What I Bought 9/6/2023

Last month the store didn't have any copies of Fantastic Four, this month it was Moon Knight. So instead of the two comics I was hoping for last week, we've got one. And there were actually three out last week I wanted, including the three months late final issue of Nature's Labyrinth. Still, one is better than none.

Fantastic Four #11, by Ryan North (writer), Iban Coello (artist), Jesus Arbutov (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - The dog and the house just look to photo-realistic next to the Thing. It's like some fumetti, photo-collage effect.

Ben Grimm wakes up alone (except for a dog that had begun hanging around lately) in the FF's temporary home, with said home free-falling through a bottomless pit. As quickly as Ben keeps noticing things that don't match the situation, those things correct themselves. Which is how he figures out someone's really messing with his mind. He eventually breaks through the illusion with the help of the dog, beats the villain and that's that.

And at the end, he finally decides to go ahead and keep the dog. If nothing else, the dog is useful as an excuse to provide exposition, which is most of what it does this issue. The Thing can pretend he's talking to the dog (or that he's just talking out loud to keep focused), which keeps it from feeling too obvious Ryan North is explaining things to us.

Coello's art makes the dog (and the house) look less out of place next to the Thing than the cover does, although he seems to have trouble with how Thing's head sits on his shoulders. Especially in profile, it looks like it just sort of floats above his torso. Mostly when the Thing is looking happy or confused. When he's angry, annoyed or depressed (Coello gets to do a wide range of expressions for the Thing in this issue and makes the most of it), his head seems more in contact with the rest of his body. When he's smiling, Coello draws the skull too round and it's like a melon sitting on the edge of a tabletop.

I was looking forward to a story about Ben thinking his way out of such a strange situation, and while I didn't exactly get what I was looking for, it still highlighted that the Thing is more than just muscle and determination. It's always nice when writers remember Ben Grimm was smart enough to be an astronaut.