THE TRAPSTER versus SPIDER-MAN & GHOST RIDER
Panic On Pier One! (Marvel comics)
Where: Marvel Team-Up #58 When: June 1977
Why: Chris Claremont How: Sal Buscema & P. Marcos

The story so far...
Whilst heading home, Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson find themselves in for a treat when they discover a film crew rolling outside of Peter's Chelsea residence.

Amongst the film crew is Johnny Blaze, playing the role of Stunt-Master.Blaze, stunt cyclist extraordinaire, is of course the alter ego of the demon spawn dark hero known as Ghost Rider, the spirit of vengeance!

Filming begins, but a routine stunt goes wrong when Blaze's front tyre is ensnared by an unseen adhesive shot atop one of the cars he's bunnyhopping.
The force of his momentum tears the front tyre from the cycle, and Johnny Blaze makes the change from man, to Ghost Rider!

Webbing comes to the demon's aid at the last second, but when Spidey finds himself snared by thick paste, will the spirit of vengeance return the favour?

Previous Form:
The Trapster (#64): The Trapster has both a victory and defeat as member of the Frightful Four.
Spider-man (#2): Spider-man has victories of Scorpion, Kraven, Tombstone and others.
Ghost Rider: Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze) has not yet been featured.

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Spider-man 5 (Super Strength)
Intelligence: Spider-man 5 (Professor)
Speed: Spider-man 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Ghost Rider 5 (Marathon)
Agility: Spider-man 5 (Cat-like)
Fighting Ability: Ghost Rider 3 (Street Wise)
Energy Powers: Ghost Rider 5 (Lasers)

When you break it down, this is a hilariously one-sided fight.
The Trapster doesn't even break a twenty overall, which makes him one of the few feature characters to fall into the Human Class. Which is bad news bears when you're up against not one, but TWO superhero studs.

Like various more street level characters, Trapster certainly has the ability to play above his stats. Granted he isn't a Tombstone, but the versatility provided by his super-durable adhesive paste is a fairly hefty tool.
Along with various offensive applications, it comes in pretty handy for your run of the mill incapacitation through bondage, and can even throw up defensives like a super sturdy quick-dry wall.

Of course, even with that said, if we take a look at the opposing keys to victory you have a smorgasboard of ways for Ghost Rider and/or Spidey to take him apart. Webbing, hellfire, super strength, nearby sea, flaming hellcycle... That isn't even breaking it down to measure how each talent can beat him.

Honestly, The Trapster is in deep water in this one, which is probably the reason he never gets any respect. Aim low, Pete. Aim low.

The Math: Spider-man & Ghost Rider
The Pick: Spider-man & Ghost Rider

What went down...
Having saved Ghost Rider from a messy crash, Spider-man finds himself entangled in the sticky paste of The Trapster!

Ghost Rider summons his hellcycle so that he might pursue the villain, while he recounts the tale of his arrival to Spider-man from atop his Anti-Grav Platform.

During a daring escape from custody, the Wizard freed his Frightful Four friends with the use of one of his many crafty contingencies, concealed within a dummy tooth.
As they left, The Trapster spied a newspaper that featured an article on the Johnny Blaze film, and decided to stretch his legs with some payback for a previous meeting.

While Trapster blows his own trumpet, Spidey makes his move, shooting a web line to the front of Trapster's floating platform.
With a safe anchor he puts his weight into applying pressure on the long strand of hardened paste, and manages to break it!

Though his arms remain bound, Spidey uses his web-line to swing up onto the platform, and delivers a devestating kick to the face of the villain formerly known as Paste-Pot Pete.

Staring down the barrel of the paste gun, Spidey tries to swat it away with his pinned arms. He proves unsuccessful, and the Trapster shows some developing enginuity, using a magnesium flare in his belt to blind the web-slinger.

Blinded, Spider-man is left a sitting target to even the Trapster, not known for his bruising.

The punch sends Spider-man hurtling off the Anti-Grav platform, toward the streets below, but fortunately the Ghost Rider was still entow.

Imitating a move he picked up from the Human Torch, Ghost Rider drives his cycle in a tight circle, creating a vortex of hot air that slows Spider-man's descent, and allows him the chance to catch the falling hero!

The Trapster comes around for a second shot, but Ghost Rider blasts a vengeful burst of hellfire toward the villain. It damages the platform heavily, but not enough to prevent Trapster steering toward refuge aboard a docked Navy carrier.

Spidey breaks free of his shackles, and leaps into action with the Ghost Rider.
GR is first onboard the boat, jumping from an elevated highway atop his hellcycle.

[Paste-Pot] Pete is waiting with his paste gun ready, building himself a hardened wall directly in the path of the netherworldly rider!
Any ordinary biker may be thrashed, but the Ghost Rider is able to leap from his flaming hellcycle as explodes in a burst of flame, before summoning it once more so that he may land directly on it!

Trapster so perturbed by being outmatched, doesn't even notice that he flees right into the waiting fist of the amazing Spider-man! The victory, however, is brief, as finely tuned spider-senses warn Spidey of an incoming attack from one of the sailors aboard the ship.

Ghost Rider once more comes to the web-slinger's aid as the seamen open fire.

Meanwhile, The Trapster seeks to commandeer a jet as means of distraction to facilitate his escape. He starts the F-14 rolling toward the West Side Highway, and only Spider-man's fantastic leaping prevents certain disaster.
Using his webbing and some quick thinking, he pulls the plane harmlessly into a nose dive off the bow of the carrier.

Ghost Rider corners the fleeing Trapster aboard the ship, and prepares to deliver unbridled vengeance, but Spider-man is forced to intervene at the last second!

With his prey pinned against barrels of fuel, Ghost Rider could be endangering the entire crew with his flaming retribution. Or so Spidey believes!

The Ghost Rider, unrelenting, blasts jets of hellfire at the villain with little regard for the surroundings. Trapster collapses to the ground, gripped in a figurative hell in his mind.

Ghost Rider callously reminds Spider-man that his hellfire has more poperties than merely the physical. Spider-man is unable to subscribe to his vicious means of penance, thus the two part ways, with Ghost Rider bitterly reminding his ally that he is what he is. A demon spawn spirit of vengeance.

The hammer...
Despite their uneasy resolution, Ghost Rider and Spider-man emerge victorious! What a team!

A rare milestone on the site comes with this entry!
This is officially the one hundredth post on the website, which is a pretty big deal by anyone's book! Traffic's slowed down a little, but we've come a long way from the first post, so a big shoutout goes to all of you coming back regularly! Cheers!

Now, as far as reasoning for this post, I'm going to admit this was purely a grab at scoring some hits off the feature film. I haven't seen it, but I know it's got a lot of new readers interested in the character, and hopefully this can add to the experience of discovering the character on the page!

I personally don't think the character really came into his own until the Ghost Rider mantle was passed to Dan Ketch, as opposed to Johnny Blaze, who's the GR featured here and in the movie.

At this point in the character's history he sort of feels like a weird superhero, with a very non-chalant reference to an infernal backstory, and off-the-cuff throws to Satan. By the eighties and nineties I think we start to see the character falling into a more unique niche, and finding weight on the nature of his character, as opposed to just being a superhero guest star.

You'll notice the threat of hellfire is fairly regular here. It's not until the nineties that he develops trademark moves like the penance stare, and diversifies into the chains and flame attacks.

You probably see some of that in the movie, but being a PG-13 film, it really doesn't root the character in the same scene I like to think of him as appearing in. This is a character that inhabits the seedier side of the Marvel universe, mingling with similar characters like Morbius and Dr. Strange and Blade.

Of course, during that period of the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze still gets a look in, albeit as a man. Although, as you may have discovered if you've begun investigating the character in the comics, Johnny Blaze has again taken up the curse of the Ghost Rider. And I'm not about to pretend I'm above movie tie-ins [hello!], but it will be very interesting to see the Dan Ketch character breached within the pages of those books.

Of course, the vehicle for this Ghost Rider feature was the original secondary Spider-man title; Marvel Team-Up. I don't have a great collection of Ghost Rider books, but this is one that's been on the pile for a while, so it seemed like an opportune moment to throw it up there.

As has been discussed in the Punch-Ups, 2007 is really fixing to be a Spider-man month here on the site, I think. That's probably a trend that will continue, and hopefully you can forgive me! I'm trying to reserve Friday for some versatility, but there's just so much still to come!

Keep the hits coming folks!
If you've played the Ultimate Alliance video game, you'll know Monday is all about Bullseye, and it's one we've been waiting to see since the beginning of the site! Stick around for it! Cheers!

The Fight: 5 The Issue: 4

THE FRIGHTFUL FOUR versus THE FANTASTIC FOUR
The Ties That Bind (Marvel comics)
Where: Marvel Adventures #12 When: March, 1998
Why: Ralph Macchio How: Andy Kuhn

The story so far...
The evil mastermind of the Wizard has again begun plotting against the Fantastic Four, this time navigating micro-cameras into Reed Richards' inner scientific sanctum to spy on the team.

When the Human Torch appears to storm away, the Wizard sees it as the perfect opportunity to spring his newly trained Frightful Four into action.

Thus, he gathers the Trapster, Thundra and Sandman, and proceeds to place explosive devices throughout the business district that surrounds the FF headquarters. The Fantastic Three do their best to curb the violence, but succeed only in preventing further destruction.
When they return, they find their abode infiltrated.

Previous Form:
Fantastic Four #129: This very incarnation of the Frightful Four did battle with Thing and Medusa, in Thundra's first appearance.
Civil War #3: Thing, Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman were present at the confrontation between opposing sides in Civil War.
Fantastic Four #3: Reed Richards held his own against the Red Ghost and his Super Apes.

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Thing 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Mr. Fantastic 6 (Genius)
Speed: Human Torch 3 (Trained Athlete)
Stamina: Thing 5 (Marathon Runner)
Agility: Sandman 7 (Unlimited)
Fighting Ability: Thundra 6 (Warrior)
Energy Powers: Human Torch 7 (Solar Power)

There's kind of a psuedo-technical element to this section with the stats, so I thought it might be nice to round out every week with an additional stat. As objective as I try to be every week, it just looks like I'm picking the winner all the time, so there's a nice little addition. With any luck the uber stats provided by the patented Haseloff system will eventually show the dichotomy of character strength versus standard.

ANYWAY -- A little arch-rivalry here in the form of the Fantastic Four versus their evil counterparts, the Frightful Four.

I don't know if you'd call this the classic group, but it's probably my favourite teaming of Frightul foes.
It's probably worth noting that this incarnation sort of has a counterpart overlap. With Thundra's chief function being super strength, Thing gets her by default, which means Sandman can be shuffled off to either Invisible Woman or Mr. Fantastic, who both have malleable powers. Although, Wizard is the natural nemesis of the team leader/genius, Reed Richards, so you can start to see the team's evolution.

Paste Pot Pete has never really struck me as a good fit, but I guess I like that. I'm not all that fond of the two-dimensional thought process that tells a villain, 'If I counter balance each of their powers, we're assured victory!'

Now, the smart bet might have the Trapster using his powers of entrapment to tangle with the forcefield yielding Invisible Woman - leaving the Sandman to douse the flame of the Human Torch. However, for whatever reasoning, Petey takes the hothead, with whom he's tangled previously, albeit to poor results.

The Sandman's versatility, combined with Thundra's presence does lend a pretty good argument for the Frightful quarter. However, particularly between those two strongarms, there's a lot of in-fighting. Thundra's allegiance to the group is one of convenience, which does tend to make her something of an X-factor.

The FF, while having their squabbles, are generally far superior than most opponents when it comes to being a cohesive unit. They also have a track record of regularly besting their villainous alternates.

I'm reticent to immediately throw it the way of the FF just because of past performance, but one does have to consider the strategic intelligence of each member of the Fantastic foursome. They all possess fairly respectable competence in the art of combat, and flow particularly well as a unit.

This juxtaposes the Frightful team, which are usually far better prepared, but dependent upon the precision planning of the Wizard. Even when they hold the superior advantage, the inability to ensure the prevention of variables is often their downfall.

Between these two teams it'll always be a close fight, but particularly in the Adventures book, you'd be mad to bet against the home team.

Average: The Fantastic Four 21.75 (+0.25)
Overall: The Fantastic Four 87 (+1)
The Pick: The Fantastic Four

What went down...
When the FF return from preventing mass destruction, they find their private Baxter Building elevator has been filled with since-hardened paste. Reed Richards is a smart fellow, so he understandably warns the team to be on their toes!

Unfortunately, when they crack their way in, and head up via the elevator, they find themselves on the ceiling, courtesy of a barrage of Wizard's anti-gravity discs.
The Trapster ensnares the trio in paste, rendering them helpless cargo.

Standing at the controls of Reed Richards' recently devised sub-spatial gateway, the Wizard gloats, revealing the details of his plan, whilst musing that Richards was not the challenge he posed in the past.
As he reaches for control panel, a burning jet of flame torches his hand -- and the Wizard is suddenly informed that it was he who was outsmarted!

Well aware that the Sandman had infiltrated his lair, Richards organized the charade of Human Torch's storm-out, and equipped him with a device capable of rendering the anti-gravity discs useless! Thus, it is indeed clobbering time!

The Trapster fires off a blast of paste, but the Torch is able to harden it in mid-air, and then uses his flame to severe the tubing that feeds Pete's solution into his dispersal gun.
The Torch floats on, leaving Trapster in a flame barred prison cage.

The Sandman tussles with the Invisible Woman, using his extensive sand particles to lace the floor and reveal the invisible foosteps of his foe.
He forms two massive sandstone blocks of his fists, and begins to bring them together in crushing formation, but Sue's invisible forcefields manage to protect her long enough for Human Torch to flare to blinding brightness.

With the Sandman blinded, Sue lets loose a barrage of invisible bubbles!
But... That is apparently ineffective, so Sandman quips, "my turn!," and turns his arm into a deadly stream of hurling sand!
Sue throws up an air-tight invisible wall, and begins pushing the Sandman back bit by bit, and continuing the tradition of super villain mental collapses, he begins to have a serious case of the clausterphobias.
Unable to take the thought of being imprisoned (again), Sandman collapses into a mess on the floor.

Meanwhile, whoa! Look at that!
Thing and Thundra butt heads, aaand... Thundra proceeds to whoop Thing's rocky ass!
A left to the jaw, an axe handle across the back, and then for a big finish, the warrior woman hoists Thing above her head... But lucky for Aunt Petunia's favourite nephew, Sue throws an invisible bubble around her head, forcing her to pass out.

Meanwhile, Mr. Fantastic is being bested by the Wizard and his electrified gauntlet.
Wizard makes his move, heading toward the controls of the sub-spacial gateway once more. Using the control he had pre-devised, Richards manipulates Wizard's anti-gravity discs to lift him away from the controls, but it's too late.

With the gateway activated, Wizard becomes like a father caught in an autumn breeze.
The weakened Mr. Fantastic does his best to stretch out to his nemesis, but finds himself instead caught in the vaccuum.
Quick thinking by Thing sees a makeshift harness devised, and he is able to dive into the universe and snare his best friend. The Wizard, however, continued to slip out of reach, a victim of his own devices, but sure to surface again.

"Y'know, I'm wonderin' what happened to them other three clowns. Guess they decided ta skedaddle while they could."
Right you are, Thing. Right you are.

The hammer...
The winners by victory or forfeit, depending on how you look at it, the Fantastic Four!

I think I mentioned during the JLU review [Justice League Unlimited #14] that it would be unlikely that you'd see me review another Adventures book.
Well, after doing the already oft referred to review of FF #129, this particular issue sprung immediately to mind.
By no means is it a landmark comic, nor is it even particularly memorable in the broadest sense, but it uses these characters that are just something special, and not seen nearly enough anymore. Not by me, at least.

Another oustanding positive about this issue is the pencil work by Andy Kuhn, and the incredibly complimentary inks of Harry Candelario.
DC did tremendously well in cultivating the Bruce Timm animated style into their spin-off Adventures comic books (and beyond), and really, for quite a while Marvel had no equivalent.

While the Marvel cartoons never had a distinct or uniform style among them, Kuhn cultivates a unique style both suited to animation in it's simplicity, but also it's kinetic action. It appears animated in both senses of the word.
I'm actually surprised I haven't really seen Kuhn beyond these pages. While not what I would call a popular mainstream style, I think it's got a lot going for it. I might even rate him among my favourite artists, if I could do such a thing.

Macchio also competently weaves together a yarn that not only harkens back to some of the great seventies writers, but manages to very vividly highlight the characters therein.

Some of the plot stretches plausibility even further than Mr. Fantastic's longjohns, and it's a story of very little consequence, but on a website like Secret Wars on Infinite Earths, I'll gladly pay it. The more FF, the merrier!

Anyway, this was a pretty lengthy update for a fairly brief book, and ideally I'd like to be up to scratch before December, to do some thirty entries on the days.
We'll see how that goes. Stay sharp, folks!

The Fight: 3.5 The Issue: 4

NEXT: Could one moment change a universe? Next up, the swansong of a very unique Marvel hero, and the deaths of many. Be here!

THING versus THE FRIGHTFUL FOUR
The Frightful Four -- Plus One! (Marvel comics)
Where: Fantastic Four #129 When: December, 1972
Why: Roy Thomas How: John Buscema

The story so far...
Having returned from taking a licking at the hands of the Moleman, the FF are in pretty bad shape, and they get a little more lopsided when the hotheaded Johnny Storm announces he's going to live with Crystal in the Great Refuge.
Yeah, great timing kiddo. All this, and Sue's had to take the wheel while Reed snoozes, and Ben just made a woman-driver gag...

The fun doesn't stop for Marvel's first family, and before too long Reed and Sue are at each other when Agatha Harkness appears to tell them to collect their son Franklin, as she has matters of the utmost urgency to attend to.

You can't blame ol' blue eyes for taking a brisk stroll to clear his head, but it turns out that might just not have been such a great idea, when a scream rings out into the cold night air.

Previous form:
Neither Thing, Medusa, nor the Frightful Four members included here have been featured on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths in the past.

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Thing 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Wingless Wizard 6 (Genius)
Speed: Thundra 3 (Trained Athlete)
Stamina: Thing 5 (Marathon Runner)
Agility: Sandman 7 (Unlimited)
Fighting Ability: Thundra 6 (Warrior)
Energy Powers: Wingless Wizard 3 (Explosives)

If you take a look at my modest comic collection, you'll find clumps of various titles with gaps between numbers anywhere between two issues, to two hundred.
In amongst that sea of inconsistency are some titles more popular than others, and for me, Fantastic Four is one of them. This makes it especially unusual that it's taken this long to feature the Thing -- long time favourite member of the FF.

Now, the Frightful Four have a habit of shuffling membership, so it's important to establish who it is we're dealing with here.
The cover is somewhat misleading, suggesting that Thundra is a fifth member of this sinister quartet, but what we find is actually that she is the fourth, while a former member appears in a reformed capacity. I, of course, refer to the Inhuman - Medusa.

So, the lineup this time around includes stalwart leader, the Wingless Wizard; providing muscle with a slice of versatility is the Sandman; pasting up the town with his patented ensnaring goo is The Trapster; and finally, the Amazonian-like warrior Thundra makes her first appearance in comics.

Really, you'd have to rate the Four pretty highly, despite their somewhat comical win/loss record.
Not only do you have the Wizard's wonderful toys, but also the versatility and strength of Sandman, which is only coupled by the brute strength of Thundra. Really, she makes a pretty impressive addition in place of Madusa, whose abilities are somewhat redundant next to the Trapster.

The Thing gets full credit for his strength, experience and overall durability.
It's these qualities that always make him a valuable asset to any team, but against the combined might of this foursome, his strengths start to diminish.
Pound for pound, Thundra alone could match Thing in the strength department, and while she might not win nine out of ten, she would take him to the very lengths in at least five of those bouts.

Whether their effectiveness ranges from sandy pants rash, to pastey suffocation, the addition of the other three members really tips things in the favour of the Frightful Four, I would honestly have to say.
Against the full roster of the original Fantastic Four it might be a different story, but with the Thing isolated it becomes too difficult to tip the hero.

Medusa, try as she may, is not an equalizer for Sandman, let alone the Wizard (who's nasty with those anti-grav discs, and his tactical intelligence) and the Trapster (who can... tie you up with paste...).

What went down...
Alright, so we all know it: Thing's a good guy!

I don't just mean that in the 'super powered bloke who fights villains and tyrrany in all their forms' either. I mean that if you're in a bind, he'll do what he can to help -- and when a woman's scream echoes in the night air, you can be damn sure Benjamin J. Grimm'll be there!

Barrelling head-long through a wooden fence, Benjy gets his first nasty shock when he plummets down into a dugout construction site.

Things take a further turn for the worse when a flexing figure emerges dramatically, shadowed by the moon behind him -- The Sandman!

Sandman clobbers his sendimentary counterpart, but when Thing tries to return the favour, he gets no love, swinging straight through a mid-section made of sand!

Escaping a grappling session with the FF's muscle, Sandy slips away to allow the entry of two other genial gentlemen in the form of the Trapster and the Wingless Wizard.

A two pronged attack on the Thing proves effective, tying him up with quick hardening paste, and following up with a swift diving attack from the Wizard who did fly.

It's at this time that another player in the game makes herself known.
Snatching the Wizard from the sky are long, red strands of hair belonging to the Inhuman known as Medusa. Dragging the Frightful Four's leader earthbound, Medusa makes clear her resignation from the questionable quartet.

While Medusa duals with the Wizard, Sandman and Trapster launch an attack on the Thing. Using his incredible and oft underrated strength, Sandman tosses a bulldozer in the hero's general direction, while Trapster comes from the other side behind the wheel of a dump truck.

Thing reduces the 'dozer to scrap metal with a left that woulda knocked it outta the park, and makes his turn just in time to surprise Trapster -- not by destroying his vehicle, but by yanking it from it's path into the air!

While the Thing shakes Trapster out of the truck, Medusa's dominance over Wizard has come under fire.
A face full of high-impact sand puts Medusa on the ropes, and frees up the Wizard to turn the tables on Thing, who is proceeding to dangle Trapster by his belt to deliver a spanking -- "Awright, Trappie -- My second time at bat, comin' up --"

One of the Wizard's "new and improved" anti-gravity discs slaps on Thing's back just in time, and Trapster falls to the ground with smug satisfaction.
It's only by the intervention of Medusa, who ensnares the floating Thing in her hair and removes the disc, that Thing does not end up space bound.
Afterall, if Jack Kirby had meant for Thing to fly, he would've given him wings.

Feeling pretty much ticked off and a little chauvinistic [Saved by a female! How mortifyin'!]; Thing looks to take the frightened three down while they're all together by hoisting a crane above his head, and whipping it into the air. Enter: Thundra!

Much like Thing earlier, Thundra reduces the airborne crane to rubble, professing her name and might as she strikes the metallic menace down.

"You already tossed yer monicker at us, girlie! Now howzabout somethin' a wee bit more basic, like -- What's a seven-foot gal like you doin' in a place like this??"

[It's about now that Thing should start to quiver in his shorts, because not only is Thundra obsessed with battling her destined opponent of the strongest male alive, but she's also a walking, talking parody of feminisim. But more to the point, Roy Thomas? Run for the hills, man! Lordy! -- Emasculated Mike]

Thing stands his ground as Thundra whips her chain at him, unaware that it's not her intention to injure him with it, but rather to ensnare him so as to pull him into close quarters. Then the real pain starts!

Thundra's blow is so powerful, the explosive blow is exclamated with a giant asterisk: "Rolll your own sound effect, effendi -- We can't think of one that would do Thundra's murderous blow justice! -- Roy and Artie."

Medusa attempts to intervene once more, but tanglging her tensile strands around the psuedo-Amazonian only ensures she see the same fate. Swung and tossed like a cat by it's tail, Thing has to make do with some giant chunks of Earth, which he attempts to use as a makeshift catcher's mit.

Sufficiently distracted, Thing is left wide open to attack as the Frightful Four congregate around he and Medusa.
Vulnerable, not even Thing can resist the crushing combo of full strength blows from Thundra and Sandman! Despite calling him for herself, the combined effort delivers the victory, and leaves Sandman and Thundra to bicker while Trapster subdues Medusa.

The hammer...
Well, the winners, I'm surprised to say, are the Frightful Four!
The Thing was an overdue inclusion to the site, but I have to say, I'm quite pleased to have guys like Sandman and Thundra on the rankings list now, too. Characters that aren't necessarily moving titles, but are strong representations of the Marvel tradition.

It's interesting to see how Marvel's current crossover event Civil War is affecting that tradition. For me, I've enjoyed the story, and the shake up of the 'status quo,' despite being fairly confident it'll all be relatively reset reasonably soon.

I've seen long time readers offended by what they're seeing between the pages of Mark Millar's Civil War. They're seeing characters they enjoy and adore acting in ways that are familiar, yet very different.

In this particular issue of Fantastic Four, the FF are torn apart by in-house bickering, preparing for a shift in the team's roster. Johnny runs off to the Inhumans' Great Refuge, where he hopes to find love with Crystal, an Inhuman and elemental who cannot leave her home.
Meanwhile, Reed Richards and Sue Storm are torn apart when Reed places his science, as he so often does, above more personal matters, like the well being of their son Franklin.

Each of these events is motivated, in the moment, by contrived emotion penned by Roy Thomas. While these events bare little relevence to the story, or even Fantastic Four history as we recognise it today, they attempt to forward on-going plots by using the perceived humanity of the characters prompted by catalysts that could be described as little more than mcguffins.

What we arrive at is a fun moment in history, where Medusa is a member of the Fantastic Four, and a chance to see the Thing take on a brand new character in her first appearance - Thundra.

So, how do I feel about Civil War? I guess I'm not too fussed.
Not to say I condone dramatic dismissal of history, or characterisation. Quite the contrary, I loathe the fan who tells you not to care. Not to invest in the logic these on-going stories demand.
I simply cannot stand readers who insist there's something wrong with disliking a comic's delivery or plot. 'You don't have to buy' is not a good enough answer.

That said, I don't feel Civil War fails as a story, or as a Marvel comic.
This story has introduced feelings that have largely been avoided, partially out of respect for the American sensitivity, and perhaps partially out of a want of escape.

In the wake of 9/11 and shifting climates we do now, however, have a Marvel universe incredibly aware of itself, and the world in which we live.
The Stanford incident reflects a tragedy in American history, and the resulting climate indicates something relevent in the world. The necesity for security, and administration and policing is the subject, and practically the villain. But I don't really feel that's important.

What's important, and what makes this such an acceptable tale, is that it's a story about humanity, magnified several times to become super humanity.
This is a collective of persons with great power, and great responsibility who have lived parallel to great human tragedy, and gross neglect within their own community.

This story highlights a moment in time where all of these people are reacting.
For a time, after 9/11, America seemed united. The spirit was strong, and the will to ensure safety and justice at all costs was strong. It was natural.
Eventually emotions settled, and tensions relaxed. The climate was slack enough to allow a return to dissent, and confusion, and disagreement. The world fell back into it's previous, comfortable context.

This is what I see for the Marvel universe. This is what I see of Civil War.

The Fight: 5.5 The Issue: 5

NEXT MONTH: Civil War comes to Secret Earths! But first, stay tuned for an all new punch-up!