** (two of five stars)
Favorite Quote: "I know. It's like it's not even a word anymore. Just some weird sound. Sure. Sure. Sure." -- Carlie to Pete, commenting on their use of the word "sure" while getting ready to have sex
Summary
Pete and Carlie are getting ready to bring their relationship to the next level but are saved by Carlie's ringing cell phone (telling her about a superhero crime scene) and the FF flare signal (telling Pete to meet at HQ). Pete heads to Horizon Labs to get his costume, where he's accosted by Mr. Modell and an angry Grady and Sajani, who claim Pete stole their ideas for his noise-canceling headphones. Pete, in a rush, suggests they all share the credit. He arrives at the Baxter Building in a traditional Fantastic Four outfit, only to enrage Sue and Ben, since they agreed to retire the number and the colors in respect for Johnny. He switches into the new FF uniform (complaining that it makes him look like Anti-Venom) and the FF heads to Paris. Reed exposits that the team is facing the first of "three rifts in the space-time continuum," which, if it doesn't seal them, could cause reality to collapse on itself. The team battles beasts from Arkon's reality, and herd them all back through the dimensional rift. On the way to the next mission, Pete leaves Carlie a voicemail telling her that he'll be on a business trip for Horizon Labs. Carlie, meanwhile, is investigating a crime scene that appears to involve a drug deal gone wrong but could have involved the Wraith. The FF is on its second mission, helping Superego the Living Atom to keep from disintegrating by correcting her electrons' orbit. The team accomplishes its task and leaves; meanwhile, we see "Psycho-Man" use a device to catch the expansion frequency allowing the team to return to our universe, claiming he can now enter it to cause havoc. At the Baxter Building, Valeria Richards determines that the three different dimensional anomalies triangulate to an island in the Caribbean, where the Fantastic Four first made a trip through time. In the year 3,141,592,653, the FF arrives at the "Future-Future Foundation," where the Future FFers need Reed's help to figure out its HQ's "ancient" (and failing) dimensional circuits. Reed reveals that they're based on Hank Pym's dimensional-wave inducer. When Peter comments that he can use that science for his job at home, Reed makes him swear not to use anything from FF adventures in his work, since science needs to progress naturally. Finally, Carlie goes to Horizon Labs to ask the secretary to ship a box of snickerdoodles to Pete, since she had to cancel their date the previous night. The secretary, Flo, tells her that Pete's not on a business trip. (Duh-duh-duh.)
In the back-up feature, Spidey meets Johnny Blaze, aka Ghost Rider, at a bar (finding him there by following the stream of screaming people fleeing the bar). Their drink is interrupted by the Servicer, a demon who has come to collect Ghost Rider's bike because it has not been used for its intended purpose, "the collection of souls for Hell." Ghost Rider takes on the Servicer, who (eww) absorbs him into him. Spidey then flees on the bike.
The Review
This issue was really hit or miss for me. It had some really good aspects -- Pete's sex conversation with Carlie and the art -- and some not-so-good aspects -- Pete disrespecting Johnny's memory more or less on purpose and Carlie's weird behavior at the end. Overall, I'm giving it a two just because I expected something a little better for Pete's first mission as a FFer.
The Good
1) I loved the sex conversation Carlie and Peter have in the first two pages. It's probably the best such conversation I've ever seen in comics. Slott totally captures Peter and Carlie here; they're both a little awkward, a little shy. It goes exactly how you imagine this sort of conversation would go between the two of them.
2) I really enjoyed Javier Pulido's art in this issue. He brings the same sort of innovation he did to this issue as he did the Sandman arc during "The Gauntlet."
3) I don't know if I necessarily buy Reed's assertion about "meta-science," but I certainly take his point that it's weird that Galactus, the devourer of worlds, appears as a white guy with purple boots.
The Unknown
It's too early to tell, but Slott kind of leaves two plot points hanging here. First, we see Carlie investigating the possible Wraith angle to the drug deal gone wrong, finding some sort of purple goo she finds familiar. Second, we see "Psycho-Man" using the FF's presence in the Microverse to determine the frequency he needs to expand into the normal universe. My sense is that we're not going to return to these plot points any time soon, but we'll see.
The Bad
1) The initial sequence with the FF was odd. Sue and Ben are irate at Peter for wearing the old Fantastic Four uniform, and Reed makes it clear that Pete knew about the change when he comments that Pete left his (new) uniform there the last time. Pete seems to be acting like a jackhole here. It's funny that he feels disappointed he's not a member of the "Fantastic Four," per se, but, if he knew the FF didn't want him wearing the uniform to respect Johnny, why would he disrespect his best friend by wearing it?
2) I didn't really buy how Carlie discovers Pete's not on a business trip. She baked him cookies and asked his place of business to FedEx them to Peter? Really? It just seems kind of weird. Who would do that? I mean, I get we're supposed to buy Carlie as an awkward scientist type, but she didn't strike me as a crazy stalker type. If my boyfriend goes on a business trip, I don't bake him cookies and try to convince work to FedEx them to him. It's just weird.
No comments:
Post a Comment