The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

by **Amoebas** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:41 pm

A preamble...

My first comic book was FF #160 (making it my 1st FF as well onbviously). Fantastic Four was my favorite comic for over a decade until Englehart came on with his She-Thing stuff that just didn't work. I still bought it regularly but lost a lot of love for the FF.
Simonson renewed the flame and it was a great (short) ride until the crap that was DeFalco started and a sad for me as I stopped buying the book for the 1st time ever. Heroes Reborn was an abomination and the return by both Lobdel and Claremont was a joke.
A couple years of more crap and then Waid came in to make the book readable again. Some of his arc were good others weren't but at least it was readable again (as were Kesels far too few issues).
I dropped it a couple issues into JMS shitfest started and never even bothered with McDuffies run (reading the boards confirmed my decision as wise). I've no use for Millar so that was gladly slipped (again a good decsion based on the boards).

So he I go again. I love the FF but I keep waiting for the next Kirby/Lee, Thomas, Wein, Wolfman, Moench, Byrne, Simonson, Waid & Kesel. And that brings us to today...

Fantastic Four #570

The cover - nice Davis stuff even tho Ben apparently as fish pupils. Can't figure out why Johnny's burning yellow with hints of orange rather than red.

Right from thart it looks loike Eaglesham is hitting eveything. Those two opening pages are beautiful.

The Wizard-bot fight - 1st: I'm not a fan of Steroid Reed and HGH Johnny. Second, the Wizard is smarter than this. "There was a hole in my logic."? What the fuck? The Wizard has been fighting the FF longer than most anyone. For him to miss the "switch" is absurd.
Ben's use of "da" insteadof the "the" didn't sound right to me (as a lot of his later dialogue would likewise also sound off).
Johnny's call for Sue to look out made no sense as she wasn't in danger from the water.
Sue says "Johnny's out", yet he's fine enough to see thru the other three bots - including the one that was designed to fight him which should have been heat shielded.

I know I'm nitpicking - but it shouldn't be this easy.

Sloppy battle sequence.

The FF can teleport now? How much Cash for Clunckers will it get then?

The Wizard pages were nice except for the ungodly easy defeat. The Wizard took on the entire FF to many times for this kind of cheap defeat. I have to assume he wanted to be caught.

TheFF at home was good enough - altho I'm not a fan of Valerie.

Reeds hiddeen rooms felt right as did even the numerous Reeds (altho as pointed earlier there should have been some stringbeans). I'm guessing Thing Ben from FF #117 will show up next issue. The Brute seems like he should be there but he's from the same universe as this Reed.

Apart from the sloppy beginning the restof issue kept me interested enough and even tho some dialogue was off at least they felt like the characters I've loved for so long.

Cover 7
Story 5
Art 8 (woulda been higher without the roids)

Overall (and this was not by design) 6.66

by **Victorian Squid** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:54 pm

I didn't like the teleportation angle either. As much as I like Hickman intending to move things along quickly, if he really has all that technology available--seriously why HASN'T he solved the world's problems yet, or at least several obvious ones that come to mind? He is starting to seem like a science-miser who doesn't share the benefits of his inventions with the rest of the world.

by **guitarsmashley** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:11 pm

Punchy wrote:Alright dickheads?

I'm getting my comix tomorrow, and should review this then too.

spell comics with an X and yet you call us dick heads...You and nolan going to butt fuck now or later?

by **Starlord** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:12 pm

guitarsmashley wrote:spell comics with an X and yet you call us dick heads...You and nolan going to butt fuck now or later?

god I love it when you talk all sexy and stuff.

by **Victorian Squid** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:13 pm

guitarsmashley wrote:spell comics with an X and yet you call us dick heads...You and nolan going to butt fuck now or later?

Let him write his review first! Meat before cake...er...waitaminute...

by **Punchy** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:24 am

guitarsmashley wrote:spell comics with an X and yet you call us dick heads...You and nolan going to butt fuck now or later?

Haha, fuck you.

by **SuperginraiX** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:53 am

Why is the Fantastic Four against having a cool title font? Let's take a trip down memory lane for a bit to see all the various FF logos.
We start out with the original logo from issue number one.

Quirky, interesting, but incredibly dated. This logo will never die. It will return. It always does.

Around issue 119, we finally got an updated logo.

It was nothing to write home about but it was the seventies. They were trying out new things and the dated FF logo had to go.

In issue 160, they tried again.

Look familiar? That's because it's ba-ack. This one isn't bad but it's still boring and the "O" in "Four" really annoys me. It's just too large or something.

From there, John Byrne took over and I'm betting he had something to do with the original logo returning. That thing stuck around from issue 218 to issue 59 (yeah, 59-- by old numbering, that would be issue 488).

At that point, we finally got a new logo for the first time in two decades.

Easily my favorite logo. It started Mark Waid and Mike Weiringo's run. A modified version of it appeared in Marvel Knights 4. By the end of Waid and Weiringo's run, the original logo returned (issue 509).

The final FF logo appeared during Millar and Hitch's run.

Very modern. Nice trade dress. Made the title look cutting edge.

So naturally it had to go. Instead of going back to the dated original logo, we're hitting that seventies logo. The second one. Both are boring. Both are dated. No looking modern for the FF. For the writer of the book with the coolest current cover (Secret Warriors), it's a step backward. A couple steps.

But how about the book inside? Not a bad beginning. Reed looks bulky. More like his Jack Kirby days than the nerd look everyone gives him nowadays. Seriously, if I were drawing Reed, I'd probably veer towards the Kirby design more than the stereotype he's become. This is a guy that spends most of his days in his lab but still trains up and is prepared for a throw down with the likes of the Wizard. He's probably going to have some bulk on him especially if he can stretch right into that bulk.

This is totally a Reed Richards book and it's fitting the current Marvel theme. Examine the leader. That's pretty much what every Marvel book is doing. Who's getting the face time in the X-Men? Cyclops. Who are we seeing throughout every book in Marvel's line up? Norman Osborn. Before that? Tony Stark. Marvel is focusing on leadership even if it's subconscious. Since I like the leader characters, I'm happy to see it. Maybe I'm seeing what I want to see. Any way you look at it, this book is about Reed Richards.

And it sort of makes him look like a chump. Here's a big council of Reed Richardses from alternate dimensions that are running circles around you. You're playing catchup. We're reading about the smartest man in the Marvel Universe but not the smartest man in this comic. That's an interesting place to put Reed in but it depends upon if it's addressed or not.

The art is pretty good stuff. Eaglesham has some troubles in a few panels that throws me out of the comic but, overall, it's a nice look. I've already mentioned that I dig his version of Reed.

So it's over all a pretty nice read. They just need to kill the logo and go with a more modern look.

Fantastic Four, you get a 8.5. I'll see you next month.

by **malcolm reynolds** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:07 am

Just logging in quickly via my iphone, thanks to having to internet connection, still being in between houses. Really looking forward to next week's pick, hopefully be able to at least write up a quick review.

by **Amoebas** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:51 am

SuperginraiX wrote:In issue 160, they tried again.

Look familiar? That's because it's ba-ack.

FF #160 - the book that originally brought me into the Marvel Universe and FF #570 the book that (might) bring me back - both correspond to with the same logo. Neat symmetry.

by ****** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:18 am

SuperginraiX wrote:At that point, we finally got a new logo for the first time in two decades.

Easily my favorite logo. It started Mark Waid and Mike Weiringo's run. A modified version of it appeared in Marvel Knights 4. By the end of Waid and Weiringo's run, the original logo returned (issue 509).

For really reals, that's your favorite?

I hated that logo, to me it was way after it's time and belonged back in the 90's.

My favorite is the classic, but I like the 70's logo that inspired the current and the Millar/Hitch as well.

by **Victorian Squid** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:23 am

amlah6 wrote:For really reals, that's your favorite?

I hated that logo, to me it was way after it's time and belonged back in the 90's.

My favorite is the classic, but I like the 70's logo that inspired the current and the Millar/Hitch as well.

Me too. I felt a little bit nostalgic when I saw the Hickman logo. The Millar and Hitch logo was good, though, and I thought they would use that one.

by **Jack Burton** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:32 am

amlah6 wrote:For really reals, that's your favorite?

I hated that logo, to me it was way after it's time and belonged back in the 90's.

My favorite is the classic, but I like the 70's logo that inspired the current and the Millar/Hitch as well.

Yeah I think the classic is the best too. It's timeless unlike the original Waid/Ringo one. That would be dated in a few years.