Now that I'm finished looking back at 2022, I have a few weeks' worth of 2023's books saved up. Enough to go through next week, at least. Starting with the stuff from the first week of the month, we're looking at the somewhat delayed conclusion to a mini-series, and the third issue of Fantastic Four.
Jack confesses to Vera, and she's into it. Great. Then he finishes wiping out the Keys, although he manages to improve his odds by bribing a bunch of the goons into leaving, then bribing the die hards with more money if they kill each other.
If they were smart, they wouldn't be henchmen for a crime family, would they? Everyone knows what happens to the rank-and-file. Jack wipes them out, Marshal Omaha retires, and then, while going through some of Jack's old papers, finds a journal from when he was 7 revealing this whole thing has been part of a plan. Getting hired as a mob accountant, going into witness protection, having the "misfortune" to be spotted on the street and even the bit about saying he can't lie. All a big plan.
That sound is my suspension of disbelief breaking into a million pieces like I threw a fragile china cup off the top of the Empire State Building.
I cannot buy that this one person, in a world of otherwise average folks as Tobin has presented them, can psychohistory his entire life out that perfectly. Even when he throws in the supposed variable of a romantic partner, which he admits to himself (or his turtle, who he has no reason to lie to) that he can't predict, it all still works out the way he planned.
Nothing caught him off-balance, or went contrary to his predictions. Nobody got a lucky ricochet. No one happened to run a red light and T-bone his car while he was just going to get ingredients to make lasagna for Vera. He didn't sneeze, or slip in a puddle of dog vomit that wasn't in the alley the last time he walked through there.
Sigh. Something positive to wrap up, then. Alburquerque consistently draws it so that Jack sets his pet turtle at his level when he's doing something. If Jack's cooking, Fibonacci is on the counter watching. When he eats dinner, Fibonacci gets his own little plate of strawberries, at his own table setting. It's cute.
Johnny stops a tornado with the power of something he remembered Reed talking about one time, but then he's got to get to work. At a big box store. How is he paying for an apartment in NYC working at a big box store? Anyway, he's sporting terrible facial hair and the alias "Jonathan Fairweather". Ben would die laughing if he heard that. Actually, Sue might, too.
Anyway, the store has lots of problems that don't pass safety regulations, but the workers can't risk making a fuss. Johnny tries to intimidate the guy in charge, but fire's not much of a deterrent when the guy knows you won't burn him. What Johnny needs, is the power of labor activism!
So, North's Johnny Storm is not an idiot exactly. The bad guy leverages the fact Johnny's a good person who doesn't want to actually burn people, and has more than good enough control to not do it. But Johnny's also flashy, impulsive and not particularly subtle. When he does the big reveal to his coworkers, they admit they all knew, in part because Jon Fairweather can't stop talking about how great the Human Torch is.
Coello draws him always making big gestures. Very active with his hands, giving customers a wink and the finger guns when he's working. Laughing way too loud when he says something dumb. Like I said, this Johnny's not so great at subtle, but he knows enough to lean into his strengths and let other people do the sneaky bits. And the terrible facial hair really does make him look older than I would expect Johnny to look, so I guess it's not the worst disguise.
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