FF #12—Wow, pretty serious departure here from what’s gone before, in terms of art. With the main title piggybacking off this numbering and dropping a #600 last week, this is suddenly the spinoff title featuring the gang of kids that Reed’s put together as a futurist think tank, an idea I’m all for. Going with Juan Bobillo seems slighty risky, particularly coming right off of Kitson, just because the former’s got so much of a scratchier, stylized, I-guess-for-want-of-a-better-label indie aesthetic going on. I, for one, loved it, but can see a bunch of Hitch/McNiven fans picking this up and dropping the title before lucky #13 comes out at the end of the year, figuring they’ll be getting their fill from the original FANTASTIC FOUR. That would be a terrible mistake, though, because Hickman’s got plenty going on here, most importantly breakout character Val Richards getting a little bit of elbow room to shine, now that she’s out from under the shadow of her family. And, yeah, Doom, Nathaniel, the last alternate Reed, this one has got it going on. I’ve never been so grateful for a title doubling down.
ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES #4—Hickman keeps the focus on Thor while just running riot through the mythos in a way that would never, ever fly back in the good old 616. SPOILER ALERT: But hey, that’s what this thing was built for, just to smash the toys to fucking bits, and Reed Richards incubating a population in a 900-year singularity and then using them to take over most of the world and straight up kill Asgard is definitely taking things as far as they need to be taken. Past the point, some might say. Month in, month out, one of the books I feel best about spending $4 on.
UNCANNY X-MEN #2—Gah, the renumbering’s still so annoying. Not my Uncanny! I first fell into this world in the summer of ’88, right when Sinister was ramping up Inferno and there were redheads and darkchildes to spare (darkchildren? feh…). And so it took a bit of hindsight for me to realize what a kind of stupid villain he was, was just too overwhelmed with trying to get a grasp of the mythos, back in the day. All of which to say, here, Gillen takes what’s always been a pretty weak antagonist and turns him into someone who might even be worthy of being the first Big Bad on a relaunch of this magnitude. He’s still got a grasp of the characters and their team dynamic (though it would be nice if Namor ever did something besides trying to talk his way into Emma’s corset). The best part might be that Gillen’s managed to hang on to Hope Summers, a character that he did a fine job making his own during that first year of GENERATION NEXT. Merry mutant mayhem for the new millennium!
FABLES #111—Willingham and company wrap this latest arc up to satisfying effect while dropping a serious cliffhanger that leaves the reader gasping for more.
BEST OF WEEK: SPACEMAN #2—You know I love me some Hickman, but the 100 BULLETS crew really kicks into gear here and easily blow everybody else out of the water. It’s just synergy, man, all of the elements of the medium perfectly complementing each other. These people have been at the top of their collective game for many years now, and that comes through on every page. They’re incapable of turning in anything less than riveting. I mean, Trish Mulvihill’s colors might be the best thing about this book, if you have to pick one thing. And Eduardo Risso drew it, you know. Ridiculous. This one’s really just getting started and already moving up on my list of most anticipated monthly reads.
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