#and it's miss agatha my mother thought i was born evil and tried to murder me harkness is the big bad?

[blorboazula]

some of y'all if turns out Teen has been a villain all along

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #130

Fri Jul 26 2019

[07:17 PM] Bocaj: I wish that the frightful Four kept losing their female members so the writers would have to keep introducing more female villains [07:18 PM] Wack'd: Ehhh it would inevitably be because they turn face though [07:18 PM] maxwellelvis: Well, I think Thundra's more of a wild card, but [07:18 PM] Bocaj: Maybe they go independent because they realize the others are dinks? [07:18 PM] maxwellelvis: fair enough [07:18 PM] Wack'd: It'd be nice! [07:18 PM] Wack'd: But we've only just now hit the point where folks are thinking "hey, maybe female honorific shouldn't be defined entirely by marital status", so

[07:20 PM] Wack'd: So it turns out Thundra's fascination with Ben wasn't some weird sex thing after all--but it is now!

[07:20 PM] Bocaj: Dammit [07:20 PM] maxwellelvis: He's got kavorka, that rockmonsterman [07:21 PM] Wack'd: Flint tries to murder Ben to keep Thundra from turning face and Thundra stops him, claiming that her sole mission here was to humble and humiliate Ben [07:21 PM] Wack'd: So maybe it was a little bit a weird sex thing [07:22 PM] Bocaj: Thundra tops [07:25 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Wizard decides that with Johnny and Ben down their next task is to destroy the Baxter Building [07:25 PM] Wack'd: I'm sure Collins is gonna be thrilled [07:26 PM] Wack'd: Meanwhile--Johnny! [07:27 PM] Wack'd: Turns out Black Bolt hasn't turned evil, he just wanted to get a word in with Johnny before he saw Crystal, and thought this was the only way to do it [07:27 PM] Wack'd: Johnny...reacts about as well as you'd expect [07:28 PM] Wack'd: Well okay he reacts better than you'd expect. He doesn't threaten genocide this time. [07:28 PM] Wack'd: He just leads the guards on a goose chase [07:29 PM] Wack'd: Intra-issue cliffhanger! Whatever is going on here we're not gonna find out until next issue. Which is lovely because I was planning on taking a break after this. Ah well.

[07:30 PM] Bocaj: Why is crystal still wearing her ff duds? [07:30 PM] Wack'd: Nostalgia? [07:31 PM] Wack'd: Inhuman cosplay contest? [07:31 PM] Wack'd: Budget cuts? [07:31 PM] maxwellelvis: Lost her old costume two Inhuman home bases ago? [07:31 PM] Wack'd: Back to Reed! Who can't focus on his work with all of the drama going on. He hears someone at the door and rushes to get it, hoping Sue or Johnny has returned so he can make amends. [07:32 PM] Wack'd: Reed: Sandman! I should've known! [07:32 PM] Wack'd: Flint: You should've known? That's what you always say--after I catch you flat-footed! [07:33 PM] Wack'd: Reed is incapacitated. Flint wants to know why they don't just murder 'em--turns out Thundra "holds no truck with ungallantry towards the weaker sex." [07:35 PM] Wack'd: So the Frightful Four make their way into Reed's lab to loot it

[07:36 PM] Wack'd: One of Reed's laser cannons goes off on its own, causing the team to presume betrayal--but nope! [07:36 PM] Wack'd: Sue gets some footprints in Pete's paste and is forced to reveal herself. [07:37 PM] Wack'd:

[07:38 PM] Wack'd: Unfortunately, Sue proves to be too much for them, so Wizard takes the low road and threatens Franklin to force a surrender [07:39 PM] Wack'd: OH SHIT HERE WE GO

[07:39 PM] Wack'd: MIRACLE BABY [07:39 PM] Wack'd: (Why didn't you free your mom, kid?) [07:41 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Wizard panics and forgets the Thundra-inflicted "no killing men" rule [07:42 PM] Wack'd: And gets his ass handed to him by Thundra [07:42 PM] Wack'd: Before he can kill Ben [07:42 PM] Bocaj: Good [07:43 PM] Wack'd: Ben frees Reed, Reed frees Sue, Sue frees Medusa. Four on four. Let's do this.

[07:44 PM] Bocaj: The Fantastic Four minus one of the jerks in it plus a Queen [07:45 PM] maxwellelvis: !!!!!!!!!!11 [07:45 PM] maxwellelvis: I think I know what the "End of the Four" they're talking about is. [07:45 PM] Wack'd: I fucking love that Sue's main strategy at this point is inflicting body horror on people

[07:46 PM] maxwellelvis: Sure is lucky Sandman is intensely stupid. [07:47 PM] Wack'd: This has fairly reliably worked on the other villains and even her own family members! [07:47 PM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, but I'm pretty sure they're just weirded out and don't think she's actually disintegrating them like Sandman is. [07:47 PM] Wack'd: Fair [07:47 PM] Wack'd: Reed and Sue get into an argument about whether Sue should be fighting or getting Franklin out of here [07:48 PM] Wack'd: Sue's like "I can do both, Franklin's in a force field" and Reed is like *doesn't say anything because the Wizard ambushes him* [07:49 PM] Wack'd: I'm not sure if Thundra's "applying female stereotypes to men" shtick is good praxis but I'm finding it very amusing

[07:51 PM] Wack'd: Thundra decides to cut it short, fells Ben with a knee to the solar plexus, and engineers an escape for the rest of the Frightfuls in case she needs them later [07:51 PM] Bocaj: Hah [07:52 PM] Wack'd: Medusa's like "hey we kicked some real ass" and Reed's like "maybe we would've done better if Sue had listened to me" [07:52 PM] Wack'd: And then-- [07:53 PM] Wack'd: I'm assuming max guessed right

[07:54 PM] maxwellelvis: Yup [07:54 PM] Wack'd: Well dammit, now I have to keep reading, because I'm intrigued! [07:54 PM] maxwellelvis: I think this is like, the first time Reed and Sue are separated like this. [07:55 PM] Wack'd: I'm really hoping this sparks some real development from Reed, at least short-term [07:55 PM] maxwellelvis: Granted I think your thing was going to happen after Valeria was born, but still... [07:55 PM] Wack'd: Because he's being a massive dick here [07:56 PM] Wack'd: And, like, it's interesting because. I honestly think that if Thomas had just softened this behavior--written off the sexism as a relic of the 60s, simply moved forward as though Reed weren't a dink--I'd be a lot more generous to him now [07:56 PM] Wack'd: Doubling down is by far the more interesting choice--not as interesting as putting Reed in exile instead of Sue. [07:56 PM] Wack'd: But interesting. [07:57 PM] Wack'd: But what happens next will irrevocably color Reed as a character going forward. And I doubt it will be pretty. [07:57 PM] Wack'd: Yeah [07:58 PM] maxwellelvis: Reed being the one leaving the Baxter Building/4 Freedoms Plaza does have interesting implications of its own. [07:58 PM] Wack'd: There's definitely something to be said about the fact that Sue is like "you didn't think of me as a member of the team or as your wife, only as the mother of your child, so I'm going to stop being a member of the team and your wife and just be the mother of your child." That's incredibly clumsy. [07:59 PM] Wack'd: And makes this feel more like a spite move than a principled stand--which is definitely unintentional. [08:00 PM] maxwellelvis: Suddenly I'm picturing Reed being hounded by paparazzi whenever the news of a separation breaks in your thing. [08:01 PM] maxwellelvis: And then the thought just popped into my head, "Would the Daily Bugle be one of the news outlets trying to get in on that?" [08:01 PM] Wack'd: Depends on the writer [08:02 PM] maxwellelvis: I mean, would you see Jonah doing that? [08:03 PM] Wack'd: So let's go into how Reed deals with this. Firstly he projects--Sue *certainly* isn't the one neglecting Franklin. Just a few issues ago Reed completely missed an appointment to go see him, then sent Sue to retrieve hi on her own when Agatha retired. [08:04 PM] Wack'd: He doubles down. He refuses to engage with her critique of his behavior, or say anything to make this more amicable. In fact, he even stops Sue from trying to soften the blow. [08:04 PM] Wack'd: He frames this entirely as her decision, which is nice on an female agency level but means he's refusing to take any for himself. This is his fault. He needs to admit that. [08:05 PM] Wack'd: And then he decides he's going to continue to power around with her little brother? [08:05 PM] Wack'd: Jeez. [08:06 PM] Wack'd: And in the context of the Thomas run as a whole--I gave him shit for his "greatest hits" routine earlier but I think we definitely needed a reminder of what normalcy looks like before he pulls a move like this. [08:06 PM] maxwellelvis: And this is just like a handful of issues into his run, too [08:07 PM] Wack'd: And even if his plot structure is fairly rote, I have to credit him for pulling in Thundra and Kala--the fact that this is kind of a boy's club is clearly on his mind. [08:08 PM] Wack'd: This is actually closer to the end of his first (short, as all 70s *Four* runs are) run than the beginning [08:08 PM] maxwellelvis: Ahh [08:08 PM] Wack'd: Gerry Conway will be in shortly [08:09 PM] Wack'd: Thomas does come back a few times though, for fairly significant spurts of time [08:09 PM] Wack'd: He'll be in and out until 1977 [08:10 PM] Wack'd: So I guess this is kind of the beginning of an era for him? Just one with lots and lots of guest writers [08:10 PM] Wack'd: Which makes sense, he is also editor in chief. [08:10 PM] maxwellelvis: It's the beginning of an era for the Four, at least. [08:10 PM] Wack'd: I'm very curious to see how long this lasts.