 | Quick reviews: FF#4, New Mutants #26, Moon Knight #2 |
FF#4
FF continues to grow in its goal to becoming the finest superhero team book on the shelves. The roster boasts 16 members including Doctor Doom, Spider-Man and a floating evolved mole man head making it the most unusual group assembled in a monthly book and with Hickman on board, the plot is satisfyingly complex and inspired.
Reed's father, a time-traveling genius who had just won a duel with alternate versions of himself in as trans-dimensional all-out brawl, has advised his son to bring his lifelong nemesis Doctor Doom into the team for a secret purpose. Before Doom could be of service, however, it became necessary to 'download' a back-up copy of himself from his adopted son. Once more the devilish combination of sorcerer and scientific genius, Doom is part of a cabal of evil masterminds with one goal, destroy Reed Richards.
Throughout the previous months, readers have seen Reed construct a device allowing him to visit alternate realities, desperately seeking justification for his own actions in the Marvel Civil War. Instead, Reed met a council of alternate versions of himself who were shaping reality. Cold and heartless, they attempted to recruit Mister Fantastic into their numbers with little success. What appeared to make Reed stand out from his alternates was that his wife and family were still very much a part of his life while the alternate Reeds were isolated from human relationships and sought only to perfect creation.
A handful of alternate versions of Reed Richards managed to break through to this reality (a fact that Reed's daughter Valeria kept a dark secret) and separated to the four corners of the Earth to build a device that could destroy all life on the planet. By uniting his most fiendish foes, Reed hoped to gain some insight into defeating himself, but it proves to only distract him while his alternates busy themselves igniting a war between the 'Four Cities' hidden in the cold wastes of Old Atlantis, the blue area of the Moon, the Negative Zone and the underground realm of the Mole Man.
Fantastic Four has traditionally blended fantasy, science fiction and drama with a bit of comedy as well and this issue is no exception. Hickman has captured that special quality that makes this title so unique and amped it up to the next level, something that has escaped several other creators before him. If you have caught his work in S.H.I.E.L.D. or any of his creator-owned works and are curious if his superhero work is worth reading, make sure to pick up this series. If you are already a fan of FF, seek out his other books that come highly recommended!
New Mutants #26
Abnett and Lanning (or DNA, as they are known) have established themselves as a finely tuned collaborative team from their time together on many books including Legion of Superheroes, Nova, Annihilation and Guardians of the Galaxy. Their latest work takes them into the realm of the X-Men with the junior title, the New Mutants. Ever since the series returned two years back, it has been a kind of homage to the Claremont work, combining high drama and all out action. Reuiniting the classic team, the New Mutants is in many ways a continuation of the writing by Claremont and Louis Simonson after him.
After the departure of Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, the series is faced with the challenge of finding its identity once more both creatively and on the racks. With so many mutant books out there, why should you bother with another? The simple answer is that it is done so damned well. Team leader Cyclops has charged the New Mutants with cleaning up the messes that they have left behind. There are so many dangling plot threads that litter the Marvel Universe that the mission is not an easy one and the first stop takes them to the doorstop of Norman Osbourn's old HAMMER facility where X-Man was being held. An alternate version of Nathan Summers, X-Man is a shaman from another dimension stranded in our world. Rather than let X-Man roam free, Cyclops orders the team to locate and assess his situation.
What the team discovers is that Nathan is being used as part of an experiment in building enhanced beings by the mad creature Sugar Man who is searching for his way home. A refugee from the Age of Apocalypse version of reality, Sugar Man is a distorted and malevolent monster who preys on others, promising them power while delivering misery.
Only two issues into the 'new regime,' the series is still in its early stages but the plotting and artwork are both solid while the cast of characters cleanly defined. If you are a fan of the old book, this is a great jumping on point.
Moon Knight #2
I am a big fan of the Moon Knight, a kind of cross between the Punisher and Batman only far more mentally unhinged and driven. While Moon Knight is hardly a man with a mission, his psyche is shattered into four distinct quadrants, each one a separate personality. In the previous runs of Moon Knight's monthly series, an over-reliance on hyper violence put some off while it also raised the stakes so high that even depicting Marc Spector wearing the torn off face of his arch foe was hardly shocking. His third restart since 2005 faces a new challenge as Moon Knight is currently an Avenger but has been out of the spotlight for so long that his mental landscape is all but a mystery. Bendis of course clears that right up by showing readers that he is far more unhinged than ever before. Moon Knight isn't just a member of the Avengers... he IS the Avengers.
The previous issue showed Moon Knight in one of his last remaining aliases, Jake Lockley, in charge of a TV program based on his vigilante past. Working out of LA, he is then contacted by Captain America, Spider-Man and Wolverine who ask him to look into the theft of an Ultron model. A nearly indestructible robot construct devoted to domination and destruction, Ultron is an important case. The Avengers team is unsure if Moon Knight is capable of the job and debate the issue... but they aren't really there at all as the debate is taking place inside of Lockley's mind.
I had my doubts about this series. Bendis and Maleev are a winning combination, their work on Daredevil, Spider-Woman and Scarlet show that... but can they find the same success here? In a word, yes. The art is stylish and slick, the plot very cinematic and the character has been made over in an entirely new light.
Moon Knight is a must read and is flying off the shelves as it has been notoriously under-ordered so make sure to hunt around for the first two issues and subscribe for the rest!
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