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Episode 767 - HickMania VI: The FF Goes to Work
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HickMania continues on this week's show as we read issues 1-5 of Hickman's run on FF! We talk about Spider-Man replacing Johnny on the team, Doom coming on board, and some very bad Reeds. Plus, artist changes already!
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
This show is recorded using Zencaster. If you are a podcaster or you want to be a podcaster and you want to be able to record remotely, you can do so using Zencaster. They also have hosting options and you can let them know that we sent you. Follow the link in our show notes or in the episode description and sign up for an account on Zencaster now to start recording your own podcast.
00:00:28
Speaker
Slytus, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today?
00:00:39
Speaker
got War Rocket Ajax to bring back his body. Terminator X-E-O-X-O!
00:00:54
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to War Rocket Ajax. This is the internet's most explosive comic book and pop culture podcast. We are your hosts. My name is Chris Sims. With me as always is Matt Wilson.
00:01:05
Speaker
Matt, I do not have a question for you this time.
Matt's Theater Tech Work and Improvisation
00:01:09
Speaker
That's that's okay, Chris, because i this is not my check because we're not doing checks and recs this week because I've been too busy. We are recording this on Sunday instead of Thursday Because for four days straight, I was doing tech and performing.
00:01:30
Speaker
ah In one show I performed, but in many shows, I did theater tech for the Asheville Improv Festival here in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina, ah which went very well and was a hoot.
00:01:46
Speaker
um There was an improvised Tennessee Williams show where I had to like put in music drops throughout the performance. And you had to improvise that.
00:01:57
Speaker
And I had to improvise that. I was the quote-unquote technical improviser. That's what I always said about you, Matt. You are technically an improviser.
Hickmania Episode Announcement
00:02:08
Speaker
Anyway, that explains why we're going to do just a straight Hickmania episode this week.
00:02:17
Speaker
We're going to be reading the first five issues of Jonathan Hickman's FF, which is already undergoing art changes in the first five issues. We will talk about that as we get to it.
00:02:33
Speaker
ah But it is Hickmania 6, which, as as people know about WrestleMania 6, the big title change happened ah with the Ultimate Warrior.
00:02:43
Speaker
Title versus title, ah Warrior versus Hogan. And this was supposed to be like the end of Hulkamania, the big changeover. So fitting that we're doing the big changeover from Fantastic Four to FF. I like to imagine Jonathan Hickman grabbing a title belt, coming into the ring, looking up at at God, shaking his head no, then finally nodding and handing his title belt to Jonathan Hickman.
Patreon Supporters and Goals
00:03:14
Speaker
Yeah, yes. We'll get to that in a minute. One thing we are going to keep from our regular episodes, though, ah this week is thanking our newest supporters over on Patreon.
00:03:29
Speaker
That's right, Matt. Now, these are the people who even, peace and love, peace and love, we do not we simply do not have time. Even when that happens, peace and love, peace and love. we simply do not have time to do any of our bits.
00:03:42
Speaker
These are the people who still want to help support the show. They still want to help us keep doing what we do. They still want to head all the way down to 767 Gimmick Street.
00:03:54
Speaker
And they can do that by going to patreon.com slash warrocketajax.com and kicking in as little as a dollar a month to help us out, help us keep doing War Rocket Ajax, Comics Catch-Up, every story ever, all the fun stuff we have, help Talent Show become a reality, the ah the proposed side project, if we get 500 paid backers on Patreon, paid subscribers on Patreon, 500 of them, I will read every issue of the Jim Bell and Catwoman and explain it to Matt. That is impending.
00:04:26
Speaker
And you can help make that happen. You can help make that a reality. That will be called Talent Show. Talent Show. Yes. They can do that. And most importantly, because I'm on five months unemployed right now.
00:04:39
Speaker
Five months with no job. Not doing great, you boy, over here. So they can help me pay those gimmicks they keep sending in the mail called bills, because they do keep selling ah keep sending them.
00:04:54
Speaker
For sure. they sure do. They sure do. ah Before I read out the new names of Patreon supporters, I do want to say what is at 767 Gimmick
Gimmick Street Preservation Society Projects
00:05:07
Speaker
Street. That's right, Matt. Now, what these these are often named by members of the Gimmick Street Preservation Society, which you can you can join that tier on Patreon.
00:05:17
Speaker
and you get to help save Gimmick Street, you help to keep this bit going. That's right. ah This submission from a member of the Gimmick Street Preservation Society for 767 Gimmick Street is Captain Dathan Memorial Park, a public park in open space that includes a walking path with statues along it,
00:05:40
Speaker
depicting and commemorating the events known in the Temerian language and culture as Picard and Dathan at El Adrel, but perhaps perhaps better known to folks here as the Star Trek The Next Generation episode, Darmok.
00:05:54
Speaker
The time that Patrick Stewart and Paul Winfield got into a knife fight with a space monster and told each other stories around a campfire as part of learning an important lesson about communication. Gilgamesh.
00:06:04
Speaker
Yes. Ah, Gilgamesh. And Kiddu. you don't suck kevin Kevin says, I wanted to memorize memorialize on Gimmick Street my single favorite piece of Star Trek, an episode that gave us a lot of quotable lines and a truly exemplary retelling of the epic of Gilgamesh.
00:06:21
Speaker
And I also figured that Gimmick Street could stand have a little green space, breaking up its otherwise sprawling commercial corridor. well So there you go. You are, unfortunately, not too far from a dog park.
00:06:34
Speaker
That's right. We're getting more parks in recent weeks. But hey, I'm for it. I'm for green space in urban settings, especially in urban settings like Gimmick Street, that otherwise were, I believe, 300 internet cafes in a row.
00:06:50
Speaker
That's right, yeah. There were a lot of internet cafes just quite a few blocks back on Gimmick Street. But yes, the Captain Dathan Memorial Park is at what is at 767 Gimmick Street.
00:07:01
Speaker
Chris, here are our newest Patreon supporters. Grayson Stam. Grayson. Their arms wide. Ben Moore.
00:07:13
Speaker
Ben, When the Walls Fell. i If you could do one for all of these, I will be impressed. Osvaldo Soto. Osvaldo, On the Sea.
00:07:25
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Dane Black. Dane, Attenagra. Jacob Field. Jacob, Attenagra. Max Barker Cowan. Max.
00:07:39
Speaker
Thank you. Frederick Carl. Thank you, Frederick. And Nathan Sear. Thank you, Nathan. Or perhaps Sire. If you would like to be like those fine people and help us out here on the show, you can go to patreon.com slash warrocketajax. And as Chris said, kick in as little as $1 per month to make sure that we do this show every single week, that we do Comics Catch-Up, which will be The Mask this month.
00:08:08
Speaker
I think we'll be recording that pretty soon. Every story ever, monthly. And everything else we we do here at the Kaleidos Media properties.
Supporting the Podcast: How to Get Involved?
00:08:22
Speaker
At the $1 level, whatever if you ah if you contribute at any level to the Patreon, $1 and up, you get every single one of those shows I just mentioned completely ad-free.
00:08:34
Speaker
At the $5 level, you get bonus content that is... stuff like I cut out of the show and put on Patreon. That is stuff we record exclusively for Patreon, which will include a talent show, but talent show will be for everyone at every level of the Patreon channel.
00:08:52
Speaker
It won't be bonus content, but it will be Patreon exclusive. ah But there's lots of other bonus content that's not talent show that is for the $5 level patrons.
00:09:04
Speaker
for At the $10 level, you get line-stepping privileges for our segments, which currently include Every Story Ever and One to Ten of Swords. At the $15 level, you join the Gimmick Street Preservation Society and get to name a location on Gimmick Street, name and address.com.
00:09:18
Speaker
The $20 level, you get a t-shirt. We are getting the final designs of the 2026 t-shirt right now. Oh, it looks so good. It's so good. What beautiful piece of work it is.
00:09:32
Speaker
to give a sta i want to point out, by the way, I did not know we were going to do a Darmok bit.
00:09:39
Speaker
That's true. you could have been You would have been more prepared if you had. Yeah. We are currently at 447 paid Patreon backers.
00:09:51
Speaker
ah That might sound a little bit lower than last week or pretty close to last week. One thing that does happen on Patreon is when we so we go from the end of the month to the first of the month.
00:10:04
Speaker
Wake up, wake Yeah, wake up, wake up, wake up. ah We always lose a few. paid patrons because like people's credit cards expire and stuff like that. So the number is always going to go down right at the beginning of the month.
00:10:21
Speaker
So if you, if that happened to you and you got knocked off the paid, a paid tier, go re up that and get those numbers up. We are 53 paid patrons away from talent show. So as of this recording,
00:10:39
Speaker
So get on that. If you're unable to help us monetarily, we do understand why that may maybe be the way things are. You can help us out in other ways. You can leave us a five-star review on the podcasting app that you use, whichever one it is. um Good reviews help bring more people to the show. Or you can spread the word about the show, tell people you know of on social media and in person โ imagine Jolene is telling everyone. far as can tell, Jolene really getting the word out yes. Yeah.
Jonathan Hickman's FF Series Overview
00:11:13
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that talent show occurs
00:11:18
Speaker
um address jolene is telling everyone as far as i can tell jolene is is really getting the word out about this yes With that, Chris, no checks and recs, no comics reviews this week. Instead, we're going to delve straight into FF numbers one through five.
00:11:38
Speaker
He's Man! He's American Man! American Man! FF number one by Jonathan Hickman, Steve Epting, and Paul Mounts.
00:11:53
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has ah like big figures of Sue, Ben, Reed, and Spider-Man ah like in front of like a cityscape.
00:12:07
Speaker
And then in the foreground is a little tiny, i don't guess they would call it a fantastic car anymore. It's a car. Future car. ah But but ah a fantastic car-like vehicle ah with Valeria and Franklin in it. And they're very tiny. Its its full name, of course, is Fantastic Car Boltagon.
00:12:29
Speaker
And this looks painted. Is this painted? ah Yeah. Yeah. ah It's pretty cool. It's clearly Steve Epting art, but um if if it's not painted, it's colored in a way that looks like a painting. You know what's wild? pretty good Tell me.
00:12:49
Speaker
Until I went and looked at this cover to read it for this very recording. I forgot Spider-Man was in FF. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I yes i somehow completely forgot that like that's who replaces Johnny.
00:13:05
Speaker
And so I was delighted. ah ah Spider-Man's costume um is is a little different from the rest of the FF. It looks almost like anti-Venom.
00:13:21
Speaker
yeah ah But it is not addressed in this. it's ah Well, it it is vaguely addressed, and we will talk about it when we get there. Yeah, they all have their new ah white costumes with black ah trim.
00:13:32
Speaker
And I do think it's very funny that Reed, Sue, and Ben have their, like, boy, Jonathan Hickman loves hexagons.
00:13:45
Speaker
He really, really does. yeah That MF loves a hexagon. oh what's your Matt, what's your favorite shape? Man, what is my favorite shape?
00:14:00
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I mean, I do like a hexagon. hexagon's good. A hexagon's good. Do you have shape? I you like the six sides of steel.
00:14:11
Speaker
Do you have a favorite shape, Chris? Triangle, baby. Like, what kind of triangle? ah Equilateral, pointing up. Equilateral triangle pointing. Strongest shape. stronger shame Okay.
00:14:24
Speaker
Great. I mean, i enjoy the name rhombus. Rhombus is a great word.
00:14:34
Speaker
And a pretty good shape, too. Pretty good shape, yeah. yeah yeah but right I like that Reed, Sue, and Ben all have the three hexagons with a different one ah A different one is open, right? like So there's two filled black hexagons, and then one like black outline hexagon on each one, and they each have a different one.
00:14:57
Speaker
So Reed's is the one on top, Suze is the one on her right, our left, and then Ben's is the one on on his left, our right.
00:15:08
Speaker
And Spider-Man doesn't get one, Spider-Man gets a spider. yeah And it's like very much like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you're not in the family. You're not in the family. You can hang out with us, but you're not.
00:15:20
Speaker
You're not like... let's let's not be you Let's not be ridiculous. You're not in the family. Alright, so issue one of FF kicks off with some AIM scientists...
00:15:38
Speaker
trying to Trying to bring the magic back to AIM. Because as as ah Dr. Forsen, who we see, it's Dr. Forsen and Dr. Jima here at the start.
00:15:54
Speaker
And Dr. Jima has a pronounced stutter, ah as as shown in the word balloons. um But Dr. Forsen is like, AIM has lost its way. We have to start over. We have to find a new way. It's where it all begins. Yeah.
00:16:08
Speaker
ah yeah Again. We must begin again. ah And ah so they open a portal to somewhere, but we don't know where yet. Then we cut to the Baxter building. Reed is watching Johnny in hologram form give, like, kind of his will, I guess. Yeah, this this has to be how the FF...
00:16:31
Speaker
do their wills. Yeah. And Johnny says, replace me with Spider-Man. Because Franklin loves him, and he's the second best superhero.
00:16:42
Speaker
Yeah. Which is nice, because you you rarely... Like, we all know that... it's funny It's funny, because much like you and me, Matt, much like you and I, oh Peter is Johnny's best friend.
00:16:55
Speaker
But Johnny's not Peter's best friend. I don't know that that's true. Peter's best friend is canonically Flash.
00:17:05
Speaker
But they don't even see each other that much. They don't. Peter's best friend was Harry, and then Harry tried to murder him on several occasions. And did a drug, yeah. And did a drug.
00:17:16
Speaker
But they were still friends when he did drug. ah but But Peter's best friend is Flash, who used to beat him up in high school, which... yeah You know, there's a there's a lot there to unpack. But Peter is definitely Johnny's best friend, much in the same way that you're my best friend.
00:17:31
Speaker
but did I do. think That is not true, was first. Second, i I think... It's definitely true that you're my best friend, Matt. i It's not true that you're not my best friend. Best human friend. Yeah.
00:17:50
Speaker
The thing about it with Peter and Johnny is like they're always shown together, but like Peter has more canonical friends in comics. Yeah, john Johnny's got two friends.
00:18:02
Speaker
It's Peter and White Wing Flood. Right. Whereas Peter has, like you know ah in addition to Harry, Robbie's son, what's his what's his name? Yeah.
00:18:18
Speaker
Randy. Randy. Yeah, Randy Robertson. ah Who else? I mean, there are other, like I feel like, characters who come in to be like Peter's bud sometimes. mean, he's got Randy, he's got Harry, he's got Flash, he's got ah he's got Glory, and Betty. You would call them friends.
00:18:39
Speaker
Although, Betty's an ex. Well, did did they really date, though? Technically, they did, yeah. I guess. I guess they dated.
00:18:50
Speaker
Randy was his roommate for a while. Randy was his roommate for a while. Wasn't Boomerang his roommate for a while? Yes. Anyway, so Spider-Man shows up at the Baxter building.
00:19:03
Speaker
ah He gets greeted by Sue, who is wearing like a variant of the suit where it's ah black with white highlights. um which is cool. And and it it's demonstrated in just a second um what how it changes. It's it's her mourning costume.
00:19:24
Speaker
Yeah, that kind of is what it looks like. um But pete you know they greet each other, they exchange pleasantries, and then Sue gives Peter the status quo. like In case you have you didn't read the last few issues of Fantastic Four, we learned about the Future Foundation, the return of Nathaniel Richards, and Like, all these kids working together to try to ah accomplish big things.
00:19:49
Speaker
And how they're going to try to change the world. And also how now she is the the ruling regent of old Atlantis. Yeah, i I like this because, a it's catching you up on everything because it's ah it's a new number one and you've got to do that.
00:20:03
Speaker
yeah ah And B, a lot has happened since the last issue. what right Nathaniel is kind of like, he's here now, and he's like and and you know she's just like, yeah, man, he's been here about a month. ah He knows some shit's going to go go down in the future, so ah we're kind of dealing with that. There is...
00:20:25
Speaker
there there is It's not just like, here's everything that happened in ffl or in Fantastic Four. It's here's everything that has happened since the end of the last issue that has set up this new change. Which I like, because like a lot of that stuff is just kind of like... I don't want to see Nathaniel Richards like...
00:20:46
Speaker
getting settled. You know? You only to hear Sue go, yeah, Nathaniel Richards lives here now, and he's from the future. and And, yeah, you don't need to see that. that's That's the kind of thing that you can easily just, like, have a line of dialogue to say, this happened, and move on. yeah i mean i know I know for a fact, because I've talked to him about it, but Hickman is very much a Morrison guy. yeah And I feel like this is a thing that he takes from that, which is like, yeah, like,
00:21:16
Speaker
Nathaniel Richards getting you know unpacking his suitcases is boring. Let's do that between, not just between issues, between series.
Spider-Man's Role in the FF
00:21:25
Speaker
Yeah, you don't have to show the boring parts. You really don't. But we still need to know what happens so we get Spider-Man, who we love.
00:21:34
Speaker
And Ben, even though it has been a month, Ben is still basically in the same emotional place he was. when we left off last time.
00:21:44
Speaker
I mean, look, I've been in in the same emotional place for a couple of years now. so Yeah. he he's He blames himself. He's angry. He slams the door in Spider-Man's face. um Not because he's mad at Spider-Man, but because he's just like so upset with himself.
00:22:00
Speaker
Yeah. I do like... I really do like ah Spider-Man being the like the viewpoint character and also kind of the fish out of water in this run. ah Hickman, I think, you wouldn't think he would be a, like, at this time especially, you wouldn't think Hickman would be like, ah like really have a handle on Spider-Man as a character.
00:22:27
Speaker
Because, you know, Hickman is a guy who's really good at writing Reed Richards. Yeah. And yeah Spider-Man's like such a different guy. But Spider-Man's reaction to everything in these issues is very like solid and very... It makes Spidey relatable.
00:22:45
Speaker
Well, even even in the last issue of FF, or Fantastic Four, we have to stop calling it that. yeah Even in the last issue of Fantastic Four, you know there was that bit with Spidey and Franklin that was like a very short little story, but like really understood Spider-Man.
00:23:02
Speaker
Yeah. You've got a dead uncle. Yeah, d that's right. Name Ben.
00:23:09
Speaker
So Spider-Man gets his new costume. Sue says i she she made these new costumes because the old ones seemed wrong because they had a four on them.
00:23:23
Speaker
And she says it's also hexagons. Yeah. ah She also says, you know, these symbolize ah living in a black and white world.
00:23:37
Speaker
But if you don't like what the costume looks like, you could change it at any time. And we see this one little moment of Peter making the costume look like a Venom costume, look like the black Spider-Man costume, ah which is which is a great, like very subtle little moment. Yeah.
00:23:56
Speaker
I like that because if if you look closely, it's not just a Venom costume. It's a Venom... like it's It's the black suit mixed with the the ah Future Foundation suit because the spider has a hexagon head.
00:24:15
Speaker
It has a hexagon head, yeah. Which I love. I love that. Because initially I saw that and i was like, that's so weird that like that would be the first thing that they would... ah that you know he would change his costume to, or that Reed and Sue would program into it.
00:24:34
Speaker
But it's
00:24:38
Speaker
it's more of a like color inversion like what Sue has been wearing until she changes it to the white suit with black trim. So I like that a lot. And and the the spider on Peter's costume as it originally is,
00:24:54
Speaker
the two the The head and the abdomen of the spider are also hexagons. They're just not equilateral hexagons. Yeah, and they have the they have the arms coming off of them, so it's harder to to make out the shape.
00:25:07
Speaker
ah I like to think this is Sue going, by the way, if you need to do some killing... which ah like You could put on some killing clothes. put killing clothes in this. Yeah. You know, just in case you, know...
00:25:20
Speaker
can't have get to some Get up to some shit sometimes. They sure do. ah There's an alert ah from like a Herbie ah system alert system. I think this was this has appeared before.
00:25:33
Speaker
um And Spider-Man's like, what's that? And Sue goes, it's time to go to work. um Meanwhile, aim we learn what AIM is up to.
00:25:43
Speaker
um They are trying to ah break the wizard out of his prison. let but Let me tell you something, Matt. and This is a thing that we haven't really talked about.
00:25:57
Speaker
But it's been going on since like the first issue of the run. Yeah. Hickman's really trying to get the wizard over. He really is. like Not only is the wizard showing up multiple times, but Bentley23 is the clone of the wizard who is kind of like a very important...
00:26:14
Speaker
supporting character. Hickman's going all in on getting the wizard over. He's really trying. Yeah, he's really trying. He's he's he's pushing him to the moon. So the FF go and try to stop this from happening. They crash into the building. They're beating up aim agents.
00:26:33
Speaker
Ben is like, i I can't wait to fuck some guys up because that's all I want to do right now. ah But the aim guys get to the wizard. They give him his helmet back. The wizard is buck-ass naked.
00:26:48
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Which, do you think that is a choice on behalf of this prison facility because he's so dangerous? Or do you think that is a choice on the wizard's part because he's a nasty freak?
00:27:03
Speaker
I feel like we've seen him before in this place with clothes on. Well, he's naked now, and then he puts on that that helmet that's not not phallic. Yeah.
00:27:15
Speaker
That big purple head that he's got, and then he's just like naked with that on. Yes. ah the the In the pursuit of the wizard, AIM like completely destroys this prison facility, and they escape with him. They they they are gone. They're about to go advance some ideas.
00:27:37
Speaker
Yeah. um Sue puts them in a force field to prevent them from causing even more destruction. And then they they escape. They get out of there.
00:27:48
Speaker
um So the FF is just kind of left standing there like, well, they they took the wizard. And ah and then Reed goes, well, at least Dad's making pot roast. So they go back to the Baxter building and Nathaniel has in fact made pot roast.
00:28:05
Speaker
And they all sit around and eat dinner. And there's a conversation. Well, first, there's a prayer. Well, let me tell you something. Shout out Steve Epting, South Carolina's own.
00:28:18
Speaker
South Carolina's own Steve Epting, one of the greats. Yeah. That Dr. Seuss-ass-looking pot roast looks good as hell. I would eat i would eat that up.
00:28:29
Speaker
it is It is a good drawing of a pot roast. Also, um my favorite one of my favorite things happens, which is Spider-Man's mask lifts up over his mouth so he can eat.
00:28:42
Speaker
But he doesn't have to like actually pull it up because it's made of unstable molecules, so it just kind of lifts up on its own. Yeah. Yeah. One of my favorite things in comics is... They built that in. That's a preset.
00:28:56
Speaker
Yeah. One of my favorite things in comics is Spider-Man lifting up his mask so he can eat a donut or something. I love it, man. Yeah. Hey, Spider-Man's good. Spider-Man's great.
00:29:07
Speaker
ah So, ah there's a prayer. ah Alex Power does a prayer where he like thanks every possible deity.
00:29:19
Speaker
yeah Including the devil. Except if he doesn't thank Thor who he knows. Yeah, yeah. the You know, that happens that happens. I guess he's like, yeah, I know that, dude. He did not bring us this food.
00:29:37
Speaker
i that That's true. If you knew a god and you did not know that did not they knew that he was not directly... influencing the food you were about to eat. i guess you don't have to name them. I mean, I i guess i guess ah those ah that fucking cow didn't need any water.
00:29:55
Speaker
Didn't need any rain.
00:29:59
Speaker
From the god of storms.
Dr. Doom in FF Issue 2
00:30:01
Speaker
Does Thor cause all rain? um Well, Matt, I mean, that's complicated. Yeah. ah So Reed starts talking about, we don't know what to do about the Inhumans. We might need to terraform the moon.
00:30:13
Speaker
And Everybody responds like, yeah, let's do that. But Nathaniel goes, no, that's that's a terrible idea. And he's like, does everybody around here just agree with everything Reed says?
00:30:28
Speaker
And Reed goes, hey, Dad, I'm glad you're here. ah So this is going to be the dynamic between Nathaniel and contradicts you in front of your family Yeah. Yeah. Right. Reed Richards does.
00:30:46
Speaker
He sure does. ah then, ah we learned that, uh, Franklin is bad at video games and i mean, he's not as he's not bad at video games, Matt. He just gets one game over.
00:31:01
Speaker
Maybe that video game is a little too fucking hard. Yeah. Yeah. And, and maybe he's been trying to walk down that street for two hours. And Reed goes, you just got to find the pattern, son. And then as soon as he says that, Nathaniel and Valeria come in and they're like, hey, we got to talk to you about something.
00:31:21
Speaker
I like how Franklin Richards' parents are both geniuses. Because like Sue is also, like but like by normal person standards, Sue is also a genius. like Sue is brilliant.
00:31:34
Speaker
yeah And a queen. And Valeria is also so like a super genius. And Franklin's just like normal, but also the most powerful like the most powerful special boy in the world.
00:31:47
Speaker
yeah Yeah. ah So what Reed and Valeria reveal is that they have brought Dr. Doom here.
00:31:59
Speaker
And he's going to join. He's going to join the
00:32:04
Speaker
That's the big reveal of the end of the issue. Then we get, as as we knew we would, an infographic at the end. Hell yeah.
00:32:16
Speaker
Where it's all the characters in silhouette in different shades of blue with numbers and and then who they are. Now you might think, are those numbers in hexagons? No.
00:32:29
Speaker
They're in certain circles. Yeah.
00:32:33
Speaker
rare non-use of hexagon in ah in a Jonathan Hickman infographic. I also like how the Sue silhouette is translucent. That's fun. FF number two um has Doctor Doom on the cover in front of like a fire, like some kind of industrial looking stuff on fire and some hexagons behind him.
00:32:58
Speaker
um And it's cool. It's a cool cool cover. ah This is Jonathan Hickman, Steve Epting again. ah Rick Magyar is doing inks and colors by Paul Meltz.
00:33:11
Speaker
um This one starts with i everybody else. I think this is a Daniel Acuna cover. It might be. it It does look like that. Yeah. um
00:33:24
Speaker
It is ah yeah on the credits page. It does say Daniel danielcuna Acuna. It did the cover. Daniel Acuna, Marco Gerjevic, and Greg Horn. Well, it certainly isn't the Greg Horn variant. Those were variants, yeah. yeah um Okay, so this starts with all the rest of the FF getting the news about Doom being here, and Ben is pissed.
00:33:45
Speaker
Why? Yeah, well, but why would you think that is? And ah there's one point, like, and Doom is just needling the shit out of Ben.
00:33:56
Speaker
Dude, this scene is great. where ah where Ben is like, hey, fuck this. fuck Fuck Dr. Doom. I'm not going to let this happen.
00:34:09
Speaker
I'm going to beat his ass. And Doom goes, is it true what I've heard, Benjamin? That when Johnny Storm died, valiantly facing an endless army, is it true that you, surrounded by crying children, weeping at the inevitable death of your close friend and comrade, is it true is it true that you just watched...
00:34:27
Speaker
How very brave. Yeah. That's fucking brutal. That's like, okay. that is That's like Ian McKellen as Magneto in X2.
00:34:40
Speaker
Yeah. like It doesn't quite read to me as like a Doctor Doom-y sort of way to get at somebody, but it is great. i I think it it's very Doctor Yeah.
00:34:54
Speaker
Because it's it's simultaneously like kind of true. Oh, it's it's not kind of true. It is true. But but also, like you know like no he wasn't just watching. He was like pounding on a force field and everything. but Yeah, yeah, yeah. he But also, there's subtle implication that, like, oh, is that what you did? Because I would have figured it out.
00:35:15
Speaker
Yeah, like I would have got in there. R.I.P. to you, but I'm different. Yes, but it's... it's it's passive I don't know passive-aggressive is the right way to put it. it's it's i mean I guess because this is brain damage, Doctor Doom, it kind of reads a little different. It's not as overt- And aggressive as I think of Doctor Doom as usually being, but it is great. I think what's important here is Doctor Doom's fucking asshole. Yeah, so Ben throws a chair at him, and Doom destroys that.
00:35:52
Speaker
By God. By God. And then finally, like Sue has to put them both both inside force fields to get them to stop fighting. And she says, not ah not in the house. That's really good.
00:36:05
Speaker
Yeah. I also like how Sue rocks up to Dr. Doom and she's like, oh, you got brain damage? You want a little more? Yes. You want me to put some fucking bubbles in there? Sue hasn't learned up until now that Doom is joining either. And so Ben tells her that and she's like, the fuck?
00:36:25
Speaker
Like, okay, if my daughter says this is what needs to happen, i guess it's what ne what needs to happen. Reed, you better know what the fuck you're doing. Yeah, I like where Reed's like, hey, Sue, can you like talk to them and make them understand that we've got to do this? And Sue's like, no! like we're gonna there's There's a problem there, Reed! Because I also think this is bad!
00:36:48
Speaker
I also don't want this to happen, yeah. um And finally, she just kind of says, like watch your step, Doom, or I'll put some bubbles in your head. and And then Spider-Man's like, ah guess someone is sleeping on the couch tonight.
00:37:04
Speaker
Everybody looks back at him. Yeah, and everybody's like, why is this jackass making jokes?
00:37:12
Speaker
So they bring Doom into the room, which is like a circular room with a chair in the middle and like seating around it.
00:37:23
Speaker
you And they sit there and try to figure out what's wrong with Doom's brain. And Spider-Man correctly asked the question, like well, is it physical damage? or is it like Basically, is it a hardware or software issue?
00:37:39
Speaker
Yeah, and everybody's really surprised. And i love I love this. I love that. i I always love it when there is like a reminder that Peter Parker is incredibly smart.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's just that he doesn't have any money and he doesn't have any time. Right. and And so he has to work as a photographer, but he's like, in recent years, he's had more, like, science-y jobs. but Yeah, like because, you know, there was the the the Parker industry stuff, which was I thought was really good.
00:38:12
Speaker
yeah oh But, like, it's always fun when, like, Peter's hanging out with, like, Reed Richards and Tony Stark and Bruce Banner and Hank Pym.
00:38:23
Speaker
and he and you know And they like they forget. They forget that he's also a genius. He can hang with all of them. yeah yeah ah yeah Even more recently, there was the stuff where he worked for Oscorp. right Weirdly enough, I feel like the the ah thing that people are going to take away from us reading all of ah the Jonathan Hickman Marvel Universe stuff is that we fucking love Spider-Man.
00:38:48
Speaker
Yeah. ah ah Did you know that? Did you know that we love Spider-Man? Yeah. So what they determined is that it is it is in fact a software issue. There's no physical damage to Doom's brain. And apparently this happened not in the Miller run, but in like a miniseries, the the Doom brain damage thing.
00:39:08
Speaker
ah I think it was a... ah people will let us know what the miniseries was where the Doom brain damage thing happened, but I wanted to note that it was not in the Miller run where that happened.
00:39:20
Speaker
It was in ah a a different series. You know, if Roy Thomas was still around, we'd have a footnote telling us. That's true.
00:39:30
Speaker
That's true. Anyway, um what they need is a backup of Doom's brain to restore... his His intelligence and brain operations. yeah They need a backup.
00:39:47
Speaker
And who's a backup? Matt, they need a backup. They need a backup. They need a backup, Matt. They do. This is what Valeria is doing to Doom.
00:39:59
Speaker
She's like, yeah, we we need a backup. And Doom's like, yeah, yeah, I heard you. And she's like, Doom, we need a backup? And she to say it like four times before he's like, oh shit, I did back up my brain.
00:40:10
Speaker
Yeah, Kristoff. There's a backup of christ of Doom in Kristoff. And so they're going to go download Doom's brain from Kristoff, who is back in... Doomstadt.
00:40:24
Speaker
In Doomstadt in Latveria, yes. Meanwhile, um Ben and Sue are at a bar ah with Dragon Man. And they're talking about how they want to kick Doom's ass, and Dragon Man's like, I don't believe in violence.
00:40:39
Speaker
He says to Ben Grimm, he says, no one's ever changed the world by hitting someone, Mr. Grimm. and And Ben like slams his beer down and goes, I need another drink. But what he should say is, motherfucker, yes, they have, actually.
00:40:55
Speaker
Me. me I've done it. I've done it Yeah.
00:41:02
Speaker
but ah We live in a world where that happens on the reg, my guy. reg, yeah. ah So Ben and Sue were kind of like, okay, we got to figure out what we're doing in this group because things are happening kind of around us instead of...
00:41:19
Speaker
us making them happen. So they go back to Latveria, they find Kristoff on the throne. We get a little bit of backup ah or a background about Kristoff, how he's adopted and all of that. Which I like because it involves like very subtly But like particularly if you look at the ah panel of Christoph's ah parents getting killed, um it's Steve Epting doing John Byrne, which is pretty fun.
00:41:51
Speaker
Yeah. Like, very subtly, and only for like a couple panels, but it's there. So, they set up a machine to download the backup into Doom's brain,
00:42:06
Speaker
And then there's also a thing where it's like Kristoff is like, oh good, you can take over Latveria again. And Doom's like, no, I can't do that. I made a promise. The machine to ah download the backup and did back into Doom's brain, um just having like a touchscreen with two buttons on it is unbelievably funny to me.
00:42:28
Speaker
Hey, man, if you are a super genius like Victor Von Doom or Reed Richards, you know that the user interface is an important part of the machine.
00:42:42
Speaker
ah It's got to be very clear what you're doing. Yeah, so there's one button that says transfer, and there's one button that says purge, and that's it. Hilarious. i love it. There's no cancel.
00:42:57
Speaker
No, no. um And, of course, Reed hits the transfer button and the machine explodes. But it works anyway.
00:43:09
Speaker
ah it It works, and Doom gets redoomed. And, again, he tells Kristoff, like, no, I can't become king of Latveria again because I've got to do this thing to help.
00:43:23
Speaker
I made a promise to Valeria to help her. And... He says, let's get on with it, shall we? And that is the end of issue two. Doom's brain is restored. it's um It's kind of interesting to me how much of this Hickman stuff so far is just cleanup.
00:43:45
Speaker
Like, there's a lot of new story going on here, too, but like... There is so much of like, okay, here's what other writers did in past runs or past miniseries and stuff, and I need things to be here, so I gotta restore to Doom's brain. I gotta do all this stuff with New World. I gotta you know this this and this i got to get Franklin's powers back. like You know what I'm saying? like There's a lot of that in these issues we've done so far.
00:44:18
Speaker
yeah I think it's a a testament Yeah, yeah. run though and to to hickman and epting that like this is an issue where they talk to dr doom about what's going on and then they go and and you know put dr doom into a machine that fixes his brain and it's not boring like it's not yeah like it doesn't feel like filler it feels like really well done like forward momentum of like oh shit dooms back
00:44:46
Speaker
um But you know interestingly, like that doesn't happen off-panel. Because like so often in comics, it's like, you know Doom will get his brain messed up, but the next writer doesn't want that. And so they'll just like say off that something happened off-panel to get his brain back. Zorn. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
00:45:11
Speaker
FF number three has reed in the foreground being pulled from below by a bunch of the other reeds from the Council of Reeds.
00:45:26
Speaker
And they're all kind of like shaded in blue darkness below him. ah Pretty cool looking cover. This is another Daniel Acuna cover.
00:45:37
Speaker
ah The interior art is once again by Steve Epting with three credited anchors, Rick Magyar, Butch Geis, and Steve Epting. And then colors by Paul Mounts once again.
00:45:51
Speaker
This one starts with um Ben and ah the Moloids. It's actually several different groups leaving the Baxter building ah to go to different places.
00:46:06
Speaker
ah And they're goingnna theyre what we don't quite know yet is ah they're going to try to deal with these other what these other reads have been up to.
00:46:19
Speaker
ah But again, that hasn't quite been explained yet. And so Ben is leading one group and then we can't really see who's in the other groups yet in the first little panel.
00:46:31
Speaker
um But Doom leads over to Reed and goes, soon they will return Richards and with them surely bring your Doom.
FF Issues 3 to 5: Key Themes
00:46:41
Speaker
Weird when Doom uses his own name. It's like you gotta think that Reed's gonna like roll his eyes and be like, I thought we fucking fixed your brain, dude.
00:46:51
Speaker
It's really, really. So ah they go to the vessel of the world builder and find the high evolutionary and ah essentially inform him of what's been going on in the city.
00:47:09
Speaker
Why does the high evolutionary have a fucking handle on his head, man? Beats me. Who designed the high evolutionary? Kirby, I think. I mean, surely Kirby had a good reason.
00:47:21
Speaker
To put a handle on his head. I guess. He's got a full fucking handle on his head, man. Yeah. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. First appearance in Mighty Thor number 133.
00:47:34
Speaker
Or 134. ah so i don't i don't I don't... I mean, we've talked about this. don't like him. You don't like the High Evolutionary? i don't like him. He sure does have a handle on his head.
00:47:47
Speaker
He's got a full handle on there. and That's like pretty much Kirby design. ah that's That's nothing Steve Epting did.
00:47:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:48:01
Speaker
He's ergonomic, dude. Yes. ah Dragon Man and Alex Power go to visit Diablo and give him some information.
00:48:14
Speaker
this sort This is a real, like, you're invited as a courtesy. Yes. ah Spider-Man goes to find the Mad Thinker and gives him the invitation. At first, the Mad Thinker's like, I don't want to do it.
00:48:29
Speaker
And ah Spider-Man's like, oh, good, don't come. Because yeah you smell bad and your breath smells. I don't like this because they very clearly made Spider-Man do this because it's the most annoying thing.
00:48:43
Speaker
Yeah. Like, somebody's got to go talk to the fucking Mad Thinker, and he's going to be like a real weirdo about it. ah Peter, that's you. That's you, bud. That's you. um Also, um Awesome Andy is here, or multiple Awesome Andys.
00:49:00
Speaker
Yeah. Well, Awesome Andy's the specific Awesome Androids. These are Awesome Androids. These are other Awesome Androids, yeah. I just i always think of Awesome Andy when I see Mad Thinker's Androids. We do love Awesome Andy.
00:49:12
Speaker
We love him, yeah. Where's Awesome Andy at these days? I don't know. Good question. ah Meanwhile, the wizard, now in his clothes, is on some secret base.
00:49:25
Speaker
But Sue and ah Bentley have found him. And they present him with the same invitation everybody else has gotten for a symposium about conquering...
00:49:39
Speaker
The Mount Fantastic, How to Finally Defeat Reed Richards. I like that they fucking gave it a name. They gave it like a TED Talk name. They That's so funny.
00:49:52
Speaker
And it's at Reed's house. Yeah. And then at the bottom of it says Q&A to follow. Hosted by Victor Von Doom. Yeah. ah And the the the wizard's like, well, I can't pass this up.
00:50:07
Speaker
So two days later, the symposium begins, and ah the Watcher also shows up for this, despite not getting an invitation. Well, not to participate.
00:50:21
Speaker
Yes, yes, yes. And his appearance makes Reed go, what the fuck is going on? Valeria... Yeah.
00:50:32
Speaker
So Valeria explains that she opened the bridge, she found the Council of Reeds, and then they got attacked by Eternals.
00:50:45
Speaker
and so Or no, Celestials. ah Not Eternals. that would have been boring.
00:50:52
Speaker
They get attacked by Celestials who... um and And so they have to leave. They have to like run out of there, and they come through the bridge, and now they're on our Earth. And these reeds are all assholes.
00:51:08
Speaker
So they're like, oh, we're going to go build a machine that's going to fuck up your planet, but get us back to where we're supposed to go.
00:51:18
Speaker
And, oh, also tell your dad he can come join us still. Yeah, we're going to go like fix all this shit that ah your your dad hasn't been dealing with, then we're going to go home. But we're not actually going to fix it. We're going to fuck it up. We're probably going to just fuck everything up.
00:51:33
Speaker
Yeah. So one of the reads goes to the peak at Old Atlantis. He makes a deal with some of the old Atlanteans to... like give them a leg up over the others.
00:51:50
Speaker
And so they're like, okay, yeah. And he goes, all you have to do is help me just like drop the peak ah under the water. And i got you.
00:52:02
Speaker
Cause the Uhari, you're planning against you. So let me help you get the upper hand on them. Like he, you know, he uses their like inter-
00:52:14
Speaker
tribal conflict to get them to help him. Uh, another read goes to the forever city and, ah essentially makes the same sort of deal with the mole man to, to say like, I'll get you your kingdom back if you help me.
00:52:35
Speaker
And then, ah the last read goes to the blue area of the moon and finds the universal inhumans and tries to make a deal with them. But they do not buy it. They destroy his chair because he's like the Professor X style Reed.
00:52:55
Speaker
And they're like, no, we know you're fucking with us. So he doesn't get through way they Put the fucking Badoon on him. Yeah. ah the The fourth and final Reed goes to find the anti-priest.
00:53:11
Speaker
And gets an audience with Annihilus. And he goes, ah i need a portal home, but to do that I'm going to open a portal to the Negative Zone.
00:53:23
Speaker
What would it take for you to help me to do that? And Annihilus is like, just leave to sleeve the portal open. Just let us come through. Leave the portal open so I can come and do an annihilation on them, guys.
00:53:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:37
Speaker
I like how this is like the young Annihilus too. This is like the boy Annihilus. This is the boy Annihilus, yeah. The boy. ah So the three remaining reeds, all the all the the three who didn't go see the Inhumans, come back and they go, all right, we got to build this thing.
00:53:56
Speaker
Damn, what happened to Baldi? What happened to Baldy? We don't know. ah But we still got to build this machine to get us back home. So we got to start a war to do that.
00:54:07
Speaker
And that's the end of the issue.
00:54:11
Speaker
FF number four is another Daniel Acuna cover of ah the thing holding up a crushed car. And the license plate says Acuna 2011, which I think is delightful. Yes.
00:54:27
Speaker
ah it's a lot of That's a lot of letters for a license plate. It is. ah Now, I will say, this is not a Steve Efting issue. I do love ah ah Steve Efting. I think Steve Efting's doing a great job.
00:54:40
Speaker
It's not great that we got three Steve Efting issues before โ well, we got two Steve Efting issues before we needed โ like other artists involved. ah But now we've got like a full fill-in issue.
00:54:53
Speaker
but it will it's Well, fill-in issues, I guess. Yeah, the next the next two are Barry Kitson-drawn issues. Yeah, but if you're going to get fill-in artist, I mean, you could do a lot worse than Barry Kitson. Oh, yeah.
00:55:07
Speaker
like if you're going to you know If you're going to have Steve Epting draw the first couple, get someone who's as good as Steve Epting to to fill in. It ain't like fucking Igor Gordy showing up on New X-Men, you know? Yeah, it's it's similar in style. I would say Kitson and Epting are... They're not exactly the same, but like one definitely transitions to the other pretty easy. Yeah, and I mean and and also like i do also feel like the exact midpoint between...
00:55:35
Speaker
ah Steve Efting and Barry Kitson is Butch Geis. Yeah. who Who did the last issue. Well, he did the the inking. Yeah. ah Yeah. it's yeah um So it's Ben in the foreground with the car and then Spider-Man, Reed, Sue, and Doom behind him and an explosion.
00:55:57
Speaker
ah behind them. cool these I like these Daniel Acuna covers a whole lot. Oh yeah, they're really good. I i like Acuna a lot. I think Acuna gets the ah the you know kind of Adam Hughes-y pin-up guy ah reputation a lot because you know of those Phantom Lady covers.
00:56:16
Speaker
ah and yeah ah Which were were good. ah But like I think Acuna is really solid. I love the way he draws the thing. So yeah, as we said, Barry Kitson is on the art on this one. um Colors still by Paul Mounts.
00:56:34
Speaker
And we start this one off inside the Baxter building where there's a discussion between Spider-Man and Sue about cutting the crusts off of sandwiches.
00:56:49
Speaker
And Spider-Man's like, are cutting off all those crusts? And Sue's like, well, there's a lot of kids here, Peter. Like... Like, they they don't want the crust, except for Valeria, who's like, there's no actual difference between the crust and the bread.
00:57:04
Speaker
And then she says Spider-Man, like, what do you want on your sandwich? And she goes, do you want mayonnaise? He goes, gross. A man after my heart. And then she goes, well, okay, crust or no crust? He says, no crust.
00:57:17
Speaker
My favorite part of this entire sequence is that the literal first line of the comic is... Peter Parker, the spectacular Spider-Man, saying, you guys sure love your sandwiches.
00:57:31
Speaker
A man who also loves sandwiches. A man who does also love sandwiches. but like i like this because clearly like you know this is the ninth sandwich Sue has made. Because there's a lot of kids. yes And Peter's just going, you motherfuckers love sandwiches.
00:57:48
Speaker
Oh, look at me, I can afford bread. The only thing about it is like... Sue should absolutely not have to do this work. No.
00:57:59
Speaker
Like, ah look, maybe she wants to, and that's fine. But, like, Sue should 100% not have to be the person making sandwiches.
00:58:12
Speaker
I don't know who should, but, you know, Sue's got more important things to do. Yeah, you think. But also, like, you know, Sue is... i do think that... ah oh Hickman does a really good job of characterizing Sue as like this badass superhero who's also a brilliant scientist who's also a mom.
00:58:33
Speaker
Yeah. yeah ah Recording this on Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day, everybody. Happy Mother's Day to Sue Storm. Yeah. ah the the the Then, Peter's like... Do you remember there's that one... um it's like an early It's like an early issue of FF where like Stan and Jack...
00:58:51
Speaker
Fantastic Four. Yes, of Fantastic Four, sorry. Where Stan and Jack do... like they They have the FF answering mail. It's like a comic where they're answering mail in character. And so somebody's like, you know, Sue's fucking useless. Why is she even on the team?
00:59:09
Speaker
And like, Reed. And Reed's like, hey, Sue's great, because she's a mom. And you know who else loved his mom? That's right, Abraham Lincoln.
00:59:21
Speaker
And it's like so weird, because it's not like Sue's a valuable member of the team because she has cool powers and is is smart and is a good character. It's like, she's a mom, and we love moms.
00:59:34
Speaker
And then much later, oh it was ah Jeff Parker, and I forget who the artist was, but it's in the Marvel Adventures Spider-Man. He does that same bit, but it's about Reed.
00:59:48
Speaker
Somebody writes in and goes like, hey, Sue's got force fields and Ben's super strong and Johnny can set on fire, but all Reed can do a stretch and he sucks. And everybody's like, hey, Reed's a dad. You knew who else had a dad? Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln. That's right. It's very funny.
01:00:07
Speaker
I think Jeff Parker wrote the miniseries where... Doom's brain got damaged, by the way. ah But I may be mistaken about that. ah People will let us know.
01:00:19
Speaker
So, that Sue and Peter then have a conversation about like how there are all these villains in their house, and whether Sue is worried about
Dynamics within the FF Team
01:00:29
Speaker
that. And Sue's like, I've kicked all their asses so many times.
01:00:33
Speaker
Yeah. Peter's like, hey, aren't you worried? And Sue's like, I beat those motherfuckers. Yeah! Yeah. Which is, I think, another, like, it's something that could very honestly come off as cheesy. And it does a little bit when she's like, should I be afraid of them?
01:00:49
Speaker
Or should they be afraid of me? Like, that's a little bit cheesy, but it's also like a really good thing of like, yeah, Sue's here making sandwiches being like, i don't sweat fucking Diablo, dude. Yeah.
01:00:59
Speaker
Yeah. So now Reed, our Reed, is fully aware of what's going on. And he's like, oh no. like these guys These guys are me without the governor on.
01:01:15
Speaker
like These guys are me without a family and like the moral principles that I have. Yeah, like because Diablo is...
01:01:28
Speaker
Diablo's first suggestion and and then Mad Thinker's thing and and Wizard's thing is like, well, obviously, if we get to defeat Reed Richards, we got to find his weakness. We got to target his family and find what he cares about. And they're like, yeah, just fucking kill his family. well yeah yeah And Reed's going to be like, no, you guys don't understand.
01:01:45
Speaker
This is a Reed who doesn't have the Fantastic Four. He doesn't have family. That's the weakness you always target. Yeah. Right. And Reed tells Valeria, you should have told me about this.
01:02:00
Speaker
And Valeria goes, that's what they would have expected me to do. So I had to do something else. And Doom is like, yeah, she did what she should have. I i think the like the key thing about Hickman writing Doctor Doom, and maybe the reason that... like that it seems a little bit off to you, is that he's very much like Iago in this. yeah he's He's doing like a little bit of Wormtongue in it. Yeah, he is. in and And you don't really think of Doom as ever being behind the scenes. Yeah, because when Valeria's like, I figured that you know they expect me to do that, so i do the other thing. Doom's like, yes, the better thing.
01:02:47
Speaker
And it's very much like, he's he's doing like a little, it's not subtle manipulation, but but it is like I feel like it's Doom doing what he can whilst playing along.
01:03:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's not as overt as I think of Doom as typically being. Yeah, but it also, it's it's subtle for a guy whose name is dr Doom. Yes. ah But I do like it. yeah i don't want to actually i say that I'm complaining about it, because I do like it. it just It doesn't feel like typical Doom characterization to me, but it that's not a problem. It's just a little bit different. Me referencing ah Iago, not the bird, but from Othello, ah is, I think, the equivalent of Spider-Man reminding everybody that he also knows about science. Yeah.
01:03:38
Speaker
ah So, yeah. So finally, Reed is like, no, no, no. You cannot go after these guys the way you normally go after me. Because that is not going to work.
01:03:49
Speaker
I also like how he does not disabuse them of the notion that his family is his weakness. Yeah. Because they're absolutely not. and Like, like you know, your family might be your weakness if your family isn't, like, the thing. You know? Well, I mean, the...
01:04:08
Speaker
Obviously, like the takeaway from this story is going to be that the family is the strength, not the weakness. Yeah, exactly. ah But yeah. um So ah Ben is like standing outside of the door ah of of this of the room.
01:04:26
Speaker
ah And ah i this is Bentley, right? Shooting him with a little suction cup dart thing, right? Yeah, that's Bentley who loves the devil.
01:04:36
Speaker
Yeah. ah And he's like, ah what what's going on in there? Why are you out here? And he's like, it's too quiet in there, kid. I got to make sure I got to be here before the bad thing happens.
01:04:51
Speaker
And ah and Bentley's like, well, do you have a will? Do you have your affairs in order? Because something bad is going to happen. ah And he's like,
01:05:04
Speaker
do you even like fit here anymore? Essentially to Ben. And Ben is like, I don't know. Maybe I don't. Well, first Ben's like, what the fuck is wrong with you, dude? Yeah. He's like, maybe I don't. I'm taking a couple of days off and he walks away.
01:05:19
Speaker
Uh, and then, uh, Franklin and, uh, punch and, uh, what's the other one's name? Punch.
01:05:30
Speaker
It's not Punch. It's Arty and Leech. Arty and Leech, yeah. Arty and Leech. Punch. I'm so bad with everybody's name. and all too but There's a lot of characters in this. There are a lot. of i don't I don't know the names of the like Atlantean kids or the Moloids.
01:05:47
Speaker
ah Yeah, Arty and Leech. ah They get Bentley with some of these suction cup darts. And... And they're like, where's Uncle Ben going?
01:05:57
Speaker
um And then, like, earlier in the scene with Spider-Man and Sue, an alarm started going off. Or ah an E, like a yeah like ah a droning sound started happening that's symbolized just by E's, repeated E's.
01:06:13
Speaker
um That starts at the end of this. and Then we see Dragon Man and Alex Power. And they're working on some stuff with, like, a big ah aquarium.
01:06:24
Speaker
And... They start hearing it too. um They start running to the source of the sound, which is this big spiral shell in Sue's bedroom, ah which is essentially an alert from old Atlantis.
01:06:42
Speaker
ah So Sue's like, oh, I got to go. I got to go do my job. so ah And she tells Spider-Man and Alex to come with her. And for Dragon Man to hold it down here at home.
01:06:57
Speaker
you And you know he does. You know Dragon man dragon Man's holding it down. Yeah. ah Meanwhile, back in the room, Reed is again talking about how dangerous these other reeds are. And both Diablo and Doom are like, and maybe I like these guys.
01:07:13
Speaker
Yeah, maybe I like these guys. And then Dr. Doom's like, yeah, maybe I like these guys. And he's like, yeah, Victor, and he took like every single universe they're from, they just immediately lobotomize you.
01:07:28
Speaker
yeah So maybe you don't like them that much, actually. So a they beat you. And b they i fixed your brain. And they did the opposite of that.
01:07:40
Speaker
Yeah. So Nathaniel chimes in, finally. And he says, so what are they going to do? like Now that they're here, what are they going to do?
01:07:53
Speaker
like What would you have done in this situation, Reed? And Reed goes, oh, I know what they're doing. They're building a machine. and like I fucking love machines. I'm like Donatello.
01:08:05
Speaker
And Valeria's like, I already know what machine they're building. It's called Saul's Anvil, and they're going to ah they're going to like use the thermal vent under Atlantis to power it.
01:08:19
Speaker
So just as Sue and Alex and Spider-Man arrive in Old Atlantis, the peak starts crumbling into the ground because that one Reed has made a deal with these Old Atlanteans.
01:08:35
Speaker
And um also, um another Reed is here with Mole Man. And they're like, yeah, bring down the city. So um that happens. like This whole thing just goes collapsing into the ice.
01:08:52
Speaker
i do like that we get like eight ah this is going back home pages but I do like that we get a full half-splash silent panel of just Doom-looking sour as hell after Reed's like, yeah yeah, they beat your ass all the time.
01:09:06
Speaker
Yeah. it's it It's unusual for Doom's mask to have an expression, ah but this one does. He's kind of always frowning, but he's really frowning now. Like, his mouth is closed.
01:09:25
Speaker
Do you see that? Yeah. His little mouth that's always open and just goes, clank. Yeah. ah But yeah, uh... Sue sees one of these other Reeds, and she's like, what are you doing? ah Because she doesn't know yet.
01:09:42
Speaker
she Oh, hey, Reed, what the fuck? I thought you were in that meeting. Yeah. Because she doesn't know about Valeria and the bridge. Yeah. She doesn't know about the bridge at all. Because remember, because remember she thought he took the bridge apart.
01:09:57
Speaker
She told Reed to deconstruct the bridge, which he did, and then put back together. Yeah. so So he could technically do what his wife asks. Fellas, that's the way you got to do it. No, don't.
01:10:14
Speaker
No, don't. Just do what your wife asks. Especially if she asks you to do something that will not endanger the world. Correct. FF number five has a cover by Mark Bagley.
01:10:29
Speaker
oh what is it we did do Did we talk about the big fight? with Oh yeah, we did. we did but i mean it's There's a big fight, but the the end result of Fantastic Four shows up or fantastic tenable one Fuck. yes ah Yes. that that Because the Mole Man helps bring down ah the city in Old Atlantis. I also like how Sue and Spidey are using the white on black variants of their costumes, which I assume is to match Alex Power's costume.
01:10:58
Speaker
Right, which Alex Powers is like, it's like it's got bits on it. Yeah, it's it's his it's it's ah an update of his Power Pack costume. Right.
01:11:08
Speaker
um But you remember how um the bits got collected? um They're on Alex Powers' costume. matt if Matt, you don't got to ask me if I remember about the bits. But... FF number five, the cover, again, Mark Bagley... um Spider-Man, Ben, Sue, and Reed are like laid out on the cover.
01:11:32
Speaker
And in Shadow um is is Black Bolt. But like he's not really in this. Not until the very end.
01:11:44
Speaker
two Two things about this cover. No offense to Mark Bagley.
01:11:49
Speaker
like we We both like Mark Bagley just fine. Sure. he's He's drawn a lot of comics that we've read, a lot of comics that we've loved, had a long and and great career. it is like giving him He's not a cover artist if he's not also the interior artist, you know?
01:12:11
Speaker
Yeah, I usually think of Bagley as the kind of guy you get when you need something done quickly, which makes me think this cover was a rush job for some reason. it certainly seems like but it just doesn't match up with Daniel Acuna and Steve Epting and these like painted covers we've had to just have a a Mark Bagley cover. Mark Bagley's perfectly fine at covers, but like I feel like you never want to see a Mark Bagley cover if it's not a Mark Bagley book.
01:12:40
Speaker
Because then it just feels out of place. And, yeah, i I usually think of him more as an interior artist than a yeah and a cover artist. i Also, to indicate that Spider-Man is knocked out, he's just colored in Spider-Man's eyes as black.
01:12:56
Speaker
Yeah. And I know we give a lot of license to Spider-Man's eyes. i I know that, like... they They had to add scenes in movies to figure out how Spider-Man's eyes can change shape on his mask.
01:13:13
Speaker
oh But, like, that's not what happens. ah You could just draw, like, and I know, and I know, who the fuck am I to tell Mark Bagley how to draw Spider-Man? You know?
01:13:28
Speaker
Ridiculous. I know this even as I say it, but that ain't how those work, Mark. ah Okay, so once again, Barry Kitson is doing the interior art on this issue, Colors by Paul Mounts.
01:13:42
Speaker
ah We open on the Baxter building. The meeting has ended. And so Reed comes out. He sees that Sue and Spider-Man and Alex are gone. They left two hours ago.
01:13:58
Speaker
He's looking at the shell that had the alarm in it. And he's like, all right, I can probably rig up something with the shell to like follow where they went.
01:14:11
Speaker
And then, uh, Bentley, Franklin, and some of the other kids are like holding their pop guns on the bad guys on doom and Diablo and the wizard. Yeah. old think comes Yeah.
01:14:27
Speaker
thank you pretty cute ah And they finally get like a look through the shell of what's going on in Old Atlantis, and they see that the peak has fallen through the ice. It is gone.
01:14:45
Speaker
And we flashback to 15 minutes earlier before that all happened, and Sue is like, Reed, what are you doing? Mole Man, what did you tell my husband to get him to do this?
01:15:00
Speaker
And pretty quickly, Sue's like, oh, you're not my Reed. And this Reed says, I'm much more partial to brunettes. Brutal. Brutal.
01:15:11
Speaker
and one then he shoots her And then he shoots her with a gun. I wonder if that's a multi-level joke, because this Reed, instead of having a family with Sue, hangs out with a bunch of other Reeds who have brown hair.
01:15:27
Speaker
Maybe. maybe So I wonder if there's like a weird multi-level joke going on here about re preferring but this Reed preferring brunettes. If so, I think that's very funny.
01:15:39
Speaker
Maybe. maybe ah We'd have to ask Hickman himself, I think, to know for sure. ah But he shoots Susan with a gun, and so Spider-Man goes to help her, leaving behind Alex Power, who has to fight off all of these Atlanteans and ah Mole Man monsters on him so on his own.
01:16:02
Speaker
Yeah, which you would think, at this point, Alex Power would be like, man, I'm not in the Fantastic Four. I'm in the fucking Power Pack, dude. Yeah. Like, I know we dealt with some shit, but come on.
01:16:15
Speaker
But he he like makes like a big ah chasm in the ice to hold them off. And then tries to make a wall so they can't shoot the city.
01:16:28
Speaker
ah But it doesn't work. And some of the Atlanteans... Gotta be the wall, brother. It doesn't work and the the like old Atlanteans bring down the city anyway. And it comes crashing through the ice ah once again. Reed is like, okay, we can go.
01:16:45
Speaker
And he does he just reneges on the deal that he made with the old Atlanteans because he got what he wanted. yeah And the Atlanteans are like, betrayal!
01:16:58
Speaker
And it's like, man, why did you trust Yeah.
01:17:04
Speaker
ah So yeah, Reed is gone, and is like, what the fuck? Like, what is going on? I'm going to talk to Namor so we can figure out some kind of order to this, and then I'm going to figure out what the fuck's going on.
01:17:23
Speaker
ah Meanwhile, Ben is having tea with Alicia. find out that, ah like me, Ben takes Splenda. yeah Which is very funny me, because what is is the thing watching his sugars?
01:17:37
Speaker
Look, he might have high triglycerides. We don't know. I don't know how they could draw some blood to check. the Great question. Maybe but maybe he got is that's like one of the things he did when ah when when he was not thinged up.
01:17:53
Speaker
Yeah. Like, one of the things he did in that week was, like, Johnny was like, alright, first things first, endocrinologist. Yeah, right. It's because you checked out, dog. Yeah. So, ah Alicia's like, we haven't talked.
01:18:06
Speaker
Like, I haven't seen you. What have you been doing? Well, Alicia hasn't seen him at all. That's true. ah But colloquially, that's what she says. ah Or she says, you haven't called.
01:18:19
Speaker
ah And... Ben is essentially like, I feel guilty for having a night of doing it with you. a night of unbridled pleasure and sexual exploration.
01:18:34
Speaker
That's right. um And then Johnny died. And i don't I feel so guilty. I don't know how to handle this. And Alicia's like, two things are true at the same time. I love you and Johnny is dead. You have to learn learn how to live with both of those things.
01:18:50
Speaker
Yeah, I like Luzi being like, look, Ben, I know you're having a rough time. You're kind of always having a rough time. Yes. Like, I know it's especially bad right now, but it's it's kind of bad for you frequently.
01:19:04
Speaker
Yes, that is that is the life of Ben Grimm. ah Back at the Baxter building, Reed checks out Alex Power. He has a broken arm. ah He puts like a super Kirby-esque ah metal cast on his arm. That thing's going to fix some fucking carpal tunnel syndrome right there.
01:19:24
Speaker
Yep. And he says, I'm proud of you, Alex. Go get some rest. Alex leaves and then reads like, let's have a look at you. And Sue is sitting there looking pissed.
01:19:36
Speaker
And he's like, Sue, you've got a minor concussion. You've got to be careful because we don't want any long-term damage. And then she's like, why are there other Reeds? Yeah, cool, cool, cool. What the fuck, Reed?
01:19:49
Speaker
Yeah. Like, I didn't know why all these villains were in my house, but now I know that there's like other yous running around. What the hell is going on? What have you been hiding from me? And Reed sits down He says, oh, Susan.
01:20:04
Speaker
She says, what's happened? And then he gets this look on his face like, I know I have fucked up so bad. He says, I've done something terrible.
01:20:18
Speaker
ah So he's finally going fess up about having rebuilt the bridge and all of that. ah Then we go to the forever city of the High Evolutionary.
01:20:31
Speaker
where one of the other reads, actually, the three other reads that we, that are still around, ah are, like, figuring out how they're going to use ah this, the stuff here at the Forever City to ah power their machine, to to make their machine.
01:20:52
Speaker
ah And,
01:20:57
Speaker
there's some, there's some argument between, like, I think this was like the the leader of the Forever City, this one guy I don't really remember him, but um he gets into a bit of an argument with the Mole Man about like stopping the evolutionary process of the city, the engine. I think these are some of the moloids who have gone in and have evolved into... that They definitely are, yeah yeah. They definitely are. Yeah.
01:21:28
Speaker
ah But Mole Man wants him back. And part of the deal he made with the other reeds was he was going to get him back. Yeah. And what he gets is they will no longer allow Moloids to show up and and just come to the city and evolve so that the Mole Man can keep his his kingdom.
01:21:50
Speaker
Yeah. And so the reeds are about to go through with their plan to kind of like shut off this city so they can build their machine. And before they can do that, um a big floating city ah des descends on over the city, the ever the Forever City.
01:22:14
Speaker
And that's Adalon, baby.
01:22:19
Speaker
yeah in humans The Inhumans, the original Inhumans are back. And so we end on a panel a a panel of Black Bolt, which I think was supposed to be a surprise, but definitely got spoiled by the cover. He is on the cover, yeah. yeah And that's it. That's the end of this first five issues of FF.
01:22:40
Speaker
Pretty good stuff. like very Like, very enjoyable to read, and very, like... like very brisk in a lot of ways. Like it, yeah it is a lot of like setting pieces up and it feels like we've been setting up so many pieces ah for the entirety of the run so far.
01:22:58
Speaker
um But like now, like things are getting to happen. I do wonder why as part of her ah confession, Valeria is not also like, Oh, also by the way, a Franklin from the future came back.
01:23:11
Speaker
And told me about like there's going be a war of the four cities, which that is going to be starting soon, like like within the next 20 minutes. Yeah.
01:23:22
Speaker
i I think this like
01:23:26
Speaker
this is the real payoff of like all the four cities set up. And I think when that was getting set up, there was ah like I definitely had a feeling of like, okay, where are we going with this?
01:23:42
Speaker
And now I'm really feeling the forward momentum. Yeah. It feels weird that, like, for so much setup, like, one of them cities are gone.
01:23:54
Speaker
Like, they went yeah through one of them quick. Super quick. And, I mean, this high evolutionary city, the city but the forever city, doesn't seem to be... ah it it lasted much longer. Yeah. So...
01:24:11
Speaker
We will find out more as we continue ah through FF.
Comic Book Reading Order Explained
01:24:17
Speaker
um i did This doesn't really feel like an ending. like It feels like we're stopping in the middle here, but this is the first ah trade paperback of f f these these five issues.
01:24:29
Speaker
Yeah. So, as I've said, I'm going by this ah comic book Herald ah list of the Hickman Marvel reading order.
01:24:48
Speaker
And so next is FF volume two, which is issue six through 11. After that issues of fantastic four and FF start alternating because fantastic four comes back.
01:25:05
Speaker
um And so I don't know quite how we're going to handle that, but we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out.
01:25:12
Speaker
um And yeah, that's it. we we We've covered the first chunk of Future Foundation.
01:25:27
Speaker
The comic book Future Foundation, a.k.a. FF. Good stuff so far. Fun stuff, yeah. ah it you know The art changing around is It's nice to have consistent art, ah but at least like the fill-in stuff is still good. like Yeah. very like Barry Kitson is still good.
01:25:49
Speaker
Kitson is still good. The the Rick Magyar, Butch Geis, Epting issue still looked really good. It would be nice to have consistency. Yeah. and i'm i'm not I'm not surprised that Steve Epting takes some time to draw comics, because look at them.
01:26:09
Speaker
I am surprised that it only got made it two wish issues. And issue six has a different artist. Yeah. ah So, pretty... That, I think, is ah is an issue.
01:26:26
Speaker
I feel like this was
01:26:30
Speaker
very indicative of Marvel at the time. Yeah. like Especially because if you look at that Yeah.
01:26:41
Speaker
and then compare it to the covers of one two and three like it does not look right like it doesnt like it looks like the trade dress is doing a lot of heavy lifting in terms of keeping it consistent Acuna is back on covers by number eight, and Epting is baic back on art by number eight.
01:27:01
Speaker
Yeah, and um and Six is, I mean, I guess we'll get into this next time, but Six is kind of a narrative fill-in issue as well, because it's what Black Bolt has been doing this entire time. So at least there's that.
01:27:14
Speaker
But yeah. Yeah, um we'll see we'll see all about what happens with art changes and that kind of stuff in the issues to come.
Contacting the Podcast and Hosts
01:27:23
Speaker
ah In the meantime, if you would like to get in touch with us, if you would like to email us, if you would like to let us know if you want to sponsor the show, our email address is warrocketpodcast at gmail.com.
01:27:36
Speaker
Get in touch with us if you want to there. You can also get in touch with us in some other places. Tumblr, warrocketpodcast.tumblr.com. BlueSky, warrocketajax.com is our handle on BlueSky.
01:27:49
Speaker
ah We have a Discord. If you would like to join that Discord, you can message us on my email, Discord, Tumblr, or on our Patreon for an invitation to the Discord. If you ask us nicely, we will give you one, and you can join over there.
01:28:08
Speaker
WarRocketWiki.com is the fan-run repository of all the information you could want to need or need to know about this show, WarRocketAjax. Go check that out. WarRocketHX.com is our website. It has every episode of the show that we've ever done.
01:28:24
Speaker
If you want to find me and my stuff, go to MattDWilson.net to find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social media accounts. Chris, where can people find you?
01:28:35
Speaker
Everybody can find me by going to The-ISB.com. That is my website. And it has links to things that I've written, and it has links to where you can contact me if you would like to give me a job. Writing, editing, consulting, general expertise ah on the subjects in which I am an expert.
01:28:55
Speaker
Which, if you're listening to this, you probably know. if If you're not using this resource, you're missing out. You really are. You really are. I'm very good at consulting and at writing.
01:29:09
Speaker
Yes. i've i've written I've written Marvel comics. I've written video games. I've written an unproduced animated short for Warner Brothers. It was never produced. I did get paid for it.
01:29:24
Speaker
But what a resume. I can write these things and more. All for you. If you go to the-isb.com.
Upcoming Episode Teasers and Sign Off
01:29:34
Speaker
We'll be back next week. ah Either... answering some listener questions or writing some swords or doing something fun. That much we know for sure.
01:29:46
Speaker
ah So come back for that. And in the meantime, we'll see you soon. Until then, folks, do not forget that Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights.
01:29:59
Speaker
Drag is not a crime. Cops aren't your friends. Fuck ICE. Free Palestine. We love you. We love you. Yeah!