Wow.An outstanding issue here, as the creative team brings us the finale of several storylines that have been building over the past year or so.
Not to worry, I won't be spoiling the widely-publicized death in this issue (I'll leave that to the hacks at the Associated Press - they'll also be glad to tell you about "Rosebud" if you haven't seen Citizen Kane).
That makes it tough to talk about the details of the story, of course, but all four members were facing dire peril when we left them last issue.
This issue just ramps it up even more. Reed is trying to save Nu-World from Galactus. Sue is at the center of a war between two undersea kingdoms. Johnny and Ben are facing an overwhelming invasion force from the Negative Zone.
While I won't say who dies, I will say that it's a powerful and moving scene, and one fitting for a true hero (or heroine).
Writer Jonathan Hickman has really made this book his own, building stories that use existing history and build on it in new and clever ways. The beauty of this story is that all four members face death here, and any one of them could have been the one to fall.
Artist Steve Epting is also doing amazing work, depicting all kinds of events - from the edge of space to the bottom of the sea - and he does it all with great skill and confidence. And if that final page doesn't touch your heart, I don't know what will.
Hey, I'm as jaded as any other comics fan, but this story left me with a lump in my throat.
Just an outstanding effort, and more proof that everyone should be reading this comic.
Grade: A
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7 comments:
We don't actually see You-Know-Who die. Sure, we see him/her overrun, but I wouldn't have thought s/he was dead if Marvel hadn't told me.
Well, I don't for an instant believe that character is dead - just off-camera until (probably) issue #600. I can think of several ways around the apparent "death." But it was still a moving story.
Yup, this ending was spoiled for me, too. Argh. My beef with DC and Marvel is this whole "countdown to ___'s death" thing. They did it with Batman, they did it here. They know that the media will report on those comic-based stories (and only those stories, apparently), so they hype them up to sell more comics.
But yeah, I doubt "dead hero/heroine X" is going to be gone for long.
I absolutely agree, Chuck. With 600 just a year away I figure he'll make a triumphant return. Plus, I suspect Marvel will return to the original numbering at that time like they do on the other titles.
Evan, I don't blame them for pumping up the sales with a stunt like this - but it seems like they could have worked a bit harder to keep it from spoiling the mystery. When I watched the AP video story, there was Tom Brevoort eagerly talking about the one who died. But, Marvel's gotta eat, so if it boosts sales (and it's a book that should be getting big sales), then it's worth it.
Bobby, yeah, I'm past agonizing over the numbering. Marvel just keeps hopping back and forth from the original numbering to new "first" issues at will. As long as the comics are good, I could care less about the numbers. But it does make filing them a pain.
Consequently, Dark Horse had a major character die in Buffy The Vampire Slayer #40 and they did it with no advance hype and so it wasn't spoiled for me.
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