Fantastic Four #10-13

Written by Dan Slott
Penciled by Paco Medina and Sean Izaakse
Published May - Aug 2019

Oh, he's BIG mad.

   Franklin Richards is pretty mad at the world. With his teenage bad attitude in full force, his recent grounding sees him pulling time at the Ben Grimm Youth Center. Between wasting his fleeting powers on some bullies, he's able to focus on a real threat, as Frost Giants invade Yancy Street care of the War of the Realms. Luckily Val realizes trashing a local super antennae will send the giants packing, and lucky for them, it works.

"Come on, fellow frost giants. Let's go fight the Avengers."

   Next up finds Doom rebuilding Latveria when he just happens to stumble onto some radioactive dirt. Don't worry - it comes into play later on. Meanwhile the DEMV, ahem - the Dept of Extra Normal Vehicles, bust the Fantastic kids for driving quantum cars without a license. They'll have to pass a driving test, but unfortunately their drive takes them right into a massive dimensional rift. Inside, Gargantua, Empress of the Infinitesimal, throws down the gauntlet. Franklin's terrible teen angst saves the day, talking the empress into just bailing out while they get some mixed news. Val failed her test but Franklin is now officially licensed to quantum drive.

License To Quantum Drive, starring Franklin Haim and Val Feldman. Coming soon.

   Our stories conclude with Ben Grimm and his new wife Alicia finally going on their honeymoon. With his annual transmuation set to turn him back into his human form, he's ready for rest and relaxation, and time away from the Fantastic Four. Unfortunately the couple is barely able to step on the beach when a possessed Hulk shows up, attacking them. Problem is that he only has an hour left as The Thing, so it's gonna have to be a quick battle.

Oh boy.

   Controlling the Hulk remotely is the Puppet Master - estranged father of Alicia and now empowered with the radioactive isotopes gifted to him by Doctor Doom. He entraps several innocent beachgoers, including his daughter, and plans to enact his ultimate revenge until the skirmish inadverntedly frees them. Alicia cheers her husband to one more punch, and with all of his might, the Thing punches the Hulk so hard it practically knocks both of them out. When he wakes up, he's mortified that he spent his entire human time in a coma. But he basks in the fact he finally knocked out the Hulk. For the Puppetmaster though, it's not such a happy ending. Big Green catches up with him at the Raft and well, let's just say he won't be making puppets again anytime soon. With that, this pseudo story arc comes to a satisfying conclusion.

Easy there, Marvel. You wouldn't want to kill off an A-Lister like THE PUPPETMASTER...

   So reading the Fantastic Four always feels like your thumbing through Marvel's greatest nostalgia. They're classics without all the mega-Disney-sellout machine pumping them into your veins 24/7. The one thing that stands out to me here though is that I feel like they're wasting Dan Slott's talent. At least with these 4 issues anyway. I know Point of Origin begins with the next issue and I think that's going to be well worth the wait. As for these, it wasn't too bad, but I just think they could have done a little more. I give these a 7/10.

If you like this review, check out my video of it HERE.

You can also buy my physical copy of this book below:
Fantastic Four #10
Fantastic Four #11
Fantastic Four #12
Fantastic Four #13


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