Madman #7: another weird one. Very cool, though; no dialogue, and it centers around Frank wandering around a barren planet, grieving for [spoiler] Joe [/spoiler].
The ending is unexpected, and I have very mixed feelings on it. If it were anybody else, I would have thrown up my arms, bitched that he [spoiler]killed off two major characters in a contrivance to make the leads of his two different books hook up[/spoiler], and possibly just dropped the damn book right there. But this, of course, is Allred, and he gets the benefit of the doubt. It could be a standard superhero plot contrivance, but it could also be a realistic, human depiction of grief -- it is, after all, perfectly plausible that [spoiler]two people who were close and who just suffered the loss of their respective loves might fall into each other's arms[/spoiler]. If so, I would expect more pain is in store, as [spoiler]Frank is still clearly looking for Joe, as evidenced by the shot of It Girl with the red sand in her hair -- though of course the shot at the end, him kissing her after the sand is gone, shows he's accepting her for who she is[/spoiler].
This whole book's been about Frank trying to come to terms with the universe and his place in it; I get the impression that Allred's got a lot on his mind too. His father recently passed away, which I'm sure plays into the themes of grief and loss, though this "existential quandary" stuff was part of the series before that, as have foreshadowings of [spoiler]Joe's death[/spoiler].
And of course it's a comic book, so it hardly bears mentioning that characters may not stay dead.
...Moving on. Fantastic Four #555:
The bad: The "utopia without free will" idea is nothing new. There's very little Ben and no Sue.
Other than that, not a bad read, though obviously a hell of a lot of setup involved. I find it interesting that the first "off" thing that Ted says, the first thing that foreshadows him playing God with the natural order of things, is that it would be unethical to put deserts on New Earth. Trust a kid from the desert to take umbrage at a line like that.
The art's the real highlight here; the shots of the unfinished New Earth by night are absolutely gorgeous. Very Magrathea.
And of course Johnny gets a good chunk of the book, which is only fair since he was so scarce last month. Bodes well for Ben and Sue getting more action next ish, I think.
As for the last page -- all right, moneyshot, a pic we were teased with months ago finally makes sense. Of course, the [spoiler]anti-Cap who goes too far in his pursuit of justice[/spoiler] bit is old hat too, but I think they can put a fresh twist on it.
Anyway. Not as good as last month, but still pretty cool. Looking forward to more.
