Sunday, February 28, 2010

Fantastic Four #576 - Marvel

It seems to me that Jonathan Hickman is building towards something bigger here. All the recent chapters of this title seem like building blocks in a much bigger story-arc. However . . we haven't been shown how they're all going to fit together. Yet! This all seems to have started out with an older Franklin coming back in time to give Valeria a message. A message about a coming conflict between four cities. Then last issue the Moloids . . or at least a hyper-evolved species of them that began progressing that way when they went to live in an abandoned city built by the High-Evolutionary . . the Moloids raised said city to the surface and have begun to set up a sovereign nation. Now, this issue . . we find out that there's a lake buried under the south pole. In 1973 they found a giant lake hidden some 13,000 feet under the ice-cap. However, at that time they didn't have the means to analyze or explore it. Not until about 4 years ago when the Richard's foundation gave them the equipment to do so. When they began scanning the lake, they also found that there were some huge structures down there also. Now they're about 24 hours away from sending down their first unmanned probe. The problem is . . AIM is also interested in this discovery, and they're slant drilling from about 5 miles away to achieve the same goal. So, they're going to have to skip the unmanned tests and drop in a manned team of researchers to do some exploring. That's where the FF come in. This is a job made for them. So . . long story short, the FF and AIM arrive within moments of each other. The FF try to establish contact, while AIM comes in with guns blazing. The FF have to do what they've done so often and come to the aid of the indigent races that live here. They stop AIMS descent and are welcomed into the royal chambers of the city. It turns out that these people consider themselves to be in Atlantis. There's 3 races that survived here, and they operate under one voice. They ask the same of the FF so Sue steps up as the 'voice of man'. This issue ends with the FF heading home, and Sue being deigned the 'herald' should their 2 worlds ever need to talk to each other int he future. And Sue has naturally contacted Namor. But he hasn't called back yet. Like I said . . we're building towards something here, but I'm not sure what yet. We've got all these single issue stories, but . . they're all connected. I assume we'll have to find out about the other 2 cities though before this storyline goes much further. I can't wait to see what happens. Jonathan has presented some terrific ideas here. It should be equally as interesting to see how he brings them all together. And I love Dale Eaglesham's art. He does a terrific job. I just wish he could be here every issue. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Overall I thought it was a great book. Now I look forward to seeing what's planned for the future.

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