Marvel announced this week that this comic book sold out at the distributor level the day before its in-store release date. That revelation is indicative of one of two things: that Marvel is doing a great job of creating interest in its upcoming Civil War event, or that it purposefully held back from overprinting so as to create demand for a second printing (no doubt with slightly variated cover art). Actually, I think that both may hold true. This issue offers glimpses of other "Road to Civil War" comics, but it's the prospect of Thor's return (and Dr. Doom's) and how that ties into Civil War that will really get fans' tongues wagging. Though I like the tight interconnectivity before this book and other recent Marvel releases, Straczynski offers little in the way of new information beyond what we see on the cover of the issue. This is a fun action-oriented issue, but it seems the real storytelling isn't happening until the next issue.
Reed returns home after a secret meeting with some colleagues from the superhuman community (see this week's New Avengers: Illuminati #1), and he tries to tell his wife and teammate that bad times lie ahead for super-heroes such as themselves. As they glimpse Tony Stark on television, dealing with the same issues on Capitol Hill, the members of the Fantastic Four are urgently summoned westward to Oklahoma. There, they find a military research facility under siege by a legion of Doombots. Can their former master, thought exiled to Hell, be far behind?
Boy, there's just no visual quite like Mike McKone's vision of the Thing. He's clearly heavily influenced by John Byrne's take on the character, and the two-page splash of him tussling with a Doombot is a striking visual, worthy of poster status. What was lacking in the art was volume, in a way. We're told there's an army of Doombots, impressive and intimidating in their number, but I didn't get a sense of such a swarm of enemies.
once again, a comic falls victim to the cover telling the entire story, robbing the plot itself of any chance of achieving some level of suspense or drama. Hell, the story's title is a major clue as well, so what's the point of the dramatic reveal (which almost exactly duplicates the cover) on the final page? I don't suppose one can blame the writer's script, given that it doesn't necessarily anticipate what's to be offered as cover art. Still, it's a bit frustrating, as is the reproduction of a full page of art from this week's New Avengers: Illuminati one-shot. It seems like a copout to have another creative team offer up one's exposition scene.
The return of Dr. Doom (or at least the Doombots) is a significant event for this title, and Straczynski handles it quite well. I enjoyed how the team interprets the Doombot assault as an act of aggression on the part of a sovereign nation rather than the resurrection of their deadliest foe. Reed, ever the man of science and logic, never even considers a connection to Doom himself, and when that appears to be the case, it happens so quickly and at such a critical time, it's easy to believe that the heroes would fail to react in time. 6/10
