What I Bought 1/21/2026

Similar to my 2024 watch-through of all the movies I owned, I decided to go through all my anime this year. Which has been fun. It had been at least a decade since the last time I watched Azumanga Daioh or Cowboy Bebop. I'm working through Desert Punk at the moment, which is mostly confirming my memory that buying Desert Punk was a mistake. 

Fantastic Four #7, by Ryan North (writer), Humberto Ramos (penciler), Victor Olazaba and JP Mayer (inkers), Edgar Delgado (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Why have the sleeves of the outfit stop partway up the arm? Makes it look like the unstable molecules shrank in the washing machine.

The FF conclude they have to go see what's up with Galactus, that he sent this message. Which involves building a faster-than-light ship that Ramos draws as very 1950s flying saucer. But since they won't be bringing the kids or Alicia along, they need someone to look after them. So each member of the team picks someone to get a teleport bracelet that can bring them to the kids if there's trouble. And there is, from the Mad Thinker, who also decoded the message and decides to attack as soon as the FF depart.

It's definitely the more nuanced approach that Nicieza took with M.T. in the first volume of New Warriors, but reducing the Mad Thinker to a guy attacking kids with killer robots for revenge is really lame. If North established this is part of some larger goal, clearing the deck of an obstacle so he can get at resources Reed has, that would be one thing. But revenge is just so, petty, and lacking in any gain in knowledge.

But that's the plot we've got, so with the robots designed to counter anything the kids can manage, Franklin calls in the cavalry. We see Johnny ask Wyatt Wingfoot, and Sue asks Felicia (though she admits this would usually be a She-Hulk situation.) I'm assuming Ben asked Wolverine and Reed asked Carol Danvers? Can't really see it the other way around. And, because the Thinker predicted the FF would ask these 4 specific people, the quartet gets taken out in less than a page.

That pitiful showing is all to set up the big twist. This issue is narrated by the Thing, though he admits he only learned about the stuff with the Thinker after the fact. Throughout the issue, he makes reference to a lunch date he was worried about missing. As it turns out, it was with a bunch of third-rate villains that Ben has shown kindness to over the years, whether that's giving them a ride home instead of to the police station, or just not clobbering them.

So he made a request to look after his family, and they dogpile the Mad Thinker. The point is something about guys like the Thinker believing it's always one person alone, but it's really about the connections you make, but I'm left thinking how embarrassing it is for Wolverine and Captain Marvel that they got trounced by a guy who just lost to 8-Ball, the Melter (I think), Frog-Man, and some guy named Pulverizer. And 8-Ball's nominally a good guy now, can he even hang out at villain bars? For that matter, when did Frog-Man go bad? His dad was the crook!