Re-reading Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. The super-long act 4, scene 4 continues, with equal parts romance and duplicity. The usual for Shakespeare.
After spending all this time with Autolycus, the shepherd’s son, and Mopsa, the scene now shifts back over to the shepherd and Polixenes, the king of Bohemia currently in disguise as a farmer. A servant (likely the same servant who’s been running around throughout this scene) describes some “men of hair” who want to come and dance, describing their dance as amazingly precise. These men are the “herdsmen” who come out dressed as satyrs, who perform a dance in front of everyone.
Satyr? I hardly know her.
There’s a lot to go over here. First, the servant also calls the men “saultiers” meaning jumpers or leapers. This is either a joke on the word “satyr,” or, as some believe, a mistake on Shakespeare’s part. But why satyrs? In myths, they are famously beast-men with goat legs, but more than that. They represent nature and wilderness, but they’re also chaotic, unpredictable, and dangerous. So-called satyr plays were scandalous back in ancient Greece for their ribald humor. For The Winter’s Tale, they fit right in with the winter-to-spring metaphors that run through the play. In a straightforward comedy version of the play, this satyr dance could be a bunch of slapstick gags. But I’ve also been picturing a far-out epic fantasy version of the play throughout these blogs, so in that case the satyrs could be otherworldly creatures and this could be a big magical sequence.
Dance of the satyr.
Polixenes, still in his disguise, asks Florizell, his own son, about the romance between Florizell and Perdita. This is following a short aside where Polixenes says, “Tis time to part them.” He asks Florizell about showering Perdita with gifts, but Florizell says she’s above such trifles. He then professes his love directly to Perdita, who doesn’t speak in response. Shakespeare leaves it all up to the actresses’ interpretation of the scene.
She says it all with a look.
Polixenes asks Florizell to further profess. Florizell says that if he were to be crowned monarch (which he will be someday), it wouldn’t mean as much without Perdita. She finally pipes up, only to say “I cannot speak so well.” The shepherd promises to combine his own humble fortune with whichever family she marries into. Polixenes asks Florizell what his father thinks of the romance, and Florizell says his father doesn’t know and will never know about it. Uh-oh.
Daddy doesn’t approve.
Polixenes asks Florizell if this father of his is infirm or bedridden, and Florizell says no. Polixenes then makes his case about the importance of a father being present at his son’s wedding. Florizell says he has his own reasons. Polixenes is insistent, telling Florizell over and over to tell his father the truth, and Florizell keeps refusing. Finally, the whole scene shifts as Polixenes removes his disguise and says, “Mark your divorce, young sir, whom son I dare not call.”
Not suspicious at all.
Whoa, drama! But how is this to be staged? Based on my research, this disguise is usually a fake beard and/or a wig. In an epic fantasy retelling, this could be all sorts of magical transformations. Throughout these blogs, I’ve been imagining a wild version where the Sicilians are demonic types and the Bohemians are angelic types. In this version that exists only in my head, here’s where Polixenes could bust out the big angel wings from his back. (I don’t know where I’m going with this.)
Let’s everybody get angelic.
Next: The hammer falls.
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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Annual #32 offers killer cyborgs, shrinking into a microscopic world, and… fears of parenthood?
The great Bryan Hitch is back on pencils, with Andrew Currie on inks. But the really big deal is that it’s written by Joe Ahearne, creator of the cult-fave 1998 TV series Ultraviolet, and director of several episodes of Doctor Who.
We begin with a woman named Amy Brys walking in on the Fantastic Four conducting an anti-gravity mine training, where they’re floating around in a room filled with similarly floating mines. Johnny had given her an all-access pass to the new Baxter Building, and now she’s here wondering where he’s gone because he hasn’t answered any of her phone calls. Johnny shows up and says he didn’t call because he really likes her, and it’s dangerous to be in a committed relationship with a superhero. (What?)
An alarm goes off, and Reed says he’s picked up an energy pattern that’s a variation of the cosmic rays that gave the FF their powers. Sue says this is a concern, because it’s this same variant from the Negative Zone that almost killed her when she was pregnant. Johnny, just having returned from the Negative Zone, puts two and two together and believes he’s gotten Amy pregnant.
Later, Amy and Johnny try to talk things out on the sidewalk outside, where she insists she doesn’t need his help, when they’re attacked by alien creatures. The FF join the fight, deducing that these are cyborgs based on microscopic organisms. After fighting the creatures off, everyone returns to HQ, where Johnny says he didn’t even kiss Amy, let alone get her pregnant. (Why did he wait until now to say this?) Reed has Amy in his lab, saying the cyborgs were likely after her baby, because it might be born with vast powers.
Reed is going to use shrinking tech to make Sue microscopic and enter Amy’s body (ew) to conduct a paternity test. He tasks Johnny and Ben to go to the nightclub where Johnny met Amy to conduct a temporal scan and see what really happened that night. Using the scanner, they see a mystery woman following Johnny, followed by the microscopic versions of the cyborgs entering Johnny’s body (ew) while at the club. Similarly, Sue is attacked by more cyborgs while microscopic. She defeats them and she and Reed remove them from Amy’s body (so much ew).
The microscopic cyborgs (do these things have a name?) used Johnny’s DNA to impregnate Amy with a superhuman child. Now Sue and Ben shrink down microscopic to enter Johnny’s brain. In the lab, Reed says the cyborgs look familiar, and Johnny insists that Psycho Man is behind all this, with his history of both shrinking and cyborg/robot/android tech. (Remember that the original Psycho Man was a teeny-tiny guy in a huge robot suit.) Inside Johnny’s brain, Ben and Reed find the real culprit: Psycho Woman!
Psycho Woman uses a new version of Psycho Man’s original emotion modifier to overwhelm Sue’s mind, all while she makes a big speech about feeling trapped by parenthood. Reed hands Amy a syringe full of green liquid and tells her to prepare to make an injection. He then shrinks down to join the fight inside Johnny’s brain. All the cyborgs in the lab come back to life, so Johnny fights them. But he can’t flame on for fear of harming the others inside him.
It’s all Fantastic Voyage and/or Innerspace as Psycho Woman chases and fights Reed, Ben and Sue up and down Johnny’s veins. She overwhelms Ben with feelings of disgust, and she shuts down Sue by making her emotionless. With Johnny’s help, they contact Franklin and Valeria to restore Sue’s emotions. Psycho Woman lets out a blast so powerful it blasts Johnny through a window outside the building. He won’t flame on for fear of harming his teammates, so Reed tells Amy to jump after him. She catches up to him in midair, Point Break style. He flames on and flies her to away to save her life. The others survived thanks to Sue’s force fields. Johnny destroys the rest of the cyborgs along the way. Everyone reunites back in Reed’s lab, where Ben reports that Psycho Woman is “toast.”
Later, Reed fires up his personal time machine, saying Johnny can go back to that evening at the nightclub to prevent Psycho Woman’s plot from happening. Johnny doesn’t want to mess with the timeline, even though Reed says this will be a minor change only. Fearing that supervillains all over the world will want her super-powered baby, Amy swipes the time machine’s remote control and jumps into the portal, disappearing. With no knowledge of where or when she went, Johnny wonders if the child survived, and could be out there, anywhere, all grown up.
Unstable molecule: Is Reed’s time machine based on Dr. Doom’s original one? Or is it still the original one? It looks entirely different, but one still enters it by standing on a specific spot on the floor.
Fade out: At one point, Sue sends a message to Johnny by turning a spot on his chest invisible. Reed says that at this size, it’s as if Sue is turning the sun invisible. Can we assume that’s an exaggeration?
Clobberin’ time: Ben overcomes his feelings of disgust, simply because these are feelings he’s used to.
Flame on: Johnny appears overwhelmed by the thought of becoming a father, but Reed assures Amy he’ll be fine. Reed says Johnny is used to dealing with the unexpected.
Fantastic fifth wheel: There’s no mention of how Ant-Man is a former FF member, but we know he introduced a lot of shrinking tech to Reed and the others during that time. Before Ant-Man the FF could only shrink when inside their Reducto-craft. I can only conclude that his influence helped all the shrinking in this issue.
Four and a half/Our gal Val: All it takes to restore Sue’s emotions are the two kids saying, “Mom, are you there?”
Foundational: The Marvel Wiki insists this comic takes place between issues #580 and #581, yet there’s no mention of the newly-formed Future Foundation. I guess all the kids are off working on their special project to cure Ben.
Trivia time: This is the only appearance of Psycho Woman, so we’ll likely never know where she came from or what her relationship with Psycho Man may or may not be. The Marvel Wiki doesn’t even have an entry for her.
It’s also the only appearance of Amy Brys, although the wiki adds the detail of her baby surviving, having been kept safe from all the FF’s enemies.
Fantastic or frightful? Leave it to a guy who worked on Doctor Who to want Fantastic Four to get as weird as possible. This is a lot to take in, with the shrinking stuff, the emotion stuff, and the fears-of-parenting stuff. I don’t know if it all holds together, though. Like, why isn’t Psycho Woman’s emotion manipulation tied into the parenting stuff more? This would be better served as a seven-issue arc rather than an annual, but the necessities of comics publishing might have prevented that.
Next: Spill the tea.
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Want more? Check out my ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a sprawling city full of far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. It’s a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid full of action, romance, mystery, and laughs. The first ten episodes are FREE! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.
Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. But it’s been a hectic week, so instead let’s get to know one of our new Future Foundation members, Dragon Man!
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Want more? Check out my ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a sprawling city full of far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. It’s a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid full of action, romance, mystery, and laughs. The first ten episodes are FREE! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.
Re-reading Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale! As Act 4, scene 4 continues, it’s more talk of music and songs, but it there something more to it?
Picking up from where we left off, there’s more tomfoolery between the shepherd’s son (or the clown, as he’s called in some editions) and Autolycus. This includes a lot of talk about the son buying ballads in print from Autolycus. My sources are a little sketchy on this, but I think the idea is that travelling musicians back in Shakespeare’s day used to sell written song lyrics, which could be applied to commonly known tunes, so anyone would be able to sing them. Mopsa, the son’s doting love interest, says she loves printed ballads “alife” (meaning “dearly”). She adds that because the lyrics are printed on paper, she believes they must be true. Interesting sentiment from Shakespeare the writer.
Rock out!
Autolycus describes the story of the ballad with some perplexing word soup. It’s about the wife of a “usurer,” which the internet tells me is a money lender who profits from huge interest rates from his clients. Shakespeare uses this phrase a lot to connote trickster and rogue types. A real knave, as it were. He says the woman was “brought to bed” with “twenty bags” at once. My sources are ambiguous about this, but it seems to mean that she was born already in huge debt. Then Autolycus makes her monstrous, saying she eats snakes and toads. Autolycus swears the story is true, saying he got it from Mistress Taleporter, and the audience laughs because “taleporter” is another word for “gossip.”
The original Mistress Taleporter.
These jokes fly over Mopsa and the son’s heads, as they consider buying the ballad but want to see more first. He tells her an even more incredulous story, taking place on “the fourscore of April,” which is like saying “April 80th.” It’ about a fish that magically appeared on shore, “forty thousand fathom above water,” and sang a song “against the hard hearts of maids.” Autolycus says some believe that this was a woman transformed into a fish as punishment because she would not “exchange flesh” (wa-HEY!) with her lover.
The coldest fish.
What’s interesting here is that Autolycus calls her a “cold fish.” And now we get to play a game of Did Shakespeare Invent This? Calling someone a cold fish is like saying someone acts distant and unresponsive, especially in a romantic and/or flirtatious setting. A lot of the nerdy grammar sites do indeed attribute the phrase cold fish as originating in The Winter’s Tale. Others, however, argue that the saying is older than that, referring to fish being sold at markets, still alive but sad and limp when laid out on ice. The 2010 movie Cold Fish, from famed weirdo director Sion Sono, is about two rival tropical fish store owners who are also both serial killers. Not sure how this might parallel The Winter’s Tale.
What if they were the shepherdesses?
Autolycus says five judges have sworn that the fish story is true, and that it has more witnesses than his case can carry. Based on whatever prop they’ve given the actor for a case, that number is likely zero. Mopsa asks that ballad to be set aside as well, and she asks for a merrier story. Autolycus offers a ballad than can be sung to the tune of “Two Maids Wooing a Man.” I found a bunch of classical music sites with songs claiming to be this, but I can’t speak to their authenticity.
Just imagine The Winter’s Tale, but set inside a maid cafe.
Autolycus sings the song’s male part, while Mopsa and fellow shepherdess Dorcas play the two women. The lyrics are simple, as the man says he’s leaving and the two women want to know where he’s going. The shepherd’s son interrupts, saying that his father is approaching with serious business. He promises to the buy the songs and finish singing them later. Suggestively, he leaves not just with Mopsa, but all the shepherdesses.
Don’t forget that these characters are… Bohemian.
Okay, this is all some fun silliness, but why is it in the play? Could this be calling back to the conflict between Leontes, Hermoine, and Polixenes? Maybe Hermoine, daughter of a king forced into an arranged marriage, is the usurer’s wife burdened with debt. Maybe she’s the cold fish, at least from Leontes’ perspective. Are Leontes and Polixenes the two “wooing maids” wondering where Hermoine has gone? Or… maybe I’m just reaching.
Everybody do the ballad!
Next: Creature feature.
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Want more? Check out my ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a sprawling city full of far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. It’s a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid full of action, romance, mystery, and laughs. The first ten episodes are FREE! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.
Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Now that we’ve met the Future Foundation, issue #580 gives us our first look at what they’re up to.
To recap, Reed and the FF have assembled, either by design or by accident, a group of brilliant young people to live at the new Baxter Building. They are now a combined school and think tank (!) called the Future Foundation. As this issue begins, Reed is meeting with some of the kids who have presented their first project as an attempt to solve a scientific conundrum Reed has struggled with for years. Franklin, not technically a member of the Foundation like his sister is, keeps interrupting Reed. The Impossible Man is not only back on Earth, but he’s about to introduce his new toy line (!) at a public event that afternoon. Reed promised Franklin they would go together, but now Reed is too busy with the Foundation.
Instead, Johnny takes Franklin to the toy show, with Leech tagging along. There’s all sorts of Marvel merchandise on sale (art imitating life?). Johnny comes across supervillain Arcade and is ready for a fight, but Impossible Man appears and says the two of them are working together. Arcade has turned over a new leaf, going into legitimate business with toys, collectibles, and video games. He promises that he’s given up on his elaborate death traps, but Johnny doesn’t buy it.
Then there’s a big presentation, where Arcade and Impossible Man introduce the toys, with Impy saying that a little bit of his “impossibleness” is infused in each one. Impossible Man cuts the ribbon, letting a crowd of kids at the toys. Then we see Arcade going back on his promise when he whispered “Okay, maybe a tiny little death trap.” All the toys come to life and attack the kids, punching out Leech. Impossible Man tries to fight back, but he’s overwhelmed by his own toys.
Energy swirls around Franklin’s head, and a dinosaur display then also comes to life, controlled by Franklin. It snatches up Arcade in its teeth, and Franklin tells Johnny to burn all the toys. He does, and then there’s some jokey business about Impossible Man crying that he’s ruined, only for it to be an act. He says he’ll keep an eye on Arcade until the police arrive.
There’s another two pages of revisiting Nu-Earth, where we see what billionaire Ted Castle and the other Nu-Earth characters are doing 500 and then 600 years in the future. Back at the Baxter Building, the Future Foundation kids have invited Ben to join them. Turns out he is the scientific conundrum they’re working on, and they say they can cure him and make him human again. He doesn’t buy it, after all the times Reed has tried and failed, but then Reed admits that the kids have outsmarted him.
The kids explain that Ben can’t ever be fully cured, but his powers can be switched off for a time, about one week per year. Alex Power is the one who hands Ben a vial of glowing green liquid, saying to Ben, “You get to be human again.”
To be continued!
Unstable molecule: Reed says he doesn’t know if he should be proud or insulted (!) that the kids chose a more personal subject for their project rather than something that could help all mankind. Strange choice of words, there.
Clobberin’ time: Rather than a cure, Ben suggests the kids make him super-boots, a robot assistant, or a personal cooler.
Flame on: Franklin and Leech initially say their favorite superheroes are Spider-Man and Iron Man, but by the end of the issue, they admit that Johnny is now their favorite.
Fantastic fifth wheel: The issue remembers that Impossible Man was once a member of the FF, during the short-lived “Fantastic Seven” of the ‘70s. He greets Johnny with a hug when they’re reunited.
Four and a half: We get another look at Franklin’s mutant powers reemerging, but we don’t know what form they’ll take this time.
Our gal Val: Valeria seems to gloat when she gets to work on the project with Reed instead of Reed spending the day with Franklin. She’s much more empathetic with Ben, apologizing that he can’t be human for longer.
Foundational: Reed assumes that Dragon Man came up with the idea to cure Ben, but Mik, one of the Moloids, takes credit. Bently-23 gets his first-ever line of dialogue when he suggests they test the cure on a clone of Ben. This is of note because Bently himself is a clone.
Trivia time: Once again, Arcade is a villain-of-the-week type of character, so much so that this issue isn’t referenced at all on his Marvel Wiki entry. It was shortly after this that he upped his game in an attempt at making the supervillain big time as the main antagonist in Avengers Arena.
Fantastic or frightful? A comedic and kid-friendly issue, making me wonder if that’s what the Future Foundation era (era) will be like. My memory is that this was a fun and exciting time for the Fantastic Four, but my concern now is that this new direction for the series will be too “kiddie.” We’ll see.
Next: A hot dad!
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Want more? Check out my ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a sprawling city full of far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. It’s a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid full of action, romance, mystery, and laughs. The first ten episodes are FREE! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.
Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Speaking of starts, this is a brand-new one for Fantastic Four and for Marvel in general as the Heroic Age begins. You might say this time in comics is… foundational.
What’s all this, then?The Heroic Age was a crossover that’s not a crossover, but more of a soft reboot for Marvel. Fans had spoken up loud enough against all the violence and darkness of Civil War and its follow-ups like Secret Invasion and Dark Reign. Plus, the Marvel movies were in full swing now, so Heroic Age gave us a new Avengers series from heavy-hitters Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr., intended to get movie fans into comic bookstores. It’s also a new direction for Fantastic Four, albeit one that the creators had been building up to for a while.
Recap: After some foreshadowing about four cities in conflict, we eventually encountered them – the High Evolutionary’s underground kingdom, a lost tribe of Atlantis living in isolation in Antarctica, an offshoot of the Inhumans living on the moon, and the former Negative Zone prison now ruled by Annihilus and his insectoid army. We’ve also met a bunch of new characters, children who’ve come to stay at the new Baxter Building – mutants Artie and Leech, three intelligent Moloids, and a young clone of supervillain the Wizard.
We begin with Reed speaking at the Singularity Conference. He said when this annual conference started ten years earlier, it was just a few scientists with a plan to solve not just today’s problems, but the future’s. It has now grown into a huge event with its own campus in Colorado. Rather than praise the scientists, though, Reed criticizes them for growing too old and stale, and not thinking big enough. Rather than debate population control, Reed urges them to look to the stars. He announces his resignation as a member, saying there are more discoveries to be made.
At the Baxter Building, Alex Power, formerly of Power Pack and now somewhere around 18-ish (let’s not get into how comic book characters age), is arriving with all his bags packed. He says he’s seen “the roster” and he fears he’ll be the dumbest person there. Reed says Alex brings experience and perspective, which will be invaluable. In Old Atlantic deep beneath the Arctic, Sue acts in her role as ambassador, as the Old Atlantean king says his people are now free to explore the entire Earth’s oceans at will for the first time. He brings out two children and says, strangely, “You will have what you asked for.”
Then it’s back to HQ, where we catch up with the Moloids. Turg, who has been reduced to a head in a jar, is their voice of reason. Korr and Tong have taught themselves to read English, while Mik is busy calculating a confluence that links the four cities. Oh boy, it’s going to be tough keeping these Moloids’ names straight.
Then we cut back to Nu-World, which was originally a perfect recreation of Earth, only for all kinds of dystopian sci-fi stuff to happen there. Case in point, the next few pages take us further and further into Nu-World’s future, following its founder, Ted Castle, and the superheroes of that world and all the changes they go through over 300 years. Your guess is as good as mine by this point.
Back at HQ, there’s some comedy bits with Franklin, Ben, and Johnny, while Valeria uses her genius to fix up Dragon Man. She says she can make him smarter. (Dragon Man, who is not a dragon but an advanced robot, has been docile and friendly for some time now.) Franklin is learning martial arts, and he spars with Artie and Leech. Valeria loses control of Dragon Man, but she manages to fix him with the help of Artie’s holo-projecting powers.
Then we cut to P.A.V.L.O.V., location alone, which is described as a “metahuman psychiatric facility.” Reed is there to check in on the Wizard, who is in a rabid state, ranting about creating clones of himself as a divine calling. Reed gives the Wizard his old helmet back, assuring the doctors that it is now harmless. This makes the Wizard a little more coherent. Reed tells him that the Wizard’s young clone, Bently, has come to live with the FF. Coldy, Reed tells the Wizard that Bently will grow up to become something better than the Wizard.
At the Baxter Building, Reed has set up a classroom. He says to his students that there will be only one class in this school, and it’s pass or fail. He says, “Welcome to the Future Foundation,” and “Together, there is nothing we can’t do.” And with that, we see our new team, the Future Foundation, assembled for the first time.
To be continued!
Unstable molecule: Not only has the Singularity Conference never been mentioned before this, but it seems it never will again. The Marvel Wiki has no entry for it. This is also the only appearance of the P.A.V.L.O.V. psychiatric facility, perhaps wisely.
Fade out: We don’t see what Sue said to the Atlantean king to request that the two undersea kids join the Future Foundation, but the king has no problem handing them over.
Clobberin’ time: Ben and Johnny give Franklin pointers on how to come up with an action hero catch phrase. Franklin decides on, “Time to die, buttheads!”
Flame on: While Franklin practices his martial arts, Johnny dresses for it, in a replica of the yellow suit with black stripe, famous for Bruce Lee in Game of Death and/or Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.
Fantastic fifth wheel: She-Hulk makes an appearance at the conference at the beginning, having lectured on science and law. Reed praises her efforts before belittling the rest of the group.
Four and a half: Curiously, Franklin is not in the Future Foundation classroom at the end. I had assumed he’d be a member. He’ll certainly interact with the Foundation a lot.
Our gal Val: Valeria dons her own “4” uniform for the first day of class.
Foundational: For the record, here are the starting Future Foundation members:
– Valeria Richards of the Fantastic Four.
– Alex Power, formerly of Power Pack.
– Artie and Leech, regulars from various X-Men series.
– Four highly intelligent Moloids – Tong, Turg, Korr, and Mik.
– Two children from the lost Old Atlantis kingdom – Vil and Wu (not named in this issue).
– Bently Twenty-Three, child clone of the Wizard.
– Dragon Man, now with increased genius.
Trivia time: Is there any Marvel character with more hard-to-follow continuity than Dragon Man? Despite occasional stories about him become docile and childlike, he’s mostly used as a henchman for whatever supervillain acquires him. Prior to his recent appearances in Fantastic Four, he was seen in the Negative Zone prison during Civil War, but somehow also attended Stilt Man’s funeral during Civil War. The Marvel Wiki says he was “relinquished” to the Fantastic Four’s care following the collapse of the Negative Zone prison, which is where we catch up with him now.
Who are Artie and Leech, you ask? Leech (no other known name) was born a green-skinned mutant, whose mutation is the power to render other mutants powerless. He grew up among the underground Morlocks in NYC’s sewers. After the Mutant Massacre crossover, he went to live with X-Factor and became a regular in the X-books ever since. Then there’s Artie Matticks. A mutant whose scientist father experimented on him, Artie is mute but can communicate by projecting holograms. After his father died in a mutant battle, Artie went to live with X-Factor. It’s there that he and Leech eventually became inseparable pals. Note that Artie lost his powers during the House of M crossover, but now wears a high-tech helmet that lets him project holograms as he did before.
Fantastic or frightful? There’s not really a story in this issue, just a lot of place setting as we establish the new status quo. It’s a lot of juggling as the team grows from four members to around eighteen. Writing a comic series with that many regulars can be tricky, but the likes of X-Men and Legion of Super-Heroes have done it for decades. Now it’s the Future Foundation’s turn.
Next: Where’s Buzz and Woody when we need them?
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Want more? Check out my ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a sprawling city full of far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. It’s a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid full of action, romance, mystery, and laughs. The first ten episodes are FREE! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.
Reading Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale! Time for some comedy (naughty comedy!) as more characters join the already-stuffed act 4 scene 4.
The attention shifts to the shepherd’s son (or the clown, as he’s called in the Pelican and Oxford editions) and a servant. The servant describes a peddler with a tabor (a small drum) at the door who is there to perform ballads. Even though there’s already been plenty of music and dancing in this scene, the shepherd’s son wants to invite the peddler in.
I said tabor, not Tambor.
The servant goes into a very R-rated description of the peddler’s songs, which contain a certain word that you’d think was more modern. The footnotes confirm that this word (you’ll know it when you see it) means the same thing in Shakespeare’s time that it did today. Upon hearing all this filthiness, Polixenes interrupts to joke, “This is a brave fellow.” The servant then offers a long list of items the peddler sells, bragging him up as something amazing. The shepherd’s son says to invite the peddler in, with Perdita chiming in to tell the peddler not to use “scurrilous words” in his songs.
So scurrilous!
Okay, how to portray all this? An unnamed servant is suddenly a main character. It’d be easy enough to have this character travel alongside the other Bohemians throughout the play. But then, everyone in the scene, from the king to the young lovers, steps aside and pays attention to the servant’s announcement. Therefore, the servant must go big and broad in this moment, to command the attention of the entire group. I’m picture some sort of head-of-the-house butler type, who makes fancy announcements upon entering a room. Or, if this is a far-out epic fantasy version I’ve been imagining, the servant could be some sort of crazy creature, to come in and get the audience’s attention quick.
Or a robot butler, maybe.
The peddler enters, and of course it’s Autolycus (the king of thieves!), here to enact his sneaky plot from act 4 scene 3. The stage directions note that he’s wearing a false beard. Most productions will make this beard very obviously fake, for a big laugh. He performs a song that lists all the items he’s selling as a peddler, along with the uses for each item. The list is jokey and broad enough that an actor could probably go ahead and say the lyrics rather than sing them outright, if needed.
Would you trust that beard?
The shepherd’s son announces that he is in love with Mopsa, one of the shepherdesses who have been dancing about during this scene. She’s only had one line before this, but suddenly now she’s a main character. If the dancing earlier in this scene is to be a big production number, it’d be easy enough to establish Mopsa as an important character then, by having her dance with the shepherd’s son.
Victorian-era (era) depiction of Mopsa.
Time for more naughty jokes as the shepherd’s son says he wasn’t going to buy anything from Autolycus, but his love for Mopsa has inspired him to buy some ribbons and gloves for her. He describes this as his “bondage.” What is this, Fifty Shades of Mopsa? Their flirtation banter contains even more speaking in double entendre, as he has a joke about the women being demure in hiding their faces, but their dresses having other openings (wa-HEY!). He then reminds her (and us) that he was recently “cozened” of all his money. None of my Shakespeare books have a footnote for “cozen” but the dictionary comes through by saying it means losing money through trickery or deceit. This is a reference to Autolycus ripping him off in their earlier scene. Autolycus plays along, saying they must be wary of cozeners about, with the audience knowing he’s talking about himself.
Shakespearian? Maybe. Comedy? Not so much.
Next: The cost of a ballad.
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Want more? Check out my ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a sprawling city full of far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. It’s a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid full of action, romance, mystery, and laughs. The first ten episodes are FREE! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.
Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We’re going all the way back to the beginning with Mythos: Fantastic Four.
What’s Mythos? This was a series of one-shots allegedly created to bridge the gap between Marvel Comics and their movie adaptations. They were meant to appeal to movie fans looking for a jumping on point for the comics. Whether this was successful is open to discussion. Besides Fantastic Four, the others in the series were X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk, Ghost Rider, and Captain America. The whole thing was written by Paul Jenkins and had fully painted art by Paolo Rivera.
We begin in the middle of some sort of government hearing, where a bunch of suit-wearing politicians are questioning the Fantastic Four, to determine if “what happened” could be a threat to national security. Reed says it all started at breakfast, and then we cut to a flashback of him, Sue and a human Ben aboard a space station orbiting Earth. This not only confirms we are in retelling-the-origin territory, but the station setting also evokes the 2005 movie.
The four are astronauts, and it seems they’ve been living aboard the station for a while, given their playful sitcom-style bickering. Johnny is outside on a spacewalk for some adrenaline rush thrills. Ben dons a spacesuit to fly after Johnny and bring him back. While they’re doing that, Reed’s instruments pick up an unusual solar event. The station is struck with a huge energy wave. There’s an interesting bit where Johnny and Ben hear the “tac-tac-tac” sound effect inside their helmets.
Back in the present, one of the politicians asks Ben if the station’s communications could have predicted the solar event. Ben, whose monstrous rocky hide is partially hidden under a hat and trench coat, does not say anything in response. In the flashback, there’s a lot of action, as the station is wrecked by the solar event. Sue tries to hide, while Reed struggles to reach her. Ben was angry and didn’t want to die, and Johnny could only think of how he felt like he was burning up.
The station’s escape shuttle flies back to Earth and lands at an airport, all while on autopilot. Emergency crews open the shuttle. They believe Ben is severely burned, and he and the other three are helped off the ship. The crews then find a radiation leak, as the ship’s reactor is damaged. In the present, the politicians doubt that the damaged shuttle could have flown itself home while the four were unconscious inside. Reed and Sue argue that this was an anomalous event and that there’s way to know what really happened up there.
Cut to a hospital, where Sue and Reed observe with fear as Ben is in a coma while doctors run Johnny through a series of tests. Ben wakes up and freaks out upon seeing that he has become a monster now. There’s a lot of action as he trashes the hospital while the others try to calm him down. This activates Reed’s and Sue’s powers in response. They get Ben to calm down, only for Johnny to burst through the door, fully flamed on.
In the present, the politicians say Ben is dangerous because of the damage done to the hospital. He says it’s because he was scared, and that anyone would have acted the same way. Reed says that no matter what these powers are or where they came from, the four of them will use them only for the right reasons. As the four of them leave the hearing, Sue asks Reed what will become of them. We get an image of the FF with a lot of their villains and supporting characters in the background, and Reed says, “Even I can’t predict the future.”
Reed announces that he’s purchased the Baxter Building in New York, and he wants the other three to join him there, saying their adventure is only beginning – and it’s going to be bigger than space itself. We get the classic image of the four of them joining hands. As they head off toward their new life, there’s a joke about Johnny wanting to hit a local karaoke bar on the way.
Unstable molecule: This issue has Reed speaking in a lot of math/science gibberish about calculus and Euclidean probabilities.
Fade out: Sue corrects the politicians that she and Johnny are siblings, and not married. What is this, Star Wars?
Clobberin’ time: Ben comments to the politicians that they should not accuse him of being like a monster until after he actually acts like one.
Flame on: Johnny complains about feeling cold, even after flaming on in the hospital.
Trivia time: The space station is named the Pegasus. My guess is this is a reference to the mad scientists of Marvel’s Project Pegasus.
The FF does not get their powers from cosmic rays, but from a solar event producing a combination of alpha and theta waves. Does this officially rewrite Marvel continuity? No, because the Marvel Wiki confirms that the Mythos series takes place in yet another alternate timeline.
Fantastic or frightful? I don’t know how this would go for someone who has never read Fantastic Four comics before. We get the explanation of how they got their powers, but we don’t see them in action on their adventures. That part is only suggested. The best part is Paolo Rivera’s excellent artwork. The space stuff looks terrific, but he’s also great with faces and body language in the dialogue scenes.
Next: A firm foundation.
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Want more? Check out my ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a sprawling city full of far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. It’s a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid full of action, romance, mystery, and laughs. The first ten episodes are FREE! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.
Re-reading Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale! The epic act 4 scene 4 continues on with more romantic poetry, but also a little darkness underneath.
Where were we? It’s springtime in Bohemia, and Polixenes the king, in disguise as a farmer, gets to know Perdita, the girl his son has fallen for. After all their wordplay about flowers, Perdita goes into a lengthy speech that’s about even more flowers! She’s talking about how the flowers of spring relate to various gods and goddesses of myth. Of particular interest is Prosperina, who was carried off to the underworld after stopping to pick flowers. Venus, Juno, and Phoebus are also mentioned. With a lot of resources, a stage production can get really fanciful with this, such as having actors in masks (or masques if you prefer) dancing around Perdita as she says this. A film adaptation can cut to images of the gods in action during the speech, especially if this is a far-out epic fantasy retelling of the play.
Bring the whole pantheon on stage.
Perdita’s colorful speech ends in something of a dark note, describing primrose as “a malady most indecent to maids.” My books’ footnotes have a lot to say on this, alleging that primrose blooms and dies before spring, and/or that primrose can be poisonous. This is an interesting turn, in that it shows Perdita has a sad, dark side, and there’s more to her than just the prettiest girl in her village.
The farmer’s daughter.
When Florizell, her lover and the king’s son, questions her on this, Perdita says she doesn’t imagine death like a corpse, but a bank of flowers to be alive and celebratory upon. She mentions “Whitsun pastorals,” a reference to a springtime festival. There’s a ton of info online about Whitsun’s history and its many meanings, for anyone who’s interested.
Not creepy at all.
Florizell goes on for several lines about how brilliant he thinks Perdita is. What’s interesting here is that she refers to him as “Doricles.” Turns out Florizell is also in disguise, just as Polixenes and Camillo are. I went back and re-read act 4 scene 2, and if that dialogue established Florizell being in disguise, it’s awfully subtle. The audience needs to see this in action, by having him throw on his farmer rags over his fancy royal duds before the scene starts. This does give their romance an interesting complication, though. Florizell knows he’s really a prince in disguise as a farmer, while Perdita believes she’s a farm girl with no idea she’s the long-lost princess.
Princess in disguise.
Perdita playfully dismisses all Florizell’s over-the-top praise, saying he’s wooing her the wrong way. He tells her she has no reason to fear, and he invites her to dance. Pan over to Polixenes and Camillo, also both in disguise as farmers, who have been watching the two young lovers. Polixenes can tell right away that the girl seems greater and too noble for a small farming town. Camillo seems to agree, saying that Perdita is a “queen of curds and cream.”
Curds and cream.
There’s more music and dancing, an opportunity for a production to stage a big number if possible. The shepherd, Perdita’s adopted father, tells Polixenes all about this “Doricles,” unaware that he’s speaking to the king about the king’s son. He tells her that he believes this Doricles is both wealthy and truthful, and genuinely in love with Perdita. Polixenes’ reaction to this isn’t in the text, but we know what’s coming. So he can respond with a look of disapproval, or at least skepticism.
The devil’s in the dance.
But there’s more complications to come before we get to that big complication.
Next: Peddling with the peddler.
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Want more? Check out my ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a sprawling city full of far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. It’s a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid full of action, romance, mystery, and laughs. The first ten episodes are FREE! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.
Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. It’s not a retcon or a remake, it’s a “Marvel Remix,” as we flashback to the early days of the Inhumans in Fantastic Four: Fireworks.
We all love ‘60s Marvel, but they really were making up as they went along. Continuity and interconnected world-building happened more or less by accident. This means that characters’ first introductions often (and still do) come in fits and starts before the writers and artists get a handle on them. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were clearly invested in the Inhumans, but it took several attempts before those characters became the classic Inhumans we all know. Hence Fantastic Four: Fireworks, a three-issue limited series that retells the Inhumans’ first appearances in a way that aligns them with modern continuity. Got that?
The miniseries begins back in the hidden city of Attilan, the original secret home of the Inhumans. Black Bolt has ordered his brother Maximus to create a force field to protect the Inhumans from the outside world. Medusa presses Maximus on this, but he says his genius cannot be rushed. Crystal, meanwhile, wants to be a part of what’s happening although the others say she’s too old. She swipes a device from Maximus that picks up broadcasts from the human world. While Medusa wonders what Maximus is doing with such a device, Crystal is intrigued with news about new superhumans called the Fantastic Four, and one in particular with the power of fire.
Out over the ocean, the FF are meeting with Namor. Reed says he wants to negotiate peacefully with Namor for a science experiment, but Johnny just wants to fight. Johnny flies off in anger. Back in Attilan, Maximus has set off a bomb to attack Black Bolt, blaming it on the human world. When he’s found out, he runs away. Crystal suggests contacting the FF for help, but Medusa refuses. Crystal tries to get teleporting dog Lockjaw to take her to the FF, forcing Medusa to knock her unconscious to stop her. Medusa decides that to stop Maximus, she must be the one to venture into the human world, saying “I must follow the path I fear most!”
The bomb has put Black Bolt into a coma, which has then made Maximus ruler in his place. Maximus returns and demands to know where Medusa has gone, and the other Inhumans play dumb. In New York, the Avengers and the X-Man are visiting for Reed and Sue’s engagement party. Johnny tries and fails to flirt with Jean Grey, so he flies off again. He visits his old pals at the garage, and then sees the “4” flare in the sky. He follows it to a fight with the Wizard, Sandman, and Paste-Pot Pete, who’s actually calling himself that this time. Medusa then attacks him, making them the Frightful Four for the first time.
At that moment, Maximus sees a news report about the fight, discovering Medusa’s whereabouts. He sends an Inhuman named Seeker outside Attilan to find her. Desperate to act, Crystal uses her powers to heal Black Bolt. She and Black Bolt meet with Karnak, Triton, and Gorgon (who, let’s never forget, once single-handedly defeated the entire Fantastic Four). They agree to use Lockjaw’s power to find Medusa before the Seeker does.
The Inhumans arrive in New York, in a downtrodden part of the city, baffled at the ways of the humans. They find a newspaper describing Medusa as a new super-criminal. Gorgon says he will find medusa and demand answers, and he tells Crystal to stay put and curb her youthful romanticism. She hides out in an abandoned building, watching over the still-weak Black Bolt. Johnny shows up in that same neighborhood, looking for the Frightful Four. Then it’s the fateful meeting. Johnny spots Crystal on a street corner, and he’s immediately smitten. She, however, says, “No! We can’t meet like this! We can’t!”
Issue #2 begins with Crystal separating herself from Johnny with an elemental blast. Rather than flame on again and tear up the neighborhood looking for her, Johnny takes Sue’s advice and tries some self control. She returns to Triton, who is using Inhuman “constructiods” to turn the apartment into a mini-Attilan. Then Gorgon returns with Medusa, saying he battled humans to rescue her. She says she joined the Frightful Four after experiencing how much humans fear and hate anyone they consider to be different. Crystal believes the Fantastic Four are different, but Medusa and Triton disagree, arguing that the FF have already been in conflict with Namor and Atlantis for some time.
That night, Crystal goes out for a walk while everyone else is sleeping. Johnny finds her again, and this time they talk. She says her family won’t let her trust anyone, and he offers to talk to them. That darned youthful romanticism wins out, so takes him back to the apartment. Karnak seems friendly at first, only to toss Johnny into a cell. He escapes, contacts the FF, and the fight is on. The Inhumans put up a good fight, except that Triton’s breathing apparatus is damaged, making him fun for water before he asphyxiates. Everybody fights some more, and then Crystal says Triton vanished, fearing the Seeker has found him. The Inhumans teleport away so the Seeker doesn’t spot them as well. Johnny flies over the city and spots where they teleported to. Crystal says she wants to stay with Johnny, but the Inhumans refuse. They teleport again, this time for good. Johnny tells Reed he has to find Crystal, no matter what.
The Inhumans return to Attilan, where Maximus is preparing a coup. Black Bolt stops him, although he rants more about how dangerous the human world is. Johnny appears in Attilan, recognizing Maximus as an enemy of Crystal’s. The rest of the FF is there as well, with Reed’s genius allowing them to follow Lockjaw’s trail. Maximus sneaks off in the confusion to arm his “atmo-gun,” which he says will disrupt the neurons of all humans, leaving only Inhumans left. This causes gravity to go haywire for a bit, and then Medusa announces that the gun didn’t work, because deep down, Inhumans and humans are the same.
Crystal takes Johnny away from the city to its outskirts, a wilderness where the Inhuman and human worlds meet. Medusa says there can be peace between Attilan and the humans, so Maximus activates the force field in hopes of sealing Attilan away from the humans forever. Johnny and Crystal have a moment, saying their control of the elements make them the same. But then Ben interrupts, pulling Johnny away from her and onto the human side of the force field, with Crystal on the other. Johnny and Crystal are both heartbroken, but their respective families tell them it’s for the best.
Issue #3 begins after time has passed, and the FF have successfully fought Galactus and driven him away from the Earth. Johnny’s thoughts dwell on Crystal. We see him start college and befriend Wyatt Wingfoot. In Attilan, the Inhumans can find no way out of the force field, and Medusa encourages Crystal to forget about Johnny. She learns that Lockjaw can teleport in and out of the force field, but he cannot take any others with her. She wants him to bring Johnny to her, but Gorgon tells her not to, fearing that will defy Black Bolt.
While Johnny continues to be a short fuse about Crystal, Reed and Wyatt approach him with a way back into Attilan. It’s a the Gyro-cruiser, a flying ship with a force field of its own, courtesy of Black Panther’s Wakandan tech. In Attilan, Maximus succumbs to madness, Medusa urges caution, while Black Bolt retrieves a deadly device called an “absorba-bomb” that can amplify his own destructive power.
Johnny and Wyatt take the Gyro-cruiser on an expedition to the Saraha, where they encounter the ancient supervillain Prester John hibernating deep underground. Johnny wants to use Prester John’s weapon, the Evil Eye, to break down Attilan’s force field. This adventure runs concurrent with Black Bolt using his new powers against the force field. The Eye and Black Bolt both explode with power at once, only to be flung back. In defeat, Johnny and Crystal gain newfound resolve to be reunited.
Wyatt and Johnny take the Gyro-cruiser to the Himalayas, just outside Attilan, where they find Lockjaw. Rather than teleport them inside the Inhuman city, Lockjaw takes them back to the Baxter Building, which is under attack. In Attilan, Crystal again uses her powers to heal a weakened Black Bolt, adding fire to the mix this time. Black Bolt uses his newfound power against the force field, and this time it works. The entire barrier around Attilan dissolves.
We get a short recap of Johnny and the FF fighting Dr. Doom in a Negative Zone adventure, after which Johnny and Crystal are finally reunited. The caption states, “Let’s just say that the heroes all survive… and young love finds its faith rewarded. And when you come right down to it, what else matters?”
Unstable molecule: Reed’s method of tracking Lockjaw’s teleportation isn’t fully explained, and it seems that it something that only worked once.
Fade out: Sue tells Johnny to learn self control, which kicks off his whole emotional arc in this series.
Clobberin’ time: Ben accuses Johnny of going through a phase called “jerkolescence.” He later separates Johnny from Crystal for Johnny’s own good, just like in the original version of the story.
Flame on: The series doesn’t attempt to undo the love at first sight nature of Johnny and Crystal’s romance. While we learn she’s been watching him from afar for some time, he instantly believes she’s the one for him with that first glance.
Fantastic fifth wheel: Crystal’s character arc in this is all about fire. The other Inhumans tell her she’s too young to master that part of her elemental powers. After she meets the fiery Johnny, however, her own fire powers revive Black Bolt to save the day.
Medusa gets a great moment when encouraging Crystal not to be reckless. Medusa says that her lifelong relationship with Black Bolt, who cannot speak, has taught her the value of patience. She stresses that Crystal should exercise similar patience.
Trivia time: This is mostly a retelling of classic FF comics with a few extra details, but Medusa’s story contradicts the Marvel Wiki, which states that Medusa joined the Frightful Four as an amnesiac, rather than on an ill-defined undercover mission. (She lost her memory while battling a villain named Trikon.)
Fantastic or frightful?Fireworks is better than it has any right to be. For a series about allegedly fixing continuity, it’s more about capturing Johnny and Crystal’s emotional arcs during this whirlwind time in their lives. I would have preferred a fourth issue to explore Medusa’s time with the Frightful Four more fully, as that remains an odd wrinkle in Marvel history. But overall, consider this a recommendation.
Next: Mythic.
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Want more? Check out my ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a sprawling city full of far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. It’s a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid full of action, romance, mystery, and laughs. The first ten episodes are FREE! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.
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