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[Punchy]

This was another odd issue of Fantastic Four made up of cool moments that I’m not sure add up to a strong whole. Ben Grimm, using his one week in human form a year, travels back in time to the past to defend a Pharmacist from Jewish Gangsters on Yancy Street. It’s like Once Upon A Thing In America or something.

There’s a lot of things here that confused me, it’s implied that he’s back in time to stop Alicia Masters from being blinded, but Ben never gets around to it. He also mentions that he’s done this before… has Ben travelled to the same day 7 times already and been distracted by Ira Rosenbaum each time? I don’t know. There’s also the fact that Ira’s wife is called Petunia, is she actually Aunt Petunia? But, confusion aside, this was an interesting look at New York City in the past, and also serves as somewhat of an origin story for the Yancy Street Gang. It’s interesting to see them here in the nebulous 50s, and in the present as hooded nerds in FF.

Back on board the ship, Fraction reveals that the Age Of Ultron tie-in issue was not all for nothing, as Franklin and Val have been having dreams about what happened, and most crucially, about when The Thing said. Did Ben Grimm inadvertently create Doctor Doom? It looks like we’ll find out next issue! This issue, like most of Fraction’s run so far, feels disjointed, I can see what he’s going for, but it doesn’t quite work. The art is good, and he has the character’s voices down really well, it’s just that the plots don’t make much sense… yet.

[Chesscub]

It won't be his Aunt Petunia. They introduced her in Fantastic Four 238. She's not much older than Ben is (about 10 years)