Bought/Thought April 25th 2007

[Phaedrus45]

The whole song resolves around the word "Vindicated" being screamed/sung over and over.

And you are a *****e bag.

Come on....he's not a *****e bag. He'll never get that close to a *****.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Corp hates everything. he is made of rage.

... and wrapped in a double-helping of cuuuuuuuuuute!

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

Vindicated was a totally Emo song off the Spidey 2 soundtrack, which in it's entirety sucked. I think I only liked one song on it if I remember right.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

THE NEW FANTASTIC FOUR #545: Ugh, yet another title with NEW on the cover. Sheesh. Joe Q goes on and on about being innovative, but he sure loves doing anything possible to bring back status quo's from the mid-Silver Age. A hostile hero community, hardly any mutants, Peter being miserable and single (the last part hasn't happened yet, not for lack of trying). But, despite all that, and despite a lot of the negative rantings about this new FF, including from your's truly (although I recall saying it merely seemed odd), they're working out rather well, and I like this run so far better than the CW stuff where Reed was acting all fascist. McDuffie's years on TV have helped him dramatically and he has a flare for character and action. In a way, Reed's Nazi-doctoring almost seems trivialized by Sue; you'd almost think she was angry about her forgetting their anniversary, and not about cloning Thor, building a N-Zone Gulag, dividing their family and hypocritically siding with jack-booted laws to save his precious rep. But, best to let it go, otherwise the wound'll never heal. While they vacation on Titan, the "new" FF still have their fight trying to figure out why Epoch, who is feelin' lonely now that her protector Quasar is dead, yanked Gravity's corpse from the Earth. The Silver Surfer returns and vows Galactus is about to get his "eating tubes" on, and a fight ensues. Now, at a glance I'd say Storm & Panther were a little overpowered; I am not as comfortable with Storm manipulating space-weather, and T'Challa able to grapple with Radd like he was a mere wrestler. To be fair, I guess, it is a new way to conform Storm's power levels, and while Surfer did seem to get pwned quite a lot, he didn't want to actually fight his allies and probably was holding back. Stardust certainly wasn't and was jolly-spanking them. Pelletier's art is as solid as ever and McDuffie's TV writing have enabled him to master dialogue as never before. The issue, however, is stolen by Gravity, who is literally resurrected by Epoch to fulfill Quasar's role as Protector of the Universe. True, Phyla has his bands, but apparently is still off mulling her destiny with Moondragon having lesbo space sex, and Epoch didn't feel like waiting. Greg's reactions were classic, and while the explaination is a tad hokey (in saving everyone in BEYOND!, Gravity literally become "one" with the element of gravity that flows through space), it works in comic book terms and it is good to see a C-List character powered UP and made better and more complicated, rather than left to the wind or mauled in the name of chasing a fad, like Speedball. Thankfully, Greg is outside of Earth for now, so he can be a hero without Iron Man up his arse about signing papers. So far I have no real quibbles with this new incarnation of the Four. The roots are maintained, it's shown as anything but permanent and it's enjoyable in the meantime. I will say, though, that considering how many times Thing has ragged on Reed for "usin' ten dollar words", he lays down a rather big one with "facetious" himself. But I liked it, showed more depth beyond the "pug" cliche.

Just read this. I was about to complain about SS getting pwned but you're right, he was probably holding back. I still don't understand that hold T'Challa put him in though

So happy they're doing something w/ Gravity as I liked the character. I guess this means that the bands Phyla has don't "make" a Quasar.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The Quantum Bands do make a Quasar, but a Quasar doesn't necessarily make a Protector of the Universe. Mar-Vell preceded Wendell Vaughn as Protector of the Universe and he didn't have Quantum Bands; Epoch just thought he was the best for the job. Now, for whatever reason, Eon thinks Gravity is the best person for the job.

That hold was 100% ******ed. I was disappointed in McDuffie for that. I don't mind Storm manipulating space weather too much, since mutant abilities work in space all the time and I believe Storm's manipulated space weather before on an even larger scale anyway. But that hold was uber-lame. My fanwank for it is that the Surfer just suffered the indignity because he understood that the new FF were scared and needed to feel like they were doing something proactive in the face of inevitability.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I'd like to lie to myself and come up with all kinds of scenarios where a regular ass man like T'Challa could render the SS incapable of escaping a hold "despite his vast strength"....but I can't.

 

[PhotoJones]

What happens is, the Vibranium in the Panther's gloves, react with the Surfer's metallic body, rendering him helpless.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Of course, duh.

HT's flames seemed to hurt him quite a bit in the issue too. He was all screamin....like a b!tch

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, Johnny's flames annoyed me too. It's just heat. The Surfer's flown through stars.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Reed and Sue need to hurry up and make sexytime cuz Team Africa ain't cuttin it.