#like 'oooh da what show are you watching? these superheros look so cool!' | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

f4liveblogarchives · 5 years

Text

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #116

Thurs Jul 25 2019 [06:01 PM] Wack'd: Yes, it's our first Doom team-up! But more importantly--holy shit is that a gradient on the title at the bottom?!

[06:01 PM] Wack'd: A bold new age of comic book coloring is upon us! [06:02 PM] Wack'd: Meanwhile, in the credits, Lee's title has been changed from "plotter" to "editor" [06:04 PM] Wack'd: The remaining three decide they need to make a plan themselves and I gotta admit? I'm surprised that this is our first issue where Reed literally can't work out the solution for them [06:04 PM] Wack'd: With this established a pattern, that's a good hook [06:05 PM] Wack'd: So it turns out the machine Reed slipped into earlier was radioactive [06:05 PM] maxwellelvis: oops [06:06 PM] Wack'd: And Sue determines that they might be able to trace that radiation signature to find Reed, using one of his gizmos [06:07 PM] Wack'd: (They can't use an actual geiger counter because, if an ordinary device could find the amount of radiation on Reed, he'd be very very screwed) [06:08 PM] Wack'd: Unfortunately, the landlord has got out and led the cops to the Baxter Building [06:08 PM] Wack'd: So Johnny fire-bombs them [06:08 PM] Wack'd: He fire-bombs the cops [06:08 PM] Wack'd: Normally I'd be all for this but, uh, time and a place, dude [06:09 PM] Wack'd: Good luck avoiding jail after that! [06:09 PM] Bocaj: Consequences are for people without superpowers [06:09 PM] Bocaj: like money [06:10 PM] maxwellelvis: "Fuck da police!" [06:10 PM] maxwellelvis: "Not now, Bic-head!" [06:10 PM] maxwellelvis: "JOHNNY NO!" [06:10 PM] maxwellelvis: "JOHNNY YES!" [06:10 PM] Wack'd: So rarely do heroes wading through the sewers acknowledge that actually it's not a fun time

[06:11 PM] maxwellelvis: Spider-Man grumbles about it all the time. [06:11 PM] Wack'd: So! Was Reed mind-controlled? Yes and no [06:12 PM] Wack'd: Reed's earlier boastfulness was him daring the Over-Mind to try and take him over [06:12 PM] Wack'd: Counting on the idea that he'd be able to resist [06:12 PM] Wack'd: And, well [06:12 PM] Wack'd: NOPE! [06:13 PM] Wack'd: Reed's arrogance gets his ass completely, thoroughly kicked [06:13 PM] Bocaj: Good [06:14 PM] Wack'd: Even the ol' "power of love" trick doesn't work!

[06:15 PM] Bocaj: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrvh_jB6c70 [06:15 PM] Bocaj: Hey this is some good imagery though [06:15 PM] Wack'd: It is! [06:15 PM] Wack'd: Buscema rules, actually [06:15 PM] maxwellelvis: Pretty sure that's why they got him to draw all those Conan comics [06:16 PM] Bocaj: I mean, he still can't draw children like a lot of artists can't [06:16 PM] Bocaj: Franklin is an unending nightmare [06:16 PM] Bocaj: Cherubic terror [06:16 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Reed is two seconds from being full-on mind-flayed when Johnny and Ben show up to kick the Over-Mind's ass [06:16 PM] Wack'd: Considering this went great when it was all four of them I'm sure this'll be no sweat [06:16 PM] Bocaj: wtf is sue? [06:17 PM] Wack'd: Glad you asked [06:17 PM] maxwellelvis: Getting backup, I think [06:17 PM] Wack'd: She's on monitor duty [06:17 PM] Bocaj: 😐 [06:17 PM] Wack'd: But seeing the guys getting their asses kicked she's like "actually, fuck this" [06:18 PM] Wack'd: And flies over to force-field Over-Mind into submission [06:18 PM] Wack'd: But hey, uh, remember last issue when he effortlessly broke her force field? [06:19 PM] Wack'd: And also how he just kind of in general is impervious to fire and brute force? [06:19 PM] Bocaj: yes [06:19 PM] Wack'd:

[06:20 PM] maxwellelvis: I was kinda hoping you'd say "Archie doesn't" [06:20 PM] Bocaj: So its not going great is I think what you're insinuating [06:21 PM] Wack'd: You know what? Picking up Johnny by the head *while he's flamed on* is one hell of a move [06:21 PM] Wack'd: Respect [06:21 PM] Wack'd: Also I initially interpreted this as Over-Mind hitting Ben with Johnny [06:22 PM] Bocaj: you gotta hit that motherfucker with this motherfucker [06:22 PM] Wack'd: Which also woulda been pretty cool [06:22 PM] maxwellelvis: You know, for a guy called "Overmind", he's surprisingly beefy [06:22 PM] Bocaj: Might overmind [06:22 PM] Wack'd: He was super strong first and then his entire race filed their brains into his head [06:22 PM] maxwellelvis: Ahh [06:22 PM] Bocaj: As ya do [06:23 PM] Bocaj: If you're a space nonsense [06:23 PM] Wack'd: So with Johnny and Ben out of commission and Reed being promoted to Over-Mind's second-in-command, Sue decides she needs backup [06:24 PM] Wack'd: (She also evades Over-Mind ordering Reed to kill her by taking her weird space bike as high as it could go, and then doing a hairpin turn which causes Reed to topple over, which is pretty neat) [06:25 PM] Wack'd: So anyway, about backup [06:26 PM] Wack'd: The Marvel Universe has conspired to that basically every single superhero has some out-of-NYC stuff happening in their own books [06:26 PM] Wack'd: (Or so the narrator claims--I'm certainly not about to go check) [06:27 PM] Bocaj: It was neat but probably unsustainable how the marvel universe used to do that [06:27 PM] Bocaj: If Iron Man was said to be too busy to do Avengers one month then his book tended to reflect that [06:27 PM] Wack'd: Huh! [06:27 PM] Bocaj: If Beast popped over to do an X-Men crossover, then he's not in Avengers [06:28 PM] MousaThe14: Yeah I’m relistening to Jay and Miles from the start again and it’s interesting to know that they at least attempted to keep that sort of thing consistent with Wolverine disappearing from the main book to have his own solo series and other such things [06:28 PM] Wack'd: Man Buscema out here killing it with the splash pages

[06:28 PM] Bocaj: I know that during Jim Shooter's era he tried to keep things organized like that so that the shared universe felt more unified. And with New Universe every book was supposed to progress a month at a time with every issue but not all the writers got the memo [06:29 PM] Umbramatic: oooh [06:29 PM] Wack'd: Kinda makes long-form storytelling tough [06:29 PM] Umbramatic: but huh [06:29 PM] Bocaj: It does [06:29 PM] Umbramatic: ye [06:29 PM] Bocaj: Its more manageable if the universe is smaller [06:29 PM] Bocaj: That space bike looks unnecessarily unergonomic [06:30 PM] Wack'd: And while I'm handing out kudos, the color department's doing killer work

[06:30 PM] Bocaj: Anyway, there's a website that tries to put all the marvel universe in a chronological order. I'll go check what they have to say [06:31 PM] Bocaj: (Huh, Franklin looks less horrific here) [06:31 PM] Wack'd: I feel like with Stan and Jack gone, everyone's starting to stretch their muscles a bit [06:32 PM] Wack'd: Or maybe it's just the natural progression of time, who knows [06:33 PM] Bocaj: Ok so the Avengers were busy with the Kree/Skrull War, including having to deal with the skrull cow loose ends that Reed left behind [06:33 PM] Bocaj: Thanks Reed [06:33 PM] Wack'd: Sue rolls a nat 20 on persuasion

[06:34 PM] Bocaj: Did she invent his honor and nobility out of whole cloth and mindfuck him into thinking thats who he was for decades to follow? [06:35 PM] Wack'd: It's been there in a few previous issues, though thanks to Stan it comes and goes depending on the needs of the plot [06:35 PM] Wack'd: I remember during the arc where he trapped them in Latveria the story couldn't make up its mind whether or not he cared if his subjects died [06:36 PM] Bocaj: Where he had the DOME? [06:36 PM] Wack'd: He also has a tendency to let the Four go when he's bored, which I suppose is kind of honorable [06:36 PM] Bocaj: if you think Goku is honorable [06:37 PM] Wack'd: But yeah, the idea that he isn't just an egomaniacal loon has kinda gently poked him on the shoulder now and again [06:38 PM] Wack'd:

[06:38 PM] Wack'd: "In about 20 other issues, but I don't recognize it either" [06:39 PM] MousaThe14: Old Man Johnny [06:39 PM] Wack'd: Doom and Goofy have the same dentist apparently

[06:39 PM] Bocaj: "I'm glad we don't have to deal with a bossy autocrat who tells us what to do everyday" [06:41 PM] Wack'd:

[06:42 PM] Wack'd: So Doom's plan is that Over-Mind will be too distracted by Johnny and Ben to fight Doom, who will use a "stop hitting yourself" device on him [06:43 PM] Wack'd: But anyway Doom does the comic book thing of announcing his moves [06:43 PM] Wack'd: And Over-Mind is, as established, not an idiot [06:43 PM] Wack'd: So he ignores Ben and Johnny and just wails on him [06:44 PM] Bocaj: Ha [06:44 PM] Wack'd: Sue was the contingency--she could use her force fields to protect Doom [06:44 PM] Wack'd: But, uh [06:45 PM] Wack'd: Well, he was supposed to take more of a beating first [06:45 PM] Wack'd: To weaken him [06:45 PM] Wack'd: So her force field does nothing and Reed is still convinced he needs to murder her, so [06:45 PM] Bocaj: This plan is butts [06:45 PM] Wack'd: It would've worked if Doom wasn't a boastful idiot! [06:46 PM] Bocaj: It was fundamentally flawed [06:46 PM] Wack'd: Fair

[06:47 PM] Wack'd: So! [06:47 PM] Wack'd: Doom is down. Sue is down. Johnny and Ben are worthless. The gizmo is broken. And Reed is more of a jerk than usual. [06:47 PM] maxwellelvis: Only the author can save them now [06:48 PM] Wack'd: Man, Archie Goodwin's way more buff than I thought he'd be

[06:48 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh no, not THIS asshole [06:49 PM] Wack'd: You're acquainted, I assume [06:49 PM] Bocaj: He's a gem fusion [06:49 PM] MousaThe14: The Stranger is looking less like a hobo than I last saw him [06:49 PM] maxwellelvis: He's the guy who basically heralded in one of the X-Men's lamest periods by literally spiriting away Magneto and Toad to his alien zoo. [06:49 PM] MousaThe14: But last I saw him was in an Essential X-men [06:50 PM] Bocaj: I like that his icon is his own mustache [06:50 PM] Wack'd: So turns out murdering Sue is a bridge too far for Reed, even as mind-whammied as he is, and he passes out [06:50 PM] Bocaj: They call that the ghola test [06:54 PM] Wack'd: Stranger: You call yourself unbeatable, and yet you are the sum of the Eternals, who were once beaten. [06:54 PM] Wack'd: Over-Mind: By the survivors of Gigantus. What of it? [06:54 PM] Wack'd: Stranger: 😏 [06:54 PM] Wack'd: Over-Mind: well shit [06:55 PM] MousaThe14: The Eternals? You mean the Irrelevants? [06:55 PM] Wack'd: These Eternals will eventually be retconned to be those Eternals [06:55 PM] Wack'd: Don't worry about it [06:56 PM] Wack'd: Anyway the Stranger traps Over-Mind in the Micro-verse and pisses off [06:56 PM] MousaThe14: This is one hell of a deus ex [06:56 PM] Wack'd: It was actually set up earlier in the story! [06:56 PM] maxwellelvis: That's all the Stranger is is a walking deus ex machina [06:56 PM] Wack'd: It's more of a Chekov's gun, really [06:57 PM] Wack'd: If you put a race of beings capable of defeating your baddie above the mantle in the first act... [06:57 PM] MousaThe14: Oh well that’s fine. [06:57 PM] MousaThe14: Setup payoff, only the most basic form of storytelling. You’re free to go, F4 comic. [06:58 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Doom decides he's gonna go walk it off and next time, Richards! Next tiiiime, that whole bit. [06:59 PM] maxwellelvis: "Oh, by the way, Reed, I despise you, and all that you stand for, and oh you know the rest!" "He's a good kid" [06:59 PM] Wack'd: Johnny's pissed that the Stranger let them get their asses handed to them for like three issues when he coulda curbstomped Over-Mind whenever he wanted [06:59 PM] Wack'd: And concludes this was an act of deliberate malice on someone's part [07:00 PM] maxwellelvis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U96sqmTFsss [07:00 PM] Wack'd: For once, Johnny actually has a point before storming off

[07:01 PM] Wack'd: The Watcher, seeing this, decides "fuck it, I'm gonna make this mean something"

#1971 #Archie Goodwin #John Buscema #The Main Book

6 notes · View notes