Ultimate Fantastic Four #41 (Spoilers)

Lynx

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Well, it was an ok ending to an ok arc. The thing is. . .there was nothing really special about this arc in general. It was just. . .blah.

Basically, Diablo is using Enid as a conduit for the power of the elixir, which then expels the excess energy into the future through the time gate. The four show up, and Diablo defeats them all in turn (Reed and Sue by turning Sue's force field into a stone case that allows no air to get in, and Johnny by taking all of the oxygen out of the air surrounding him).

The three other alchemists show up, but get taken down. Reed busts out, explaining that he doesn't need air to survive. Diablo goes into a monologue about how they're the same, except that Diablo isn't afraid of the universe' mysteries, while Reed is. Reed clocks him, and exclaims that the difference between the two is that he (Reed) is sane. Reed then gets taken down by some poison gas, but blows the cart to the time gate, shutting down Diablo's power. Enid seems to get the elixir's power and basically fries Diablo.

Then, the final alchemist says to use the small amount of elixir left to repair Ben, which they do. But, Ben becomes blue, for some reason. The alchemist says he can send them through time an hour, which Reed explains is perfect. So, he sends them to the past an hour and they go through the gate which hasn't been blown up yet. The alchemist says he's glad the future turns out so good and humans have ascended past war and disease. I know this was supposed to be ironic, but I'm not exactly sure where he got these ideas in the first place, so the whole ironic situation is lost on me.

Diablo was an ok villain, but they already did the botched Sorcerer with Doom. Why repeat it? However, Diablo as an alchemist brings up the point that I think we're moving closer to the fact that magic in the Ultimate Universe is a science. An enlightened science that Reed doesn't understand. I like that. In fact, I hope we see the return of Doom soon so we can expand upon that.

Enid seems to have strange, energy powers now, given to her by the elixir. What has she become? Nova, perhaps? I don't know.

Thing is blue. I have no idea why, and it seems to have been reversed by the time of the Silver Surfer arc. Again. . .why do this? Shock factor?

Finally. . .is anyone noticing the trend with Carey of using Mary Sue characters? Seed Nineteen in God War and now the three good alchemists in Diablo. Granted, the three alchemists didn't upstage the FF all that much (Like Seed Nineteen did), but it's getting kind of annoying. Maybe its just me, I don't know.

2.5/5 for the issue and the arc. Pretty standard stuff, but I like that Carey's keeping the trend of the "Fantastic" adventures of the FF, as well as the "magic is possibly a science" point. Looking forward to the Surfer, though.
 
It was very mediocre. Nothing special about it. And I guess Reed's sister is Ultimate Dagger (kidding... I think :? ) Pretty sick of "near deaths" too. I hope Carey's Silver Surfer arc's any good though.

I think Nova seems more likely. After all, Tandy Bowen is in USM.

Just curious. . .what did you think of God War?
 
Will Thing be blue next issue? Man, I hope not.

Yeah, this arc was pretty disappointing. Especially since Carey's bar is so high.

And Mark Brooks was really off this issue too.
 
I was joking anyway. I loved God War.

Ok. I did too, but I think he was going for a filler arc waiting for his chance to do Surfer. In fact, I think the arc after Surfer is also a 3 issue filler, then, if I remember correctly, DOOM.
 
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Just because it was three issues doesn't mean it was filler. I mean, it introduced an important villain, it made the Thing blue, it gave Enid super-powers. . . if any of this stuff stucks it's already more Important than God War.
 
Just because it was three issues doesn't mean it was filler. I mean, it introduced an important villain, it made the Thing blue, it gave Enid super-powers. . . if any of this stuff stucks it's already more Important than God War.

Well, Diablo seems to be dead. Thing almost certainly will go back to being orange. The only thing I can think of being terribly important is Enid's powers. And, I didn't mean because it was three issues, it was filler, but it felt like filler.

And the whole Cosmic Cube subplot makes God War more important than this.
 
Well, Diablo seems to be dead. Thing almost certainly will go back to being orange. The only thing I can think of being terribly important is Enid's powers. And, I didn't mean because it was three issues, it was filler, but it felt like filler.

And the whole Cosmic Cube subplot makes God War more important than this.

I knew you were going to say that. And it's true. But it took six issues to get there when it didn't really have to. It felt more like filler much of the time than Diablo did. Plus, your comment about there being "another three issue filler arc" after Silver Surfer impies that you equate the length of the arc with its relative value. I just disagree.
 
I knew you were going to say that. And it's true. But it took six issues to get there when it didn't really have to. It felt more like filler much of the time than Diablo did. Plus, your comment about there being "another three issue filler arc" after Silver Surfer impies that you equate the length of the arc with its relative value. I just disagree.

You're right. I did compare the length of the arc to it being filler. But, I just can't see Diablo being as important as, say, Thanos, Silver Surfer or Doom. And, when Carey is doing these three issue arcs, he seems to be going for the B list FF villains. Which is fine, but, whether or not they're filler, they still seem less important then the bigger arcs (Which have A list villains).

I agree about God War being too long. Actually, I don't. I think the length was perfect, but there wasn't enough Thanos. Thanos should have had a lot more page time then he did. It wouldn't have felt so dragged out if he had seen more page time. But, it seems like God War was just set-up for some major event, so it became what it did.
 
Yeah, I agree with almost everything everyone said. The art was totally off, looked pretty good in parts, but mainly it looked terrible. The story wasn't that bad besides Thing's role, (first a shock factor death and then… Blue? WOE?) But, it looked a lot worse in comparison to God War.

I hadn't thought really about the hinting that magic is a science until I read it on here, but I like that a lot :D It really works well with a more realistic feel of the UU (ducks in anticipation of long posts showing why the UU and comics in general aren't realistic :p)

I really liked that we got to see some more of their families, and hopefully whatever Carey has in store for Reed's sister will be good.

Is it true that they've got a Doom return arc planned? I really hope so, I've been waiting for him to get back for, well, ever since he left :p

Thing. Blue. Ooooookay.

So, yeah, there were some fun parts in the arc, (the whole jester thing was funny, :D) but all in all nothing spectacular, and some stuff that just didn't work. I am looking forward to Silver Surfer though, just wish he had some connection to Ultimate Galactus, (as opposed to Ultimate Gah Lak Tus.)
 
This arc was so boring. That sucks. I was expecting it to be good. God War was awesome. This, not so much.
 
This was a four stars out of five trade paperback for me. The art could have been a little better, but it was already good enough, and appropriate to the story, and a change of pace. Everything else was good, except where it was great. And it was often great.

I love it when a writer does his homework and it shows. The depiction of alchemy was dead on for a comic book. It wasn't just a (crazy) technology, it was bound up with such idealism and hope that alchemy was suspect for offering salvation (self-perfection and immortality) other than by the grace of Jesus. The instant belief that the future would be perfect, the interest in the future, and Diablo as the perversion of everything the supreme alchemist should be (being willing to destroy the future for his own good) ... all this was so dead on I'm lost in admiration.

I want to see Diablo again. You don't have to be an "A List" mega-brute (like Thanos or whoever) if you're super-cool. The new Mad Thinker was super-cool because she was what she was supposed to be. And now Diablo is super-cool too, for the same reason.

I loved the human touches of the Fantastic Four.

I really appreciated that the characters we met were interesting but didn't upstage the Fantastic Four, unlike in God War.

Wow. Good job. Now it's trade 8 and issue 40-odd of the comic, and I have never felt so solid - this was the right comic to commit to for the long run.

:)

Thanks, Mike Carey.

Bravo!
Bravo!!
Bravo!!!
 
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I also love how this story arc fits in to the overall direction that Ultimate Fantastic Four has. (And I like that Ultimate Fantastic Four has a strong direction.)

We're doing the Cosmic Cube. So this should be made as great as possible.

We shouldn't rush it - and the Devils trade adds some of the needed delay for Reed to do what he has to do, and for us to dwell in what's coming down the track.

And we should have a sense of the meaning and power and magic of the cube - and the Devils trade adds that. The Cosmic Cube is the alchemist's stone writ large. Thanos, for all his power, is like a king who isn't an alchemist and therefore can't make the cube, while Reed is and can. (That's how alchemy often works - some people can learn it, and quickly, just like in this case - and others can't.) We've seen a disappointing futuristic alternate world, at least from my point of view - a much less wholesome place than one might wish. And we've been reminded of a past alchemist's dream of what the future was supposed to be like, but what it isn't like.

Everything is coming together as it should. And I love it when a writer's plan comes together.

Mike Carey is so doing it for me. He's ruled since Rhona Burchill.
 
I also love how this story arc fits in to the overall direction that Ultimate Fantastic Four has. (And I like that Ultimate Fantastic Four has a strong direction.)

We're doing the Cosmic Cube. So this should be made as great as possible.

We shouldn't rush it - and the Devils trade adds some of the needed delay for Reed to do what he has to do, and for us to dwell in what's coming down the track.

And we should have a sense of the meaning and power and magic of the cube - and the Devils trade adds that. The Cosmic Cube is the alchemist's stone writ large. Thanos, for all his power, is like a king who isn't an alchemist and therefore can't make the cube, while Reed is and can. (That's how alchemy often works - some people can learn it, and quickly, just like in this case - and others can't.) We've seen a disappointing futuristic alternate world, at least from my point of view - a much less wholesome place than one might wish. And we've been reminded of a past alchemist's dream of what the future was supposed to be like, but what it isn't like.

Everything is coming together as it should. And I love it when a writer's plan comes together.

Mike Carey is so doing it for me. He's ruled since Rhona Burchill.

I like this guy.
 

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