What I Bought 10/23/2025 - Part 2

I noticed a few weeks ago the Roku Channel brought Hardcastle & McCormick back, so I decided to binge watch it before they pulled it again. I did not remember them trying to use a different opening theme song the first half of Season 2. It was terrible, better suited for Family Ties or Growing Pains, some happy family sitcom shit.

Fantastic Four #4, by Ryan North (writer), Humberto Ramos (penciler), Victor Olazaba (inker), Edgar Delgado (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I'm not at all clear what's going on with Johnny's flaming hand? Was he making bunny fingers, and that's what got Ben riled?

The FF have gotten themselves another dog. Except Alicia isn't so sure that's correct. When she touches "Jellybean", for just a moment, everything feels wrong. Then, nope, nevermind, it's a cute little dog. Of course it is!

Still, Alicia's unease leads her to ask Reed about how something could mentally convince others it was harmless-looking. Which leads Reed into a long spiel about the part of out brain that recognizes faces, but also makes us see faces in other things. And then he builds a machine to block that part of the brain, and their dog turns out to be the pink tentacle thing on the cover. Who is just one of an entire invasion, an invasion abruptly canceled once Reed projects the effect over the entire planet.

So North is back to the clever one-and-dones. About time. Ramos makes the alien suitably creepy-looking, though it's really some of Alicia's expressions that sell it. The almost rictus grin she gets as it winds around her arm, asserting that message in her head that she's touching a cute little dog. Like someone asked you what you thought of their latest piece of art, and you're trying to be polite while internally screaming.

Later, after Alicia's conversation with Reed, when the alien has put more focus into keeping her under control, you get a glimpse of her face when Reed turns on his device. The alien practically blankets her, and she's wearing this blank-faced smile, even as the others freak out. Ramos' face always look strange to me, so he and North might as well put that to good use.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #13, by Jed MacKay (writer), Domenico Carbone (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) -  The only cover the shop I stopped at had was a variant of Moon Knight being shocked or unnerved by what he was seeing in Marvel's new, "Red Band" Punisher book. Which is just silly. Marc may not be cutting dude's faces off these days, but he hasn't forgotten what it was like to do that.

Marc and Layla sit in on some sort of group therapy session where, among other things, a fireman describes coming across the Wrecker rampaging, killing, kicking Dr. Strange's ass. The Wrecker, when confronted with all this, pulls the, "I was possessed" card. New crowbar, yadda yadda. And he admits he's probably killed others, but why aren't any of those others haunting him? Only the ones from this specific rampage?

Which sends Marc and Layla looking for Dr. Strange, but he's off in Asgard, so will Clea do? Or maybe that should be, will Clea do something? She's not real interested in helping a murderer who hurt Stephen escape being haunted, but she'll help them see the world like magicians do.

Rosenberg keeps all the buildings and most of the people in plain black-and-white, but Marc and Layla are brightly colored, and there are all sorts of sprites, spirits, something around that are also colorful. Carbone draws them like a clay sculpture that as only halfway molded before the artist got distracted. A distinct limb or facial feature, but the rest a lump.

The search leads to a house, and inside the house is the firefighter from the help group. I'm not sure if Marc was supposed to know him from somewhere else or what. Also, he says it took years of study to be able to command the dead, but the story being referenced was in a volume of Dr. Strange that started in 2019. Which yes, is 7 years ago for us, but with how Marvel time operates, it's not that long ago. Even if you figure Krakoa was hosting Hellfire Galas annually, Krakoa lasted maybe 3 years. So was this firefighter guy actually planning this long before the Wrecker's rampage, or should I just deal with the uncertainty of Marvel's timeline?