Fantastic Four #8
Mar. 29th, 2019 08:19 pm![[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}
doomfansSo. Doom is harnessing the power of Galactus through his cosmic pipeline. He drops in on Reed in the dungeon where he has the F4 in special rooms designed to neutralise their powers, claiming he's telling Reed his plans to put his mind at ease because, "I am trying to be a good man, Reed. I wanted my last act toward you to be one of kindness."
Elsewhere, Franklin is having nightmares about having created all the universes and therefore feeling responsible for all the suffering inside them, and goes all moody teenager, storming out instead of using his powers to help Val teleport to Latveria.
Doom attempts to broadcast the executions of the F4 worldwide as a warning against enemies trying to steal the power cosmic from Latveria. To no one's great surprise, this fails to come off, when the F4 take advantage of the power surges so Sue can use her powers of invisibility to vanish Doom's armour and reveal his scarred face to the world. (Also, for some reason, his whole upper body, which one would think would be considerably less humiliating for him. Sadly the panel framing leaves it unclear whether or not she's gone for the full-frontal naked Doom here.)
Well, anyway, I went into this issue in a very uncharitable mood and did actually find some things to like, so yay for low expectations, I guess? The stuff with Franklin is the first thing Slott's done so far this run I actually find interesting. (Which probably has something to do with the fact that it's the first bit of actual character development that doesn't involve revisiting stories from about 300 issues ago.)
The Doom stuff is... frustrating. Like, twenty years ago, the idea of Doom feeling like he's showing kindness to Reed by assuring him the planet's safe before executing him could have been a good character moment, but it doesn't remotely fit with the relationship they've had from the Hickman era onwards. And Sue using her powers to reveal Doom's face to the world is a genuinely great idea it's almost surprising hasn't been done before... but the setup is deeply uncharacteristic of modern-era Doom even in full-on villain mode, and the depiction of the scars makes zero sense with the current canon where we've seen him walking about completely healed before he got slashed in the face by a demon. The overall effect comes off, more than anything, like Slott saw a Wiki summary of the fact Doom spent some time trying to be a hero, but didn't bother to read the actual storyline.
Four artists credited on this issue, too, for no apparent reason other than presumably deadlines. It's not actually distracting or noticeably choppy, so kudos for that and to colourist Matt Yackey for doing a strong job holding it together, but it does make it a bit difficult to discuss the art. I think it's Caselli on the Franklin pages, which are my faves: the nightmare pages are great, and this issue has reconciled me to Franklin's blue hair of teenage rebellion, which looks much better in this style. (Also a nice touch that he has his old blond in the nightmares.) I don't know whose idea it was to give Doom his new furry cape, but I can roll with that. Whoever's drawing him on the TV broadcast section is also doing a nice job with the classic Doom mask, but I haven't got a clue which artist that actually is, so, shrug.
So, in fairness, I came to review this issue in both a rush and a bad mood and came out with a better opinion of it than I expected. But really, Slott's whole take on Doom is just kind of tired and frustrating, and I'd like somebody else to have a chance to write him once this arc is over, please.
Elsewhere, Franklin is having nightmares about having created all the universes and therefore feeling responsible for all the suffering inside them, and goes all moody teenager, storming out instead of using his powers to help Val teleport to Latveria.
Doom attempts to broadcast the executions of the F4 worldwide as a warning against enemies trying to steal the power cosmic from Latveria. To no one's great surprise, this fails to come off, when the F4 take advantage of the power surges so Sue can use her powers of invisibility to vanish Doom's armour and reveal his scarred face to the world. (Also, for some reason, his whole upper body, which one would think would be considerably less humiliating for him. Sadly the panel framing leaves it unclear whether or not she's gone for the full-frontal naked Doom here.)
Well, anyway, I went into this issue in a very uncharitable mood and did actually find some things to like, so yay for low expectations, I guess? The stuff with Franklin is the first thing Slott's done so far this run I actually find interesting. (Which probably has something to do with the fact that it's the first bit of actual character development that doesn't involve revisiting stories from about 300 issues ago.)
The Doom stuff is... frustrating. Like, twenty years ago, the idea of Doom feeling like he's showing kindness to Reed by assuring him the planet's safe before executing him could have been a good character moment, but it doesn't remotely fit with the relationship they've had from the Hickman era onwards. And Sue using her powers to reveal Doom's face to the world is a genuinely great idea it's almost surprising hasn't been done before... but the setup is deeply uncharacteristic of modern-era Doom even in full-on villain mode, and the depiction of the scars makes zero sense with the current canon where we've seen him walking about completely healed before he got slashed in the face by a demon. The overall effect comes off, more than anything, like Slott saw a Wiki summary of the fact Doom spent some time trying to be a hero, but didn't bother to read the actual storyline.
Four artists credited on this issue, too, for no apparent reason other than presumably deadlines. It's not actually distracting or noticeably choppy, so kudos for that and to colourist Matt Yackey for doing a strong job holding it together, but it does make it a bit difficult to discuss the art. I think it's Caselli on the Franklin pages, which are my faves: the nightmare pages are great, and this issue has reconciled me to Franklin's blue hair of teenage rebellion, which looks much better in this style. (Also a nice touch that he has his old blond in the nightmares.) I don't know whose idea it was to give Doom his new furry cape, but I can roll with that. Whoever's drawing him on the TV broadcast section is also doing a nice job with the classic Doom mask, but I haven't got a clue which artist that actually is, so, shrug.
So, in fairness, I came to review this issue in both a rush and a bad mood and came out with a better opinion of it than I expected. But really, Slott's whole take on Doom is just kind of tired and frustrating, and I'd like somebody else to have a chance to write him once this arc is over, please.
