POBB March 31, 2020

Pick of the Brown Bag

March 31, 2020

by

Ray Tate

Everybody knows the story of the Fantastic Four.  Determined to reach the stars, Reed Richards and Sue Storm convince brother Johnny Storm and best friend Ben Grimm to take the risk of a life time.

Alas, the shielding on the rocket proves inadequate.  Cosmic rays bombard the ship and force an emergency landing back to earth.  The four survive, but the cosmic rays mutate them into The Invisible Girl, Mr. Fantastic, The Human Torch and the Thing.

Recently, the FF decided to readdress their epic fail.  Reed and Johnny rebuild the rocket from scratch.  No cheating with superpowers.  Just using the tools they had in the past.  This time with bitchin heavy cosmic ray resistance.  The FF end up on the planet Spyre, and the people of Spyre expected them.  They refer to the FF as the Fourtold.  

In subsequent issues, the FF learn how the Overseer of Spyre affected their original rocket flight.  They also learn something of the culture, and the idea of soul mates, symbolized with arm bands.  

These pairings appear to be omniversal.  The Great Eye confirms Reed and Sue.  Johnny on the other hand discovers his soul mate is a beautiful bird woman from Spyre named Sky.

This most recent issue of the Fantastic Four focuses on Sky.  Last issue, Sky intended to be with her soul mate.  She therefore asked to accompany the quartet back to earth.  Everybody’s talking about her.

Essentially, Sky is Hawkgirl without the mace and helmet.

Oh, sure, she has a different personality and everything, but her power set is analogous to Hawkgirl, with a smidge of Black Canary thrown in for good measure.

She’s a woman of color, but that's not ground breaking.  DC already contributed a black Hawkgirl when the Powers That Be reimagined their multiverse.

Earth 2

I’m not trying to disparage the character.  Sky is actually kind of nice.  She’s a stranger in a strange land and all that.  Her want to help is sincere, as is her belief in the soul mate paradigm, granting her a sort of innocence.  Sky though is no dummy.  Like Hawkgirl, she comes from a culture facilitated by advanced science and technology.  She also understands that Johnny has yet to accept what's inevitable to her.  It’s furthermore interesting to see how the Fantastic Four react to Sky.  Reed of course welcomes her.  Cause that’s Reed.

Ben is noncommittal, and Sue is positively icy.  The Black Cat commented on never crossing paths with Sue if she can help it.  To be fair, Sue thinks Sky wasted this trip, and her flighty brother, the soul mate, will cast the winged woman aside.  

The running joke being Sky’s another Crystal.

Crystal is an Inhuman.  She’s sister to Medusa and took Sue’s place on the Fantastic Four when Sue became pregnant.

Writer Dan Slott fosters a running joke throughout the arc, saying that Johnny’s romance with Sky is like that of his relationship with Crystal.  The implication that it was fleeting.  Yet, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced Crystal way back in Fantastic Four #45.  She lasted until issue one-zero-five.  Quite a run.

Johnny is a really clueless banana in this issue of the Fantastic Four.  However, he starts seeing Sky in a different light when the Mole Man attacks the Keewazi Reservation.  

The Mole Man faced the Fantastic Four in their debut issue, and he’s been nutty ever since.  On occasion, the Mole Man seems content, but these moments are mere blips on a radar. 

The Keewazi are a Marvel Native American Tribe.  Wyatt Wingfoot is their most famous member.

That may change since the Keewazi though fictional behave under the authentic traditions of the Natives.  The Keewazi react to the earth movement with fear and trepidation.  After the Moloids appear, the townspeople accept and welcome the strange visitors.

This issue of the Fantastic Four ends much differently than one expects, and that’s all thanks to Sky.  We expected a big brouhaha drama pitting the FF against the Mole Man.   Instead, it’s a done-in-one comedy that eschews the usual violence associated with the FF’s dealings with the little fruitcake. 

In the context of pop culture, Dan Slott is actually reimagining Superman and the Mole Men.  He built the subplot a few issues ago, with rumblings from beneath the tribal earth.  

In the Superman film. mankind uncovers the existence of the Mole Men, and unlike the Keewazi, the humans are not keen to live in peace and harmony.  It's up to Superman to show these asses the error of their ways.  

The movie's available for streaming on Youtube and Amazon for about three bucks, if you so desire.  The cynicism toward the human race and confident acting overcome the horrible, horrible cheapness of the affair.  Adventures of Superman broadcasts on television a year later with much better production values.