FF #9 Review
Sep. 30th, 2011 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nomadicwriter posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
doomfansI continue to love this series as much as ever. It feels like Hickman's spinning the next phase of the story here; there are lots of intriguing little details in this one that seem like setup and foreshadowing for what's to come. Plus there are some developments for Doom...
The issue opens with the awesome two page scene from the preview, where Doom makes short work of Diablo and the Thinker's attempts to stab him in the back. The Thinker's appeal to Doom, though summarily rebuffed, is actually pretty interesting:
Given what happens at the end of this issue, I'm wondering if this is going to turn out to be foreshadowing. But more on that in a minute.
Back at the Baxter Building, Bentley has busted Val out from where she's supposed to be stuck in her room in a timeout, and they're hanging out in Reed's secret lab where he built the dimensional Bridge. She asks Bentley's opinion of the lab, and he thinks it looks sinister enough that it would make a good supervillain base. That apparently helps Val decide what she should do about Reed's projects, but we don't find out what she's planning just yet.
Meanwhile, Reed, Nathaniel and Spidey have been taken as guests and/or captives of the Inhumans. The Inhumans are prepared to deal with the evil members of the Council of Reeds in their own fashion, and don't care so much what our Reed thinks about it. They make short and ruthless work of taking out the enemy army, and capture two of the three surviving Reeds.
They also capture Diablo and the Thinker (the Wizard escapes via teleporter), and are instructed to bring in Doom too. But Karnak, being a smart man, thinks that sounds like a dubious plan, and tells Doom to just leave instead. Doom doesn't take too kindly to being commanded, but just then he spots the third and final evil Reed, the ringleader, and goes after him instead.
But it's a trap. The master Reed calls him a "pathetic... predictable man", saying he's faced him on infinite worlds and defeated him, and puts one of the Council's control collars on Doom. It turns out they don't, as our Reed was told, immediately destroy brain functions: rather, the Council have been using the captive Dooms as slaves, relying on Victor's ego to make him play along for a while because he's always sure he'll be able to work out a way to break the collar given time.
Our Doom, having had a pretty recent brush with brain damage, is indeed playing along for the moment, as the master Reed reveals they're heading for Latveria. But of course, this is the universe where "all hope lies in Doom", and just as our Reed is different from the others thanks to Nathaniel's influence, our Doom is also not quite the same man as in other dimensions...
So... interesting. By the end of this issue Doom is kneeling to Reed Richards in a slave collar, and I'm actually pretty happy about it. Heh. Because it's so obviously not going to last. All signs point to this gambit blowing up spectacularly in the master Reed's face, and that's going to be pretty fun to read.
I'm wondering now if the Thinker's appeal to Doom is going to prove to be foreshadowing, him planting the idea in Doom's head. Because he's right, the only way Doom can possibly outwit the master Reed who considers him so predictable is to break out of his own patterns, do something completely uncharacteristic and unexpected. And some sort of genuinely selfless or compassionate gesture could definitely be it. Because Doom is capable of a level of nobility, when the circumstances are right... and there's nothing quite like "proving Reed Richards wrong" to act as motivation. ;)
Also, our Doom has one advantage over the other Dooms already. Having suffered his previous brain damage and made his deal with Valeria, he now knows that there's a potential way to repair his mind by copying his memories back from Kristoff. It's not guaranteed that it would work if the collar did too much damage, but still, it's something that might encourage him to risk himself more than the master Reed might expect from him.
There's also the question of what happened to all the other Dooms that the Council of Reeds captured and enslaved. When the Celestials attacked the Council planet they killed all the Reeds, but we don't know what they did with the lobotomised Dooms. Could the same cure work on them? We could be looking at a potential army of Dooms here. And Val and Bentley are conveniently sitting around in the lab with the Bridge to the Council planet...
Lots of interesting potential developments from here. Epting's dark and moody art is great in this issue as usual. And props must go to Paul Mounts, the F4's seriously underappreciated colourist, for the awesome opening scene with Doom in flames and wielding magic. I can't wait to see where this is all going.
Next month, we've got another two issues of FF coming out, and then the Fantastic Four returns and both comics will be running side by side.
The issue opens with the awesome two page scene from the preview, where Doom makes short work of Diablo and the Thinker's attempts to stab him in the back. The Thinker's appeal to Doom, though summarily rebuffed, is actually pretty interesting:
Given what happens at the end of this issue, I'm wondering if this is going to turn out to be foreshadowing. But more on that in a minute.
Back at the Baxter Building, Bentley has busted Val out from where she's supposed to be stuck in her room in a timeout, and they're hanging out in Reed's secret lab where he built the dimensional Bridge. She asks Bentley's opinion of the lab, and he thinks it looks sinister enough that it would make a good supervillain base. That apparently helps Val decide what she should do about Reed's projects, but we don't find out what she's planning just yet.
Meanwhile, Reed, Nathaniel and Spidey have been taken as guests and/or captives of the Inhumans. The Inhumans are prepared to deal with the evil members of the Council of Reeds in their own fashion, and don't care so much what our Reed thinks about it. They make short and ruthless work of taking out the enemy army, and capture two of the three surviving Reeds.
They also capture Diablo and the Thinker (the Wizard escapes via teleporter), and are instructed to bring in Doom too. But Karnak, being a smart man, thinks that sounds like a dubious plan, and tells Doom to just leave instead. Doom doesn't take too kindly to being commanded, but just then he spots the third and final evil Reed, the ringleader, and goes after him instead.
But it's a trap. The master Reed calls him a "pathetic... predictable man", saying he's faced him on infinite worlds and defeated him, and puts one of the Council's control collars on Doom. It turns out they don't, as our Reed was told, immediately destroy brain functions: rather, the Council have been using the captive Dooms as slaves, relying on Victor's ego to make him play along for a while because he's always sure he'll be able to work out a way to break the collar given time.
Our Doom, having had a pretty recent brush with brain damage, is indeed playing along for the moment, as the master Reed reveals they're heading for Latveria. But of course, this is the universe where "all hope lies in Doom", and just as our Reed is different from the others thanks to Nathaniel's influence, our Doom is also not quite the same man as in other dimensions...
So... interesting. By the end of this issue Doom is kneeling to Reed Richards in a slave collar, and I'm actually pretty happy about it. Heh. Because it's so obviously not going to last. All signs point to this gambit blowing up spectacularly in the master Reed's face, and that's going to be pretty fun to read.
I'm wondering now if the Thinker's appeal to Doom is going to prove to be foreshadowing, him planting the idea in Doom's head. Because he's right, the only way Doom can possibly outwit the master Reed who considers him so predictable is to break out of his own patterns, do something completely uncharacteristic and unexpected. And some sort of genuinely selfless or compassionate gesture could definitely be it. Because Doom is capable of a level of nobility, when the circumstances are right... and there's nothing quite like "proving Reed Richards wrong" to act as motivation. ;)
Also, our Doom has one advantage over the other Dooms already. Having suffered his previous brain damage and made his deal with Valeria, he now knows that there's a potential way to repair his mind by copying his memories back from Kristoff. It's not guaranteed that it would work if the collar did too much damage, but still, it's something that might encourage him to risk himself more than the master Reed might expect from him.
There's also the question of what happened to all the other Dooms that the Council of Reeds captured and enslaved. When the Celestials attacked the Council planet they killed all the Reeds, but we don't know what they did with the lobotomised Dooms. Could the same cure work on them? We could be looking at a potential army of Dooms here. And Val and Bentley are conveniently sitting around in the lab with the Bridge to the Council planet...
Lots of interesting potential developments from here. Epting's dark and moody art is great in this issue as usual. And props must go to Paul Mounts, the F4's seriously underappreciated colourist, for the awesome opening scene with Doom in flames and wielding magic. I can't wait to see where this is all going.
Next month, we've got another two issues of FF coming out, and then the Fantastic Four returns and both comics will be running side by side.
