Empyre: Fallout Fantastic Four #1
The Fantastic Four rendezvous on the moon to deal with the remnants of the Cotati, the Kree and Skrull Orphans, and the Cotati’s mysterious weapons in this wrap-up from Dan Slott, Sean Izaakse, Marcio Menyz, and VC’s Joe Caramagna!
Mr. Chris Eddleman: Well, Christi, it appears as though while we THOUGHT Empyre was over, it had one last hurrah in the form of these afterparty issues, and while the Avengers issue was chocked full of interesting future story hooks, I found its Fantastic Four brethren to be a bit lackluster. Clearly Avengers was meant to be the main event, what with a fantastic superhero wedding and all but, I’m not sure I’m into the Fallout. Thoughts?
Mrs. Christi Eddleman: I want to contest the use of the term “afterparty” to describe this issue because afterparties are necessarily more exciting and interesting than what they follow. The denoument of our Fantastic Four storyline throughout Empyre is NOT an afterparty – more like discovering a couple still making out on your couch when you’re ready to turn in for the night. Let’s wrap this up so we can crawl into bed, darling.
Mr.: So we’ve reached the other side of our FF Empyre sandwich, and just like the end of our zero issue, we are back on the moon, where the whole crew meets back up in the Blue Area, aka the area where people can breathe. This issue reads about half Empyre wrap-up and half Fantastic Four issue, so we’ll keep that in mind as we go forward. So while our heroes meet, the proceedings are watched over by the Unseen, who is kind of the New Coke version of the Watcher (actually it’s just Nick Fury, please read Original Sin if you want to know more). This is of course, proclaiming that THIS IS IMPORTANT, which sometimes just covers up some bad storytelling to me but, I do have to give it to Slott that he can produce some cute harmless banter. Did this family reunion spark joy, dear?
Mrs.: I will not pretend that I am incredibly invested in this reunion but it was sweet. Perhaps the moment I most enjoyed was N’kalla and Jo-Venn getting to meet Emporer Hulkling. Children’s adoration always sparks joy for me and their excitement is such a sweet moment to behold. One family reunion that held no sweetness was that of uncle and nephew. Being reminded of that Thor content we missed out on was a little sad, but what do you make of the justice doled out by Gaea’s son, sweetheart?
Mr.: I will forever be upset that we did not get the incredible sidequest of Thor that was promised in the solicited Empyre: Thor but such is life. I suppose exiling someone in a paradise world with everything they need is probably a step up from incarceral justice. Maybe not very restorative. Kind of a Chekhov’s gun of a later problem. I did like Quoi’s astonishment that the Avengers would treat him so kindly. Seems to chafe at his assumptions of evil animals. Thor also GAVE UP these powers, using them all in one go, which led to him giving Franklin Richards, who currently has a finite amount of power, a little pep talk about sacrifice. This was probably my favorite part of the issue. Now, the other main point of this issue comes in the form of the Profiteer, who is called to examine the origin of the Cotati’s brokered weaponry. Happy to see Slott’s new Cruella de Vil, even if she’s not here for puppies, dearest?
Mrs.: She is certainly as inept as a Disney villain. I’d like her better if she had a himbo sidekick, in the style of The Emperor’s New Groove. All of her evil plotting to get the children back in her “custody” are so easily thwarted and she makes an enemy of the Emperor of the Kree-Skrull alliance? Not exactly an evil genius. Color me thoroughly unimpressed. I suppose she does at least walk away with some cool batteries which is neat. N’kalla and Jo-Venn are free! Again! What do you make of their new family, pumpkin?
Mr.: Ah yes, the big emotional touchpoint of this issue (other than maybe the short heart-to-heart between Torch and Peter, which I found kind of meh), those cute kiddos are getting adopted by Ben and Alicia. The First Family is getting a little bigger, and while I kind of feel like these kids were merely created to be adopted, and while kids in superhero comics are often treated as an aside, Slott is pretty good at juggling, even if I don’t always like his plotting. A lot of this issue felt very laid out, kind of a perfect jigsaw puzzle. This kind of storytelling felt kind of mediocre to me, even as I generally liked the art, even if they weren’t given much punching to work with. I like Izaakse here over his fill-ins in the zero issue for certain. So, sugarplum, we get back to the weapons, which can’t even be identified by the Profiteer because they are even more ancient than her. However, they ARE identified by the Unseen, who utters that they belong to the First Race, and then his EYE TURNS INTO UATU THE WATCHER. This was kind of a wild finish, but was it effective?
Mrs.: As someone with huge gaps in my Watcher continuity, my reaction was “neat!” It is always exciting to have the return of a classic character, but this return feels so entirely disconnected from Empyre. While this may work as a hook into the next Fantastic Four issue, it’s not an ending that seemed to flow well from this issue. I definitely am getting those “perfect jigsaw puzzle” vibes you mentioned – a bit connect the dots, as it were. It’s a perfectly fine issue, and I can’t say I expected more from it.
Mr.: Yeah this wasn’t a big wowee from me, and even though it promised a bold new direction for Marvel in Space, I feel like this particular setup was ho-hum. Ancient alien races have been done, and done, and done, and it takes more than “but they’re very old” to wow me. Hopefully we get a bold new era, but this inspires a ho-hum from me.
Marvelous Musings
- The Thing as Dad? What a revoltin’ development.
- In case we weren’t sure the Kree-Skrull Empire is here to stay, I guess we’re in for it now.
- I think the Profiteer should probably be dealt with slightly more harshly but what do you do?
- Bel-Dann and Raksor getting their ashes combined was nice and symbolic.
Chris Eddleman is a biologist and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.
Christi Eddleman is the world’s first Captain Kate Pryde cosplayer and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.
