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The problem with the Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual #2 was that it did it's job too well with introducing the supporting players this time around. The Fantastic Four, well, they practically phoned in their appearance, if a fictional character could ever be accused of "phoning it in." They were there to attempt the rescue, make with their customary banter, but the other four kids completely took my attention away and struck me as more interesting all around - maybe because they're shiny and new, or that we've heard references too them periodically over the course of the series. I walked away from the comic wanting to read further adventures with Strange Josie, Phineus Mason, Sunita, and Gus rather than slog through more Fantastic Four - the FF showed up, beat up some monsters, and then went on their way. The other kids' decision at the end of the story felt like it was opening up into a new "Challengers of the Unknown" adventure comic - From Beneath the Lithosphere - and there I was, wanting more.
The use of Molekevic - Mole Man - and giving a more in depth account of his back story worked well, especially with Frazer Irving providing pencils for the flashback sequences. Well, paints maybe. He does really well with the two-tone painted work, between the sepia browns in this one and the blues from the Klarion comic. We're given a ton of crazed giant underground monsters, a staple of any Mole Man story. Oddly, it felt a bit like Mole Man belonged in a Nextwave story, not just because Stuart Immonen was doing the pencils for the main sections of the story and the book came out on the same day as an issue of Nextwave, but because of the tongue-in-cheek madness of Molekevic's back story - what with the lungfish and the carmelized rifle. He didn't belong in the "supposedly-more-realistic" (cough) Ultimate universe. |
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