FF #3

Background

Doom is on the team. This is causing problems, Ben and Sue are definitely not happy. Apparently danger from an inderdimensional council of Reeds has been foretold by Val.

Story 'Whatever Happened to All Those Reeds?'

The summary page is much more helpful this issue. It tells us that the danger that the FF are running around for, getting Doom on the team, etc, is presented by four rogue versions of Reed who where members of a interdimensional council of Reeds who took it upon themselves to rule/shepherd reality. All this going to cause a war between four cities. All this information would of been helpful in the first issue!

This issue involves the gathering together of some the most intelligent and dangerous enemies of the FF. The Mad Thinker, Diablo, the Wizard and the High Evolutionary. They are brought together into the Baxter building to join a council on how to defeat Reed! Uatu the Watcher even appears, just so we know how important it is. Val starts the meeting by telling everyone about the danger she brought to the world in the form of four 'evil' Reeds. We then see what the Reeds have been up to. They plan to build something to help them regain their former, universre-spanning, power. It requires they make deals with Old Atlantis, The Mole Man, the Universal Inhumans and Annihulus. Three of the deals seem to go through (though its obvious the Reeds are being evil and not revealing everything). The deal with the Universal Inhumans doesn't go through and that Reed is killed by them.

The issue finishes finishes with the three remaining evil Reeds hanging out near what they're building and one of them saying: "Now we sacrifice this world for the greater good. One world for the many... Now brothers, we orchestrate a war."

General Comments

Well, after the frustrating mess that was last issue, this issue gets things back on track a little. The summary page is much more helpful in filling us in on stuff that happened prior FF #1 in the old Fantastic Four series. The narrative itself, with Val's retelling, also fills us in. The reasons for getting Doom and the other baddies together is also a lot clearer, though still a little silly. I mean, I'm gathering that this council of baddies, with Reed, Val and Nathaniel have the purpose of defeating the evil Reeds. If this is the case, it really doesn't make sense. All these guys have been beaten by Reed and the FF before. Would they be better off calling in the Avengers? Surely Banner, Stark, Hank Pym, Beast or any other number of super-intelligent good guys would be much better! I know the bad guys would be more ruthless, but that hasn't given them enough of an edge before.

So, basically things are much improved this issue and seeing the ruthlessness of the evil Reeds was enjoyable. I hope things continue to improve.

Overall Rating

A definite improvement, with things explained and revealed.