Fantastic Four #9

[nomadicwriter]

Not much to summarise, here, I feel, as this story arc ties up in fairly predictable style. The F4 escape and free Galactus, who just leaves. Doom vows that after humiliating him they're now going to get slow agonising deaths instead of merciful ones, which frankly doesn't come off any different than his usual posturing. The F4 escape in the nick of time with the aid of Val's teleporter, the end.

The development of everybody who was watching the broadcast now having seen Doom's scars could potentially go somewhere interesting, but I won't be too surprised if it's never mentioned again. That said, I did quite like the scene of Doom watching all the reactions from the global news channels, and the fact there's actually a mix of different reactions including a certain amount of pity is fitting. (We'll ignore the question of how the depiction of what seems to be all-over burns is supposed to mesh with the current canon state of Doom's scarring, because it just doesn't.)

There's also one other nice little moment I really liked, where Doom is furious at the destruction of Mount Doom and Ben says he's still got plenty of other things named after him, but then when Doom says this one was actually named for his late father, is all, "Oh. Um. Sorry, Vic." (I gotta credit Bendis and co for the fact that I am now invested in these little snippets of the Ben and Doom relationship where I never was before.)

Art is once again a multi-artist (but admirably smooth and consistent) mix between Kuder, Caselli and this time Paco Medina, so I don't know whether to credit one of them, Slott, or colourist Erick Arciniega for something of an interesting choice with Doom's armour: up until the scene where he watches all the reactions to his scarring, the armour is depicted normally, but when we see him confront the F4 again after that, he's drawn with opaque, metallic-looking eyepieces so you can't see his eyes. Not a take I've seen done before, and as a regular thing it really wouldn't work as it reduces how much he can emote, but in this context it comes off as implying he's deliberately closed himself off due to feeling exposed, which is kind of neat.

So, several nice little touches this issue, but overall this has been a pretty forgettable story arc, and doubly disappointing for being launched off of undoing a lot of much more interesting character development. At this point, I'd really rather Slott leaves Doom out of the rest of his run, and hopefully someone else will pick him up soon and so something that actually builds on the character work of the past few years.

Comments

[harveysdent]

not sure where to put this/inform you but!!!! Doom miniseries announced at SDCC!!! YELLINGGGG. LAROCCA ON ART. angry yelling. writer also leaves something to be desired but! content ahoy!!

[nomadicwriter]

Ooh, thanks! I hadn't been keeping up with SDCC news so I might have missed this. I was not exactly a fan of Larroca's Iron Man art to put it mildly, though he actually used to be much better when he was drawing the F4 back in 2000 and did a pretty good Doom back then, so who knows? Maybe he'll surprise me, though I'm not holding my breath. I don't know anything about the writer, but at least it's not more Slott, and hopefully if it's Doom-centric we're going to get something a lot more nuanced again. (Also, Marvel.com is saying it's an ongoing series, not just a miniseries!)

[harveysdent]

Welcome! and it IS an ongoing omg! my bad, I was reading and reacting too fast. also was keeping expectations low since he’s been getting paid dust lately lolll but ONGOING DOOM SERIES AHHHH EXCITING. I’m also extremely not a fan of Larocca but I have to say I loved doom in the Claremont/Larocca FF run so some of that goodwill may unintentionally end up making me more amenable to this lmao.

Also the plot is super strange but from the outset his plight immediately sounds so sympathetic, like they’re really leaning into the tragic hero aspect which is so surprising and promising?? I’d prefer him interacting with a recognizable cast but if it’s an isolating character study processing SW/IIM developments with a more doom-y feel than bendis’s style.. I would not be mad. (ALSO BRING BACK KRISTOFF)

[nomadicwriter]

Yeah, the plot sounds weird so it's hard to guess whether it's going to be much related to recent events or not, but it definitely seems to be going with a sympathetic angle on Doom, which is already much better than I was expecting until we got a new writer on the F4. Plus even if it doesn't engage with the SW/IIM stuff, with an ongoing there's always hope it will survive to pass on to another writer who might do more with it. (And though I don't like Larroca's art, he's still a relatively known name who's done high-profile stuff, so at least it feels like they're putting a bit of a push behind the book rather than tossing it out as a halfassed experiment with a newbie creative team.)

Actually, just the fact they're trying another Doom-centric ongoing this soon is probably the most exciting thing. I sort of figured they'd written Infamous off as not successful enough and weren't going to try again for years, but if they've decided it's worth launching another one already, then they may keep trying different takes even if this one fails. I wouldn't even complain about Doom getting the constant relaunches treatment if it means we get a bunch of different creative teams having a stab at Doom-centric stories.