Thursday, September 30, 2010

Fantastic Four #584

To make up for Tuesday's strip coming from a two-week-old issue, today I have for you my first-ever preemptive strip! #584 doesn't come out for almost a month, but the cover alone tells us enough about what's coming.

I've never paid a huge amount of attention to the FF, but even I know that this is nowhere near the first time they've "cured" Thing. Hickman's run has been great on the whole, and I can't wait to see where he's going with this (and the million other balls he's juggling), but part of me feels iffy on anyone figuring out how to help Ben other than Reed. Ben's condition leads to a major intrinsic problem with the FF in my opinion - Reed is smart enough to invent magic clothing, flying cars, transdimensional bridges, and so on, but he can never successfully cure Ben, because then the team loses a member and a main source of pathos. But if he never cures Ben, that either makes him a lousy friend, or not really that smart after all. I've got nothing against Thing as a character, but I'm kind of hoping the transformation actually sticks for a while and him leaving the team is the real reason this story arc is called "Three".

And as genius as Hickman is, what's really funny is that Bendis' interpretation of Thing's form over in Ultimate Mystery actually feels much cooler to me. And allows for him to stay on the team sans rocks.

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