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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. The manga-themed stylings of Adam Warren and Keron Grant comes to and end in vol. 3 #59 legacy 488. And it’s not the only aspect of the series coming to an end.

Recap: A bunch of other Things have started growing out of Ben, at such a fast rate they will overcome the Earth if not stopped. Reed sent Ben and the other Things off to a temporary pocket universe that will only last eight hours. While Reed and the other FF work to find a cure, Ben fights his so-called “skin-spawn” which are animalistic versions of himself. He was then rescued at the last minute by even more Thing clones who are intelligent and on his side.

At the Baxter Building, Reed has built a device based on help he got from all the Reeds from other universes. He explains that the device will create “virtual time” that can create an “altered emulation of time’s passage.” With this, he says he will be able to see what Ben’s rocky skin will evolve into in thousands of years. In the pocket universe, Ben and one of the good Things fight a bunch of monstrous Things. To keep more “skin-spawn” from coming off of him, Ben transforms back into a human (remember he can do that during this time). The good Thing says he and the others don’t like seeing him like that.

The other good Things are doing the trick of compacting metal into highly-compact swords, able to defeat (kill?) the monstrous things. Reed’s future-predicting television, which followed Ben into the pocket universe, is now reporting on Ben’s upcoming death. A horde of monstrous Things march toward them. Their leader is lucid enough to explain that they all hate Ben for his newfound ability to turn human. A big fight breaks out, with the monstrous Things also learning how to use the super-condensed metal.

Reed’s device reveals a hyper-intelligent evolution of Ben’s skin from thousands of years in the future. He hopes to communicate with it. In the pocket universe, Ben leads the other good Things in battle with a combined cheer of “It’s clobberin’ time!” The battle goes well at first, but then the monster Things kill all the good ones, until Ben is the only one left standing. As he fights the other Things, Ben argues that he is not a Hulk-like monster destroying everything in sight. Instead, that’s what his enemies do. The monster Things’ leader says that every time Ben transforms into a human, he and the others cease to exist, which is a nightmare to them.

On Earth, Reed activates his device, and Ben and the other Things are teleported to the Baxter Building. Reed, Sue and Johnny join the fight, until the hyper-intelligent Thing skin from the future destroys the other Things. Reed explains that it can control its own molecular form, which includes its ancestral forms as well. The future-Thing-skin disappears, and Reed explains that every time Ben turned human, his rocky shell reverted a virtual state, which acted as a catalyst for his skin’s replicative and mutative processes. The only way to stop this from happening was to remove Ben’s ability to turn human. Upon hearing this, Ben simply says “What?” and the issue ends.

Unstable molecule: Reed has sent the others in the Congress of Reeds on their way, and he’s back on his own in this issue.

Fade out: Sue is back to doting over the baby and just asking the occasional question of Reed, while Reed is the only one who gets to communicate with the strange being from the distant future. Are we just forgetting that Sue communed with a Celestial back in vol. 1 #400?

Clobberin’ time: Can we figure out how this happened? Ben gained the power to transform into a human after a fight with the Grey Gargoyle, because people turned to stone by G.G. eventually turn human again. But Grey Gargoyle got his powers from a chemistry accident, so where’d all this temporal “skin-spawn” stuff come from. I think the answer comes from a few panels where the future-Thing-skin-thing blasts the monster Things with what looks like the cosmic rays that gave the FF their powers back in issue #1. I think we can assume the skin-spawn originated more from the cosmic rays rather than from the Grey Gargoyle.

Flame on: At the start of the fight, Johnny cried out, “Flame extra on!” My guess he’s trying to sound cool, and this doesn’t relate to how his powers actually work.

Our gal Val: Sue keeps hold of baby Valeria during the fight, telling the baby, “It’s only a game.”

Commercial break: I love that they included the Spider-Buggy as a game piece.

Trivia time: Years later, in Johnathan Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four, Hickman made some waves among FF fans by establishing that Ben is immortal, and he will never age so long as he is in his rocky body. This issue, however, beats Hickman to the punch by depicting a version of Ben still alive thousands of years in the future.

Someone in this issue’s letter column asks whatever happened to Bounty, the interdimensional bounty hunter and potential love interest for Ben. Assistant Editor Mark Sumerak responds, saying Bounty returned to space in search of (what else?) new bounties.

Fantastic or frightful? This three-issue arc was done just to remove Ben’s ability to turn human, a bit of clearing off the table so the new creative team can start fresh. I suppose it’s good that they devoted an entire story to it rather than just tossing it in at the end of whatever big crossover event was happening this month (that would be Weapon X: The Draft). But Ben’s human side was never explored at this time like it could have been. We had one moment several issues back where Ben was the normal one and Johnny’s out-of-control powers made him the monster of the team. This was just a panels’ worth of character-building, and that was it.

Next: Carnivale.

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. The series get a little anime flair in vol. 3 #57 legacy #486, and we’ve got Things all over the place.

The revolving door creative teams of this era continues to revolve, as now we get Adam Warren writing with Keron Grant on pencils. Warren was a big deal at the time thanks to his edgy, sexy anime-style artwork. He was most well-known for The Dirty Pair and Bubblegum Crisis: Grand Mal for Dark Horse, and Livewires at Marvel. He has since written and drawn Empowered since 2007. Grant comes to Fantastic Four from Rob Liefeld’s Awesome Comics group, and he went on to draw New Mutants and Marvel Mangaverse for Marvel, and Son of Vulcan and Young Justice for DC. I suspect that Grant is drawing this issue based on Warren’s drawn thumbnails, but I cannot prove that.

We begin with Ben and Reed pulling an all-nighter in Reed’s lab, where Reed is constructing a prototype pocket universe generator. Ben’s been up all night, and he greets the rest of the family as they gather for breakfast. Ben sits in his favorite recliner to watch some TV, except this is Reed’s special future-predicting television. He sees an image of cheering multitudes erecting a statue in his honor.

Ben falls asleep while Reed continues to work in the lab. Ben wakes, only to find himself surrounded by other Things, each one slightly different from him. The other things speak only in Ben’s catch phrases as they smash up the place. Ben discovers these weird growths all over himself, and the other Things are growing out of him. He says they are distorted replications of Ben’s physical structure. Reed insists he transform back into a human (remember that Ben can do that during this time).

The other Things regroup and attack. They temporarily knock Reed out, so Ben turns back into the Thing to fight them. Reed rushes to the lab and retrieves the temporary pocket universe generator. He says it will activate a test universe that is finite in size and duration, lasting only eight hours. Reed tells Ben to avoid the other Things while in the other universe. Ben activates the device, taking a huge chunk of the new Baxter Building with him. Reed explains the plot a second time to Sue and Johnny, saying he has eight hours to find out what’s wrong with Ben and save him. If he can’t the Earth will be swarmed with endlessly self-replicating Things.

Ben arrives in the temporary universe, which has taken the form of an abandoned Skrull city. The future-predicting TV is there as well, and it tells him that the other Things will eventually return to Earth after killing Ben. Ben faces off against all the other things, who say to him, “It’s clobberin’ time!”

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Lots of new Reed Richards inventions in this one. In addition to the temporary universe creator and the future-predicting TV, there’s also a special recliner made to support Ben’s weight, and a food replicator-like thing that produces a summer ale for Ben and a genetically-engineered hyper-caffeinated coffee for himself.

Fade out: Sue is back in full-on mom mode, seen only when taking care of the baby.

Clobberin’ time: The catch phrases spouted by the other Things include, “I’ll pulverize the bum,” “Sheesh,” “What a revoltin’ development,” “Blasted,” “Rotten creep,” “Crummy,” “Gangway,” “Sunday punch,” “Knuckle sammich,” “Aunt Petunia,” and of course, “It’s clobberin’ time.”

Flame on: Johnny asks how the super-strong and nearly invulnerable Ben can get tired after being awake for 24 hours. That’s a good question.

Our gal Val: Baby Valeria is described as being very feisty.

Commercial break: Not cool, Cable.

Trivia time: The letters page halfheartedly announces that this was “Thing Month” at Marvel, with the publication of this issue, the Thing/She-Hulk: The Long Night one-shot and the Thing: Freakshow miniseries all coming out this month.

Fantastic or frightful: Basically, this whole issue is just a setup for the big cliffhanger, but that’s all right. Adam Warren brings that over-the-top anime sensibility to this, with crazy technology, silly humor, and big stylized action.

Next: Congress is in session.

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Want more? Check out my new book, MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app. It’s a comedic/dramatic/romantic superhero epic!

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Writer Karl Kesel only solo wrote two issues of FF, but in vol. 3 #56, legacy #485, but he certainly made his mark on FF history.

We begin with a man wandering the streets of NYC and ending up in a bad neighborhood, where he encounters the Thing. Ben chases him off, saying, “In this part of town, some things aren’t so nice.” Turn the page and we see this little drama has been playing out on Yancy Street.

As Ben wanders down the street alone, we cut to flashback, where child Ben is in trouble with local shopkeeper Mr. Sheckerberg, who has caught Ben throwing rocks at windows. Ben’s older brother Daniel tries to bribe Sheckerberg, but Sheckerberg won’t have it. Ben agrees to work weekends to pay for the damage. Then it’s a second flashback, where Ben comes across Daniel on the sidewalk just after Daniel had been in a fight. He says he was fighting to protect to Yancy Street neighborhood. Ben says he wished they lived somewhere else, and he points to the stars above. The third flashback has a cop telling Ben and his mother “sorry for your loss,” and that Daniel is in “a better place.”

Then the next flashback, where Ben is again on the run from Mr. Sheckerberg, after having stolen a Star of David necklace from Sheckerberg’s pawn shop. This was Ben’s initiation into the Yancy Street Gang. Back in the present, grown-up Ben, as the Thing, returns to the pawn shop, and Sheckerberg is still there. Ben is just there to say hello, but Sheckerberg says he’s been getting threatening letters and phone calls, and he thinks the Yancy Street Gang has something to do with it. Ben promises to investigate.

Cut to another flashback, where teenage Ben is now leader of the Yancy Street Gang, but others have all voted him out of the gang, because Ben is leaving town to live with his uncle the doctor and pursue training as a pilot. In classic Yancy Street fashion, they dump garbage all over him. In the present, they again dump garbage on him. They also shoot him with paintballs, hit him with a stink bomb, and blast him with a fire hose.

A humiliated Ben returns to the pawn shop, where a mystery man is holding Mr. Sheckerberg hostage, saying he’s the one behind the threats, not the Yancy Street Gang. There’s a fight, and the man is revealed to be the supervillain Powderkeg, who creates explosions with his “explosive aura.” Mr. Sheckerberg is injured by one of Powderkeg’s blasts, so the Yancy Street Gang joins the fight by pulling all their pranks on Powderkeg. This gives Ben the chance to take the villain out with a big punch.

Ben returns to Sheckerberg, who is unconscious. Ben wants to help, but, despite all his strength, he is unable to. Then, he realizes there’s something he can do. He stands over Sheckerberg and recites a Jewish prayer. Sheckerberg comes to, and he’s just fine even though he was just in an explosion. He chides Ben for being a celebrity all these years and never telling the public he’s Jewish. Ben says it’s not something he’s purposefully hidden, just something he doesn’t talk about much. He then tells Ben that Ben deserves all the harassment the Yancy Street Gang gave him over the years because he left the neighborhood and they didn’t.

Ben then reveals that he was there that night to return the stolen Star of David necklace from all those years ago. Sheckerberg tells him to keep it. Sheckerberg tells him to keep the necklace. Ben says he’s not ready to start going to Temple again. Sheckerberg says that’s okay, but he does expect Ben to clean up the mess made of the pawn shop. The cops and the paramedics arrive. As Ben hands Powderkeg over to the police, the issue ends when Powderkeg does a “You don’t look Jewish” joke.

Unstable molecule: The “4” emblem on Ben’s belt has a hidden compartment in it, in place of pockets. This is some Batman utility belt action right here.

Clobberin’ time: After many years of fans speculating on whether Ben is Jewish, mostly because his personality is loosely based on his co-creator, artist Jack Kirby, this is the issue that makes it canonical. Now that this is done, expect more stories about this aspect of Ben’s history and personality from here on.

Commercial break: I don’t remember this episode of The Twilight Zone.

Trivia time: The full story of Daniel Grimm’s death and Ben leaving Yancy Street was told in The Thing #1.

The prayer that Ben recites for Mr. Sheckerberg is called the Shema. According to Wikipedia, it’s something of a centerpiece for various prayer services. There appears to be many variations of it, but from what I could find, the Jewish Virtual Library website has a translation closest to what Ben is saying: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one,” followed by, “Blessed is the name of his glorious majesty forever and ever.”

This is the first appearance of Mr. Sheckerberg, who will go on to have other appearances as Ben’s old friend.

Other Marvel Jewish characters include (but are not limited to) Kitty Pryde, Magneto, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Polaris, Moon Knight. Across the street at DC, Harley Quinn, the Kate Kane Batwoman, and Colossal Boy are Jewish.  

Who’s this Powderkeg guy? He was originally a rival for the Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel, and later fought Iron Man and the whole Avengers. His big thing seems to be escaping from super-prison the Vault. Seems like whenever have those scenes of a bunch of villains escaping the Vault at once, Powderkeg is usually there, escaping alongside them.

Fantastic or frightful? I’m on the outside looking in, but to my outsider’s eyes this would appear to be a tasteful enough story, and one that’s a nice look at Ben’s internal character. If nothing else, it changed the way we all look at Ben moving forward.

Next: Manga or not?

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Want more? Check out my new book, MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app. It’s a comedic/dramatic/romantic superhero epic!

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. The FF are a family, so here’s a family sitcom episode in volume 3 #55 legacy #484.

We’re entering an odd transitory time in FF history. Writer-artist Carlos Pacheco and his co-writer Rafael Martin are out, but there are several issues before Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo take over for their famous run. Therefore, it’s going to be a revolving door for a bunch of creators for a while. First up is Karl Kesel and Stuart Immonen. Kesel is most well known for his work with DC, including Hawk and Dove, World’s Finest, Tales of the Legion, and the crossover event The Final Night. Immonen got his start with Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics doing biography comics, and became a fan favorite at both DC and Marvel, drawing part of the Superman Red/Blue event and the cult classic NextWave: Agents of H.A.T.E. for Marvel.

This issue begins with a domestic scene as Sue returns from grocery shopping to the Baxter Building, where Ben, Johnny, and Franklin have been watching baby Valeria. There’s a lot of comedy shtick regarding what she bought, followed by comedy shtick of Ben and Johnny fighting over the TV remote control. They end up trashing the living room while Sue is on the phone with Janet Van Dyne (a.k.a. the Wasp), and they wake up the baby. Reed enters the room, announcing that he’s made new modifications to the Fantasticar, and he needs an item to be picked up from a nearby warehouse. Johnny and Ben run off to give the new car a test drive.

Ben and Johnny continue to bicker on the way to the warehouse. The place is locked shut, and the Fantasticar is stolen by a Skrull named the Grand Acquisitioner. He plans to take it back to the Skrull homeworld and reverse engineer Reed’s tech. Johnny tries to pursue him, but the Acquisitioner activates a teleportation device and vanishes. Ben uses his mechanic’s smarts to trace the car’s ferrous oxide to the Yancy Street Wrecking Co. (A junkyard, basically.) A fight breaks out, as the heroes and the Acquisitioner trash the place while trying to take each other out.

The Acquisitioner escapes, and Johnny and Ben have a heart-t0-heart how easy it is for the two of them to cause destruction when they fight a villain. Johnny says he realizes that Ben has to be careful all the time, more than anyone else. Ben admits he realizes this is why Johnny always gave him a hard time, to keep him on his toes so he never forgets who he is.

The Acquisitioner reappears, returning the stolen Fantasticar. Johnny says this is a trick, and the Skrull reveals that yes, it is a trick. He transforms into… Yellowjacket. (Note that this is the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym, who at this time had recently returned to active duty with the Avengers after many ups and downs. He’s also reconciling with the Wasp, although their relationship remained somewhat strained.) Yellowjacket was using a Stark image inducer to merely appear as a Skrull.

Everybody reconvenes at Avengers Mansion, where Franklin has been watching the fight via remote ant-cams. (Yes, tiny cameras attached to ants.) Yellowjacket further explains that the teleportation was him merely shrinking the Fantasticar to ant-size. Then the Wasp enters the room with baby Valeria, saying the whole thing was orchestrated because Reed and Sue are celebrating a special anniversary. Not their wedding anniversary (which was just five issues back), but their 256-month anniversary, which is four to the fourth power. Reed and Sue celebrate with a romantic evening alone in the Baxter Building. Reed tells her she looks… Fantastic.

Then there’s a five-page preview of The Call of Duty. This is not based on the video games. It was meant to be a tribute to real-life firefighters. But then, there was also a supernatural element to the series, making it kind of half Backdraft and half The X-Files. In this preview, the firefighters make their way through a burning building to rescue someone inside. That someone is revealed to be a creepy little girl who tells them, “There’s a war coming.” The story was continued in backups in other Marvel comics, and then in three miniseries, The Call of Duty: Brotherhood, The Call of Duty: The Precinct, and The Call of Duty: The Wagon.

Unstable molecule: This is the second new Fantasticar Reed has constructed in recent issues, but the Marvel Wiki continues to the call them both the “Mark II” Fantasticar, so I guess he’s just constantly rebuilding their most-used one.

Fade out: Sue’s grocery shopping includes oysters (which Ben is excited about) and a fake burning log for their fireplace. She tells Johnny she doesn’t buy junk food, but she makes an exception for Hostess Fruit Pies for herself. Also seen among the groceries are lettuce, tomatoes, a carton of milk, Cheerios, and Rice Krispies.

Clobberin’ time: Ben wakes from a nap after having a nightmare about the Wizard. This is played as a joke, but you’d think his teammates might be a little concerned.

Flame on: Ben and Johnny fight over the remote control because the new Baxter Building has only one television, with no VCR or DVR. Ben wants to watch football, but Johnny wants to watch a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon. (I guess this when the FX network was airing Buffy reruns.)

Also, Johnny mentions his girlfriend, “Nita.” The Marvel Wiki confirms that this is Namorita, so they’re still a couple during this time.

Four and a half: Franklin is shown playing with Avengers toys at the start of the issue, but then he’s at Avengers Mansion at the end, interacting with actual Avengers. Foreshadowing?

Our gal Val: Baby Valeria is depicted as having a full head of blonde hair at the start of the issue, but is bald at the end of the issue. Is she a mutant, or is it just the lighting?

Commercial break: I know this is supposed to be chocolate, but it just reminds me of the monster from Dogma. (You know the one.)

Trivia time:  The warehouse Ben and Johnny visit is the Forbush Warehouse. This is a reference to a famous Marvel inside joke. Stan Lee used to always joke about Irving Forbush, a lazy and pathetic Marvel staffer. Except Forbush was a fictional character, someone for Stan to make fun of in place of actual Marvel staffers. This led to a parody superhero character Forbush Man. Whether Forbush Man is canonical to the Marvel Universe is a matter of some debate.

Fantastic or frightful? This is a zero-stakes light n’ fluffy sitcom story, which is fine for what it is. It won’t be until the next issue that Karl Kesel makes his permanent stamp on the series.

Next: Back to the old neighborhood.

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Want more? Check out my new book, MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app. It’s a comedic/dramatic/romantic superhero epic!