I hoped with 3 Marvel comics last week to have two days' worth of reviews. Also, to have them going on Friday. But the store in town didn't get their shipment of Marvel books, and the one in the next town over didn't have Fantastic Four. So we make do.
In other news, Alex bought a PS5 last week, which means I now have a Playstation 4. Huzzah! Now I just have to get in the habit of putting some time aside to play stuff again.
The story starts in Maine, where Carol's waiting out a storm in a bar - she's not drinking - with some local sailor pals of hers. She saves some guy's sailboat from getting dashed on the rocks, then zooms into space to investigate some weird purple hole that sprouts tentacles. But she threw an asteroid at it and it went away, so I'm sure everything is fine. Then it's off to speak to some disaffected teens who feel there's no hope for the future.
Nocenti's Carol is very confident, bordering on arrogant. Not Tony Stark levels of self-confidence, but getting there, and Nocenti touches on how that can frustrate some people. She saves the boat without her powers, simply to win a bet. She ignores a scientist's advice to not just start attacking the mysterious space hole (to be fair, it was projecting tentacles). Villanelli draws Carol in dynamic or aggressive postures most of the time. She's striding forward or leaning into the storm as she works the sails. Or she's doing the classic superhero posture with us looking up at her. She's large and in charge, or feels like she is, anyway.
Stark doesn't mind in their brief conversation, but Jessica Drew is written as a bit more cynical than Carol (not as much as the teens, however) and the two friends have a bit of back-and-forth. Carol's like a walking motivational poster, opining that as long as you've got one day, you have a future. The question seems to be whether that's inspirational, which is probably what Carol thinks, or demoralizing/patronizing because she has advantages those teens do not. Carol did push through disasters - some of her own making - but that isn't the image she projects, so people don't see that.
The antagonists appear to be a mysterious hooded person with purple portal abilities, who calls themselves Nada, and Nitro. Yes, "kicked off Civil War, killed cancer-ridden Mar-Vell" Nitro. Who seems to be losing control of himself and his powers, and is frustrated of getting stuck talking to 'bots when he wants medical help. He thinks Nada is a kindred soul who hates technology, but it's pretty clear from the dialogue Nada is telling Nitro whatever gets him to buy in. He goes from ranting about 'bots to ranting about hating Captain Marvel, and Nada tells him she's actually a bunch of nanobots grown in a lab to steal everyone's opportunities to shine, then doesn't even remember that when they talk later. A little like these machine-learning things that just spit your input back at you.
Ogdu Fraize is planning to absorb all the energy of the Big Bang and use it to create a universe on his terms, as outlined in his over 200,000 page manifesto. Which he forces Ben, Boom, and the Un-Watcher to listen to. That monster!
The Un-Watcher gets them free, but Doom immediately gets blasted out of his armor. Skroce then places a big "CENSORED" bar over Doom's exposed face until he can get in another suit. Ben confronts Ogdu, which doesn't go too well to start. That suggested speech thing Reed gave him tries to psychologically deconstruct Ogdu, which mostly just pisses him off. But it does cause him to lean in close enough Ben can damage his suit and then knock him out.
It's a bit of a weird way to go, as the last page of the fight is Ben unaware he's muttering updates from the device like "systems failure", and Ogdu thinking these are more attempts to insult or dismiss him. But Ogdu is from a future where they only know bits and pieces of the era Ben's from, and he's focused primarily on stealing and retro-fitting that stuff to his plan. He's so dismissive of the era, or simply convinced the Thing won't stop until he's completely dead, that he can't realize that's not what's going on.
I'm not sure it works as a climax, but it's not bad. The fact Thing is so out of it he's mindlessly repeating that stuff helps play up the damage he's taken. This time Ogdu's blown off some of the outer later of rocks in jagged canyons and tears, rather than the more clinical, curious way he pulled him apart in issue 2. On the other hand, that Ben is just mindlessly repeating that stuff kind of says he was beat at that moment. In no position to even try to fight back, except that Ogdu got drawn into arguing with essentially a load screen. Overall, I'm not entirely satisfied with it as a wrap up to their fight, but your mileage may vary.
So the plan goes bust, the universe and Galactus proceed as they originally did. Doom drags what's left of Ogdu somewhere to face 'equitable justice,' which probably won't be good. Ben's friends look after him while he recovers, and the comic ends with Ben getting a prank over on the Human Torch. Which is a nice way to wrap things up, actually, things back to normal.
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