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jamesqI am liking what they are doing with Ultimate Fantastic Four. For the uninitiated, this is the latest addition to the Ultimate line of Marvel books (started with Ultimate Spider-Man, and including Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates - aka Ultimate Avengers and several miniseries of varying talent). The books have several aims: To have a more modern outlook; to remove the many years of back story that has accumulated, barnacle like, to the core of the book; to have long story arcs that are easily (and quickly) converted into glossy collections for sale in mainstream bookstores. So far it's been a success.
Fantastic Four is, to my mind, the most difficult of the Marvel franchises to do this to. FF has always had a streak of whimsey through it that you simply have to accept and it's sort of incompatible with the direction the ultimate line has taken so far. Even so, they've managed to get rid of a lot of the stuff that always bothered me about FF.
This was mostly a fight issue, Doom has sent a bunch of robot insects to the Baxter Building for an, as yet unknown, nefarious purpose and the new-to-there-powers FF take care of the mech bugs in short order. We also see that Sue Storm is probably the most dangerous of the group, which has always been implied but never really explored in the original book.
Any week where i get UFF and Planetary is one that is rife with irony. If you're following this book, you know what I'm talking about.
Elijah, Jakita and Drums watch via remote control as a giant world ship passes kinda-sorta-nearish to Earth. Unfortunately, their enemy, the mysterious four have also sent Jacob Greene, their only member of their team we haven't seen yet to investigate it as well.
Jacob Greene has been transformed into an indestructible killing machine that Planetary has no hope of defeating mano-a-mano. So Elijah handles thing in a ruthless but eminently pragmatic manner.
Only four issues left - it really is coming to a head, and the issues are coming more often then twice a year now!
On the beginning of it's arc is Astonishing X-Men. AXM is written by Joss Whedon, who I am sure doesn't need an introduction. John Cassaday draws the book and his work on Planetary is exceptional. They both bring the quality we expect to this book.
It's still early, but this is shaping up to be an excellent book. A cure for being a mutant is found. Is it real? Does it work? Would you use it? These are the questions Whedon/Cassaday are exploring. It's going to be a helluva ride.
Fantastic Four is, to my mind, the most difficult of the Marvel franchises to do this to. FF has always had a streak of whimsey through it that you simply have to accept and it's sort of incompatible with the direction the ultimate line has taken so far. Even so, they've managed to get rid of a lot of the stuff that always bothered me about FF.
This was mostly a fight issue, Doom has sent a bunch of robot insects to the Baxter Building for an, as yet unknown, nefarious purpose and the new-to-there-powers FF take care of the mech bugs in short order. We also see that Sue Storm is probably the most dangerous of the group, which has always been implied but never really explored in the original book.
Any week where i get UFF and Planetary is one that is rife with irony. If you're following this book, you know what I'm talking about.
Elijah, Jakita and Drums watch via remote control as a giant world ship passes kinda-sorta-nearish to Earth. Unfortunately, their enemy, the mysterious four have also sent Jacob Greene, their only member of their team we haven't seen yet to investigate it as well.
Jacob Greene has been transformed into an indestructible killing machine that Planetary has no hope of defeating mano-a-mano. So Elijah handles thing in a ruthless but eminently pragmatic manner.
Only four issues left - it really is coming to a head, and the issues are coming more often then twice a year now!
On the beginning of it's arc is Astonishing X-Men. AXM is written by Joss Whedon, who I am sure doesn't need an introduction. John Cassaday draws the book and his work on Planetary is exceptional. They both bring the quality we expect to this book.
It's still early, but this is shaping up to be an excellent book. A cure for being a mutant is found. Is it real? Does it work? Would you use it? These are the questions Whedon/Cassaday are exploring. It's going to be a helluva ride.
