MOLEMAN versus FANTASTIC FOUR
Repercussions (Marvel)
Where: Fantastic Four #2 When: December 1996
Why: Jim Lee & Brandon Choi How: Jim Lee

The story so far...
When battle with the psionic villain Onslaught leaves Earth's mightiest heroes trapped in a pocket dimension; the Fantastic Four and Avengers become destined to relive their past, oblivious to their former lives as heroes.

When a team of phony SHIELD agents commandeer control of the space operation "Excelsior", led by Dr. Reed Richards, he and his team escape imprisonment to launch their space shuttle, designed for interstellar investigation. Their target is a bizarre space anomaly which has garnered the attentions of hidden rival and sponsor of Dr. Richards' plight - Victor Von Doom!

Ill prepared, the team of Richards, Ben Grimm, Susan Storm, and Johnny Storm find themselves overwhelmed by the cosmic energies emitted by the space phenomena, which appears to be a wormhole in space. With insufficient shielding in their prototype ship, the team are bombarded, and crash land on a remote island, where they climb from the wreckage to discover their ship's powersource - the quantum core - about to go nuclear.

Not only that, but as each space explorer discovers the effects of the cosmic radiation, they quickly come to rely upon they find themselves at the mercy of a madman calling himself master of the subterranean realm -- Mole Man!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Thing 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Mr. Fantastic 6 (Genius)
Speed: Human Torch 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Thing 5 (Marathon Man)
Agility: Mr. Fantastic 6 (Rubber)
Fighting Ability: Invisible Woman 4 (Trained Fighter)
Energy Powers: Human Torch 7 (Cosmic Power)


- Ridiculed for his scientific theory that the Earth was hollow; eccentric and homely scientist-cum-explorer, Harvey Rupert Elder, would embark on his own expiditions to prove the validity of his claims to his dismissive peers.
One such outing would lead him to discover the fabled Monster Island, where he would be partially blinded by an underground deposit of diamonds in a subterranean maze that confirmed his theories.

Rejecting life on the surface, Elder renames himself Moleman, and takes leadership over hordes of creatures dubbed Moloids. Utilizing strange alien technologies, Mole Man uses his armies and machines to lorde over the subterranean realm, and terrorize the surface world. His influence beneath the Earth comes to extend to a great many other underground lifeforms, including the many monstrous creatures that earned Monster Island it's name.

- The Fantastic Four are: Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing.

The original Fantastic Four were exposed to cosmic rays when Reed Richards led the team in a race to beat the Russians to space. Without sufficient preperation time, the shuttle lacked the shielding needed to filter the cosmic radiation, resulting in unique transformations in each member.

Reed Richards, already a potent force given his genius for invention, exploration and theory, gained the ability to stretch and contort his body with limited restriction.

Sue Storm is able to manipulate invisible forcefields to create a variety of objects, typically bubbles, platforms and shields. She is also able to cast a veil of invisibility over herself, others, or objects, and do so in a variety of creative ways.

Johnny Storm is the Human Torch, literally capable of englufing his body in flame. This fire can be projected, reach extreme temperatures, result in blinding light, and produce a wave of heat sufficient to propel his body through the air.

Ben Grimm, better known to the world as the ever lovin' blue-eyed Thing is a rocky bruiser of incredible size, strength and durability. The power of his fists is dwarfed only by the power of his heart, which refuses to quit, even in the face of the greatest adversary.

The Math: Fantastic Four Ranking: Mr. Fantastic (#8)

What Went Down...
Having regrouped after being seperated, the Fantastic Four find themselves face-to-face with the Moleman! Despite the threat it poses to them all, the Mole Man lordes the ruptured Quantum Core as a trinket, mentioned in babblings as a potential offering to "the great one."

The hot headed Johnny Storm is the first to reinitiate conflict, leaping into the air to use his new powers of ignition as the Human Torch. He charges the Moleman, but finds himself victim of a blast from the underground monarch's staff!


Moleman exhibits surprising agility for one of his runtish stature, combining i with well with guile and technology. He laments on the foursome's powers, recognising them not as children of the great one, prompting the consideration of their potential as offerings to the hypothetical pseudo-deity with which he hopes to gain favour.

Moleman again utilizes his staff, tapping it to the ground to excite a mutated lichen fungus capable of both grappling with the youngster, and dousing his flames. With the Torch incapacitated, Moleman leaves his rampaging monsters to continue the fight with the other three.

Two hulking dinosaur-like creatures descend, one of them able to snatch the Thing up in it's jaws before he is able to fight back. Reed Richards comes to his aid, leaping into action with his elastine capabilities, using it to wrap himself multiple times around the legs of each creature.

Sufficiently bound by the bands of Richards' stretch body, the two monsters are meagre victims for the super strength of the rocky Ben Grimm!

With the monsters levelled, Richards begins to hatch a plan of escape for his he and his fellows. He orders Thing to wrench free one of the giant diamonds, used by the underground civilization to perpetuate the ambient glow of filtered light from above.

Richards directs his financer (and fiance) Susan toward the underground cieling, where she is called upon to use her powers of invisibility to project a field that will allow a clear shaft of light from above. Richards is able to deduce this capability from her first encounter with the power, which included projecting transparency to her clothes, as well as her person.

As Susan struggles to maintain focus, the light beams into the cavernous underground, allowing the soon-to-be Mr. Fantastic to reflect it into the diamond held by Thing. the orchestration of teamwork is capped off by the bound Torch, who is at close enough proximity to snatch away the Moleman's protective visor, exposing his sensitive eyes to the explosion of luminosity!

With Moleman and his minions sufficiently distracted, the foursome are able to make their escape thanks to the thing's earth-moving muscles! Their escape tunnel allows even more light into the underground, assuring their getaway.
That is, until another obstacle reveals itself to be waiting outside with a synaptic-scrambler, and a helicarrier to take them into custody...

The Hammer...
Ladies and gentlemen, your Friday night winners, successful as a result of teamwork: the Fantastic Four!

If you're just joining us, you might like to know that we're kicking off a new year of Infinite Wars by giving the 2007 year end top ten characters first bite at the rankings cherry. Since all four of the FF factored into the 2007 top ten, we're going to sum them up with this single entry, allowing us to move onward.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the internet, Bahlactus made his triumphant return to Fridays with the first of a brand new round of FNF's. We spaced last week, but we're well ready to represent, throwing out the FF for cosmic representation!

Speaking of the FF, I finally got to see Rise of the Silver Surfer last weekend, and I've got to be honest: I was pretty darn disappointed. It should be noted that I was not at all impressed with the first film, but felt some of the backlash and the benefit of experience and budget might have allowed for a better outing. Trailers which used the Silver Surfer/Human Torch chase from the film only helped build promise of what had every opportunity to be a fantastic do-over.

Alas, in it's own ways, Rise manages to disappoint all over again.
I actually contemplated the notion of using the film as the basis for this entry, but time and circumstances conspired to reserve my ire for another day, or as is the case, a less direct post. A post that shouldn't afford me opportunity to go into great specifics, but honestly, I find it hard not to.

If for some reason Barbershop and the Taxi remake fooled you into thinking Tim Story was going to be the perfect man for the job, you might have gotten a rude awakening. Then again, somehow I think if you had arrived by that assumption, there's every chance you loved Fantastic Four and it's sequel... Yeeeah...

Not surprisingly the simmering undertones of an agenda to incorporate African-American characters into the WASP world of the FF persists, but I am actually pleased to report that it seems to inadvertently benefit the film. Part of me still isn't entirely convinced by Fishburne's casting as the Silver Surfer, but really, the Matrix star's stoic delivery of lines in that velvety voice are key-perfect for the warm, but distanced portrayal familiar to the Silver Surfer.
Likewise, Andre Braugher seems under developed as the military hardman who plays antagonist to Gruffudd's Reed Richards, but brings a suitable stature to a role that could've easily turned into a clash of brawn versus brain.

Ironically, the criticisms start to rear their head around the more important facets of the movie, like the core cast and plot.

Defying all belief, Dr. Doom is bungled further still, narrowly avoiding what could've been a turn around reminiscent of the Ultimate fixing of the character, instead opting to disregard the negatives of the first film to continue to distance Doom from much of what made him the greatest villain in comics. Any good will earned by solid performances like Evans and Chiklis as the comedically feuding Human Torch and Thing, is completely nullified by the sheer miss of Doom.

Julian McMahon remains thoroughly unlikable, without the balance of intrigue, again leaving that cinematic performance to Darth Vader, who was inspired by the 1960's FF villain. The negatives spiral outward from this point, facilitating the familiar power-stealing plot by downgrading the Silver Surfer's vulnerabilities to be little more than a well placed shove.

Confused fans googling for answers managed to find their way to an Infinite Wars feature [Silver Surfer #107] that sees the Silver Surfer explicitly set the record straight in his own words. The issue reviewed there is ultimately quite insigifnicant in the scheme of comics, only highlighting the many sources available to inspire a device superior to placing all of the Surfer's powers in the board which he controls and manipulates freely.

From there you can get into further minutia, like Susan Storm's arc, which reduces the already hard-to-take-serious Jessica Alba to little more than a whining, selfish, tabloid wife. This is, to my recollection, contrary to the performance that was strong and reflective of the comics character; if a little slanted toward promoting the banner actress over traditional team leader, and far less bankable UK counterpart, Ioan Gruffudd.

If I had one final complaint I simply had to squeeze into a post that isn't even about the film, it would be a double red X for the visual effects.
One of the long recognised constraints on feature versions of the FF and Iron Man was the speculated special effects budget, due mostly to the nature of the characters, and CG-heavy filmmaking, pre-intergration reneissances seen over the past few years.

Given the money presumably saved on practical effects like the Thing suit (which remains less than convincing), and the one hundred and thirty million dollar budget, basic effects shots like Reed Richards stretching, or various green screen backgrounds, should've been far better than they were.

Attacking the CG department is also a convenient way to round out criticisms of design and concept of Galactus. Story defends the decision as considerate to plans for a Silver Surfer spin-off feature that he would not be directly involved with. [Story] explains the vague depiction of Galactus as opportunity for another director to put his stamp on what's required. Ultimately, the intrusion of weakening the Silver Surfer, and defining Galactus as much as they do, places enough intrusion on any following creative team that, I think the point is moot.

Frankly, the more I hear anything from Tim Story, the less impressed I am.
For a comic that has been such a success in the past, and remains a gem in the Marvel crown, it's so disappointing to see these films under perform the way they do. Sure, they make a lot of cash, but then, so does Britney Spears...

Bringing it back to the comics, we take a look at Heroes Reborn, which reinvents the heroes in a way the Ultimate versions would repeat a few years later.
This version of the FF manages to outdo it's Ultimate counterpart with an inter-connected series of associations that services the outlandish qualities of the superhero sci-fi, but lends a grounding by domino effect.

The anomaly explored in the Heroes Reborn universe is ultimately the Silver Surfer arriving in our galaxy through a wormhole. The entire line builds to a conclusion revolving around the arrival of Galactus, but before that, Fantastic Four manages to explore many of the classic heroes and villains with quite logical connection to "the great one", or, world devourer.

Personally I've always regarded connecting the FF's creation to Galactus as a reasonably logical one. Not only does it preemptively lend credence to their opposition of the space deity, but also lends a credibility to the sequence of events of the cosmic rays (which have never, to my knowledge, been elaborated upon in the central canon), and the arrival of Silver Surfer/Galactus some forty-plus issues later.

My perspective as a writer has always been to look at Galactus' need for planets that sustain sentient life, and his ability to embue sentient life with cosmic energy, as a potential means to an end. If an unexplained wave of cosmic radiation is what gives birth to the FF, why not connect the dots to assume Galactus sends out a wave of his energy with the intention of it travelling through space until it reaches a populated planet and dissipates over an entire populous, granting them all minute traces of the power cosmic.

The theory there would be that the power cosmic provides a signature beacon easily traced, making the search for planets a little more sophisticated than the groping orienteering heralds supposedly go on. The FF's intervention of the wave would provide a comparison to other worlds where denizens are not powered, and maybe even start to contribute explanations to the mutant population, and other unlikely super powers in the Marvel universe.

I consider myself a reasonably competent writer [and future Marvel hopeful], but I tend to imagine any well versed FF fan could probably come up with any number of two-hour alternatives that would surpass what was ultimately a very dull and boring sequel to an equally average summer blockbuster.

The Fight: 3.5 The Issue: 4.5

Agree, disagree? Though our discussions have been fairly critical over the past week or so, we hope to remind fans that there's no shame in having confident opinions, or critical analysis. Secret Wars on Infinite Earths is not a website built to "bash" certain products, but discuss them with familiarity, reference, and recognition of materials, good or bad. It just so happens the bad is often where more discussion can be found.

We encourage all who support either of the products discussed to head over to Amazon to pick them up at the most affordable price, where we will gladly collect Amazon kick-backs. Hooah!

SUPER-SKRULL versus FANTASTIC FOUR/BLACK PANTHER/DR DOOM
Retribution (Marvel comics)
Where: Fantastic Four #6 When: April 1997
Why: Jim Lee & Brandon Choi How: Jim Lee

The story so far...
Reborn in a pocket universe created by Franklin Richards; the Fantastic Four are destined to relive their origins all over again as they unwittingly encounter familiar shadows of the past, also reborn in this new world.

Accosted by Victor Von Doom, a student from Reed Richards' days in college; the Fantastic Four and Black Panther find themselves the reluctant guests of castle Doomstadt. There, Doom is holding a mysterious chromed alien hostage, but this is not the limit of the extraterestrial presence.

Hidden within SHIELD and disguised as Agent Wyatt Wingfoot; a cosmically sleeper soldier of the Skrull empire has finally exploited his position, an alliance with Doom allowing him access to the herald of the Skrull Throneworld's destruction. Betraying Doom to use his machines, Kl'rt has absorbed the Surfer's cosmic power, and now prepares to turn his imitative Super-Skrull abilities against him.

Previous Form:
Fantastic Four [#3]: Victorious over Iconoclast, Frightful Four & Sinister Twelve.
Dr. Doom (#55): A Doombot successfully defeated Silver Surfer.
Super-Skrull (#113): A victory and defeat against Hulk and Thor respectively.
Black Panther: Making his first appearance in the Infinite Wars.

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Thing 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Mr. Fantastic 6 (Genius)
Speed: Black Panther 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Super-Skrull 6 (Generator)
Agility: Mr. Fantastic 6 (Rubber)
Fighting Ability: Super-Skrull 6 (Warrior)
Energy Powers: Human Torch 7 (Solar)


Okay, so let's try to clarify the situation here.
I'll go more into the depth of the scenario later, but for the time being let's at least distinguish the clear lines of battle.

The Fantastic Four and Black Panther formed amicable relations a few issues previous, before being abducted by Doom -- who beat them to discovering the Silver Surfer. Doom is holding the Surfer, unwittingly, with the help of a cover Kl'rt, who has used Doom's technology to realise his potential as the Super-Skrull. Kl'rt wants to be the Super-Skrull to gain revenge on Silver Surfer, and by extension, Galactus.

Dr. Doom, displeased with the unpredictable course of events, throws in with the FF and Black Panther against Super-Skrull, to vanquish his foe and regain some control and measure of vengenace of his own. The Silver Surfer, though present, is rendered incapacitated at the opening of our story, and therefore has not been rated.

Traditionally Super-Skrull is specifically enhanced by the Skrulls to possess the collective abilities of their greatest foes - the Fantastic Four. In this case, the Super-Skrull develops under more organic circumstances, using the power cosmic to enhance his natural biological adaptive and metamorphic abilities.

Something I particularly enjoy about this story is the threat level given to the Super-Skrull. Much of the recent Annihilation mini-series that thrust the character back into a spotlight was about the many defeats the character had suffered, rendering him a joke amongst his own people. Here, we see a Super-Skrull embued with status befitting of a warring alien specie's greatest soldier.

The battle takes place in Castle Doomstadt, so you'd have to pay the advantage to Dr. Doom, who essentially builds his argument on preperation. Taking him on literally in his backyard is like showing up to a garage with your best toolbelt, and challenging a mechanic to a repair-a-thon. You might do well, but the home team has all the tools and parts they need on-hand.

Off the back of newer issues of Fantastic Four, there's been some debate about whether or not Black Panther is playing too far above his weight. I tend to be pretty conservative in my assessment of the character, so I'd be pretty willing to write him off at this point. Black Panther's main contribution here is merely a numerical one. Of course, in a team-up that includes the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom, numerical advantage starts to be a pretty big talking point.

Alone, I'm just not sure I can give it to Super-Skrull.
Even on his best day, I think it would take a considerable element of surprise and speed to overcome this particular alliance of powers. Then again, the math tells a very different story...

The Math: Fantastic Four (Total) Super-Skrull (Average)
The Pick: Fantastic Four/Black Panther/Dr. Doom

What went down...
Having revealed himself and taken the Surfer's power, the Super-Skrull stands as an impressive threat to Dr. Doom and those that would stand in the way of his revenge. Doom takes none too kindly to the turn of events.

The Super-Skrull demonstrates his power with a blast of energy that topples the mighty Dr. Doom. Furious with the Skrull's advantageous betrayal, Doom blasts as the alien with the intent of taking that which his machines bestowed, but the Super-Skrull's understanding of the power cosmic makes it difficult.

Deflecting Doom's gauntlet blast, Super-Skrull returns the favour with the full fury of the power cosmic. Even the mighty Dr. Doom suffers considerably at the hands of the green alien creature, his armor struggling to cope.

The true Wyatt Wingfoot, agent of SHIELD, suggests the necessity of an alliance with Doom to use his machines to return the power cosmic from whence it came, back to the limp and lame body of the Silver Surfer. Doom quickly shifts his weight into the favour of his arch-rival Reed Richards, and his accompanying bed fellows, clearly recognising the unfavourable shift in the game.

At Reed Richards' request, Kl'rt reveals his motivations and the history of Galactus' involvement in his people's destruction, revealing base motivations for what is actually a plot potentially beneficial to the human race. Never the less, the unwitting humans see the benevolent unknown quantity of the Silver Surfer to be far less threatening than the Skrull, who had previously murdered several Wakandans prior to the Surfer's retrieval.

The Super-Skrull's history lecture is ended when Skrull agents send word of an incoming SHIELD extraction team requested by the real Wingfoot.
With his increased abilities and cosmic awareness, the Super-Skrull creates a giant invisible force field around Castle Doomstadt, destroying the incoming aircrafts in an instant.

With the stakes raised, Thing checks his watch to discover it's clobberin' time, opening up with his own cosmically charged super strength sufficient enough to topple the mighty Super-Skrull.

Enraged by the attack, Kl'rt uses his cosmic abilities to shift his fist into a mirror image of Thing's own, striking back with force considerable enough to launch Thing into a forced retreat. The blow sending Ben Grimm airborne!

Happy to take the fight airborne is the Human Torch, who takes to the air in a dazzling blaze of flames.
Looking to capitalize on a range advantage, the Human Torch fires off jets of flame at the Super-Skrull, who quickly dispells any illusions the hothead may have about his advantages.

Imitating Mr. Fantastic's elastine capabilities, Super-Skrull closes the distance gap with a stretched rocky fist that makes light work of the Human Torch.

With his flame put out, the Human Torch is rendered unconscious in the Super-Skrull's arms, while Doom, Richards and T'Challa [Black Panther] begin formulating their plan of attack to return the power to the Surfer.

While Doom demands total cooperation of his unlikely allies, the Black Panther jumps into the fray to buy them some time, as options of physical distraction begin to wear thin.

Launching at the alien with a stiff martial arts kick, the Black Panther knocks Super-Skrull back with surprising efficiency for the most human of all present.

The Panther provokes the Super-Skrull's most lethal intentions, narrowly leaping over a cosmic power blast in an effort to spring the heroes' plot to channel the energies back to their source. Invisible Woman uses her invisible force fields to divert the energies back to the Silver Surfer's shackled body.

With Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom manning the machines, they ensure the appropriate processes are in action for the gambit. An explosion throws cosmic vapor and smoke into the castle room, but Doom is certain of the result.
Emerging from the smokey frost, a solitary and uncomplicated figure -- the Silver Surfer, embued once more with his Galactus-given cosmic power.

The Surfer's resurrection allows the powerful Super-Skrull to refocus his priorities back to revenge. Stepping up to the Silver Surfer, he prepares to unleash the remaining power cosmic stored within him in a final attack on the Surfer.

Though weakened, the source of the syphoned power cosmic proves to be far more capable and powerful than even the Super-Skrull could imagine. For all the knowledge of the Surfer's humane past, the Skrull is soon privvy first-hand to the matter of fact that the Silver Surfer is anything but human.

With each extra-terrestrial influence unleashing their powers to their fullest extent, the heroes and Dr. Doom are forced to flee the scene. As the power cosmic tears Castle Doomstadt asunder, Doom recognises a new threat arising, as their energy threaten to compromise the integrity of his own nuclear fusion power sources.

Ever the survivalist, Doom takes advantage of his homeground preperations and leaves the Fantastic Four and their allies to fend for themselves as the castle crumbles. Fortunately, the FF reach their transport in time, but mysteriously the threat of explosive vaporizing never arises.

As they take leave, from somewhere amongst the rubble stands a stoic Silver Surfer. Though unfeeling, the cosmic herald grants the heroes some shred of gratitude for saving his life by diffusing the threat of the reactor.

The hammer...
Though he is destined to bring about their destruction, on this day, the Silver Surfer saves the lives of the Fantastic Four, Black Panther and Dr. Doom -- victorious over the Super-Skrull!

For what is essentially a pretty simple comic, there's a lot of moving parts at work here. The two issues preceding lay the immediate groundwork for this story, while plotlines like the traitorous Wyatt Wingfoot are the culmination of the entire six issues of this volume.

[In FF #4]; the Fantastic Four travelled to Wakanda and met with Black Panther, and developed relations there whilst searching for an anomaly Reed Richards tracked from space -- the Silver Surfer. Way back at the beginning of all this [FF #1], Wyatt Wingfoot turned out to be a turncoat, sabotaging the space mission that leads to the creation of the Fantastic Four [in the Heroes Reborn world].

That Wyatt Wingfoot is in actuality Kl'rt the Super-Skrull, presumably posing as a SHIELD agent in an effort to use our destination point as a means of locating the Silver Surfer. As Wingfoot, he falls in with Doom, who no doubt represents one of the most likely technological influences to discover the Surfer, and so we begin to understand his motivations for interfering in previous events.

Having knocked the Silver Surfer from orbit, Doom's forces race to recover the herald to Galactus while he leaks cosmic energy in a Wakandan jungle.
This provides some level of confusion, while Kl'rt covertly uses his Skrull abilities to operate not unlike the Predator, picking off Wakandan warriors and preventing their interference in the efforts of Doom.

The Fantastic Four and Black Panther, disturbed and uncertain about the developing events, force themselves on the situation and are quickly neutralized and caught by Kl'rt, who takes them (with the Surfer) to Dr. Doom.

Collectively abducted, the FF (with the crucial addition of the Black Panther) maneuver their way through the stock standard series of traps and holding cells typcial in classic Dr. Doom stories, to finally confont the man himself.
With no memory of their past lives, this serves as a second first-time meeting of old rivals in Richards and Doom, who were perhaps even more intertwined in this world's history than ever before, as part of the collegette 'Atomic Knights.'

Doom is generally content to play games with his arch-foe and Reed's fantastic allies, while also undertaking the personal project task of syphoning the Surfer's energies. [Nothing new there. See; Silver Surfer #107]

Which finally brings us to the issue reviewed here, where Kl'rt uses Doom's machines to absorb the Silver Surfer's powers himself, thus reawakening his Super-Skrull abilities from his previous life (with a little something extra!), and so we have our issue-long battle!

The issue then includes an introduction to the line-wide Industrial Revolution crossover, where Doom witnesses the aftermath of the siege on Avengers Island [Avengers #4 & #5], and makes the shocking discovery that Bruce Banner -- young optemist of the Atomic Knights -- has becoming the raging Hulk!

So, if knowing is half the battle, and now you know, you should have a pretty good edge in a fight against any of your friends who are buying Onslaught Reborn, but didn't read Heroes Reborn. Which has been a recurring theme for us here on Secret Earths for no real good reason.

I have to admit, I've been quite content flicking back through these issues, which I actually enjoy on the level they are intended. The Fantastic Four was definitely, I believe, the strongest series of the lot, anchoring much of the broader stories with it's mythology. Of particular note are the increasing recurring references to Galactus, which become of greater importance in the later half of the Heroes Reborn year, and build to a really epic event that puts the "Ultimate Gah-Lak-Tus Trilogy" to embarassing shame. Ouch, Ellis! Very ouch!

Like I've said through discussing a lot of these issues, as simple and naff as they are, there's a lot of good in these pages. I think we see here an illustrated argument for Jim Lee's involvement in the industry, and a creative potential that's easily forgotten on the basis of his flashy pin-up style and involvement in projects like the increasingly late All-Star Batman and Robin, and WildCATS.

I like what they've done here, and again, to put today's Ultimate books to shame, read the first six issues of this, and then browse the pancreatic team-up of Bendis and Millar on the first six of the Ultimate book. Heck, read through the first twelve issues of the Ultimate books, and witness good books gone bad.

Dr. Doom gets the classic treatment here, versus the embarassing bastardization of one of the most prevelant villains in popular culture. While Super-Skrull shows the potential improvement to be made with reinvention of classic ideas.
Also something I've long considered an interesting concept, tying the 'cosmic rays' that gave birth to the FF, to the cosmic influences of a character like Galactus. This has, as long as I can remember, struck me as a no-brainer.

The Fight: 4 The Issue: 6
[If you saw the movie and then wanted to check out the comics, the complete Heroes Reborn FF might just be the penultimate purchase! Classic interpretations through a contemporary filter, and fun aplenty!]