FANTASTIC FOUR MARVELS SNAPSHOTS #1 MARVEL COMICS
Another snippet vision of the Marvel Universe, this time focusing in on the life and times of Johnny Storm. And Evan Dorkin’s story has an amazing amount of potential. It High School reunion time and Johnny’s ex-girl friend from back in his Strange Tales comic days is being followed around by a camera crew doing a puff piece. Old friends and backup players show up in droves, even a couple of old villians! And throughout the interviews, the truth being told makes perfect sense. In fact, the interview with former villian, the Asbestos Man is stunningly on point. Where it loses out is the cliche ending. Plus there is a sort of bad vibe as Johnny Storm is brought back to his overbearing self-centered beginnings. After watching the character grow up before my eyes, it was a bit uneasy watching him playing up to the cameras and party masters. Dorkin’s story proves that not everything is as hunky-dorey as the ending wants you to believe. I give it a 7 out of 10 Grahams.
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #5 DC COMICS
The current history of the Legion continues as Jon Kent continues his AI tour with Computo. And old concepts are given a fresh take as it turns out one of the Legion members mom is the President of the United Nations, Querl Dox is a whole lot smarter than we give him credit for, and Bouncing Boy is cool again! While this is not my 1960’s-1970’s Legion, it sure comes close enough. I give it an 8 out of 10 Grahams.
WONDER WOMAN #754 DC COMICS
In what I thought was going to be a series of guest star appearances by some of the female members of the DCU, this turned out to be almost a fill in issue. After Valda the Iron Maiden’s guest story, it only made sense that Maxima should come crashing into Diana’s kitchen. But after reading this, I suspect that an extra page was wedged into the previous issue to give some tie-in to this one off. Steve Orlando’s story gives us a great history of Maxima’s home planet and gives us guests in the guise of Maxima and Ultraa (who has been a jerk since his introduction in the pages of the original Justice League of America #153). The story however is short and feels that way. The threat is all but wrapped up in a matter of pages which lessens the impact of the whole ‘I just crashed into your kitchen because of this major catastrophy’ cliffhanger. It also shoves the Diana is a bad girlfriend concept as well as the not all societies are based on male/female relations at us in not so subtle ways. With all that being said, it is really cool when Diana converts the Invisible Jet into the Invisible Spaceship! I give it a 6 out of 10 Grahams.
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