visual, it’s Prufrock driving through the desert after being kicked out of town, only to turn around and head back for more. That’s his character and the series in microcosm.  

Thanks to cancellation, the mystery of what’s happening in Push has never been revealed. Therefore, I find it unlikely this show can be rediscovered. It’d have to be a full-on remake, telling the story from beginning to end properly this time. I just don’t know if Affleck and Bailey can be bothered after all this time.

All seven episodes of Push Nevada are currently available on YouTube.

I’m thinking of ending the “Forgotten TV Shows” blog series here, as it’s been very time-consuming watching and researching these shows. (Big Wolf on Campus has how many seasons?!?) Any suggestions on what to do next on this blog?

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Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.

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Fantastic Friday: Pool-ius Caesar

Posted on December 5, 2025 by Mac McEntire

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Writer Matt Fraction keeps connecting the dots between the two dual comics he’s writing, as a familiar face from Fantastic Four vol. 4 #6 returns in FF vol. 2 #9.

Recap: The Fantastic Four left for a journey through time and space, but they did not return on schedule. A replacement Fantastic Four – Ant-Man, Medusa, She-Hulk, and newcomer Darla Deering – have taken their place, overseeing the genius children of the Future Foundation. A future version of Johnny, renamed Old John Storm, returned with dire warnings about what’s to come. And now, pool party!

We begin with a camera POV, as Bentley-23 is making his own documentary. It’s called “Unseen Depths,” about the two Atlantean members of the Future Foundation, Vil and Wu. He narrates about how they are reclusive and unknowable, and then he catches on film Ant-Man, Darla, and She-Hulk announcing that a wealthy CEO, Charles Cotta of Julian Enterprises, has invited the entire Future Foundation to his place for a pool party.

Turn the page, and the group is at Cotta’s place for a Roman-themed pool atop a skyscraper, the headquarters of Julian Enterprises. Bentley has his camera on hand to film everything for his movie, especially as the two Atlanteans are first to dive into the pool. Most of the kids get involved in splashing each other, but Medusa’s kids Luna and Ahura are reluctant to join in the fun. Ant-Man, Medusa, Darla, She-Hulk, and Old John Storm are whisked away to Cotta’s private office. He wastes no time, immediately telling them that he’s an immortal alien who once met the Fantastic Four in ancient times while impersonating Julius Caesar. (From Fantastic Four #6, as noted above.) He tells them that he met the Four in the distant past, but also after they left this “anchor point” in time. The heroes don’t buy it at first, but then he shows them his ship.

Bentley continues to interview his classmates about the Atlanteans, emphasizing how aloof they are. The kids’ roughhousing in the pool gets out of hand while Bentley films it all, asking who the weird ones really are. Inside, Cotta reveals his true form, which is a gas-like form, and he says his wealth and power have all been in service to this moment. He says he’s unable to enter the timestream, but the replacement four can, with John Storm joining them. The adults then head outside to break up the fight at the pool.

Vil and Wu are the final interview for Bentley’s film, talking about all the wonders they’ve seen in the ocean, and how one day they will be rulers for their kingdom. Later, Bentley shows his completed movie to the others. Alex Power chides him for a downer ending, and Bentley takes this to mean that they’re all growing up. In the lab, Ant-Man is at work on Cotta’s time machine, saying it’s time to venture into the timestream and rescue the Fantastic Four.

Unstable molecule/fade out/clobberin’ time/flame on: Cotta tells the replacement four that the Fantastic Four’s bodies are breaking down. This should come to big news as only Ant-Man knew about Reed’s condition.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Medusa seems more interesting in watching the kids than in Cotta’s revelation. She encourages Ahura to join the fun and help his little sister Luna feel welcome.

Cotta may be a new character for readers, but She-Hulk is familiar with him, knowing just how rich he is.

It takes a minute, but Old John Storm remembers meeting Cotta back in ancient times. Cotta says it’s good to see him again.

Foundational: Bentley compares himself to Werner Herzog a couple of times, saying his movie is his personal Fitzcarraldo.  Make of that what you will.

Artie uses his holographic powers to summon the image of a storm cloud, which then zaps Alex Power with a tiny lightning bolt. How do Artie’s powers work, again?

Speaking of Alex, he’s grown a fuzzy teenage boy mustache, which the others joke about.

Trivia time: This issue reminds us that Vil and Wu are not just Atlanteans but Uhari, an offshoot of Atlantis that was sealed away from the rest of the world for centuries. Given that Wu says he’s gone places the others can’t imagine, it seems the Uhari kingdom must be unusually vast.

Fantastic or frightful? Very little story happens in this issue, but this is the lighter, funnier of the two series, so it’s good to let everyone goof off for a bit, especially since the main plot is about to kick off.

Next: The retcon of Doom.

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Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.

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Forgotten TV shows I still like – Mighty Orbots 1984

Posted on November 24, 2025 by Mac McEntire

Forgotten TV shows I still like. Time to blast off into space and get robotic with… Mighty Orbots!

It’s the distant future. Mankind has spread across the stars as part of the United Planets, living peacefully with aliens and robots. Everyone is kept safe by the heroes of the Galactic Patrol. An evil organization called S.H.A.D.O.W., led by a demonic supercomputer named Umbra, seeks to overthrow the United Planets. (With me so far?) Enter young inventor Rob, who has created six super-powered robots that can combine into one big robot to battle Umbra and S.H.A.D.O.W. They are… Mighty Orbots!

Yes, it’s the ol’ five-robots-combine-to-one-big-robot thing. You’ve seen Voltron, you’ve seen Power Rangers, you’ve seen… okay, I can only think of those two. But I’m certain there are others. What’s interesting is that when combined into one robot, each of the five maintains their voice and can access their individual superpowers. This makes the big battles interesting, with different ways to mix it up.

There’s so much going on here, it’s hard to know where to begin. First, the five robots. Tor is the strong one, a self-confident blowhard. Bort is the shape-changer, who is not cowardly, but – let’s say – hesitant to go into battle. Bo and Boo are the two girls, both with flirty and playful personalities. Bo can cast illusions, which doesn’t come up much, while Boo has the sci-fi/fantasy cliché of controlling the air/water/fire/earth elements, potentially making her the most powerful one. Then there’s Crunch, who is a, ahem, chubby robot with the power to eat anything. I dislike the “fat guy who’s always eating” character seen in so many old cartoons, but Mighty Orbots skirts around this by having Chunk be a “disposal unit” who converts everything he eats into energy for the team. He’s goofy comic relief, but he serves a purpose.

There are even more characters to keep track of! Rob is the robots’ human inventor, with some business about him having a secret identity as the Mighty Orbots commander, although everyone knows he’s associated with the ‘bots. He mainly the stalwart hero type, reminding us about the importance of the mission. Ohno is another robot, one who provides “ignition” to the combined robot, however that works. She’s our other comic relief character. She’s childlike, yet also likes to boss the other robots around like she’s their mom. Rondu is the leader of the United Planets, who doesn’t do much except act all stately. Much more interesting is his daughter Dia, who often kicks off any given episode by getting into trouble after exploring uncharted worlds. One imagines a Space Agent Dia spinoff series.

The characters are simplistic, and you really have to work to find any interesting aspects to them. For example, one scene has Bort not knowing what his original shape was, which speaks to how he’s the one hesitant to jump into action. But it’s just one short scene, as opposed to devoting an entire episode to this. Episodes are more concerned with the action, introducing a villain of the week and creating a crisis, and then spending the remainder of the episode with the characters dealing with it all. Despite the show overflowing with content, I wish it could’ve found more time for character work.

Here’s a fun question: What, exactly, does the name “Mighty Orbots” refer to? In most episodes, it’s a singular name, referring to the big combined robot, as in “The one robot named Mighty Orbots is here to save us.” But there are occasional moments where one of the robots will be refer to themselves as “an orbot.” And while I’m nitpicking, what is Umbra? We’re told he’s a supercomputer, but he has a biological-looking face with five eyes and very suggestive-looking mouth. Really, the show constantly throws so much sci-fi craziness on screen at once, that it’s more about being exciting than any sort of consistent world-building or continuity.

It sounds like I’m ragging on this show for its flaws, but I genuinely do like it. Why? Because of the visuals! This animation looks spectacular, far above your usual Saturday morning cartoon. This was a true international creation, co-produced by MGM in the United States and TMS Entertainment/Intermedia Entertainment in Japan. So it’s the best of reliable toy commercial US cartoons and flashy, super-detailed ‘80s anime.

Other observations:

  • Why didn’t the show succeed? Allegedly, the creators of Challenge of the Gobots sued, thinking Mighty Orbots was a ripoff. I can’t find any info on how this lawsuit went down, but it was likely a big enough deal to end the show.
  • Animators often enjoyed sneaking some cheeky bits into old ‘toons for the grownups. The flirting with Bo and Boo gets a little kinky at times, notably in one scene where Bort transforms into a couch so both of them can lounge on him. What’s going on there?
  • Unlike most cartoons of the era (era), Mighty Orbots had a definitive ending. The final episode has the robots fearing they’re about to be decommissioned, so they travel to Umbra’s home world to take him on head-to-head in a final battle straight out of Star Wars. Things even get hallucinogenic at one point when the robots journey inside Umbra’s brain. Absolutely wild!

Mighty Orbots is cartoon nonsense, but it’s beautifully animated, hugely entertaining cartoon nonsense. Don’t try to make sense of it, just sit back and enjoy the spaced-out giant robot vibes.

All 13 episodes of Mighty Orbots are currently available on YouTube.

Next: Push, don’t shove.

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Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.

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