#( get you a wife who looks at you like sue looks at reed )

[stackthedeck]

Okay I'm asking abt Johnny Storm

YES YES YES THANK YOU ANON

None of this is canon btw these are just my headcanons based around the fact that the Fantastic Four kind of have this celebrity status in the comics and Johnny really leans into it and also the fact that Johnny got his powers at 16 it might have been reconned to be older tho but you can pry the 60s comics from my cold dead hands

So Johnny drops out of High School to become a mechanic and then eventually the youngest NASA pilot in history (okay that is canon) but he's the backup pilot. He shouldn't have been on that ship, maybe if he wasn't there it wouldn't have all gone wrong. Or maybe he should have been on that ship, if he was in control it would have gone all right. But he comes back to Earth, burning like a meteor and he doesn't stop. And he is 16.

Reed Richards—the genius that pulled him and his sister out of poverty, the genius that thinks he has potential, the genius that got him these powers—is talking about a team. They've been blessed, they've got to help people and he wants Johnny to join. And suddenly the fantastic four are the headline of every newspaper, magazine, tv news across the country, across the world.

When they do interviews or talks at conferences, the important ones about space and science and inventions, Johnny shrinks to the background. Sue and Reed have half a dozen doctorates between them, Ben is an engineer and an astronaut, and Johnny is just a kid. Never mind that he's a mechanic that invented his own engines. But the spotlight isn't on him because he's just the kid

until one day, the spotlight is on him. The fantastic four move on to talk shows and suddenly it's not all science. The people want to know about their powers. Who are these people protecting them? Sure, everyone's powers are cool, but Johnny can light himself on fire and shoot sparks and he's got more charisma than the gruff pile of rocks (no offense Ben, I love that he's mean, he deserves it) and the guy that locks himself in a lab for 12 hours a day.

So Johnny becomes the young beautiful blond face of the fantastic four, America's sweetheart that can smile for the cameras when things go wrong. But it's better than being ignored and pushed to the background, right? At least he's not just the kid. Except he's still a kid.

Soon the team is doing more talk shows and celebrity stuff, it puts the public at ease, it secures funding for Reed and Sue's research, and it's kinda fun. People start asking about their personal lives. Reed and Sue talk about their engagement, Ben talks about his long-term girlfriend, and Johnny talks about...nothing because there's nothing to talk about. Except there has to be, he's a handsome young man, he's a teenage boy, he's a celebrity, there has to be girls plural. So Johnny makes people up, anything to keep the spotlight on him, anything that keeps the team in the public eye. And soon he doesn't have to make girls up because girls are offering. He dates around because he's the playboy or he's told he is.

And he's 16. He's a teenage boy, he's got acne, he's still growing into himself, and his voice cracks. And tabloids run pictures of him with bright red circles pointing out his pimples and bad posture to the whole world. Sue gets questions about her appearance too. Of course, she does, she's beautiful and the only girl on the team. But Reed is always there to put a hand on her shoulder and remind everyone that his girlfriend, his fiancee, his wife has a doctorate and she's working on some very promising research. Johnny doesn't have either of those things, so he answers the questions just to make them stop. Except they don't. His face is on magazine covers, but it's not his face, it's a beautiful stranger. He stares at himself in the mirror and the pimply awkward teenager staring back seems like the stranger. If he looks at himself while he's "flame-on" it's harder to make out his features. Maybe the flame can burn away the imperfections, but it doesn't. He spends hours on a skincare routine and even more hours at the gym until he stops looking 16. The questions still don't stop.

There are count-down clocks for when he turns 18. Except there aren't that many, at least compared to the girl celebrities his age. He's the playboy that's admitted to dating tons of girls, doesn't matter that nobody has seen most of them or Johnny doesn't remember their names. He's a playboy, he runs hot, he's easy. At the big celebrity parties, people are always touching him because he's warm and bright and the face of the fantastic four. because he's a guy and he must want this. And he does because he has to.

Models, actresses, and heiresses flock to him. They laugh at his jokes, they don't ask about his parents, and they don't ask about science stuff. They ask about him, all eyes on him, they give him the attention that the rest of the team is too busy to give him. Johnny is just a kid from a Long Island suburb and these beautiful famous women are interested in him and what he has to say. Never mind that Johnny is also beautiful and famous, the fact of it still so new that it slips his mind. These women lead him away from the parties and he does exactly what they ask and he acts like it's his idea. But he's still just 16

After a particularly bad yelling match with Sue about a scandal he doesn't even remember, Johnny's done. He can't do this anymore, he's sick of the parties and the questions and seeing his face everywhere. He locks himself in the garage for a week, no magazines or tv, just him and his cars. And it's good, he's missed this, missed being in control. Except one night during family dinner, Ben makes a joke about the tabloids thinking Johnny is being cloned or he's in a different country wooing some princess. So, he's not in control. He goes back in public, he does interviews and photoshoots, he goes to parties. The rumors are back to normal. This is his new normal.

And the strange thing is that he missed it. Missed the attention, the spotlight for that one week. When he's with the fantastic four, he's the human torch. When he's at parties, he's beautiful perfect Johnny Storm. When he's alone with his cars, he's just that kid from Glennville. But soon the Fantastic Four isn't the shiny new thing anymore. There are other heroes, some spider-man guy is always on the front page of the Daily Bugle. So Johnny gets into acting, modeling, racecar driving, anything to get people to look at him. What's the point of people building this image of him, of him accepting that image, of him wasting his teenage years getting here if people aren't looking at him. It has to mean something.

Johnny is 17 when Sue asks him who he's dating right now. Johnny shrugs and says it's nothing serious, just another short fling you know how he is. Sue laughs it off but says that she's trying to figure out who to invite to her and Reed's wedding. Johnny asks if there's going to be media there. She says maybe, he says he'll find someone. She stops whatever she was doing and says actually it's going to be really private, no cameras except one wedding photographer for their own memories. Just an off handed idea, they really hadn't thought about it. Sue expects Johnny to complain, but he looks almost relieved when he says he'd rather not bring a date. And that's when it hits Sue that the idea of Johnny that the media has created isn't her baby brother. Oh no. She was supposed to protect him and she set him to space, sent him to topple dictators, sent him on tv. They have a talk after that. She can't take Johnny out of the public eye, not without taking him off the team and that would break him. Johnny wants to be a hero more than anything and she won't take that from him, no matter how big a burden it is.

Johnny doesn't know how to talk to people his age. He misuses slang, he acts older than he is, he's too polished and perfect. He dropped out of high school and before that he moved around and before that he was the kid with a dead mom and a drunk dad. He doesn't have friends, he has fans, he has flings, he has the fantastic four. Until he meets Spider-Man, whose voice cracks too, who talks like he's raised by people from the 40s, who doesn't keep up with scandals and celebrity gossip. He's Johnny's best friend even before he takes off the mask. He's Johnny's worst enemy even after he takes off the mask. Johnny envies his spot on the front page of Bugle, envies that he doesn't care that the papers only have nasty things to say about him, envies the mask. Johnny wants the mask more than anything, but it's too late.

Johnny went into space as the youngest pilot in NASA's history and he came back down a star, brighter than anything, but it's only a matter of time before he goes supernova. Or maybe he won't, maybe he'll just burn out

#oh no this is so long i'm so sorry #asks #long post #the good version of johnny storm that lives in my head #HE WAS 16 WHEN THEY LAUNCHED HIM INTO SPACE #IMAGINE GOING THROUGH PUBERTY WHILE TRYING TO CONTROL THE MOST DANGEROUS POWERS #while we're talking about johnny storm headcanons he's a dazzler fan #which is code for homosexual

[brw]

suenamor is fascinating not as a ship but as like, a way of looking at the people who like it bc there is nobody in that relationship who is positively influenced. there are two ways sue has been portrayed primarily in suenamor storylines; either slightly or overtly misogynistic in the way that the writers insist that she's attracted to namor but can't admit it and just needs him to make a move against her verbal wishes to prove it to her, or she is really made uncomfortable and punches him in the face when he makes advances. namor is also treated poorly, in that he is written in two bad ways; either as a massive creep who cannot take no for an answer, or in a one dimensional "perfect specimen" hypermasculine caricature with absolutely zero conceivable personality except that he probably fucks well. and this is where it treats reed absolutely horribly too, bc the implication always is that because reed is "weird" (read; autistic, and has autistic traits) that means he doesn't love sue and can't satisfy her. like it's just rooted in a deep and overt desexualisation of autistic people and the idea that we are incapable of love or sex and its so transparent and so uncomfortable and i just don't understand why you would like this ship.

both sue and namor are bland, tasteless versions of themselves in suenamor storylines, to the point of where its just offensively bad. like i can't understand why you would claim to love sue or namor and also be a fan of this ship because it turns them into the most stale versions of their characters ever. and it puts reed in such a weird gross position of the loveless husband who can't satisfy his wife getting cucked and just so happens to have numerous autistic traits but don't worry we definitely have a valid reason for hating him and insulting him and calling him a bad husband & father we are definitely justified it's not ableist! (sarcasm)

i just can't figure out who this ship is for because it doesn't make either sue or namor look good or even interesting. why would you want this ship to happen. why are you so determined to be so blatantly ableist to the closest thing autistic people have to a canonical autistic character in big two comics lmao.

#brieuc.txt #i just.. don't get the shippers.

[gpsoftun]

I've been meaning to talk about how the cosmic rays generated the Four's powers as physical manifestations of their different personalities. But I also want to go over what the team members get from this. We know what the world gains from the Fantastic Four and what each brings to the table. I want to explain what positives the Four get out of this life individually.

Funny enough, Victor is the one who actually describes Reed best. That he's always "stretching, trying to reach the stars with the weight of the world on his shoulders". Yes, exactly. Reed stretches himself too thin due to his own extreme intelligence and deep desire to save the world. Therefore, Mr. Fantastic becomes elastic.

From the moment we meet Reed, it's clear that despite his genius, his self-esteem is practically non-existent. He wants to help people, but believes he can only do so from his lab. He believed the cosmic storm to be his greatest failure, but it ends up putting his life on track. Reed is right behind Johnny in terms of enjoying his powers and uses them constantly. He's desperate for a cure, but for Ben's sake. As Mr. Fantastic, Reed goes from meek and uncertain to a strong and capable leader who is assertive when necessary. This growth repairs his relationships with the Storm siblings and enables him to finally save the world in the most fantastic ways.

Comic book Sue was more of a shrinking violet than movie Sue, so at first her gaining invisibility is a bit puzzling. But upon rewatch, while she is beautiful and more confident than her comic self, Sue had so much uncertainty towards her powers and struggled to control them. She didn't want to live in the spotlight, be Victor's trophy wife, or put her brother in harm's way. By the sequel, her powers have grown immensely, indicating her increased confidence. Her force fields might have originally symbolized her wanting to distance herself from Reed and her feelings for him. Now, they come off as extensions of her role as Team Heart. They're barriers for safeguarding those she cares for in a fiercely maternal sense.

What Sue gets from the new life is the support system she needed for too long. She had to grow up so fast because of her parents and continues to look out for Johnny. With Ben and Reed back in her life, she doesn't have to be a one-woman army anymore.

There's no question how Johnny received his powers. The kid has always had an energetic fire in his belly. The flashy firepower also really fuels his craving for attention as he develops a horde of dazzled fans.

Johnny soon learns that the shallow spectacle alone is not ultimately fulfilling. He is not only the one who wanted the Fantastic Four most, he also needed it most. Between his mother dying, his father's arrest, Reed and Ben leaving after the former broke up with Sue, Johnny was long overdue for a solid family unit. He seemed to only care about his sister and hedonistic pursuits. When the Four are securely established, he gains stability and shows gradual signs of mature growth.

Ben's stone body came from a combination of his athleticism, emotional strength, masculinity, and rock solid reliability. Though when he first transformed, it seemed like more of a curse than anything.

After his dream of going into space ended with him drastically changed, it appeared as if Ben lost everything. As part of the Four, he's discovered who his real and most loyal loved ones actually are. The space mission was no last harrah for him. He gains belonging as well as a new purpose that allows him to better exercise his protective nature.

This has been an excerpt from Fantastic Four Feels 💞

Any idea what powers the cosmic rays would give you?

#Fantastic Four 2005 #fantastic four rise of the silver surfer #found family feels #fantastic four feels #MSU #Marvel's Stepchildren United #ioan gruffudd #reed richards #mr. fantastic #jessica alba #sue storm richards #super sue #big sister sue #invisible woman #chris evans #johnny storm #human torch #michael chiklis #ben grimm #the thing #pro man #anti misandry #julian mcmahon #victor von doom #dr. doom #Definitive Fantastic Four

[imperiuswrecked]

what do you think of reed/namor? do you feel like they have potential? I love that little short comic (the one where reed is dreaming about namor and dr. doom is namor's roommate-- just such good content) but I don't know nearly enough about marvel history to know if they have any sort of chemistry beyond that cute little comic!

I always think that any couple could have potential if written right. That comic by Becky Cloonan is my all time fave. I wish she would do a whole series of it. 

As for not knowing Marvel history, it’s totally fine, even being in comics fandom/reading comics for years I still don’t know everything. I haven’t read enough Fantastic Four comics on their own without Namor but the ones I have read with Namor and Reed always having them in contrast to the other. Namor’s the Jock to Reed’s Nerd, basically Namor is supposed to be the tempter, the exotic and forbidden love that Sue resists because she loves Reed, and the Namor/Sue/Reed love triangle is honestly so tiring because it always makes Namor look bad, like a homewrecker and Sue like she is unfaithful even though she never betrayed Reed. So then it shows Namor and Reed fighting over Sue a lot, so you don’t really get much chemistry between them except for like maybe something like this panel where Reed was waiting for Namor and they started fighting. lol.

But over the decades you see that Reed and Namor have come to a mutual respect and acquaintance.

I can not call them best friends because Namor doesn’t really have any male friends outside of the Invaders. 

Mostly it’s a “Oh yeah you exist I guess I have to put up with it, but even though you aren’t the worst doesn’t mean I like you or anything” kinda vibe.

There’s a AU where Female!Namor was the one who had a crush a Reed.

Exiles (2001) #46

I think if you are looking for shipping potential for Reed, then Reed/Sue or Reed/Doom has far content, so much more content, than Reed/Namor, but also if you wanted, you totally could ship Reed/Namor but it would require a bit more effort since they don’t really have a lot of history that isn’t because of “Namor trying to steal Reed’s wife” nonsense. As you can tell I’m not a NamorSue shipper but I would be down for a Namor/Sue/Reed ploy relationship.

#namor #reed richards #namor the sub mariner #fantastic four #marvel #thanks for asking! #Anonymous

[justanotherwannabeclassic]

Damn, I’m starting to get invested in this ship. Did Steve date other ladies or just Sharon?And I don’t want any MCU synergy creeping into 616 because of Peggy. I don’t want her anywhere near 616!steve. Oh yee, one more thing 😁 the article that mentioned Steve proposing to Sharon n her rejection also mentioned that Steve was controlling at one point and was against her working. Btw any recs for a beginner wanting to read about this ship.

Good, you’re getting invested! My evil plan worked!Did Steve date other ladies or just Sharon?

Yes, Steve has dated many ladies. A few women following his waking up from the ice are:

Bernie Rosenthal: she lived in his apartment building, and is a normal woman. She and Steve were engaged -- she proposed -- but their relationship fell apart because Steve tended to put her mission before her, and she wasn’t willing to sit around being someone’s second choice. Instead, she went to law school and became a badass lawyer. She would be called to be Bucky Barnes defense lawyer! She and Steve are on good terms. Bernie is rad. 

Rachel Leighton - She was actually a villain in the Serpent Society who Steve inspired to eventually come to the side of good. Rachel was very badass, and eventually joined SHIELD. Rachel was honestly a badass. She and Steve remained friendly after they ended things, however during Ed Brubaker’s run she kind of tried to convince Steve to hook up with her while he was dating Sharon. He turned her down, and she hasn’t been super involved since. A lot of people consider her a top Cap love interest.

Connie Ferrari - she was lawyer, who was very big on defense. She and Steve were doomed to fail because they had different perspectives on vigilantism...and Steve was still in love with Sharon while they were together. Honestly, you could probably argue that Steve was emotionally cheating on her, because he was trying to get back with Sharon while planning dates with Connie. 

There are others, but I cannot remember and don’t care about naming them all. He almost had a thing with the Scarlet Witch, but that went nowhere. 

And I don’t want any MCU synergy creeping into 616 because of Peggy. I don’t want her anywhere near 616!steve.

Unfortunately, it looks like we’re getting MCU Synergy, because a young, de-aged Peggy is running around and she looks a lot like Hayley Atwell. The writers have Sharon and Steve arguing about trust and her secret superhero team -- The Daughters of Liberty -- and things will probably blow up once it’s revealed that Peggy had Sharon and Bucky keeping secrets about her existence. It’s honestly super annoying, because it’s not natural storytelling and very clearly editorial influence. Why is it not natural? Because Peggy honestly was never a super huge Cap love interest. Their relationship is told via flashback, and Steve ostensibly loved her; however, the writers have waffled on whether of not the relationship was that deep. At one point, she didn’t even know his identity, just that he was Captain America. Steve (and Peggy!) also dated and loved other people during the war. MCU!Peggy became a mishmash of some of those people. Honestly, it’s worth remembering that Steve was 18-23 during this period where emotions and hormones are high. So, yeah, if they try to sell me on the idea that Peggy is some super great love that he will drop Sharon for...I ain’t buying in the Marvel 616. 

the article that mentioned Steve proposing to Sharon n her rejection also mentioned that Steve was controlling at one point and was against her working. 

This is true, but also needs context in explaining. That storyline was written in the 60s. Stan Lee an Jack Kirby were very talented people who could be very sexist. Sue Storm (Invisible Woman, Fantastic Four) could barely function without Reed telling her what to do. Sharon, at the time, was written progressively in terms that she was a woman who valued her career, but there was definitely an undercurrent of sexism because during that period it wasn’t uncommon to have the “working woman vs. stay-at-home wife” scenario. In the modern era, Steve is very supportive of Sharon working, and admires her dedication to the mission. They’ve worked together on numerous occasions, so that was something that was more or less retconned away or foes without mention. So, yes that happened, but we need to look at that dynamic through the lens it was written. 

Btw any recs for a beginner wanting to read about this ship.

In terms of articles or comics or fanfic?

Good comic runs to start with for them:

Captain America Vol. 5 - this is ed brubaker’s run. it’s very good, and what inspired the Winter Soldier movie. This is also when Steve and Sharon get back together

Secret Avengers Vol 1 - Steve runs a Secret Avengers, which are basically espionage Avengers. Sharon is on the team, and her and Steve’s interactions are super cute. 

Operation: Rebirth - This is story of when Sharon comes back to life an Steve is both surprised and freaked out! They also fight bad guys. 

#staron #stevesharon #steve rogers #sharon carter #captain america #agent 13 #marvel 616 #otp: best part of my day

[traincat]

If you could how would you rewrite the Lyja and John debacle?

I think my biggest problem with the Johnny and Lyja debacle isn’t the content – I’m not against disturbing content in comics, or bad things happening to characters I like – but the book’s refusal to commit to that content. And it’s not like they don’t know how to do this – in Namor #50, Namor is raped by a shapeshifter disguised as Sue. The book is very clear about what happened:

This happens at exactly the same time the height of the Johnny and Lyja egg baby drama is going on (like, they’re in the same issue, exactly), so it’s not that Marvel refuses to acknowledge male victims of rape in this exact circumstance altogether – it’s just that they refuse to acknowledge Johnny, specifically. 

So two things I would do if I had total creative control here: the first is stop using romantic terms to refer to Lyja in relation to Johnny in official material. No more calling her a love interest, and no more referring to her as either Johnny’s wife or ex-wife in character bios – this term automatically makes people think of a solid and consensual romantic relationship, and I would argue that both pre- and post-retcon that doesn’t apply: Johnny and Alicia’s marriage was not solid. Johnny and Lyja’s relationship was not consensual. That Johnny and Alicia’s marriage was not in and of itself abusive without the retcon in place doesn’t automatically mean it was healthy, considering Johnny twice despairs about being more attracted to someone else in comparison to his wife, and has an entire dream sequence about how great it would be if he wasn’t really in love with Alicia but had instead been psychically manipulated into the relationship. So there’s all of that to reexamine with the retcon in place, and the fact that if Alicia isn’t Alicia but rather Lyja, a lot of little innocuous scenes take on a sinister tone:

(Fantastic Four #275)

The second thing I would do with full control here would be to label Lyja a villain. This is part of what I mean when I say the material continually hits a point and then pulls back: Lyja marries Johnny to further her mission to infiltrate (and ultimately contribute to the defeat) of the Fantastic Four. It doesn’t matter whether or not she developed romantic feelings for him; she did so while using him to spy on his family and never came clean. This would be a very different story if, say, Lyja had realized her growing feelings for Johnny and revealed her real identity to him willingly and then given him the space to decide what he wanted to do with the relationship. That’s not what happens. Lyja, for all intents and purposes, appears to have never planned to reveal herself -- it only happens when she’s forced to. She continually lies to keep herself in Johnny’s orbit: when she can’t do it as Alicia, she lies about the egg -- you know, the one housing the monster that was going to eat Johnny and his family upon hatching -- and says it’s his child. When the egg game is up, she adopts another identity to stalk him halfway across the country. But, the narrative continually says with apparently zero self-awareness at all, she’s just doing it because she loves him. But there are certainly comic book villains whose motivation is an obsessive, abusive love. After all, Lyja does try to kill Johnny at one point (Fantastic Four #370). She forces him to live his greatest fear when he panics and goes nova in self-defense on a crowded college campus, a complete loss of his usual ironclad control (and his loss of control was already linked, in the narrative, to his feeling violated during Simonson’s run in Fantastic Four #342). Johnny’s afraid of Lyja at one point that he flees for his life after spotting her in a crowd. So why do Lyja’s abusive actions get painted with a “it’s fine because love” wash?

The most baffling case of “the book was going in a direction and then it abruptly pulled back” is Lyja’s most recent appearance in Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four. To set the scene: at the beginning of the Skrull invasion, Johnny, Ben, Franklin, and baby Val are alone in the Baxter Building while Reed and Sue are away. Lyja enters the Baxter Building disguised as Sue and transports the Baxter Building into the Negative Zone.

When confronted by Johnny, she speaks to him as if she really were Sue, and attempts to convince Johnny that Ben has been replaced by a Skrull. This is blatant gaslighting and an attempt to cut Johnny off from Ben and his family. Lyja only gives up the act when Johnny guesses she isn’t who she appears to be. Which to me has always begged the question -- what would Lyja have done if Johnny had believed her? What was the end game here? She later states that she transported the Baxter Building to the Negative Zone to protect Johnny, but then why continue the act after that goal was accomplished? Why attempt to make him believe she’s actually his sister and that Ben is a Skrull? Why prey on his -- understandable -- Skrull paranoia? It’s really easy to say she was just doing it to protect him after the fact, but that doesn’t seem to be the goal in the beginning. But this is a prime example of what I’m talking about: the beginning of the story frames Lyja’s behavior as villainous and predatory. Then, around the middle, like every writer who tackles this character seems to do, the furious backpedaling begins, and suddenly she’s not that bad, really! And it is infuriating. Things are continually set up, they are put on the page, there is a clear abuse storyline going on here, and then when it comes time to commit, nobody seems able to. So that would be my big thing: take away the love interest label from being used in official contexts and actually commit to making Lyja a villain, because there could be genuinely good stories in here if they did. (And no more alternate futures where Johnny marries his rapist. Looking at you, MC2.)

A dream book for me would be a retrospective from Lyja’s point of view about the initial mission and how those parameters changed when Ben remained off-planet during Secret Wars up through at least the Skrull reveal, something of a Fantastic Four: Green in the style of Spider-Man: Blue, etc. Something really exploring her mission in detail and her settling into “being” Alicia, and covering her seduction and abuse of Johnny, as well as how that got complicated when Ben came back, depicting Lyja as a victim of greater Skrull machinations (it’s canon that she was chosen for the mission because she spurned the advances of a superior) while refusing to romanticize her treatment of Johnny and not backing away from the fact that Lyja’s actions, particularly after the egg baby when she is, for all intents and purposes, a free agent, and she still chooses to stalk Johnny and insert herself into his life against his wishes, make her a villain.

#tock-tic #johnny storm #*replies #traincat talks comics

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Fantastic 4 2099 #1 Thoughts

Again, I ask, who is this for???????????????????

Let’s put aside for a moment how the cover poorly reflects upon the story, both in terms of what the story will be about and even how most of the characters in question look.

The premise of this book is that HERBIE on the orders of his mother is seeking out his ‘family’, which we’re supposed to interpret as meaning the F4 obviously. But the actual protagonist of this title is in fact a new version o Venture.

Venture was arguably the very first super villain of the 2099 line. A cyborg cowboy bounty hunter sent by Alchemax to track down Miguel O’Hara not long after he first got his powers.

The new rebooted Venture is a decidedly nicer cyborg cowgirl (cowwoman? Cowwoman?) bounty hunter who is helping HERBIE find his ‘family’ after HERBIE promised her something ‘better than money’ back in 2099 Alpha.

What that was we don’t know, if it was anything at all. It seems like Venture sort of took this weird outdated little robot on faith when it said it had something better than money. Which at best leans against the impression she’s clearly intended to give off in this issue and 2099 Alpha, and at worst makes her look like an idiot.

I will talk briefly regarding the mere fact Venture got a reboot like this.

It’s a double edged sword.

On the one hand nostalgic fans like me are unlikely to take to this character because we prefer and are more invested in the original Venture, who is also one of the more stand out 2099 villains in general. On the other hand if you HAVE to reboot this line then at least it is something decidedly different. Venture has a different personality, a different gender even a different (albeit more stereotypical) speech pattern.

The wider problem isn’t so much with Venture as a character (though a bounty hunter out of a futuristic Western in a Disney product shortly after the Mandalorian TV show debuts, what a coincidence) but rather her placement in the story.

Why on Earth would you launch a comic book about a futuristic version of the Fantastic 4 and make the main character anyone who isn’t the F4!

It’s like if the original F4 were introduced through following our protagonist Willie Lumpkin!

The personalities of the F4 themselves are fairly bland though I will say this.

Karla Pacheco does a great job applying the ‘methodology’ behind the 2099 reimaginings of the other Marvel characters to the F4.

This is in fact (to my knowledge) the very first time there has ever been a true blue (no pun intended) 2099 spin on Marvel’s first family. Though there was a Fantastic 4 2099 back in the 1990s it merely starred that universe’s versions of the original team.

Whilst I do believe Peter David could’ve come up with something better, Pacheco here essentially swaps and remixes traits from the original F4 in a way which on paper could’ve made for a compelling team.

Instead of 3 men and an Invisible Girl, we’ve got 3 women and an Invisible Boy, who’s abilities are mostly used for thievery and smaller scale stuff like that. It fits well in the barbaric environment of the Thorites encampment.

Instead of a hotheaded youth as the Human Torch, we have an adult woman...now let’s get a little controversial. If I’m not mistaken the woman in question was Hispanic/Latin American (I don’t know the difference sorry, not American) so that probably does play into a negative stereotype. But she’s also a mechanic (like Johnny used to be), and also kind of the rouch street level brawler type (like Ben tends to be) and also the person in a romantic relationship (like Reed/Sue). What spices this up too is that she’s not in a relationship with anyone actually on the team. I guess that makes her a little like Ben, with her wife the equivalent of Alicia Masters. But I still think it’s more of a remix of Reed and Sue because no one else on the team is romantically involved with anyone else.

Instead of an inventor who happens to also be able to stretch, we’ve got an inventor who uses her inventions to mimic stretchy powers among other things. It’s essentially taking Reed’s real strength as a character, his brain, and making it directly the result of his super powers themselves. A consolidation if you will.

Finally instead of a monsters looking craggy rock creature who’s feared by some people and regards themselves as ugly, we have a beautiful diamond creature who’s regarded as a freak due to her parentage, not what she looks like exactly. She’s even referred to as a golem, which is clearly the inspiration for the Thing too. She’s also the youngster (which makes her like Johnny but I’d also argue like Franklin or Valeria too) and she has a direct blood relationship with one of the four (like Sue and Johnny) but a parent/child relationship not a older sibling/younger sibling dynamic.

Also most of the characters are poc and/or queer and/or children of same sex relationships, or at least relationships different to a cis man and a cis woman hooking up.

Neither I, nor do I think the author, are trying to float some kind of weird ass message about heterosexual relationships or white people becoming a thing of the past (though there are weirdos who do claim such things). But if stats are to be believed such people and such relationships are undeniably going to become more common in the future. Thus the traditional nuclear family, whilst unlikely to ever truly disappear, is nevertheless not going to become the default state of family units.

But the concept was let down by the execution.

First of all we see the F4 briefly in action (with Venture, again our protagonist) nowhere in sight) at the very start of the comic. Then we begin the laborious task of going to each member to establish them as people and finally get right back to the action scene at the start of the story.

Sometimes this structure works, but not when we’re literally following a whole other character, and not when we’re gradually unveiling each character’s abilities and looks, it just turns the comic into a chore.

It is particularly a chore considering that Pacheco seemed to overuse characters saying ‘Ha’.

But possibly the absolute worst thing about this story was the ending.

So as it turns out HERBIE has a few screws loose and this whole time he hasn’t actually been searching for his family, but rather trying to recreate it by recreating the F4.

He’s been exposing random people to cosmic rays of his own design and whenever it invariably doesn’t work, changing the rays and trying again. Sometimes the rays just murder and mutate his targets, sometimes they do manage to get together but then something goes wrong and they die.

This is what happened to 3/4 of our new F4 2099, when they get close enough they contort and die in horrible ways.

HERBIE is then so angry about failing once again he unleashes his weapons on Venture and Invisible Boy.

Basically HERBIE is a FUCKING  PSYCHOPATH!

Which isn’t an unamusing premise, nor even an unamusing twist in concept.

But again in execution (no pun intended) it’s awful because not only did we soldier our way through this chore of a comic book that wasn’t even following the F4 themselves, but when we FINALLY unite the team and FINALLY deliver an F4 for the 2099 universe...we immediately kill them...and even the character we were following just in case you might’ve liked her even a little.

So the whole comic is fucking pointless.

Exempting Conan 2099, this was the ONE title that might’ve really appealed to older 2099 fans as there was an untapped niche in the pre-existing iterations of the 2099 universe for the F4 to fill. It was one of the few instances in which this event wouldn’t have to compete too much (if at all) with the older iteration of the 2099 universe and where something new and different didn’t have to come at the expense of something old and beloved.

But instead we got $5 worth of our time wasted.

And that applies to hypothetical NEW fans too. This is an issue #1 so if anyone had been inclined to check out this title or if this was introducing them to the 2099 line as a whole they got royally screwed because there is literally no story left to go after this.

So I ask again of this whole event.

Who.

Is.

This.

For?

Don’t read this trash.

#marvel 2099 #2099 #Fantastic Four #Fantastic 4 #Fantastic 4 2099 #Fantastic Four 2099

[spaceorphan18]

Marvel Movie Night: Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer

So, looking up some background for this one, I found the NYT review where Manohla Dargis states:  "amalgam of recycled ideas, dead air, dumb quips, casual sexism and pseudoscientific mumbo jumbo".  And, you know what - that kind of just sums it up.  I don’t even have to do a review! 

This film is marginally more entertaining and functions slightly better as a film than the original  But that’s almost arbitrary because this film still fails at nearly everything - even in at being entertaining.  

I complained last time that I thought the Fantastic Four should be more focused on family elements -- well, they tried.  Too hard.  This film is only 90 minutes long, and it takes a half hour to get into the actual plot.  The first portion of the film is all about Reed and Sue’s wedding, except I’m really failing to understand why we should care about any of these characters.  By the time it actually gets into the plot, it’s slow and draggy that it feels like it goes on forever despite it’s incredibly short run time.  

Let’s talk Sue and Reed first -- because this it he most egregious part of the film.  It completely forgets that Sue is a scientist, too.  Not only does she not really have anything to do that helps the plot, she’s regulated into a sitcom stereotype of nagging hot girlfriend (wife), which is beyond irritating.  On top of that - the only thing that keeps being reiterated about Sue is that she’s hot - as if that’s her only character trait (which it seems to be).  And to top it all off -- Gruffudd and Alba still have zero chemistry.  Not once did I feel any kind of general emotion, even when Sue “dies”.  It’s so bad. 

Oh -- and then the whole subplot of -- we can’t raise a baby as superheroes comes up, which freakin’ annoys the hell outta me.  While I’m sure it came up in dated 60s comics, it still looks like the woman asking the man to give up his career for family and it’s abundantly clear that the writers don’t seem to know how to write for functioning couples who are not in the 60s.  God.  

Meanwhile -- Michael Chiklis is at least not as whiny as The Thing, but the movie almost doesn’t know what to do with him.  At one point a bear comes along and he screams at it.  It’s so dumb, why did you waste time on a five second scene that is so stupid?  

I can’t even give much credit to Chris Evans for being entertaining either.  He’s not nearly as funny as the first time, and being scolded enough times for being the annoying one makes him mopey.  It’s an attempt to give him an arc, but it’s just really forced.  There’s also a whole thing about Johnny’s powers doing weird things - but the film doesn’t want you to think too hard about it, because it really doesn’t make much sense.  

I’m not even going to bother with the plot too much.  The Silver Surfer comes along - he’s working for Galactus destroying worlds because he doesn’t want to kill a female creature (?) that he loves and of course the world is in danger.  There’s really no tension in any of this, so, like, who cares?  

The Silver Surfer is an interesting character in the comics, but he does virtually nothing here - and Laurence Fishbourne’s voice doesn’t help much.  The CGI work on him is fine until he isn’t moving and he looks like a spray-painted crash test dummy.  Not even kidding.  Again -- it feels like the script writers didn’t really know what to do with this character, so they stuck with dated concepts from the comics.  

Victor Von Doom is back.   **sigh**  Nope.  Nope nope nope.  Just, nope.  See my issues in the previous review, because they’re still the same issues.  

And of course, Galactus.  Okay.  So, I get that the Galactus of the comics is a crazy space alien drawn by Jack Kirby, but it’s just some weird space cloud here?  I mean - the CGI looks really pretty but, no guys.  This movie can barely handle a human relationship, there’s no way an intricate alien was going to work.  Geez, movie you are bad.  

I don’t even have a list of other thoughts to accompany it.  I don’t understand how this film was even made when the previous one stunk in the first place.  It doesn’t even have the -- so bad it’s good (or at least entertaining) -- quality of The Punisher or Ghost Rider.  It’s just mindless and forgettable.  

Final Thoughts: Nope. 

Next Up: Thank god we can finally get to some good cinema.  Hello, Iron Man -- welcome to the MCU.  

#marvel movie nights #yes i watched two tonight so i could just get to iron man already

[dreadhaus-literature]

“Gun in My Hand.”

Bunny had a good idea, use the song you’re listening to, to write, and given we’ve been reading Civil War...well it just seems fitting.

“Why did love put a gun in my hand? Why did love put a knife in my heart? Why did love open up my scars?

Was it for redemption? Was it for revenge? Was it for the thrill of pushing my heart to the edge? Why did love, why did love put a gun in my hand?”

At the time, it had seemed like the only, inevitable outcome, but looking back on it...well, hindsight’s always 20/20, isn’t it?

The Cloak of Levitation, known more commonly simply as Stephen Strange’s cloak, fluttered around Monica’s petite shoulders, the tips of it’s collar gently touching her cheeks and temple like butterfly kisses, seeking to reassure her and keep her safe and warm while a group of Haushold members met their very deserved and just punishment for subjecting Monica to their terrible in-fighting.

The first two to face the dreaded “big shirt” were the catalyst of the fighting, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. And a big shirt it had to be indeed, what with Steve’s broad shoulders and Tony’s broader ego.

“Sweetheart, angel, light of my life,” Tony paused, shifting one shoulder before turning his dark head incredulously to Steve. “Did you fucking grow overnight? Why is there suddenly less material?”

“Stop complaining--and language,” Steve muttered, trying and failing miserably to get a little extra leverage in the shirt already stretched to it’s limits.

Tony’s staring only increased before he blinked, slowly, and turned back to Monica. “Babygirl does Daddy really have to do this? I already apologized to you, quite skillfully if I might add, between your thighs--”

There was a slight ripping sound as Steve reeled back to stare at Tony, now. “That’s inappropriate, Tony! You’re going to embarrass her!”

“Oh get off your high horse, Captain Man, don’t act like you don’t do the same thing--”

“I don’t embarrass her by telling everyone!” Steve also didn’t have it in him to embarrass Monica or speak publicly about his love life with his wife.

Monica blinked and looked up at Stephen. “Captain Man?”

Stephen made a show of restraint by not rolling his eyes. “Tony thinks he’s being clever calling Steve a mixture of his and Clark’s superhero name.”

“Because I am,” Tony snided.

“And it isn’t because you’re jealous how fast he and Clark bonded?” Stephen countered.

“Bruce is, I’m not, I could care less.” Tony answered so fast even the cloak turned, steering Monica’s petite shoulders as it went. “...Stop staring at me, Wonder Curtains--Stephen get your moving drapes away from me. But leave Monica.”

“Oh, we are most certainly leaving.” Stephen swept his arm around the small of Monica’s back, turning her from the two Avenger leaders to the next pair subjected to the Big Shirt--Namor and T’Challa.

“Empress~” Namor all but purred, his charming smile made a little more nefarious by that widow’s peak. “You are, as always, a vision.”

“My queen.” T’Challa bowed his dark head out of loving respect.

Monica had to give it to them, they managed to hold onto their refinement even wearing an over-sized shirt, both their heads in the same hole, shoulders brushing together with every movement they made.

“How has it been?” Monica asked, which was the true purpose of these rounds, to see how they were all getting along. She hadn’t even needed to ask Tony and Steve, they answered the unasked question by fighting the second they opened their mouths--but Stephen had warned her that T’Challa and Namor, being royalty, didn’t often resort to squabbling like, say, Tony and Steve. Their fighting was more subtle and she’d have to be on the lookout for it.

“Oh, who could possibly complain sharing such close quarters with the legendary ruler of Wakanda?” Namor’s question sounded genuine, flattering, but Monica was keen to him and had almost immediately picked up the underhandedness that laced his regal tone like cyanide.

T’Challa also was not buying it. “Namor has been stabbing me.”

“What?!” Monica nearly squealed, moving to lift the shirt to see what T’Challa was talking about--what she revealed beneath the fabric was Namor holding a hermit crab in one hand, and the little sea creature was going to town pinching, poking, and stabbing T’Challa with it’s tiny claws right in the Black Panther’s side.

“He’s being dramatic, it hasn’t even broken the skin.” Namor snapped.

“It’s shredding my clothes.”

“You’re welcome, that shirt is tacky.”

“Namor, give Monica the crab.” Stephen was mildly perturbed to have to utter such a ridiculous sentence.

Monica held out her hand and Namor did as Stephen asked--if only because he got to touch Monica in the process. Long, elegant fingers skimmed hers as Namor handed her what was essentially one of her little subjects, the crab scuttling around her palm, clacking away excitedly before scurrying up her arm to sit on her shoulder.

“T-Thank you,” Monica straightened up after replacing the shirt back down. “You boys behave, or you’ll be stuck here longer than Tony and Steve.”

The latter pair were still arguably audibly nearby, and Namor and T’Challa both turned to stare at them with refined sighs, but given their own history...they were probably heading for the same fate.

The next pair in the Big Shirt were Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom, known to most as Dr. Doom. Their rivalry was the oldest in the room, though Namor and T’Challa were a close second--and this was apparent the moment Monica got within earshot.

“For the last time, Victor, I’m not thinning myself to make the shirt bigger. I told Monica I wouldn’t use my abilities and I meant it.”

“Yes but my wife would not want me uncomfortable, Reed, so do as I say.”

Reed’s sigh was cut short as he lifted his head, his older features softening into a smile that almost made Monica forget his awful tunnel vision that led to so much pain and suffering by the rest of his family--almost, because Johnny, Sue, and Ben were standing nearby, and all it took was seeing them to remind Monica why she was doing this.

“Sweetheart,” Sue’s motherly voice was warm and affectionate as she opened her arms for Monica, giving the smaller woman a hug that included a kiss to the top of her head.

“How are they doing?”

“Well they haven’t killed each other,” Johnny’s handsome grin moved into Monica’s line of sight as he stole a few kisses from her cheek before the cloak furiously flapped him away. “Ack, Stephen your cloak doesn’t share very well.”

“None of us do.” Stephen replied.

“That’s not true, I share Dick with Peter.”

“That sentence came out gayer than you wanted it to.” Ben grunted, those massive arms folded over his chest.

Johnny turned to flip him off. “It was exactly as gay as I wanted it to be, shut the hell up Boulder Butt.”

“Do you have another Big Shirt?” Sue asked teasingly, winking down at Monica as Johnny and Ben immediately started to protest being stuck in a shirt together.

“I sure do! Just say the word, Mommy.” Monica giggled, warmed when Sue pressed another kiss to her forehead.

“I’m really trying, sweetheart.” Reed’s voice and tone was genuine, and the hopeful smile he gave Monica sealed the deal. “I want you to know how sorry I am, so I’ll stay as long as I need to.”

“Doom does not apologize for his actions.” Victor started, before...shifting his iron shoulders, those villainous eyes nailing Monica to the spot as he turned to her. “...Yet if you’ve found any of my behavior...unjust, Wife, we can discuss it in private.”

“Hey, no, Doom has to apologize just like Reed does!” Johnny interjected.

“I will apologize to my wife, none of you idiots deserve to hear contrition from Doom.”

Monica was grateful she couldn’t blush, as the deference Victor was showing her was obviously special and something he just did not show anyone else. “I-I appreciate it, Doom, but you...you do have to apologize like Reed does or you two have to stay like this.”

Victor was quiet for a long moment, eying his beloved wife, before he squared his shoulders. “Doom will apologize after Johnathon apologizes.”

Johnny nearly burst into flames on the spot--as it were, flames were racing up his arms and spine in a desperate attempt to keep up with his temper. “Why in the hell should I apologize to you?!”

“My wife is likely this upset because you allowed yourself to be beaten to a pulp on a street corner. Once that has been rectified, Doom will apologize.”

“I’m going to light that stupid hooded cape of yours on fire--”

“I think they need a bit more time, angel.” Stephen’s scarred, but warm hand found the small of Monica’s back as he ushered her away from the growing squabble. “There’s one more person we need to check on.”

It didn’t surprise Monica that there were so many people in Big Shirts, and it also didn’t surprise her that she didn’t remember who this last pairing was.

“Naaaaate, come on!! Everyone else is doing it!”

“No.”

It shouldn’t have surprised her that Wade and Nathan were nearby, Wade trying and failing to get Nathan in a Big Shirt with him.

“Mommi said--”

“What babygirl said was that you shouldn’t have tried to fucking shoot me.” Nathan corrected. “And you wouldn’t have wound up with a face full of tranq darts.”

“If you get in this shirt with me, you’ll find up with a face full of--“

Stephen cleared his throat purposefully, but to Monica’s surprise kept them walking past Nathan and Wade. So they weren’t the last pair?

Oh. He didn’t say pair, he said person.

That dawned on Monica the moment she saw Maria Hill, sitting by herself, taking up one half of a Big Shirt. The former Director of SHIELD looked a little sad, if Monica had to be honest, and the expression changed only slightly when she looked up.

“Monica,” Stephen gently urged her forward. “Maria would like to talk to you.”

Maria cleared her throat, meeting Monica’s gaze with a look that could only be described as determined. “I know you haven’t seen me at my best, lately. And I wish I could tell you I’m better than what you saw, but...words don’t mean a damn thing. Actions do. And I thought at first maybe I could ask Dot or the Furies to vouch for me, maybe make it a little easier to earn your love and respect but Fury Sr. told me I wouldn’t have liked that. That it would mean more if I could show you who I am and you could find it in you to love me that way.” Maria took a moment to swallow, and she averted her gaze. “So...for tonight, would you sit here, with me, while you read? Give me a chance to show you that even if I fuck up, make mistakes, that I deserve a spot in your heart, too.”

Monica could feel the cloak around her seeming to perk up and look at her, to see what she would say, but Maria was looking at her again.

“Please.” Maria held up the other end of the shirt, and for a moment, Monica could see her fingers tremble. She was nervous. “Just give me a chance.”

Sometimes the fingers that pull the trigger get scared, too, and just need a hand to hold.

#{collection} : once a week #{theme} : for monica

[fyeahfantasticfour]

Hey, sorry, too lazy to login. But I wanted to ask a question- how would you describe Reed’s relationship with Johnny? I saw someone saying he didn’t like Johnny, and that Johnny was disposable to him. I actually thought they had a really close relationship, so was curious as to what your opinions are. :)

Yes, you would be right. Johnny and Reed are incredibly close. They’re family, for starters. Reed is and always has been the closest thing Johnny’s ever had to a father, and Reed, similarly, sees Johnny as his son. Honestly, Franklin isn’t Reed’s oldest child – Johnny is. Reed took over the responsibilities of being Johnny’s father the second he met him (he saw a fatherless child and just… stepped into the role of his dad because he saw Johnny needed it). He treats Johnny very much like he treats all of his children – he guides, supports, praises, encourages, and advises him, and he lectures Johnny patiently when Johnny makes mistakes or behaves irresponsibly. But I think there’s a lot of pride there on Reed’s side whenever Johnny behaves like the kind, responsible, heroic man Reed’s spent years encouraging Johnny to become (and also Sue, of course, who is Johnny’s main parental figure). Reed is Johnny’s role model and mentor in a lot of ways, and Johnny completely adores him. Johnny clearly sees Reed as being everything he wants to be someday – a loving husband, a caring father, a good friend and brother, beloved, popular, and respected and taken seriously by the world at large. Reed, for his part, has been letting Johnny help him in his lab since Johnny was at least fifteen, he worries about Johnny’s well-being, he gives him advice and guidance, helps him play pranks on Ben, takes him out on adventures, looks after him, etc.

I think you also have to consider how the large age gap between Reed and Johnny impacts their relationship. Initially, from 1961-1985, Reed was 25 years older than Johnny (Johnny was 15, Reed 40 when the rocket crash happened). Reed was literally old enough to be Johnny’s father. In 1985, Byrne retconned it so that Reed was about 13 years older than Johnny, meaning that Johnny was no more than 5-6 years old when he met Reed for the first time. Practically still a baby. Most recently, Fraction retconned it so that Reed is only ~9 years older than Johnny, so Johnny was about 10 when they met. Johnny has always been just a child when Reed met him for the first time, and that’s very much affected the way Reed sees him – as a little boy who needs to be protected, encouraged, and guided. Reed’s frequently been shown worrying about Johnny’s well-being, his mental health, what will become of him, etc., the way one would about their children. He does occasionally get frustrated with Johnny when Johnny behaves irresponsibly, but he’s mostly very proud of the man (and hero) Johnny’s become, and he goes out of his way to tell Johnny so since he knows how insecure Johnny is. 

Johnny, in return, tries to earn Reed’s approval and respect and takes his opinion very seriously. He is fiercely loyal to Reed – he’s said he’d follow Reed to Hell and back, and he literally has done exactly that. So the dynamic between Reed and Johnny is really a father/son relationship – even when they argue, they still adore each other. They’re still family. I think that, other than Sue, Johnny admires Reed more than he admires anyone else. I can see how someone who doesn’t get how deeply they love each other might misinterpret Reed’s parental chiding as contempt, when it’s really not that at all. Reed doesn’t look down on Johnny at all – he worries about his mental health and his future, but he has good cause for both. 

Just to dispel the notion that Reed at all sees Johnny as “disposable” let me point out that during Waid’s run, in Fantastic Four Vol 1 #508, when Ben was possessed by Doom and threatening to kill Johnny, forcing Reed to choose between his best friend of the past twenty years and Johnny, his adopted son, he chose Johnny. I don’t think there are many people whose life he would choose over Ben’s.

He’s also, in Fantastic Four Vol 1 #219 just tells Johnny point-blank that he loves him – “no matter what happens, I want you to know I’ll always love both of you”:

(Let me also point out that there’s an AU where Reed and Johnny were the ones who got married, not Reed and Sue.)

REED SUPPORTING AND PRAISING JOHNNY:

There are many panels of Reed worrying about and supporting Johnny throughout the FF’s nearly 60-year history. For instance, in Fantastic Four Vol 4 #16, he tells Uatu the Watcher that he worries about what will become of Johnny, who responds by saying that Reed views Johnny “with the same protective nature that you do your own children” – i.e., Reed is as protective of Johnny as he is of his kids, and sees him in much the same way he sees Franklin and Val. Reed’s specifically worrying about Johnny because Old John, an AU Johnny they ran into, committed suicide to save his team, just as 616 Johnny essentially committed suicide to save Ben, Val, and Franklin not long before. So he has good reason to worry.

In Spider-Man & the Human Torch in… ¡Bahía De Los Muertos!, Johnny and Peter Parker have to deal with a mystery and monster by themselves because Ben, Reed, and Sue are off-planet on another mission, and when they return, Reed checks in to make sure Johnny’s okay (Johnny fainted after going nova twice). Johnny immediately begins to compare himself to Reed and tear himself down, but Reed cuts him off and praises what a good job he did. And then when Johnny points out that figuring out scientific mysteries and leading a team are so easy for Reed, Reed points out that Johnny can fly and he can’t – in other words, Reed’s intelligence is just another superpower/one of Reed’s strengths, and Johnny has some of his own that Reed lacks and even envies. Afterward, Peter tells Johnny that he looks like “daddy watched you catch the winning touchdown,” and Johnny responds by saying, “it does kinda feel that way,” and brags about Reed saying he was impressed with him. So Johnny clearly DOES see Reed as a father figure. 

In Fantastic Four Vol 3 #15, Johnny rushes off half-cocked to save Sue, and Reed stops and comforts him:

In Fantastic Four Vol 3 #54, Johnny’s tearing himself down for having panicked and summoned Doom to deliver Valeria (Reed was being held prisoner by rogue Inhumans at the time), and Reed reassures him and again praises him for having saved the lives of Val and Sue both, and even asks Johnny to be Val’s godfather:

In Marvel Knights 4 #9, Reed tells Johnny that he’s proud of him for sticking with his job as a firefighter, and Johnny seems speechless:

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #522, Johnny comes up with a plan to defeat Galactus, and Reed takes the time to praise his plan, and Johnny, again, seems very pleased that he’s earned Reed’s praise.

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #578, Johnny invites a girl back to the Baxter Building who turns out to be a Negative Zone bug trying to open the portal Reed has in his lab, thus putting everyone in the Baxter Building in danger, and Reed very gently lectures Johnny for behaving so thoughtlessly:

And in Fantastic Four Vol 1 #586, Johnny takes Reed’s advice so much to heart that he sacrifices himself to save Ben, Val, and Franklin – because this is what he stands for. Love of family.

And it’s not like Reed worrying about and supporting Johnny is recent. It’s been present from the very beginning. Even way back in Fantastic Four Vol 1 #1, Reed takes the time to praise Johnny when he does well: 

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #48, after 19yo Johnny’s separated from Crystal, the Inhuman Princess he’d fallen for, and he’s distraught, Reed gently comforts him, telling him that “no man who ever lived was more proud of his brother-in-law than I am of you right now,” because Johnny was strong and mature enough to accept that there was nothing to be done to reunite him and Crystal.

And earlier in that same arc, in Fantastic Four Vol 1 #47, Reed calls Johnny a man for the first time, and Johnny seems stunned and proud that Reed’s acknowledging that he’s growing up and treating him with more respect:

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #112, Reed again takes the time to praise Johnny for behaving maturely:

This is actually one of my favorite Johnny issues – in Fantastic Four Vol 1 #214, Ben, Reed, and Sue begin aging prematurely and are on the verge of death, and Johnny is left to figure out how to save them on his own, and all of his insecurities, anxieties, and self-doubt begin to consume him. When Reed, Sue, and Ben are cured, Reed again praises Johnny and very kindly assures him that “you’ve never been a failure” and that “without you, the Fantastic Four could not hope to exist.” 

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #244, Johnny’s girlfriend, Frankie Raye, recently dumped him for Galactus, Johnny goes missing for days, and when Reed and Sue discover that he’s in Frankie’s old apartment with Frankie’s roommate, Julie, they rush over to look after him:

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #300, Johnny turns to Reed for marital advice in the days leading up to his marriage to “Alicia” (but really Lyja), and the fact that he feels that getting married means that he’ll really need to “grow up” now and stop being “the kid of the group.” He clearly values Reed’s thoughts on marriage and feels comfortable and close enough to Reed to discuss his fears with him:

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #357, I think it’s pretty clear that Johnny admires Reed and Sue’s healthy, loving marriage, asking Sue “how do you and Reed do it? All the time you’ve been together, and it’s like you’re still on your honeymoon!”

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #358, after they all discover that Johnny’s wife is really Lyja (a Skrull spy sent to figure out how to kill them all), Reed blames himself for failing to protect Johnny:

JOHNNY’S LOYALTY TO/ADMIRATION OF REED

Johnny’s also just never tried to hide how much he admires Reed. During the very early years of the FF, little 15yo Johnny was unquestioningly loyal and obedient towards Reed, to the point that Ben teased him about it, like in Fantastic Four Vol 1 #7:

And in Fantastic Four Vol 1 #10, Johnny tells Ben that Reed “always was” the leader of the FF, even if Ben refused to acknowledge it:

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #39, Johnny admires how capable Reed is as a leader and a hero:

In Fantastic Four: The Wedding Special, we see a flashback where Reed turns to Johnny for advice on his relationship with Sue, and Johnny clearly wants Sue and Reed to get married, and again Reed and Johnny are bonding over their work on one of Reed’s vehicles:

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #182, Johnny tells Ben that Reed is “your basic nice guy.”

In Fantastic Four Vol 3 #60, Johnny passionately defends Reed from a writer who implied that Reed was arrogant:

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #501-2, Johnny’s the one who snaps Reed out of his depression/guilt spiral following a vicious attack by Doom that left Reed scarred and his family badly traumatized/injured -- a) this means that he knows Reed well enough to be able to snap him out of his depression, and b) he’s absolutely certain that Reed is incapable of murder, because he’s just too good.

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #543, Johnny says that he’d follow Ben, Sue, and especially Reed into Hell:

In Uncanny Avengers Vol 3 #2, Johnny remembers back to Reed trying to encourage Johnny to learn more about science, and Johnny says he doesn’t have to, because “that’s why we got you” – i.e., Reed is his safety net.

REED MENTORING JOHNNY

In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #12, we find out that little 15-16yo Johnny has been helping Reed design and work on the Fantasticar – and it’s something he’s continued to do since then. We all know Reed doesn’t really need help, so he’s just doing it to spend time with and encourage Johnny:

In Fantastic Four Vol 3 #1, Reed is working on the Fantasticar with Johnny and little Franklin (notice that little Franklin is “helping” Reed the way little Johnny probably used to), and Reed and Johnny have a little heart-to-heart (I really think that they do a lot of their bonding over working in Reed’s lab together). Notice that Reed takes the fact that Johnny is upset at Reed not telling him about a research station in the Antarctic before very seriously, and even apologetically:

In Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #657, Johnny points out that he helped Reed build the casing to the warp drive, and apparently is the one who decorates all of the FF’s vehicles too:

In S.H.I.E.L.D. Vol 3 #4, we see that Reed’s years of mentoring Johnny have really paid off – ~30yo Johnny has progressed to designing his own engines in his own workshop, is even entering them into competitions, and fully expects to win:

Anyway, I’ll stop there because this is already A LOT (sorry!) but, really, there’s so much to say about their father-son relationship! So I will leave you all with this panel of Reed taking his son and his son’s BFF out on a joyride through space:

Reed’s not like a regular dad. He’s a cool dad.

#fantastic four #johnny storm #reed richards #susan storm #ben grimm #invisible woman #human torch #the thing #mister fantastic #prime marvel universe #comics #mod: lamujerarana #asks #long post

[brw]

Tony Stark and Reed Richards for the character ask thing

TONY STARK

how i feel about this character: 😬 ngl i... don't care for him. at all. i don't vehemently hate him, there's definitely times where i appreciate him & his personality but it's few and far between and i... genuinely do not get the hype. i think its mostly mcu fans' fault for my dislike, its just he's fucking EVERYWHERE now, it's impossible to miss him? like he plays a big role in EVERY avengers comic now, he gets ongoing titles all the time, and it's just so frustrating especially when you consider characters who used to be more or less on the same level on them (like hank pym! who, by the way, has been dead for 6 consecutive years! that would never happen with tony!) or even more popular than him now get streamlined because of the mcu's popularity. by himself, i don't really mind him that much, but with how famous he is now and how large and frankly annoying his fan base is i just... now really do not like the character.

all the people i ship romantically with this character: short list here; reed, because i find their dymanic of reed as someone who does everything for his family and will do everything and anything he can to protect their interests above everyone else but also wants to keep his hands clean and believes, genuinely, in the good of the world, and tony as someone who will do horrendous things in the name of the greater good who always has the bigger picture in mind interesting. i also don't know a lot about it but he seems cute with rhodey? even if i think rhodey deserves a bigger chance to be his own character away from tony as is sometimes denied i can always appreciate a good best friends to lovers dymanic :)

my non romantic otp for this character: um? i honestly don't know 😭 i don't like him enough to say, i guess him n reed again? him n rhodey again? help 😭😭😭

my unpopular opinion of this character: he does not deserve the fame he has. like, i dont mean to sound jealous or whatever but pre 2007 movie he was not the most well liked character or even that popular. like obviously he had fans because he had solo series on and off for a very long time but it just feels SO ridiculous that tony stark has a bigger fandom than the fucking fantastic four. THE FANTASTIC FOUR. marvel's first superhero team, and yet??? like okay. he might have things to offer i don't see. he obviously does, i mean, he got three movies and multiple solo series. but he has most certainly not got enough as a character to overshadow the fantastic four, the x-men, etc and i will never forgive the mcu & mcu fans (and mark miller, he deserves blame too) for making it so. again, by himself he's fine but it is ridiculous to me that a one note white character that appeared in his third film (harley keener or... whatever) has 2000s more fics than THE PROTAGONIST OF INTO THE SPIDERVERSE, MILES MORALES. it is just... so vile and frustrating to me.

one thing i wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon: he didn't exist <3 jk jk um i'm not sure? i guess it would be funny if he was like... stick thin underneath the armour. like idk. he's in the armour 24/7 it makes sense to me for him to be a skinny little nerd under there. like completely fucking small. like you can't be a superhero AND be a billionaire and avoid all those taxes AND run the avengers AND run multiple massive corporations and still work out... even if you take away eating and sleeping there's just not enough time... it would be funny if he was just a tiny little boy underneath all that djndndbf

my otp: gonna say him and rhodey again. like i say, can never resist a good best friends to lovers dymanic.

my cross over ship: jdjshdhdh literally none i don't think about him enough to consider it <3

headcanon fact: 100% think he was the one to offer reed that money to star in a p*rno it's just so funny to me to imagine dhsnndnd

REED RICHARDS

how i feel about this character: HE'S MY BOY! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! like i guess it's paradoxical considering how similar he is to tony in some ways but man i just love reed so much. i so genuinely think reed richards is what tony stark fans want him to be. like they (mcu fans) make up elaborate headcanons of him being a good dad and an ethical billionaire and its like no that's reed richards? canonically he's gone broke bc he refuses to get money off his inventions... u have the wrong man... anyway he's also an asexual LEGEND i do not take criticism and ofc. autistic icon. literally he's so autistic it makes me <3 i love him dearly.

all the people i ship romantically with this character: it would be easier to list the people i DON'T ship with him lol. sue, obviously, victor ofc, and ben are the big ones, but i just LOVE his dymanic with t'challa and i think they would rlly work it... i also love the idea of him with namor, idk with victor it's just so funny to imagine reed as like. bizarrely attractive to rulers of foreign countries. blackagar faces the same problem <3 i also do believe him n hank pym dated in college for a bit... all their weird little microaggressions towards each other just makes me feel that way... again i do like him w/ tony and i made this weird au where he and emma frost got together which if prompted i WILL talk about. probably. more but yeah <3

my non romantic otp for this character: while i do LOVE them together as lovers i just love. benreed generally <3 like they're LITERALLY besties they love each other sm and i'm tired of pretending they don't????? so many people ignore this relationship and it makes me so sad!!! they're best friends they love each other fight for each other fight with each other theyre literally besties... smh put some respect on the benreed name 😤

my unpopular opinion of this character: i don't think this is that unpopular but it is in certain circles so! i genuinely think reed is the best marvel dad! like you can talk abt others all u want but the fact is that reed is the only character i can think of who has always been there in his kid's lives and has consistently put their needs first. like not saying other characters are bad but even at his worst writing he's always done his best for his kids and certainly has been full of love for them. other characters at their worse have. murdered their own kids <3 genuinely he's the best marvel dad and sure there's not a lot of competition but. yeah <3

one thing i wish would happen/had happened with this character: I WANT A CANONICAL AUTISM DIAGNOSIS NOW. literally he is SO autistic & there are... no big autistic marvel characters! at all! literally none! the closest we have is legion (who was written in an incredible ableist way and autism hasnt been used to describe him in a solid 30 years) and monet (and it turned out it wasn't monet but one of her twin sisters impersonating her :/) so it would just mean so much to see a canonically autistic character like reed who is older & has a wife and kids who he loves and who they love in return on panel. like so much of the rep we DO have is like, young kids or teens and idk an autistic adult would just mean so much to me. especially one like reed who is as selfless & loving as he is.

my otp: tie between doomreed and reedsue! any option that gets this noodle nerd lots of love i'm good for tbh

my cross over ship: him and ralph dibney from dc should date... they have so much in common... stretchy autistic man who's very smart and kind of silly who loves his wife sue who pegs him 🥴 they'd have so much to talk about sjbdhdhd also imagining the look on ben's face realising there's TWO of them is. so funny.

headcanon fact: he's aromantic he's asexual and neither of these stop him from his very meaningful & passionate relationship with his wife :)

assorted character ask game!

#oh boy i do not shut up. #long post #thank you for asking! #esteicy-blog #tony stark #anti tony stark #i guess?? idk dhdjdh #ch: i believe we endure #ask games} answers

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of September 4th, 2019

Best of this Week: House of X #4 - Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia and Clayton Cowles

No More.

Mutants have been made to suffer time after time after time because humans fear change and their inevitable obsolescence. Two of the greatest mutant extinction events have been the result of either human fear or absolute ignorance. In New X-Men (2001) we saw the utter destruction of Genosha by Bolivar Trask’s Sentinels, a massacre that resulted in the deaths of sixteen million mutants over the course of a single day. This left only a little under one million mutants left until House of M (2005) after which Wanda Maximoff decimated the mutant population, leaving only one hundred and ninety-eight left.

Thanks to the work of Moira MacTaggert and Charles Xavier with Krakoa, the mutant population is returning to normal levels and is looking to absolutely eclipse humanity in a short time span. Of course, humanity doesn’t take this too well, causing the Orchis Organization to activate itself, so it’s up to Cyclops and his band of Mutants to cast the enormous Mother Mold (a sentient machine that would create Master Molds to create Sentinels) into the blasted sun.

This issue was nothing short of heartbreaking.

Jonathan Hickman is doing something amazing with this book by showing just how strong the need for preservation is between both sides. In the last issue, one of the security team members for the Orchis station blew himself up in an effort to preserve a future where humans would be the dominant species. He wasn’t thinking about himself or his future with his wife, Dr. Gregor, the head of the station. He only wanted to ensure that The X-Men couldn’t stop the Mother Mold from being activated.

Scott’s team, now only consisting of Marvel Girl, Monet, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Mystique soldier on after Husk and Archangel are killed in the explosion. Nothing was going to stop them from completing the mission and they absolutely did, but not without each of them being killed in the process. I don’t feel the need to place a spoiler tag here because I have no doubt that either, some of the first issue of House of X takes place in the future and that they will all be reborn or that somehow they will be brought back to life as they will appear in other upcoming X-Series. 

Pepe Larraz absolutely killed this issue with his art alongside Marte Gracia and Clayton Cowles. Every single page has the feeling of large scale epicness to them from the vast emptiness of Krakoa’s Observation room to the different locales of the Mother Mold Base. When Mother mold itself floats into the Sun, quoting it’s own version of the Prometheus myth, it looks enormous at first and slowly descends into the much larger and grander sun. Gracia’s colors are absolutely beautiful as almost everything is bathed in the beautiful glow of the sun. Monet’s red skin shines even brighter as the cuts her way through Orchis security, Nightcrawler and Wolverine’s burning bodies create the perfect ash contrasted by the glowing blue eyes of Mother Mold as Wolverine cuts away the last anchor keeping it on the station and Karimas shining silver arms stand above Cyclops, coated in purple nanobot defeat, as the last thing we see from his visor’s reflection is Dr. Gregor aiming her gun in his face. 

Gracia’s colors are vibrant and help to make Larraz’s lines even more beautiful. They make excellent use of cool blue tones for the few scenes that take place in Krakoa, establishing the still peaceful nature of that location. The space station, however, is awash in heavy yellows and oranges that only set the tone for the book and its high tension, but also works to show us just how dire everything is for either side. It’s high pressure and high stakes. Gracia did a great job of giving things the proper amount of emotional weight through color where Larraz did through excellent facial expression and action.

Normally the brightness of the sun is supposed to represent a better future, but it’s hard to tell who this brighter future is for. The X-Men, ultimately, do win in this war for survival, but it’s a Pyrrhic victory. Karima, who we’ve seen standing beside Nimrod in the future, and Dr. Gregor stand in victory for this battle. Granted, we now that the future where Nimrod reigns has been nullified after Moira’s 10th death, it’s hard not to be afraid by Mother Mold’s ending proclamation and Gregor’s newfound bitter resolve.

Charles and the rest of Mutantkind can rest easy, but can they also live with the cost of what they’ve done if our predictions just so happen to be false? The purpose of Krakoa was to ensure that there would be no more needless mutant death, but in the wake of human fear, more have died. This isn’t like any other time where mutants have been killed and brought back to life years later. For some reason - it just feels heavier. Charles’ tear at the end, with Cowles amazing placement of a “No more” caption feels like a resolution. Charles Xavier is having no more death, not for any of his people and it is powerful.

---------------------------------------------------

House of X continues to be one of my most anticipated releases as the weeks go by. This story of death and rebirth keeps achieving new heights of amazing storytelling and even better art. Jonathan Hickman was the perfect choice to breathe new life into the X-Franchise as I don’t have any semblance of a clue what will be in store for the future of the X-Men.

What do the end pages of this issue mean? What will be the big fallout from the revelation of Powers of X #3? Will Pepe Larraz continue to be godlike in his presentation? We’ll find out next week in Powers of X #4.

Sometimes you just have to sit back and smell the roses. 

Runner Up: Fantastic Four #14 (Legacy #659) - Dan Slott, Paco Medina, Jesus Aburtov and Joe Caramagna

Growing up, I actually thought the Fantastic Four were pretty lame. They weren’t exactly high on my radar because they were a family of explorers, scientists and just general nerds. I got seriously into comics around the time their last book hit the shelves prior to all of the Disney/Fox nonsense and that really awful movie which soured me on them even more. Things changed when I began to read Secret War (2015) and realized that there was so much more that I was missing.

I scoured my stores for back issue and trade paperbacks of everything written by Jonathan Hickman, Mark Millar and Reginald Hudlin before seeking out the older stories by George Perez, John Byrne and Roy Thomas. I learned to love their love of science, adventure and family oriented stories, so when they finally made their Marvel return, I was excited and so far they’ve done nothing but impress. This particular issue is one of the best examples of how even just dialogue, dynamics and expressions can build a great foundation for a simple yet amazing story. 

The Fantastic Four have been everywhere. Other dimensions,hellscapes, universes and planets, but there's still one mission that they've never completed: their original flight to the stars. After a new gallery opens showcasing the original shuttle that they traveled on in all of its destroyed glory, Reed reminisces of that time with happiness. Ben listens to one of the original black box recordings as they were first getting hit by Cosmic Rays and he's overwhelmed with negative feelings. Two original Pilots for the space flight thank Johnny and Sue for taking their place, saying that they could have become monsters like Ben and Johnny becomes enraged with Sue having to calm him down.

These moments remind us of who these wonderful characters are and always have been. Reed is a scientific mind that's always looking to achieve more and better himself and his inventions. Ben still lives with the inner scars of his transformation despite being one of the most respected heroes in all of the Marvel Universe. Johnny is a hothead and Sue, his sister, has always been there to calm him down. The First Family have been there for each other forever, they know each other better than anyone else does. They care about each other.

Paco Medina captures each of their emotions in a Fantastic way with excellent facial expressions and body language accentuated by Jesus Aburtov's stellar colors. 

Reed stands tall as he marvels at the old shuttle with his kids, his face is full of pride and joy while they look mildly unimpressed. Later while he's working on specs for a new shuttle, we can see how focused he is, how determined. His fantastic beard shows how he's aged from his previous clean shaven self, but he's even more refined.

Ben remembers the original flight with trepidation and trembles as he remember his words when he was first becoming a rock monster. He stomps around in his normal grumpiness, but by the end, knowing that Reed, Sue and Johnny know and care about him so much, he smiles and eagerly helps them on their next journey. 

Johnny, being the hothead he is, does in fact show his anger as his eyes begin to turn orange after Ben is insulted, but we get an amazing flashback to when he was just a young adult in the shuttle program and the rigorous training that he was put through by Ben. This showcases just how much Johnny wanted to go to the stars and shows us how long he's been the ultra determined man that we know and love. Medina draws him going through the training with ease, only having space on his mind and the want to prove Ben and the other pilots wrong, becoming the youngest ever back up pilot in that universe.

Sue, being the ever loving sister, is the calm one as she gets Johnny to back off. She's radiant as a character and Medina portrays as her the linchpin of the family. She's the graceful one, drawn as serious as Reed, but with her normal beauty as well. She shows just how in love she is with her husband as he works on the specs and lays her head on his shoulder, smiling like she does in the flashback.

Nothing super action-y happens in this issue, in fact, one of the best moments is Johnny and Reed having a bonding moment working on the second shuttle. Both comment on how neither is using their powers to make the work easier and they share a laugh together. It's just a nice, warm moment between brothers-in-law doing something that they haven't been able to in years. It was at this time where I just fell in love all over again.

The Fantastic Four are more than just space adventures, aliens and Doctor Doom plots. They are a family in comics unlike any other. Where most teams are just friends that might hang out every once in a while, the FF are a family with a rich history and ever growing numbers with Franklin, Valeria and now Alicia Masters marrying Ben. The love is palpable and I wish I'd understood this for so many years prior. I can't wait for where this next adventure takes them, but I'm all for it.

#marvel comics #marvel #house of x #scott summers #charles xavier #jean grey #jonathan hickman #pepe larraz #marte gracia #xmen #x men #mutants #fantastic four #reed richards #mister fantastic #sue storm #invisible woman #ben grimm #the thing #johnny storm #human torch #dan slott #paco medina #jesus aburtov

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #290

Tue Jan 05 2021 [10:04 PM] Wack'd: Annihilus has knocked out the Four and is now gloating [10:05 PM] Wack'd: Blastaar's like "Why are you gloating? If not for me you'd still be a prisoner!" [10:05 PM] Wack'd: Annihilus sees the obvious logic problem there [10:05 PM] maxwellelvis: So Blastaar reversed their Bugs Bunny shenanigans to trick them into setting Annihilus on them, yeah? Just to sum up? [10:05 PM] Wack'd: Yeeeep! [10:06 PM] maxwellelvis: That's gotta be a real shot to the pride for Johnny. [10:07 PM] Wack'd: So Sue points out Annihilus should be dead [10:07 PM] Wack'd: Reed for once can only shrug [10:07 PM] Wack'd: "Like yeah, I'm pretty sure he died, I don't know what to tell you" [10:07 PM] maxwellelvis: "And at the moment I'm a little underprepared to work through this puzzle." [10:08 PM] Umbramatic: *shrug* [10:08 PM] Wack'd: Annihilus and Blastaar are thankfully preoccupied throwing each other around but Blastaar has called in reinforcements [10:08 PM] maxwellelvis: Reed seems to think best when he can stretch all over the place, is what I'm saying. [10:08 PM] Bocaj: Blastaar and his nephews Spewie, Rudie, and Kerplooey [10:09 PM] Wack'd: He called in an armada and yeah all the folks on these ships seem to look just like him but with different haircuts [10:11 PM] Wack'd: We're into full-on cosmic mode now as one of Blastaar's underlings in the calvery takes him out and declares himself the new leader of the Decepticons Baluurians [10:11 PM] Wack'd: As revenge for...something vague [10:12 PM] maxwellelvis: "He knows what he did!" [10:12 PM] Wack'd: Oh good Annihilus has saved me from politics by wiping the floor with the Baluurians [10:13 PM] Bocaj: That’s sad, baluurians [10:13 PM] Wack'd: Reed has decided their only hope is for him to touch Annihilus, thus blowing them both up [10:14 PM] Bocaj: DO IT REED [10:14 PM] Wack'd: Sue is like "hey, uh, gonna be making me a widow and a single mom, you get that, right?" but Reed convinces her because greater good etc etc etc [10:16 PM] Wack'd: I like how angry Sue is that he's doing this. Good expression work on her in these panels

[10:16 PM] Bocaj: "If you're so horny for the greater good then why don't you marry it?" "Believe me, I've looked into it" [10:16 PM] Umbramatic: reed x greater good otp [10:16 PM] Wack'd: Also Reed's last words to his wife are "thank you, darling." Jesus [10:17 PM] Umbramatic: "tell my wife hello" [10:17 PM] Bocaj: Pfft [10:17 PM] Wack'd:

[10:17 PM] Wack'd: More good expression but also jesus Johnny she's allowed to be sad [10:17 PM] maxwellelvis: Okay this new look has to go [10:18 PM] Bocaj: Sue amd johnny have the same haircut now [10:18 PM] Bocaj: (Who wore it best?) [10:18 PM] maxwellelvis: they look almost exactly the same and it's creeping me out [10:18 PM] Bocaj: How very Lapis and Lazuli [10:18 PM] Umbramatic: two of them [10:18 PM] Wack'd: Also: this is kinda all Johnny's fault huh. His idiocy directly resulted in Annihilus getting loose and indeed in any of the bad guys having the cosmic control rod at all [10:18 PM] Bocaj: Hey, yeah! [10:18 PM] Wack'd: So like, maybe show a little remorse, dude [10:20 PM] Wack'd: Okay his actual last words are "I love you, Sus--". That's better

[10:21 PM] Umbramatic: pretty explosion [10:21 PM] Bocaj: Reed's last act was to declare his wife sus [10:21 PM] Bocaj: She'll be voted on next [10:21 PM] Wack'd: Boooooooo [10:21 PM] Wack'd: Is what a ghost would say [10:21 PM] maxwellelvis: I am guessing it's because up until the moment Annihilus charged him, Reed was still hoping that he'd think of some way to get out of this, but he still could have said that before she left. [10:22 PM] Bocaj: "I can't read his lips" Reed says [10:22 PM] Wack'd: In fairness he's got a Doctor Doom esque mouthpiece [10:22 PM] maxwellelvis: I thought it was a huge mandible. [10:23 PM] Bocaj: I didn't even know that was a mask for a long while. I - yeah [10:23 PM] Bocaj: Thought he was a bug man [10:23 PM] Bocaj: Perfect Cell vs Pissed off Annihilus [10:23 PM] maxwellelvis: I mean, they draw him as a bug man more these days. [10:23 PM] Wack'd: It has been open to interpretation for a long time but Kirby drew them basically identically so [10:23 PM] maxwellelvis: Maybe when he looks more insectoid that's him without his helmet on? [10:23 PM] Wack'd: *shrug* [10:24 PM] Bocaj: I searched annihilus without helmet and the first result was Nova tearing his guts out his mouth [10:24 PM] Bocaj: Good call, google [10:24 PM] Wack'd: And so the Negative Zone is closed for business. Fury scrambles SHIELD to look for any trace of Reed in space but Sue points out, uh, there's maybe a minute before that becomes pointless [10:26 PM] Wack'd: This is the kind of bonkers bathetic juxtaposition I come to comics for

[10:26 PM] maxwellelvis: I forgot SHIELD has flying cars [10:27 PM] Bocaj: Hey Nick looks Reedish from a distnace. They should get him to join [10:27 PM] Umbramatic: beep beep [10:27 PM] Bocaj: Mr. Irascible [10:27 PM] Umbramatic: bocaj i noticed the same thing [10:27 PM] Wack'd: I'm pretty sure this exact flying car is in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. [10:27 PM] maxwellelvis: I did a double take [10:27 PM] maxwellelvis: to see the cigar [10:28 PM] maxwellelvis: Maybe Avery Brooks should have joined SHIELD [10:28 PM] Wack'd: And so we cliffhang on, uh. Well

[10:28 PM] Bocaj: Dammit, stop breaking time you dinguses [10:29 PM] Wack'd: It is deeply weird to me that rather than letting Sue (or Johnny or anyone) process Reed's death it's straight to another wacky adventure [10:29 PM] Wack'd: But that seems to be the way it works for Sue, huh

#1986 #John Bryne #The Main Book

[imperiuswrecked]

Well, it seems asking you one question has opened the floodgates, cuz I've got more. So, to start; do you feel that Namor's pursuit of Sue is because he enjoys the game, or does he genuinely think he'll be able to woo her away from Reed? Do you think the fact that Sue is with someone else is part of her appeal for him? Given his notorious weakness for badass blondes, would Namor pursue Sharon Carter or would his friendship with & respect for Steve prevent him from doing so?

You just opened up a whole rant, lol. SusanxNamor is yikes... in fact I’m firmly in the “Marvel please kill this “ship” and burn it to ash and never mention it again” camp. Like I can’t even tell you how much I hate it, because I don’t think I’ve ever really hated any ship before or since with this intensity. Here is a couple of previous stuff I posted that kinda explains it better.

SusanXNamor rant

SusanXNamor ask

To begin with NamorxSusan is not a romantic ship, its not. Its a unhealthy obsession on Namor’s part, and for Susan, who has repeatedly made it clear that she does not want him, at all, it’s an annoyance. However Marvel loves their love triangles. Even though its been shown that both characters can and have moved the hell on, we always get more susanxnamor crap.

Not to mention that this makes both characters look scummy, Susan for being “unfaithful” to Reed and Namor for being a “homewrecker”. Marvel already explores a What if? Susan and Namor got together in an au comic. So it’s not like I would be against it if that’s how it turned out in the beginning, where the choice was made long ago before Reed and Sue got married, but now? It’s far too late, its been 58 years. 58 years of baiting fans with “will this be the issue where susan finally leaves reed for namor?” its not ever happening. No Namor fan I know actually likes the ship at all. Why? Because its not a good relationship, both character have zero things in common, they barely speak if they aren’t forced together in this “susan you must come away with me under the sea to atlantis no one appreciates you here and i can make you my queen”. Where’s their shared interests? Where’s the chemistry that has nothing to with “You’re hot, let’s bang”? That’s literally all it is. 

This may be more harmful for Namor fans because any, and I mean any, romantic relationship Namor has ever had or ever will have is always going to be temporary because the minute Marvel decides they need Namor to be the third wheel in Reed/Sue/Namor then they kill or write off his relationship. His first wife Lady Dorma died because Marvel “thought Namor would be too happy and they didn’t want him to settle” Marrina? Dead, in fact they killed her twice, and she came back a few years ago in the comics but she and Namor, to whom she was married, have not even spoken. So it’s why I really hate how Namor is constantly being written so shitty in Fantastic Four comics because he is the antagonist there. Susan never gets any real foes because her true foe “resisting the temptation” that Namor presents. Namor who in his own comics and other comics, shows that he is respectful to women etc., is written as the worst version of himself in Fantastic Four comics. So I say keep those two far far apart.

Another thing about baiting fans is in Namor, the Sub-Mariner #49-50 Namor finally “sleeps with sue” except its not sue, its a woman named Llyra who wore sue’s face. Namor does not react well. Susan pleads with him to let her go even after she knows that Namor was raped. So at that moment, I realized that there really is nothing in this SuexNamor ship that was worth all the stuff the writers put Namor’s character through.

The first blonde that Namor really loved was Betty Dean, who was a HUGE  part of Namor’s narrative and how he came to see the surface people as not all bad. However Betty is dead and her impact is constantly being reduced to nothing. Namor loves strong women, and his wives both didn’t have blonde hair.

Do I think that because Susan is with Reed that Namor is more insistent about wooing her? No and yes. No, because Namor has stated many times in the comics that he respected her decisions, or he congratulated the pair on their wedding and he has on more than one occasion helped save their marriage when it was on the brink of divorce because he wanted Susan to be happy and knew that she would be happy with Reed. Yes, because Namor does seem to pursue women who are firmly out of his reach as a way to tell himself later then his plans fail, “well it wouldn’t have worked out anyways” or as a way to protect himself form yet another failed attempt at love. It’s a mixed bag.

I don’t think Namor would pursue Sharon, after all he and Steve are friends and I don’t think (other than one comic where it turned out the woman was a fake robot who tried to seduce him) Namor really goes after the few friends he has significant others, not to mention that even if Namor ever flirted with Sharon, I’m sure she would have a few choice words for him to put him in his place or just punched him, either way works XD.

Namor really is a romantic dramatic undersea romeo. He loves the idea of being in love, he is passionate, but he doesn’t really have any experience with being in a long term committed relationship because, as I’ve said before, everyone Namor ends up falling in love with dies, it gets to the point where Carrie knows what happens to the women in his life and she doesn’t want to be another dead wife/girlfriend. She explains this to Nita before stating she and Namor can’t be more than friends.

Namor the sub-mariner (1990) #3-4

#namor #namor the sub-mariner #susan storm #steve rogers #sharon carter #captain america #marvel comics #long post #tw rape mention #comic meta #sorry this is really long #thanks for asking! #krinsbez

[madamebaggio]

Chapter 4

“It’s awfully kind of you to walk us, Ser Davos.” Lucy smiled at the man, who had actually offered his arm to the girl.

Edmund rolled his eyes, while Peter hid a grin. Trust Lucy to charm their jailers in under four minutes and make him feel he was being nice for escorting them when it was his job.

Susan might be the diplomat of the family, but Lucy was naturally trustworthy and people just flocked to her.

“I am worried about Susan.” Edmund admitted from his right.

“King Jon will treat your sister with nothing but the utmost respect, Lord Edmund.” Brienne informed him earnestly.

“Believe me when I say, lady Brienne, that I do not wish to say I don’t believe in you.” Peter replied honestly. “However, I am the eldest brother of two beautiful sisters. I don’t like when they’re with men that I don’t know and trust.”

Brienne nodded like his answer made perfect sense for her. Of course, she didn’t know that Peter wasn’t just being overly cautious. He was still suffering with the regret of all the events that led to Susan’s kidnapping, not long ago. So was Edmund, for that matter.

“Don’t worry, lad.” Tormund, the redheaded brute, called. “Snow might as well not have a pecker anymore, since he doesn’t use it.”

“Tormund!” Davos bristled. “We have a lady present.”

“Beg your pardon, little lady.” The burly man said directly to Lucy, but he didn’t look repentant.

“He gets too close to my sisters he really won’t have a pecker anymore.” Peter grumbled.

“Peter!” Lucy chided. “He’s our host, and this isn’t polite.”

“You’ve been learning from Sue, Lucy.” Edmund grinned. “The haughty tone is exactly the same.”

The youngest Pevensie showed her tongue to her brother.

Ser Davos had a bemused look on his face as he looked at the siblings, but he once again became serious when they came to the solar.

Peter entered first and found Susan standing there. She had that look on her face, one that he knew meant she’d been taking them all to school, showing how much of a Queen she was. Peter was always amused to see her putting people in their place, he just wasn’t sure it was an appropriate thing right now.

“Susan.” He stepped close to her, his hand going to her back. “Are you alright?”

“The King has been nothing but courteous, brother.” She smiled kindly at him, and Peter knew she was being sarcastic.

He gave the other man a look. “Your Majesty.” He nodded.

“Actually, it’s ‘Your Grace’.” Susan informed him.

Peter arched a brow at his sister, but turned to the man again, this time bowing. “Your Grace.”

The King took the four siblings standing in front of him. “Would you introduce me to your siblings, my Lady?” He asked of Susan.

“Should I spare you a lot of time, or would you like to hear their titles as well, my King?” She said with that frosty politeness.

He heard Edmund turning a snicker into a cough, but the King never replied, he just arched a very expressive eyebrow.

“This is my youngest sister, Queen Lucy, the Valiant, Duchess of Ferny Hills, Healer of Wounds and Dame of the Most Noble Order of the Lion.” She indicated Lucy, who curtsied prettily and smiled.

“This is my younger brother, King Edmund the Just, Duke of Lantern Waste, Count of the Western March and Knight of the Noble Order of the Lion.” She put her hand on Edmund’s shoulder, who had stopped by her left.

“And this is the eldest of us.” She nodded towards Peter. “High King Peter the Magnificent, Emperor of the Lone Islands, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Lion.”

“Aslan also calls him Sir Wolf’s Bane.” Lucy offered.

That gave them all pause, and Susan sighed. “Lucy, their sigil is a wolf.” She pointed at the obvious banner behind the King. “That wasn’t assuring.”

Lucy looked properly embarrassed. “I am so sorry, Your Grace.” She hurried to say. “That was awfully tasteless of me.”

Susan sighed once again. “These are my siblings, Your Grace.” She finished, and Peter almost smiled at her disgruntlement.

The King finally chose to rise to his feet. “I am King Jon Targaryen.” He informed them. “I don’t have so many creative titles, unless I decide to use the old ones.”

“We can always go back to calling you Lord Crow.” Tormund offered from behind the siblings.

The King ignored the big man. “Welcome to Winterfell.”

“It is an honor to be here, Your Grace.” Peter offered. “Has my sister explained what happened?”

The King nodded. “About other worlds and Spring.”

“And how we aren’t married.” Susan offered to Peter.

“Married?” Lucy repeated shocked. “But we’re siblings!”

“Apparently it isn’t much of an impediment here.” Susan commented.

The King gave her a look, like it wasn’t the first time she’d been a bit insolent in his presence, which surprised Peter, because normally Susan was beyond courteous. Still, this was his sister, and no one would look at her like that.

Peter took a step forward, putting himself between the King and Susan. “Did you come to an understanding with my sister, Your Grace?”

“She offered your services.” The King informed him.

“Have you accepted it?”

The King nodded. “We’re waiting for my Maester, so you may know the people that run Winterfell.”

They waited in a tense silence for two minutes, Peter never daring to take his eyes off the King, until the door opened and a fat man with pink cheeks and a woman came in.

“Sam, come here.” The King called the man. “This is Sam Tarly, he is our Maester. His wife Gilly is my cousin’s handmaiden.” The King said.

The Pevensie siblings curtsied to both.

“Ser Davos is the Master-At-Arms of Winterfell.” He indicated the older woman. “Lady Brienne is part of the personal guard of my cousin. Tormund is the representative of the Free Folk in the North.” The redheaded man grunted his agreement.

The King turned to the two women behind them and they came closer. Peter had kept his eyes on the man the whole time, so this was the first time he actually paid attention to them.

He wasn’t sure how he had missed the redhead at first, but Lucy would probably say it was because he was an idiot.

He’d never seen a more beautiful woman in his life. Her hair was like a river of fire and her eyes were two sapphires. He was pretty sure he was staring.

“These are my cousins.” The King informed them. “Lady Sansa is my Hand, and Lady Arya, my Captain of the Guards.” He indicated first the redhead, then the brunette.

The siblings once again bowed in respect.

“So you’re married to which one?” Lucy asked cheerfully.

Jon looked at her, like he wasn’t sure if she was making a serious question or being sarcastic. “Neither.”

“Oh.” She looked confused for a minute. “But I thought you married your siblings here, so marrying your cousins must be pretty normal too.”

“Lucy!” Susan called appalled.

The younger girl blushed deeply. “I am sorry!”

Tormund was guffawing. “I like the little lass.” He declared.

“Who are they?” Susan pointed at the two people who’d been on the back of the room in silence.

The King looked like he’d just remembered about them. “This is my cousin, Bran Stark, and Lady Meera Reed.” He informed them simply.

It didn’t explain anything, much less the vacant look in the boy’s eyes. Was he sick? Did the family hide him away, for some reason? He didn’t even look at them as he was introduced; Meera was the who did, and she just gave them a quiet nod.

However, if Peter was honest he didn’t understand any of those titles, though he could deduce some of them. But what was a Hand of a King?

“Lady Sansa will get you rooms for tonight.” The King informed them. “Tomorrow we’ll make better arrangements. I would like to see you all at the training grounds early in the morning, so we can access how your abilities might help us. Later Maester Tarly can appraise you to the situation in the North.”

They all nodded. It was a bit more than they had expected.

“Your Grace…” Lucy took a step forward. “I do not wish to abuse your generosity, but what of our weapons?”

“No weapons until I know I can trust you.” The King replied immediately.

“This is a fair assessment, Your Grace.” Lucy started again. “But I have just one thing to ask of you. Those weapons are precious to us, very much so. They kept us safe and were a special gift from someone. Keep that in mind when you keep them.”

Jon studied Lucy for a minute, before nodding. “This is acceptable, my Lady.”

“Thank you, Your Grace.” Lucy bowed perfectly, a smile on her face.

“I shall take you to your rooms now.” Lady Sansa declared. Even her voice was pretty. “At this time we only have two chambers available. We have many lords staying at Winterfell now, so we’re lucky to have these two.”

“We can share.” Edmund assured her. “We shared a lot of tents during battles.”

“I am staying with Sue, because both of you snore.” Lucy hurried to say.

“We do not!” The brothers protested at the same time.

Lady Sansa looked amused by the display. “Follow me.”

The four siblings curtsied to the King one last time before following the redhead. They saw that Lady Arya and Brienne were following them, obviously guarding the woman.

Peter was trying to stop looking at her, but it was impossible. She was immensely gracious, a true lady. Sure, he’d seen other woman that were gracious –Susan was a perfect lady –but, Sansa had something different, steel beneath the velvet of her skin, strength hidden under…

Susan elbowed his middle and gave him a look. He was caught.

Sansa stopped in front of one of the doors. “Here is one room.”

“Go on, Sue and Lucy.” Peter told them gently. “We’ll talk tomorrow.” He dropped a kiss to each of their foreheads and watched as they entered the room and closed the door.

A guard was posted there, and lady Brienne whispered some order to him.

“Follow me.” Sansa said to Peter and Edmund.

They didn’t have to walk much until they were standing next to another door. “Thank you, my lady.” Peter told her.

She just nodded at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow. You should rest.”

“We will. Sweet dreams.” Peter bowed to her.

She arched a brow, but just nodded at them as they entered the room.

Once the door closed behind them Edmund snickered. “So suave…”

Notes: Someone is halfway in love already, and someone else is going to be a bit more stubborn about it... hahahaha

And I had a lot of fun coming up with more imaginary titles for the Kings and Queens of Narnia... hahahah

Let me know your feelings!

#madame baggio #fanfiction #CrossOver #Crossover Pairings #game of thrones #The Chronicles of Narnia #jon snow #Sansa Stark #Arya Stark #bran stark #susan pevensie #lucy pevensie #peter pevensie #edmund pevensie #OOC #jon snow x susan pevensie #peter pevensie x sansa stark #gifs not mine #the spring that thaws winter

[traincat]

I know you've already sort of discussed this but could you please explain the marvel 2 in 1 ending... what I'm getting is that the gist of it is that Reed and Sue are just like 'lol whoops I guess we sorta forgot about u'... which is really kinda anticlimactic and abrupt. Did I read it wrong or something? All that build up and angst just for it to go down the drain... is there something more to it that I'm missing that you know of?

I can explain it, but the answer’s not going to satisfy you, because it doesn’t satisfy me. Long story short: there were implications there was something more to the story than Marvel Two-In-One’s final two issues said, but Fantastic Four hasn’t followed up on that like, at all, and shows no signs that they’re going to anytime soon.

In the interests of putting all of the pieces together, I’m going to lay out everything that happened between the cancellation of the Fantastic Four title and now, because there are a lot of fuzzy periods. The Fantastic Four disappeared from the Marvel universe and from the shelves back in 2015, following Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Wars event. In Secret Wars, the multiverse has been destroyed and cobbled back together into Battleworld, a realm where Doctor Doom rules as god king, with Sue as his wife, Ben transformed into a huge wall, and Johnny as Battleworld’s artificial sun. It’s a real fractured fairy tale. At the end of Secret Wars, Reed defeats Doom and reunites his family. Using Franklin’s mutant ability to create entire universes and the Molecule Man’s powers, Reed, Sue, and the children of the Future Foundation set out to recreate the multiverse. Ben and Johnny are sent back to their own Earth with comment that “their stories aren’t done yet.” Doom is also sent back with his scarred face restored. 

The cancellation of the Fantastic Four at this point heralds the first time Marvel had been without a Fantastic Four book on the shelves since 1961. We know – partially because it was painfully obvious, and partially because Jonathan Hickman spilled the beans – that the Fantastic Four comics were cancelled because of a film rights dispute; aka, Marvel Studios and Disney didn’t have the film rights, and Ike Perlmutter threw a fit about it. Instead of doing their best to put out a good book that would draw in comics audiences, Marvel instead cancelled Fantastic Four, citing low readership. Marvel has denied this, but the truth is pretty obvious, especially with how the Fantastic Four’s return to comics just so happened to coincide exactly with when it became extremely clear that the Disney-Fox merger was going through. So right from the start we had this very inorganic reason as to why the Fantastic Four were hung up. Reed, Sue, and the kids were retired out of universe under the excuse that they were rebuilding the multiverse – which, to be fair, does work as a pretty good excuse. Johnny and Ben, on the hand, were kept in-universe and distributed to other properties, probably because of Ben – who, let’s be honest, is the most popular of the Fantastic Four and the moneymaker here – and because it made more sense to keep Johnny and Ben than just Ben. 

Immediately post-Secret Wars, there was an eight month (iirc) timeskip in the main Marvel universe, meaning that books that picked up after the events of Secret Wars picked up significantly after it; we see very little of the Secret Wars fallout. Here’s what we do know concerning the Fantastic Four: Reed, Sue, and the kids were largely believed to be dead, although Johnny in particular initially refused to believe that. Sometime during this timeskip, Johnny and Ben had some kind of fight. We don’t know what it was about. Honestly, at this point, we’re unlikely to ever know what it was about. Whatever it was, it was bad enough that Ben and Johnny severed all communication and Ben left the planet to join the Guardians of the Galaxy. What followed was the longest separation between Ben and Johnny that we’ve ever seen in canon. Johnny and Ben are famous for squabbling, but their fights rarely last longer than a few days at most; they’re extremely close, to the point that when Ben was presumed dead, Johnny’s coping mechanism mirrored Ben’s long time love and current wife Alicia’s. This post-Secret Wars separation between them lasted longer than when Ben thought Johnny had gotten together with said longtime love Alicia (it was a Skrull in disguise, but nobody would know that for like 80 issues). This separation between them is completely unprecedented, and like I said, we have no idea what caused it.

This scene from Infamous Iron Man #9 is the closest I’ve gotten to determining a root of the fight – note Johnny says “my family”, all handily bolded for emphasis. Not “our family”, “my family.” Ben is the only member of the Fantastic Four not related by either marriage or blood to any of the others, which has been a very occasional sore spot in the past. But even this scene doesn’t quite make sense – it’s hard to imagine Ben and Johnny having a months long separation over this alone, and to make matters more confusing, before Infamous Iron Man #9, Johnny had tried to get in contact with Ben only to be rebuffed. In Infamous Iron Man #9, Ben gets in contact with Johnny only for Johnny to practically run away from him. Already the new dynamic here feels like it needed more attention in the narrative than it actually got.

I think part of the problem with this whole return of the Fantastic Four storyline – the actual return especially, but even the lead-up – is that it was never established what was keeping Reed and Sue from coming back. On top of that, if they had the power to send Johnny and Ben back, why weren’t they able to send them back with some sort of memory or guarantee that Reed, Sue, and the kids were okay? It would have been very easy to say “well, a supervillain did it!” You know, the easiest comic book plot excuse of all time. But they didn’t do that. And that creates a problem when it’s a well-established fact that Johnny in particular tends to fall into a deep depression and displays signs of self-harm when the team isn’t together. (Fantastic Four #191-193, Robinson’s Fantastic Four run, Ben’s death in Waid’s run.) Which is exactly what happened this time, too, both during the timeskip and in the lead-up to Marvel Two-In-One (2017). 

Marvel Two-In-One (2017) was essentially the test run for the return of the Fantastic Four. The original Two-In-One was to Ben Grimm what Marvel Team Up was to Peter Parker: essentially a team up book that revolved around one character. So it made sense to relaunch it starring Ben and Johnny. In Two-In-One, Ben discovers Johnny at the end of his rope, pulling life-threatening stunts in his grief and depression, and, willed a multidimensional travel device by Reed, decides to – to the best of his knowledge at the time – lie to Johnny and say that Reed and Sue might still be alive. Learning that they’re both losing their powers and will continue to do so unless they’re reunited with Reed and Sue, as their powers depend on the four of them being in the same universe (an interesting concept, though not one we’ve seen before), Ben and Johnny set off, with a worryingly helpful Doctor Doom on their heels, on a multiversal roadtrip to find their family – one Ben thinks will fail from the start because, as far as he knows, Reed and Sue are dead. It’s a really good concept, and a great concept that starts to fall apart as soon as the notion that Reed and Sue aren’t dead starts to float to the surface. In Two-In-One #9, stranded powerless with Ben in the desert in another universe and facing death, Sue appears to Johnny.

(Marvel Two-In-One #10) This brief contact is apparently enough to reignite Ben and Johnny’s powers to full strength. Sue says that her and Reed’s powers were gone, which does seem to track with the plot – except Johnny and Ben lost their powers over a prolonged period of time, not all at once. If Reed had realized he and Sue were losing their powers, he should have come to that conclusion far before this point in time. You can say the times don’t add up because different universes (which the “you haven’t met the Zaklons yet” line would seem to imply), but with no explanation about how Sue was able to contact Johnny – however briefly – at this point, it does make it seem like Reed and Sue could’ve made contact with Ben and Johnny at any point… and simply chose, for whatever reason, not to. Which is, ultimately, the story Two-In-One goes with. 

(Marvel Two-In-One #11) In the very next issue, Reed’s reasoning for why they didn’t take Ben and Johnny with them is that… they would’ve been bored by the science aspect of it all. Which is, I’m going to go ahead say, very out of character and not in the spirit of the Fantastic Four. They’re explorers, and they explore together. This seems like a weirdly brusque excuse to write off the absence so they can get back to the status quo as quickly as possible, using Reed’s science-obsessed image to make him the fall guy. Additionally, in this issue (which I have to say, I overall like – I wrote a whole Doom/Reed fic based off of it), Reed also offers another reason why the world had to believe he and Sue were dead:

In Marvel Two-In-One #11, Reed and Ben visit an alternate universe Doom who exists in a universe where his own Reed is dead. This Doom is a pretty okay dude at the moment – in fact, he and Reed had become, through Reed’s private multiversal travel, close friends. Using this (pretty flawed) logic of “Reed dead = Doom good??”, Reed deduced that if his own Doom thought Reed was dead, he… too would be good? Look, I don’t hate this. I’m a big Doom/Reed fan and the whole thing is pretty shippy and it also depends on Reed having an enormous attachment to Doom and an enormous desire for his own Doom to be like this other Doom, who is his friend. But as far as “why did Reed and Sue stay away as long as they did” explanations go, “Reed was kind of bonkers in love with Doom” is not the direction I expected things to go. Besides, it doesn’t really work, and it doesn’t really work for one big reason: Fantastic Four (2018) #1, the actual return of the Fantastic Four, was published before this, and Fantastic Four (2018) #1 implies a hugely different story.

Fantastic Four (2018) #1 sees Johnny and Ben returned to their home universe after the events of Marvel Two-In-One #10. The reader has no idea how they got there or what they’ve been doing since they got back, or even how long it’s been since they’ve been back. Despite the Sue sighting, at the very end of the issue, Johnny becomes convinced all over again that Reed and Sue are dead, up until… 

(Fantastic Four v6 #1) The staging here is important – Reed and Sue’s battle-ripped uniforms, and the cryptic lines between them, like Sue’s “what you plan to do… seems impossible.” This is compounded by dialogue between Franklin and Val in the next Fantastic Four issue:

“You think you can boost that signal enough… to reach Earth?” “Home? I’m good, but there’s no way I’m that good.” This would definitely seem to imply that, for some reason, Reed, Sue, and the kids can’t contact their home universe, or Ben and Johnny at all. I’m admittedly biased in favor of this version: the more time went by without Reed and Sue contacting Johnny and Ben and leaving them on their own, the more obvious it became that this was the best solution, to create some comic book reason why Reed and Sue simply couldn’t return home. But Fantastic Four (2018) #3 and #4 never really explore this more, and the subject gets dropped altogether, which makes for a very unsatisfying read. The Fantastic Four simply return home together and, some frankly too quickly brushed off anger and resentment from Johnny in Marvel Two-in-One’s closing issue aside, this gets swept under the rug in favor of the Fantastic Four just being back now! Hurrah! Pay no attention to the film rights hungry Mouse behind the curtain! 

If I wanted to, I could make the explanations presented in Fantastic Four (2018) and Marvel Two-in-One (2017) mesh – Reed has massive guilt issues stemming back to the accident that granted the Fantastic Four his powers. He has a bad habit of taking responsibility that isn’t necessarily his, and of not being 100% truthful in situations because he feels it’s for the best for everyone. (The massive amount of time he takes to reveal his powers are failing during Fraction’s Fantastic Four run, or in the two instances during Waid’s run where Reed uses cruel words to distract both Ben and Sue from his plans to sacrifice himself for them.) Reed might have chosen to take the blame on himself – come up with a story he knows will anger Ben, say that he thought he and Johnny would have been bored, because he felt it was somehow easier than admitting that he and Sue found themselves in some kind of situation where they simply couldn’t get back, and couldn’t contact Ben or Johnny. It’s a way of taking 100% of the blame on himself, which would be a very Reed thing to do. But that would be me doing the book’s work for it; this is absolutely not established within the actual canon as of the time of my writing this.

Honestly, I don’t think we’re likely to see this explored more any time imminently – the Fantastic Four were banished from the stands because of film rights. They came back because for three years dedicated fans asked where the Fantastic Four were, yes, but also because of those same film rights. Now that they’re back, there seems to be this huge rush to pretend it never happened: the Four are back together, and that’s that. It’s very unsatisfying, but it’s clear Marvel cared more about pushing the Fantastic Four back together as quickly as possible than writing a coherent, satisfying story that put together all the pieces of their in-universe disappearance.

#foil-in-a-thunderstorm #*replies #traincat talks comics #long post/