Rewatching the Star Trek movies! What’s the point of blogging about Trek when every bit of trivia minutiae has already been explored at length? I’m rewatching these in terms of characters, and hopefully sorting out the characters’ arcs over the course of these movies. Beyond that, we’ll just see what we see. Up first, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).
Here’s what happens: An alien cloud of sorts approaches Earth, forcing the crew of the Enterprise to reunite and head back into action. As the Enterprise gets closer and closer to the cloud, things get stranger and stranger.
Captains courageous: Kirk is Admiral Kirk now, serving as “head of Starfleet operations,” whatever that means. His main motivation in this film is not just to solve the mystery within the cloud, but to get back in command of the Enterprise. This puts him in conflict with the current captain, Decker. While there is tension between Kirk and Decker, Decker ends up having a lot of other business to deal with.
I find it amusing that, only a minute after the story’s big finale, Kirk just sits down in the captain’s chair and sets course for unexplored space. Shouldn’t Starfleet be informed about this epic event that just occurred?
Ol’ pointy ears: This story would seem to be a big turning point for Spock. We catch up with him as he’s rejected by his fellow Vulcans for not properly purging all emotion from himself. By the end of the film, there’s the famous shot of Spock shedding a tear after everything he’s seen. This suggests that Spock has accepted his half-human, more emotional side. Spock still has some ups and downs to go through before these movies conclude, however.
Welcome aboard: Decker and hot alien babe Ilia reconcile with their romantic past. Their background is only hinted at, but it drives the emotional stakes of the plot. This is further complicated once Ilia is possessed (reprogrammed?) by the intelligence inside the cloud. Actress Persis Khambatta is a striking figure as Ilia, one of the movie’s most well-remembered visuals.
Continuity café: Who is that caveman-looking crewman who expresses concerns to Kirk at one point? He’s an unnamed Rhaandarite. According to the exhaustingly thorough Memory Alpha, the Rhaandarites are a long-lived yet childlike alien species who were regulars among the Federation. One writer described them as being Trek’s equivalent of “rednecks.” Make of that what you will. (UPDATE: The Marvel Comics adaptation of the movie gave this character a name. He’s “Mr. Amaar.”)
What you leave behind: A lot of people dislike this movie for how slow-paced and (let’s face it) dry it is. But I do enjoy the far-out spectacle of it all. As for character, I recently read through a collection of James Blish’s adaptations of the original series episodes. In those, I was struck with how Kirk is less of a gun totin’ cowboy, and more of a humanist figure. He responds to all the strangeness the Enterprise comes across by standing up for his natural humanity. That’s much the same Kirk of The Motion Picture. The gigantic world-ending threat is resolved via matters of the heart.
Re-reading Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale! Make that Re-re-reading it.
After finishing the final scene for my last post, I felt frustrated in that it felt like Paulina had become the main character all of a sudden, and I hadn’t followed her character as closely. So I’ve read the entire play AGAIN, this time focusing on Paulina and what her deal is.
In act 2, Antigonus has a jokey line saying that if the wonderful and amazing Hermoine is not chaste, then he cannot trust any woman to be honest, not even his wife. This wife is not mentioned by name, so the audience isn’t given anything to think that this will become an important character. Paulina doesn’t appear on stage until act 2 scene 2, where she shows up at the jail demanding to know what’s become of Hermoine. The scene’s opening exchange is between her and a jailer, where Paulina does the “Do know who you’re talking to?” game, insisting that she’s someone important that everyone knows. The servant woman Emilia informs Paulina that Hermoine has given birth to a baby girl while in jail. Paulina insists that she’s the one who must inform Leontes the king about this, because only she is “honey-mouthed” enough to deliver the bad news. She also convinces the jailer to let her take the baby away with her. This shows Paulina has a take-charge attitude. She out-talks everyone and manipulates events in her favor. This seemingly expository scene is also Paulina taking the first steps to setting up the play’s finale.
In act 2 scene 3, we get some interaction between Paulina and Antigonus, and we establish her position, where she describes herself as both physician and counselor to the king. She’s also clearly the boss in her marriage with Antigonus. When Paulina shows the baby to Leontes, he dismisses her, calling her a spy and a traitor. If she’s manipulating events behind the scenes, then could that be unintentionally true? Leontes, who has fallen deep into madness by this point, wants the baby put to death by fire (!). When Paulina argues against this, he suggests putting her to death as well. Paulina stands up to the mad king by calling him weak, and she turns the traitor insult back on him. It’s the unnamed lord, however, that convinces Leontes to change his ways, and orders the baby to be taken into the wilderness instead.
Act 3 scene 2 is Hermoine’s trial. At the height of the drama, she swoons and faints. The stage notes specify that Paulina joins the servants who carry Hermoine off stage. She has to back-to-back speeches announcing Hermoine’s death, that are loaded with insults hurled at Leontes. It’s after these two speeches that Leontes has his abrupt change of heart, and is now overwhelmed with grief over what he’s done and how he’s behaved. There’s also a detail of how Hermoine and young Prince Mamillus are to be buried in one grave. Can we interpret all this as Hermoine not dying, and Paulina secreting her away when off stage? And now the still-alive Hermoine is hiding away at Paulina’s museum-like home? I can see how you might make that case.
We don’t see Paulina again for a while, as the action shifts to Bohemia, where her husband is killed… by a bear! Then there’s the sixteen-year time jump, where we get all the romantic ups and downs with Perdita and wackiness with Antigonus (the king of thieves!). As a bunch of those characters decide to return to Sicilia, we finally return to Paullina in act 5. She’s encouraging Leontes not to remarry. She says this is because no women could be as great as Hermoine, but she also refers to Hermoine as the one Leontes “killed.” If Paulina has a living Hermoine hidden away somewhere, then this is part of her long game, hopeful to set up the big reunion someday. But she says she believes the baby died when the bear got Antigonus. So, is she hiding Hermione just keep Hermoine safe from Leontes, or does Paulina have an end game? Hard to say.
When a servant announces that Florizell has arrived in Sicilia, Paulina cries out Hermoine’s name, saying the present has become better than the sorrowful past. Remembering all that business with Oracle of Delphi earlier in the play, Paulina and the other characters see this as possible fulfilment of the prophesy considering the king’s long-lost heir. Then the big reunion happens mostly off-stage, and there’s fleeing mentions of a statue of Hermoine at Paulina’s house, with all the characters heading there to see it. That takes us to the final scene where Paulina shows everyone the statue of Hermoine. Either the statue magically transforms from stone into a still alive Hermoine, or it’s all a show and Hermoine is playing at being a statue to fake everyone out. However you read it, it appears that Hermoine manipulated things to get this statue business to happen.
I thought The Winter’s Tale was about one man’s jealousy sinking two kingdoms into darkness, and two young lovers bringing light back to it all. Now I wonder if The Winter’s Tale is about one woman seeing her kingdom fall apart, and enacting a years-long scheme to restore it all. Many scholars say Shakespeare’s plays are better seen performed rather than read, and I think that’s especially true of The Winter’s Tale. What this story is and what it’s trying to say is so ambiguous that it’s really up to each production’s director and actors to decide just what The Winter’s Tale is.
Next: I have other ideas for more Shakespeare stuff for this blog, but I’ll take a little break first. Coming up next, something with a little more… space.
Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. In FF #5, writer Jonathan Hickman continues tying things together and connecting all the dots with everything he’s set up.
Recap: The Fantastic Four is now the Future Foundation, with around twenty members, most of them genius kids. Spider-Man is on the team, too, taking over for Johnny after Johnny’s (not real) death. Also, the team is dealing with four ancient cities recently discovered. Also-also, Valeria let four members of the Council of Reeds out into Earth. She thought this would help, not counting on how the Reeds from alternate universes don’t have our Reed’s ethics or morals. With the help of Dr. Doom, who is also now a member of the Future Foundation thanks to Valeria, Reed has assembled a group of villains to devise a plan on how to defeat the other Reeds – defeating himself, in other words.
This issue begins with the Foundation and the villains working in the lab with the magic conch shell that Sue uses to communicate with and teleport to Old Atlantis, one of the four lost cities. It works, except Reed announces that the Peak, the center of Old Atlantis, has vanished. Cut to the Peak at 15 minutes earlier, Sue, Spider-Man and Alex Power are surprised to see what looks like Reed alongside the Mole Man, who is attacking the city. Sue is quick to deduce this Reed is not her husband, only for him to whip out a high-tech gun and shoot her.
Spider-Man swings off to rescue Sue, leaving Alex Power alone against the Mole Man’s horde of monsters. He does well at first, using his gravity powers to create valleys and then walls of ice separating himself from the army. One gets through, however, inuring Alex’s arm.
After getting an injured Sue out of danger, Spidey swings back to Alex and joins the fight. But they’re too late, as the Mole Man’s weapons destroy the dome surrounding the Peak. The Mole Man and the evil Reed fire up some underground machines, and the Peak disappears into a crater. Sue manages to save the FF’s ship in a force field. She says she’ll get Namor to relocate survivors, and then she’ll head home for answers.
In New York, Ben has gone to Alicia’s apartment for a talk. He admits he feels guilty about Johnny’s death. She tells him he has to accept that Johnny’s gone. She tells him she loves him, and that Johnny would want him to be happy. She promises him that things will get better, and that he has nothing to be afraid of.
Later, Reed treats Alex’s broken arm. He encourages Alex to learn from this experience, but he also praises Alex’s effort during the battle, calling him “fantastic.” She has a minor concussion and will pull through. She says that when Reed learned about an evil Reed, he wasn’t surprised. She wants to know why, and why all the villains are in their house right now. Reed breaks down and says, “I’ve done something terrible.”
At the city of the High Evolutionary, another of the four lost cities. They’re building another giant machine, repeating “We have the solution” twice. One Reed and the Mole Man negotiate with the evolved Moloids who live there. They agree to fix things to they evolved Moloids will be able to breed on their own (wa-hey!) and to “abandon assimilation.” The evolved Moloids’ leader agrees to this in exchange for closing the doors of the city and allowing no Moloid refugees within. This pleases the Mole Man.
A shadow is cast overhead. It’s the city of Attilan, on the move, having flown down from the moon. (It can do that?) The issue ends with Black Bolt on his throne, looking very angry.
To be continued!
Unstable molecule: There’s mention of two other evil alternate universe Reeds we’ve met before, the Dark Raider and the Brute.
Fade out: All it takes is one look into the other Reed’s eyes. That’s enough for Sue to deduce this isn’t her version of Reed.
Clobberin’ time: Ben prefers his tea with Splenda artificial sweetener rather than real sugar. Make of that what you will.
Fantastic fifth wheel: Spider-Man uses his webs to create a cast for Alex’s arm. Later, he’s the one who reports to Reed how the mission at the Peak went.
Four and a half: There’s a funny bit where Franklin and the other kids aim their toy suction cup guns at the visiting villains.
Our gal Val: Valeria joins everyone in Reed’s lab, but she doesn’t say a word this time.
Foundational: Alex Powers has gotten considerably stronger in his gravity controlling abilities since his Power Pack days. He used to just make he and his siblings float around, or pin enemies to the ground. But in this issue, he’s causing mass destruction out in the ice.
There’s a two-panel exchange where Doom takes notice of Bentley-23. All Doom has to say about the kid is, “Hmmm.”
Trivia time: Yes, the city of Attilan can take off and fly around on its own. Fantastic Four once spent an entire issue depicting how difficult this was, but since then it’s moved locations a bunch of times, and spent some time just flying around as an aerial city.
Fantastic or frightful? I don’t know how many readers even remembered the situation at the High Evolutionary’s city, much less were invested in it. The highlight of the issue is the action with Alex Power, who gets some character development and gets to be the hero as well.
Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. In FF #4, we have a meeting of the minds and a city under attack.
Where were we? The Fantastic Four is now the Future Foundation, with close to twenty members, most of them genius kids in Reed’s makeshift school. Also, Spider-Man has joined the team following Johnny’s death (he’s not really dead). Dr. Doom made a deal with Valeria to join the team in exchange for Reed restoring Doom’s intellect to full strength. Valeria also recently released four members of the Council of Reeds (alternate universe versions of Reed who don’t have Reed’s morals) into Earth. The FF is also still dealing with four lost civilizations they recently discovered, along with a prophecy about a war among those four cities. To deal with the four evil Reeds, the FF have recruited some of their most intelligent enemies to plan a counter-strategy… how to defeat Reed Richards. Got all that?
We begin with sitcom-ish scene a Sue and Spider-Man make sandwiches for the kids. Spidey asks Sue why she’s not concerned, because they’re doing this while Reed is meeting with Dr. Doom, the Mad Thinker, the Wizard, Diablo, the High Evolutionary, and some A.I.M. guys. She says she’s not worried because, “I’ve beaten every one of them.” She goes all Batman saying she’s not afraid of them, but they should be afraid of her. An alarm goes off, but we don’t see what that’s about because we cut to…
The meeting. In addition to Reed and the all the villains, Valeria, Nathaniel Richards, and even the Watcher are there. Reed chides Valeria for letting the four other Reeds into the Earth, while the villains chide Reed for never having been so fearful. Diablo suggests exploited the other Reeds’ weaknesses, namely their versions of Sue and the kids. The Mad Thinker says the Reeds would expect that, and that the Reeds’ true weakness is something they’ve overlooked. The Wizard retells the myth of King Solomon and the two mothers (why?) until Reed interrupts, saying, “You don’t understand.” Reed says, “They are not me,” emphasizing that the other Reeds do not have families or loved ones, only their cause.
Ben stands guard outside the room, along with Bently-23. Ben says he’s prepared for the inevitable, ready for a fight when the villains get out of hand. Bently likes that the villains are there, saying “This is really turning into my kind of place.” Ben walks off, saying he’s going to take a few days off. Bently and some of the other kids then hear that alarm go off. Sue, Spidey, and a bunch of the others respond to the alarm, which is coming from Sue’s bedroom. The alarm is a message from Old Atlantis, one of the lost cities recently discovered, having been sealed off from the Earth since ancient times. The message is that creatures called Chordai and Mala are leading a revolution. As acting regent, Sue says she’s on her way. Sue heads off to Old Atlantis, bringing Spider-Man and Alex Power with her as backup.
Back in the meeting, there’s more talk about the other Reeds are more ruthless than our Reed, with the villains expressing admiration for them. Dr. Doom calls them “perfect Reeds.” Nathaniel says the other Reeds are acting out of desperation, violating whatever code it is that they do live by. Reed concludes that they must be building a machine. Doom says this machine is the Reeds’ weakness, and he gets Valeria to admit she knows its location. The machine is Sol’s Anvil, briefly seen last issue. Then things finally tie together (sort of) as Valeria admits that part of the machine are found in the four lost cities, on the moon, in the Negative Zone, in the High Evolutionary’s underground city, and… Old Atlantis.
Inside Old Atlantis’ main structure, the Peak, Sue learns the Chordai and Mala are amphibius, attacking the city from the air-breathing side. We see these creatures as some kind of shell-wearing tentacled things, who unleash huge energy blasts upon the Peak. Sue, Spider-Man, and Alex join the fight outside the Peak, which also include humanoid Orc-like monsters. These are smiling all through the fight, saying, “He is coming.”
The ground collapses into a huge sinkhole, and the Mole Man emerges. He’s brought his army of Moloids and several of his giant subterranean monsters. There’s also a mysterious hooded man alongside the Mole Man. It’s not a mystery for long, as he pulls the back to hood to reveal he’s one of the alternate Reeds. Sue looks at him with shock, asking “Reed?”
To be continued!
Unstable molecule: Reed’s love for his family is what initially separated him from the rest of the Council of Reeds, revealing them to be not-so-nice. This issue revisits those themes.
Fade out: The conch shell in Reed and Sue’s bedroom is a communication device linked to Old Atlantis. Why’d she chose the bedroom for that? I can’t say.
Clobberin’ time: Ben’s walking out, especially when on guard duty, seems a little out of character, but we’ve seen that he’s been in a dark place since Johnny’s death.
Fantastic fifth wheel: Spider-Man jokes around with Sue about how the FF kids like having the crusts cut off their sandwiches. But then he admits that he, too, cuts the crusts off.
Four and a half: Franklin joins Bentley-23, Leech, and Artie running around shooting suction cup guns at each other. One gets stuck to Ben.
Our gal Val: After spending so long sneaking around behind the scenes and doing her own thing, Valeria sees consequences to her actions. She thought she was doing the right thing, but even her genius couldn’t have predicted this crisis. Now she’s in a place to have to set things right.
Foundational: The FF’s two Atlantean members, Vii and Wu, finally get a character moment as they help repair the FF’s aquarium, noting that the repairs will make the fish “more tart.” They’re predators, apparently.
Dragon Man is put in charge of the FF while Sue, Spidey, and (apparently) Ben are away.
Artie has seemingly had a growth spurt, now drawn at the same height as Leech, Franklin, and Bentley.
Trivia time: The Mole Man is of course joined by Giganto, the monster from the famous Fantastic Four #1 cover. The other monsters are, to date, unidentified.
The Marvel Wiki states that the Mala and Chordai first appeared in issue $576, as lost tribes of Old Atlantis. I don’t have time today to go back through the issues, so I’ll take the Wiki’s word for it this time.
In the Marvel Universe, King Solomon is not just a Bible story, but a living character. He was a former Sorcerer Supreme, and he was briefly brought back to life in the 1940s to use his magic powers to fight evil. Also, remember Solomon’s Frogs from the Black Panther issues? Same guy!
Fantastic or frightful? Exciting to see Jonathan Hickman start tying up all these threads he’s started, yet I feel like I’ve said that a couple of times now. Still, this issue keeps moving, with suspense among the villains and some action at Old Atlantis. I liked this one, and I’m hoping it’s a swing in the right direction.
Re-reading Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale! Here’s where we get into why so many consider the a “problem play.” Act 5 scene 3 is the big dramatic ending, yet it’s ambiguous and it happens so fast.\
All the main characters come onto the stage, and Paulina, in a roundabout way, welcomes everyone to her home. Remember that The Winter’s Tale was created for Blackfriars, an indoor theater, which allowed Shakespeare to do things like changes in location. So we’re in a place we haven’t been before, and Shakespeare felt it was important we know that because the dialogue emphasizes this. It’s odd that two kings are visiting this woman’s house. I guess we can assume all their soldiers and bodyguards and whoever else are stationed outside.
Is this where Paulina lives?
Based on the dialogue, Paulina’s house is one big art gallery. Leontes talks about walking through many “singularities” before reaching this room. My books’ footnotes say this means priceless works of art. But, if we’re imagining The Winter’s Tale retold as far-out epic fantasy (as I have been, on occasion) then this could mean something outrageous like portals into other worlds in place of paintings. Anyway, Leontes reminds everyone (and the audience) that they’ve gathered there because Perdita wants to see the statue of her mother Hermoine.
Drawing back the curtain.
Paulina says the statue is as peerless as Hermoine herself was. She warns everyone to prepare themselves for how lifelike the statue is. Then we get the stage direction. In all my books, it’s written as “[She draws a curtain to reveal] Hermoine (like a statue).” My Pelican edition, however, has this stage direction: “[Paulina reveals] Hermoine [standing] like a statue.” I cannot say whether the brackets and parenthesis are a modern addition, but someone must have put them there for a reason. Like the “pursued by a bear” direction, here is Shakespeare getting specific with the stage directions. In the excellent documentary series Shakespeare: The King’s Man, host James Shapiro spends a lot of time on this, alleging that these are the most detailed stage directions among Shakespeare’s plays.
The gang’s all here.
But anyway, Paulina reveals the statue of Hermoine. To us the audience, this is the actress playing Hermoine returning to the stage, but what is happening in the fiction of this scene? Aside from the bear, the statue of Hermoine is the definitive image of the play. Leontes is in awe of the statue’s realism, with an odd line about how she is “not so much wrinkled.” Is he saying she hasn’t aged, or is he acknowledging the passage of time? Who can say?
So lifelike.
Perdita says she will kneel and pray before the statue, adding, “Do not say ‘tis superstition.” There’s a lot behind this phrase, as churches in England at the time were getting all snippy at each other, arguing that parishioners who kneel and pray in front of statues were committing idolatry. Perdita’s line is either a joke poking fun at this, or it’s a way of depoliticizing this issue, as if to tell the audience to relax about it.
What if it was this superstition?
While Perdita kneels and prays, Paulina says the statue is “newly fixed,” meaning that it either was recently made or recently put in this place. She also says, “the color’s not dry.” This is a reference to how all those ancient marble statues from Greek and Rome were originally painted with vibrant colors. My Folger edition alleges that this practice was also done to statues in Shakespeare’s day. What’s odd is that a lot of the artwork you see for The Winter’s Tale shows Hermoine as an all-white statue, as if carved from marble. I suppose some sort of visual is needed to get across the idea that she is a statue, whether through makeup and costume, or lighting and/or special effects. But everyone’s going to carry on about how lifelike she looks. How far you go in making Hermoine look like a statue versus merely looking alive again is up to each production.
Newly fixed.
Then there’s another specific stage direction, telling us that Leontes is crying. Camillo encourages him to let it all out, how sixteen years of sorrow led up to this moment. Polixenes admits to being the cause of Leontes’ pain, offering to take away Leontes’ grief if he can. But then, Polixenes refers to himself as “he” not “I” during this speech, so perhaps there’s some double-speak going on. “He” could also mean Leontes, suggesting that Leontes has himself to blame for his actions.
Heart of stone.
After seeing Leontes overwhelmed with emotion, Paulina wants to draw back the curtain and cover up Hermoine. Leontes urges her not to. This becomes a runner through the next part of the scene, as they repeat this exchange a couple of times in a row. What is Paulina up to? She brought everyone here to show off the statue, but now she wants to separate it from them all. I wonder if she’s toying them, because next she gives them a choice. Leave now, she says, or stay and behold more wonders. Paulina says she can make the statue move. She tells Leontes to “awake your faith” and the says that anyone who believes this is “unlawful business” should depart. No one does.
Living Statue!
Then we’re in full-on magic/fantasy mode, as Paulina commands the statue to descend and “be stone no more.” We get yet another specific stage direction with “Hermoine descends,” and more marveling from the other characters upon seeing the statue come to life. There’s more magic talk as Paulina says, “Her actions shall be as holy as my spell is lawful.” That’s straight out of Dungeons and Dragons right there.
Living statue?
Leontes touches Hermoine and says, “She’s warm.” They embrace, with the other characters describing the affectionate intimacy of their embrace. Paulina has a comment about how anyone would laugh if they heard this story but did not see it. (A reminder that this is a comedy, perhaps?) Paulina wonders why Hermoine doesn’t speak, and she commands Hermoine to do so. She brings Perdita to Hermoine’s attention, saying the long-lost princess has been found.
She lives! Or does she?
I’ve found a lot of people online who are debating whether Hermoine actually speaks or not during this finale. But she does. All my books have her delivering the speech that follows. She speaks only to Perdita, wanting to know where Perdita has been and what her life has been like. Hermoine said the Oracle gave her hope that Perdita was alive. Flipping back to act 3 scene 2, this references the part of the Oracle’s statement that, “The king shall live without an heir if that which is lost be not found.” Hermoine concludes by saying that she “preserved” herself in the hopes that she’d someday be reunited with Perdita.
Preserved, or persevered?
Okay, so what is happening here? Is this actual fantasy magic, in that Paulina somehow turned Hermoine into stone, hid her away, and then returned her to life at this moment? The text would seem to suggest that, but unlike A Midsummer Night’s Dream or The Tempest, magic has only been hinted at and not depicted on stage up to this point. In my research, I’ve found that some believe Hermoine faked her death and has been hiding with Paulina for sixteen years, and this “statue” business is some sort of ruse they’ve concocted for this moment. But, what purpose would that serve? Is this so Hermoine can assess their reactions to seeing her before she fully reveals herself? As with everything in this final scene, it’s wide open to interpretation, and it depends on how directors and actors choose to play it.
All for show?
Paulina says there will be plenty of time for Perdita to answer Hermoine’s questions. She calls everyone “precious winners all,” and tells them to go forth and share their exultation with the world. She calls herself a “turtle,” meaning a turtle dove, as she plans to fly off and find a perch where she will spend the rest of her days lamenting her lost husband. (That would be Antigonus, who was… pursued by a bear!). Why a turtle dove? They allegedly mate for life (is that true?) and they’re traditionally seen as a symbol of long-lasting romance in marriage – hench “two turtle doves” in The Twelve Days of Christmas. But Paulina is a lone turtle dove, a sad image.
Very Shakespearian.
Leontes gives the play’s final speech. He recalls the comment from act 5 scene 1 about him not remarrying without Paulina’s direction, and now he makes similar promise to her, that he’ll find a man for her to marry. Some believe this means that there’s a romance between Leontes and Paulina in the works, but Leontes thanks her for returning Hermoine to him. Is Hermoine’s worldless embrace enough to communicate that she and Leontes are a couple again? It seems that is the intent, but I don’t know. Leontes says he won’t have to search far for a good man for her, and he offers her Camillo’s hand in marriage. As king, he can just do that. And I suppose this makes up for all of Camillo’s living in exile for sixteen years.
Statuesque.
Leontes addresses Hermoine, who still doesn’t speak to him, saying he forgives her and Antigonus. Although he encourages the two of them to look upon each other, which is maybe a little odd. He reintroduces Hermoine to Perdita and Florizell (who has been in this scene the whole time but hasn’t spoken), telling her that her son-in-law is also heir to a king. He uses the phrase “troth-plight” to describe young lovers’ engagement, and I wonder if that also has some double meaning. He asks Paulina to lead them away from there, where everyone can tell their stories and answer each other’s questions. He breaks the fourth wall a bit, saying each one can “answer to his part performed.” Acknowledging that it’s all been a play. Shakespeare does this a lot in his plays, where the final speech reflects back to the story that just unfolded. Twelfth Night and the already-mentioned Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Mother and daughter.
And that concludes The Winter’s Tale. My final thought is… dang it. DANG IT. Because reading this final scene, all I can think is, “I need to read this again.” Paulina emerges in these few pages as a main character, perhaps even the master manipulator behind it all. This means closer study of her journey through play is warranted. There’s also Leontes and Hermoine. Has Leontes truly had a change of heart? Are they truly reconciled? In my reading, most tend to summarize this as a happy-sad ending. Everyone is reunited, but they still have all the losses they’ve experienced. Is that enough?
This was supposed to be a fun and exciting trip through one Shakespeare’s most unusual works, but I’m left wondering about this ending. Clearly, The Winter’s Tale is over, but I’m not yet done with The Winter’s Tale.
Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. FF #3 continues writer Jonathan Hickman’s sprawling epic take on the series, but is there such a thing as too epic?
Recap: The Fantastic Four is now the Future Foundation, with a bunch of gifted kid characters and Spider-Man on the team after Johnny’s (not real) death. Our heroes are also still dealing with four lost civilizations they’d recently discovered.
We begin with a bunch of Fantasitcars taking off from the new Baxter Building. On the rooftop, Dr. Doom tells Reed that they will bring “Your doom.” Ooh, ominous. Cut to the vessel of the World Builder, the current home of the High Evolutionary. Ben and the FF’s four Moloid kids meet with him, and Ben gives him an envelope. Then we cut to Diablo’s hideout in Rubedo, where Dragon Man and Alex Power hand Diablo a similar letter. Then it’s off to “Lower Amduat,” to the hideout of the Mad Thinker. Spider-Man gives him another envelope, with the Mad Thinker excited that it is an invitation. Finally, Sue uses her invisibility to sneak herself and Bently-23 into the Wizard’s HQ, an old A.I.M. base on “Outlier Island.” They deliver the invitation, and this time we see that it’s for a symposium on “How to finally defeat Reed Richards.”
Two days later, we see everyone gathered for this symposium. The four villains are there, along with some A.I.M. goons and Dr. Doom, Reed, and Valeria. Reed tells them that his father Nathaniel has vouched for both Valeria and Doom (not sure what difference that makes) and that the Avengers are standing by in case this discussion becomes anything other than theoretical. Valeria starts to address the group, saying, “It all started when…” But she’s interrupted when the Watcher appears in the room to view the proceedings.
Valeria admits that she found the Bridge, Reed’s portal to alternate universes, and that she used it to find the Council of Reeds, a bunch of Reeds from other worlds who wanted our Reed to leave his family in the pursuit of science. The Council was on the run from Celestials, so Valeria brought four of them back home with her. In a flashback, the Reeds do a quick assessment of this universe, finding it technologically backwards compared to their worlds, but they find something called Sol’s Anvil, which they think they can use.
In Old Atlantis, which was sealed off from the rest of the Earth until just recently, one of the Reeds kills an Atlantean to view his memories, revealing to two Old Atlantis leaders that one faction, the Uhari, are planning to overthrow the other rulers of Old Atlantis. The Reed offers to help the Atlanteans if they give him something in return. Deep underground, another of the Reeds looks over the High Evolutionary’s city alongside the Mole Man. The Mole Man says too many of his people are entering the city and becoming evolved, and he doesn’t want that. The Reed asks the Mole Man what he’d be willing to pay to stop it.
Then it’s off to the Blue Area of the moon, where a third Reed meets with the Universal Inhumans. He requests use of a small corner of the Blue Area for archeology, but the Inhumans have a telepath in their midst, revealing him to be a liar. A Dire Wraith among the Inhumans does that tongue thing they do against the Reed, and says the Reeds have “great and terrible plans.”
Finally, we go to a location called “the other side of zero,” where the fourth Reed meets with Anti-Priest of the Cult of the Negative Zone. He requests an audience with the Anti-Priest’s master, who summons a hologram connection with Annihilus. This version of Reed says he and the other Reeds need access to the Negative Zone in order to open a portal to his home. Annihilus says he wants the portal to Earth left open for his army, and the Reed says, “That can be arranged.”
Three of the four Reeds meet at yet another location called “the Dynamo,” a partially-finished structure in the middle of nowhere. (I assume this is Sol’s Anvil, but the comic does not specify this.) One Reed says construction of the device will be complete on schedule. Another says Earth will have to be sacrificed for the greater good. He says, “Now, brothers, we orchestrate a war.”
To be continued!
Unstable molecule: The four alternate Reeds are loosely defined. One is “Professor R,” from a world where Reed is the Charles Xavier, but others are known only as “Reed Richards Alpha,” “Reed Richards 4280,” and “Reed Richards blue and black costume with circle on chest.”
Fade out: The Wizard at first thinks that Bentley has returned to the fold, but Bently and Sue both tell him that’s not why they are there.
Clobberin’ time: Ben addresses the High Evolutionary by his real name, Wyndham. The two of them ran into each other in Marvel Two-In-One.
Fantastic fifth wheel: Spider-Man jokes about not wanting the Mad Thinker to accept the invitation, only for the Thinker to do so. And no, this is not the first time they’ve met, as the Mad Thinker showed up in Spidey comics a few times.
Four and a half: Look carefully in the background during the Mad Thinker scene, and you can see Franklin and one of the FF’s Atlantean kids playing with the Mad Thinker’s Awesome Android.
Our gal Val: The Marvel Wiki states that the flashback with Valeria and the four Reeds took place during issue #586, which was all about Galactus and Nu Earth. If you say so.
Foundational: Despite his love of villainy, Bentley-23 doesn’t want to return to the Wizard, saying, “My name is Bentley now. I’ve earned it.”
Trivia time: There’s only the one Awesome Android, so that means the one seen in this issue is the same one we knew as Andy from the solo She-Hulk series. The Marvel Wiki confirms that Andy returned to the Mad Thinker after that series, but remained a good guy.
Fantastic or frightful? This issue is filled with references to past issues from Jonathan Hickman’s run, demanding that you remember who all these characters and all these worlds are. It’s a lot to take in, and our main characters take a back seat to these alternate reality versions of Reed. Yes, there’s the sense that it’s all building up to something, but we’ve been building up to something for a long time now and I’m getting impatient.
Re-reading Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale! A ton of story happens in act 5 scene 2, but we don’t see it happen.
You don’t want to know how many times I said, “Did I miss something?” when reading this scene. It’s all about describing major events and revelations that we the audience don’t see. We begin with Autolycus (the king of thieves!) pressing a gentleman of the court for information. The man describes the meeting between the kings, Leontes and Polixenes, and Perdita, Florizell, and Camillo. Everyone was moved to tears upon learning that Perdita is the long-lost princess. The gentleman could only watch this for a few seconds before being ushered out of the room for privacy.
She’s a princess!
Another gentleman, identified as Rogero but named only “Second Gentleman” in the script, walks up to add more information. He describes bonfires being lit throughout the city in celebration (so the meeting wasn’t all that private). He confirms that Leontes’ long-lost daughter has been found, and that the Oracle’s prophecy has been fulfilled. (Remember all that business with the Oracle?)
Reunited.
Then we get a third gentleman, identified as Paulina’s steward, who provides more information. He lays out the whole story of Antigonus’ death (by a bear!) and how the shepherd has the letters from Antigonus to prove that Perdita is in fact the princess. There’s another description of Antigonus’ ship being lost as sea. The ship is called “the bark,” which is an interesting detail.
Three gentlemen.
The third gentleman also catches us up with Paulina, saying her emotions were in battle (!) between sadness over learning the details of her husband’s death (by a bear!) and joy over seeing Perdita alive and well. This includes a lovely description of Paulina embracing Perdita and lifting the girl off her feet. He then describes Perdita experiencing various stages of sadness upon hearing of her mother Hermoine’s fate.
Paulina and Perdita embraced, but Antigonus got a… bear hug.
The third gentleman then says that Perdita wanted to see Hermoine’s statue. I believe this is our first reference to the statue, which is about to become the big set piece. He points out that the statue of Hermoine was made by the great artist Julio Romano. This was a real person, an important figure in the Italian Renaissance. Why Shakespeare made this specific reference has baffled scholars over the years, as this is a huge anachronism. The most common speculation is that Shakespeare included Romano’s name to curry favor with some royal and/or financier. Or maybe Shakespeare wanted to indicate in what style he wanted the statue to look like. We may never know. As far as the story goes, Romano’s work is often about the ancient myths, gods and goddesses and whatnot, foreshadowing the miracle (or is it?) we’re about to see.
“The Gods of Olympus” by Julio Romano. Cool.
Autolycus doesn’t much during all this, giving each actor a lot of leeway on how to react. The three gentlemen leave, and he has a short aside talking about making the voyage to Sicilia alongside the young lovers, not knowing the secret. Then the shepherd and his son enter, dressed in “rich clothing,” according to the stage direction. This is a chance for a big laugh, if the costumers can come up with something really outrageous for them. There’s a running joke where the shepherd’s son keeps using the phrase “gentleman born” over and over. That’s supposed to mean someone whose parents were both nobility, but he misunderstands this every time he says “gentleman born.” It’s not an easy joke to adapt for today’s audiences, so the actor would really have to push things to get laughs from this.
Just as Shakespeare intended.
The shepherd’s son then describes another scene we didn’t see, in which the two kings and young lovers call the shepherd and the son their brother. Autolycus asks if they can give him an audience with Florizell. The son says he can convince Florizell that Autolycus is a “tall fellow of thy hands,” adding that Autolycus is not a drunk. This is repeated several times, making it another running gag. My books’ footnotes allege that “tall fellow of thy hands” means he’s good with swords and other weapons, so it appears that they’re presenting him to be some sort of bodyguard for the prince.
The… prince of thieves!
It’s nice to have some fun antics at the end of the scene, but the big question remains: Why are we hearing about all these big dramatic moments instead of seeing them play out on stage? We can only speculate. On one hand, it might be practical. This gives the other actors a chance to catch their breath before the finale, and/or it gives the crew some room to set up the complicated last scene. In terms of story, we don’t want the audience thinking the big reunion is the story’s climax while Hermoine is (literally!) waiting in the wings. In a more elaborate staging of the play, the actors could portray the reunion silently upstage while the gentlemen describe what happens. Similarly, a filmed version could show the reunions with the gentlemen providing voiceover.
Next stop, the future.
The scene ends with everyone marches off with another reference to seeing Hermoine’s statue, which is where it’s all going down.
Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We’re still getting used to the new status quo in FF #2, only for Dr. Doom to show up and complicate things already.
Recap: Following the death of the Human Torch, the Fantastic Four have now officially been rebranded as the Future Foundation, with our heroes and their new crop of young genius students all acting as one team. Also, Spider-Man has joined the group as Johnny’s replacement. After losing part of his intellect, and after meeting secretly with young Valeria, Dr. Doom has shown up on the FF’s doorstep to become the Foundation’s newest member.
This issue begins with Ben threatening Doom as Doom taunts him. They’re about to fight before Sue breaks them up with a force field. Ben refuses an explanation as to why Doom is joining the team, and he runs off. Sue admits she agrees with Ben, and questions whether inviting Doom into their home is a good idea. While Spider-Man makes some jokes about all this, Reed gathers everyone into the classroom and asks for suggestions about restoring Doom’s intellect to its previous state.
As the Future Foundation kids debate solutions and/or ethics for Doom, Valeria suggests “standard data retrieval,” saying that all they need is a backup of Doom’s original brain. There’s two pages of Doom considering this, before he concludes, “Kristoff.”
Ben, Sue, and Dragon Man commiserate at a nearby bar. Dragon Man makes a point that he’s sworn off violence, as it never the practical solution to a problem. Ben says he feels like he’s playing second fiddle to all the Foundation’s geniuses, while Sue argues that their world is changing, and they simply have to figure out their places in it.
A day later, Reed, Spider-Man, Valeria, Nathaniel Richards, and Dr. Doom arrive in Latveria and meet with Kristoff. We get a whole page of Reed narrating Kristoff’s bizarre origin story, including uploading a recreation of his own mind into young Kristoff’s brain. Kristoff admits that he has not been perfect, and that he is a poor replacement for Doom. Valeria explains that they will only take the parts of Doom’s mind that are missing, with Reed adding that includes Doom’s knowledge of dark magic, but not Doom’s personality.
Everyone hooks up Doom and Kristoff to some kind of mind-switching device, and the computer gives Reed the options of “transfer” or “purge.” His hand hovers over “Purge,” but he finally presses “Transfer.” There’s an explosion of energy, and Doom emerges with his hand glowing with magic. He announces, “Doom is… reborn!” Kristoff offers Doom the Latverian throne, but Doom refuses. He says he and Valeria had a deal, and he plans on keeping it. He says, “I agreed to help your daughter defeat you, Richards.”
To be continued!
Unstable molecule: While Reed has his moment of temptation to press the purge button instead of the transfer one, he shares a look with Nathaniel. Nathaniel can obviously tell what Reed is thinking at that moment. If Nathaniel wasn’t there, would Reed have gone through with it?
Fade out: To keep Dr. Doom in line, Sue threatens to place invisible force field air bubbles inside his brain to reduce his intellect even further. Would she have gone through with such a thing?
Clobberin’ time: Dr. Doom taunts Ben by saying Ben merely stood by and watched while Johnny died. This of course angers Ben. But… if Doom is there for help and to join the team, what purpose does this serve for him?
Fantastic fifth wheel: Spider-Man is mostly comic relief in this issue, although he does surprise the Foundation kids with his science expertise.
Our gal Val: The fact that Valeria joins everyone on the mission to Latveria illustrates how what we think of as the team is no longer the main four heroes, but a more expansive team of (as of this issue) nineteen members.
Foundational: How big is Dragon Man again? He’s normally drawn like he’s the size of a dinosaur, twice as big as the other characters, but in this issue he sits at a table in the pub like a normal bloke. Our old friend The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition states that Dragon Man is 15 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 3 tons. I guess we’ll have to suspend our disbelief for this pub hang.
While the other kids of the Future Foundation question whether restoring Doom’s genius is safe or ethical, Bently-23 likes the idea of seeing Doom back at full power.
Trivia time: Ben’s pub is named Muk’s Bar. This bar has no entry in the Marvel Wiki, so it’s safe to assume it’ll never appear again. As for who Muk could possibly be, there’s a rarely-seen X-Men character named Mukus, and then there’s Muktong Mollie, a villain from the ‘50s comic Combat Kelly. I’d love it if she was revealed as the secret owner of Muk’s Bar, but that’s probably not the case.
Fantastic or frightful? This is another example of so-called “decompressed storytelling” in comics. This is where something that used to be covered in one panel is now stretched out to multiple panels or even pages for dramatic intent. Whether it works is up to you, but there’s little story. We just move from one plot point to the next. It probably reads better as part of the trade paperback collection, but feels slim as a stand-alone.
Reading Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale! This last part of act 5, scene 1 is only two pages in my Folger edition, but it’s loaded with tons of important character and plot information. One might conclude that these two pages are everything the play is about. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get into it.
A lord enters and tells Leontes that Polixenes has entered Sicilia, and that Polixenes’ son has lost his dignity after running off with a shepherd girl. Keep in mind that son, Florizell, is standing right there, after having been warmly welcomed by Leontes. This could be played either comedically, in a classic farce kind of way, or it could be played deadly serious, as this reveal cranks up the tension.
An audience with the king.
The lord further states that Polixenes, in his chase, ran into the shepherd and the shepherd’s son, also on their way to Sicilia. Why don’t we see this meeting, and the circumstances of how it came about? I suppose that the story doesn’t need these details as it races toward the finale. Also, these lines from the lord character are a lot of fun, in how he’s so amazed that all this is actually happening and how he’s in the middle of it all. An actor could have a lot of fun with this.
The chase is on!
Florizell exclaims that Camillo betrayed him to Polixenes. This isn’t marked as an aside, so we’ve got assume that Florizell knows he’s exposed to everyone. The lord says the shepherd and his son are “poor men” and “wretches” who collapsed upon arriving in Sicilia. There’s a weird line where the lord says Polixenes threatened the shepherd and son with “divers death upon death.” My Pelican edition states that this phrase means torture, and that “divers” means “diverse,” but part of me is excited with the idea of Polixenes threatening the men with some sort of deep-sea execution.
A diver’s death.
Perdita, who you’ll remember is also still on stage, cries out in response to this for her adopted father. She fears that “heaven” sent spies to follow the shepherd. Once again, I imagine a far-out epic fantasy version of The Winter’s Tale in which the Sicilians are Hell/devil types and the Bohemians are Heaven/angelic types. I think it could work, you guys!
Angelic spies.
Leontes demands to know if Florizell and Perdita have married yet. Florizell says no, followed by another curious line. He says, “the odds for highs and lows alike.” The idea is that the opportunities for love and happiness can be the same for folks of both high status and low status. That’s a very Shakespeare-ish notion, a key to Florizell as a romantic character, and maybe – just maybe – the overall mission statement of The Winter’s Tale as a whole. (The eye of the duck, as it were).
The Eye of The Duck!
Leontes seems to empathize with Florizell, in how he disappointed his father while also loved his beautiful young bride to be. Florizell tells Perdita that while Fortune might be an enemy constantly chasing them, Fortune has no power to change their lives. All my books capitalize “Fortune,” so I can only conclude that Shakespeare did too. Time for more mythology stuff: The Greek goddess Fortuna, more commonly known as Tyche, was considered the personification of luck, both good and bad, although folks in ancient times tended to look on her for good luck. Some believe she’s the inspiration for the Wheel of Fortune card in the tarot, and others believe she inspired the American symbol of blind justice (you know the image I mean). The interesting part is that while Fortuna seems to be a positive figure overall, Florizell describes her as a villain. I don’t know how much of this can be brought into a performance or adaptation of the play, but it’s some interesting color.
Should the goddess Fortuna appear on stage based on this one line?
Florizell encourages Leontes to remember his own romantic youth. He tells Leontes that his father will grant precious things as trifles. Leontes says Florizell’s “precious trifle” Florizell also calls Perdita his precious trifle. None of my books have footnotes for this exchange, so I’m on my own here. The classic definition of trifle is that of something small. Googling, however, shows that “trifle” refers to English desserts, usually sponge cakes with fruit, whipped cream, jelly, and sometimes chocolate, vanilla, or custard. In other words, something very, very sweet. Sounds like everyone’s praise for Perdita to me.
A trifle.
Paulina, who has also been on stage all this time, compares Perdita to the long-lost Hermoine, speaking directly to Leontes’ wishes. She says Perdita is worth more such gazes as Leontes gave to Hermoine. A lot of Shakespeare’s writing is about celebrating and romanticizing youth, and this is more of that (but hopefully not in a creepy way). Leontes says he sees something familiar in Perdita, and he says to Florizell that he will speak to his father. He says that Florizell’s honor is not “overthrown” by his desire. I’ll assume “desire” means love or romance in this context.
The celebration of youth.
Leontes encourages Florizell and Perdita to follow him as he speaks to Florizell’s father the king. Leontes says Florizell’s honor is not undone by his desires. He promises to be a friend to Florizell as he approaches Florizell’s father. He says, “mark what way I make.” My books’ footnotes say this means Leontes intends to remove all obstacles in the way of Florizell and Perdira’s love.
Would you trust this man?
This raises a much bigger question of the play in general. We’ve spent the first three acts of this play with Leontes as a bad person, driven by speculation and jealousy. He appears to have turned a corner and is a better person now. But that’s a lot to ask of the audience. This the big question raised by The Winter’s Tale, which is can people change? Leontes was a horrible person who did horrible things that wrecked the course of many peoples’ lives. Can someone like that truly make a turn and set things right again? Shakespeare doesn’t have that answer, which means I certainly don’t.
The good news is that the play isn’t over yet. Let’s see where it goes.
Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Except that Fantastic Four is over, and the series has now rebranded as FF #1. Oh, and Spider-Man is here. Maybe I should have led with that.
We begin with scientists from A.I.M. opening a portal and venturing into it, saying “All death leads to be rebirth” and “We have to find some new ideas.” (Subtext is text.) Then there’s a title page stating the following:
A lot of readers at the time disliked that the initials FF stands for Future Foundation and not Fantastic Four (never mind that social media at the time used it as a hashtag for “follow Friday”) but here the comic makes it official. Anyway, at the new Baxter Building, Reed replays a recording Johnny made before he died. It’s the classic “If you’re reading this, that means I’ve died” thing you always see in fiction. He encourages his teammates to remember what they stand for, and he tells them to give Spider-Man his spot on the team.
There’s a luxurious two pages of Spider-Man swinging through New York on his way to the Baxter Building. It’s very classic Spidey, in his original red and blue suit. He arrives at building’s rooftop and jokes that there’s no door, only for Sue to greet him in a sci-fi pop-up elevator thing, telling him he just has to know where to look. They exchange pleasantries, with her asking about his family. Note that she’s wearing a new uniform, a sleek black number with white highlights.
She tells him about how things have changed since the last time he (and the reader) have visited the team. Nathaniel Richards has returned from the future, he and Reed reconnecting. The kids of the Future Foundation are developing all kinds of exciting new technology in hopes of transforming the world for the future. Sue is dividing her time between New York and the recently-discovered Old Atlantis, where she is the acting regent. Ben, Franklin, and Valeria are still deep in mourning Johnny. Ben especially has taken it hard, blaming himself for Johnny’s death.
Spider-Man now has his own bedroom in the building (that was quick) and Sue gifts him with his new FF uniform. It’s his one with white with black highlights, but with a spider-symbol in place of Sue’s new symbol of three matching hexagons. Sue says the “4” logo is out, because she was in the mood for something different. She can transform her outfit to a white one matching his, as the unstable molecules have been programmed to respond to their thoughts, changing their appearance as well. Spidey makes his outfit into a black one for one panel, but he then changes it back.
Cutting back to the A.I.M. scientists, they appear through their portal not into another world, but into yet another start scientific facility. They break through a huge door to find a man on the other side. He says, “Is that the fluttering of angel’s wings I hear?” The new FF fly up to the P.A.V.L.O.V. facility, which you’ll remember was described as “metahuman psychiatric facility” in response to a break-in. This is the same location A.I.M. has portal’d into, and our heroes fight all the yellow-suited A.I.M. guys.
Spider-Man attempts some funny banter with Ben during the fight, but just says all he wants to do is punch somebody. The mystery man that A.I.M. is rescuing makes a comment about “deliverance,” and Reed deduces that A.I.M. is rescuing the Wizard. During the fight, Reed mentions Bently, and the Wizard says, “You have something of mine.” The A.I.M. guys return the Wizard’s cybernetic helmet to him, and he uses it to teleport them out of there in a huge explosion.
Despite having lost the fight, everything’s jovial back at HQ later as most of the Future Foundation gathers for dinner. Alex Power gives a nondenominational and science-based blessing for the meal. Reed suggests terraforming the moon for the Inhumans, and for possible human expansion. Nathaniel says it’s a terrible idea. There’s a moment of tension as everyone feels this will become a fight, but Reed welcomes the differing opinion.
Later, Nathaniel and Valeria tell Reed they need to talk. We don’t see what Valeria reveals to Reed, but he’s upset by it, so much that he threatens to cut her out of the Future Foundation immediately. Nathaniel argues that what she did has to be done for things to work out in the future, but Reed says that Nathaniel’s future is only one of many possibilities. A hooded figure approaches, and Nathaniel says, “We’re going to need him.” Nathaniel says he trusts Reed’s leadership in this situation.
Turn the page and we see the hooded figure is Doctor Doom. Valeria says to him, “Welcome to the club.”
To be continued!
Unstable molecule: Reed gives Franklin advice on beating a video game, that Franklin has to look for pattern, because there are patterns programmed into everything. If you find them, Reed says, you can win. What could this be foreshadowing?
Fade out: It’s not said why Sue greets Spider-Man in the black version of the new uniform, except to show off how the uniform can transform. It’s a cool look for her, though.
Clobberin’ time: Ben’s wallowing in grief is a storyline that will continue into the next issue. He does crack one joke during the dinner scene, though, showing that the old Ben we all love is still in there.
Flame on: I’d really like to know when Johnny recorded this message. It has to be recent, but what in recent continuity might have inspired him to do it?
Fantastic fifth wheel: Welcome to the team, Spider-Man! After so many team-ups over the years, we can now list him as an official member. Although he’s technically joining the Future Foundation and not the Fantastic Four, there’s all that talk about him taking Johnny’s place, and he’s prominent alongside Reed, Sue, and Ben as their fourth.
Dr. Doom is considered an alternate member of the Fantastic Four, thanks to those rare occasions where and he and our heroes have worked together to fight a common foe. Now he’s coming to live with the team as a full-time member, which will be a little different, one assumes.
The Baxter Building computer A.I. has the face of H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot, except that H.E.R.B.I.E. isn’t included in this issue’s Marvel Wiki entry. Freakin’ H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot.
Four and a half: Franklin insists on keeping a seat empty for Johnny at dinner, making Spider-Man take another spot at the table.
Our gal Val: It seems harsh that Reed would threaten to cut Valeria out of the FF completely if she doesn’t stay in line, but extreme measures are probably likely when you consider how her genius puts her so far ahead of everyone.
Foundational: Artie Maddicks is shown helping prepare dinner, but he doesn’t sit at the dinner table with everyone. Instead, he stands behind Reed, peering over Reed’s shoulder the whole time. Does Artie not eat? The famously mute Artie is also developing some speech, saying words aloud when he hears others say them.
The Moloid Turg, the one who is a head in a floating jar, isn’t at the dinner table at first, but then he floats up for some food. His jar has a little opening at the mouth for him to eat. Is the jar not filled with liquid? How does Turg work?
Trivia time: The previous issue made it seem as though the Fantastic Four no longer know Spider-Man’s secret identity following the One More Day event. After the entire Marvel Universe forgot his identity, Spidey revealed it to the FF again in Amazing Spider-Man #591.
Similarly, the events of this issue were retold in Amazing Spider-Man #657, with them happening quite differently. In that version, we see Reed play the message for Johnny for the whole family, and Johnny has an additional message for Spidey. Upon rereading both these issues, the best explanation is that the Amazing issue takes place before FF #1. Amazing Spider-Man #658-660 follow up with Fantastic Four stories, emphasizing how Spidey fits in with the team. Maybe I’ll cover those on this blog. I don’t know.
Where is Spider-Man at in continuity at this point? He’s one busy spider. He’s joined the big brains at Horizon Labs for his science-y day job, he’s still a member of the New Avengers, and now he’s a member of (and living with?) the FF.
Fantastic or frightful? The issue does a good job setting up the status quo for this new team, but it also relies on the reader having read Fantastic Four up to this point to know who all the Future Foundation kids are. The Wizard plot and especially the Dr. Doom plot overshadow Spider-Man joining the team, despite Spidey’s big intro.
macmcentire 