Fantastic Four #555 (Marvel – Millar/ Hitch / Neary)
Buy this issue for a first-look at mankind’s new home. Also, the Torch gets nekkid with a super-villain.
The book opens explaining more about the Reed-Alyssa connection. A flashback of the two of them in college speaking of what an impact the two of them will have on the world and how unfair it would be of the two of them mated and kept all of their awesome genes to themselves, then flash forward to the two of them and Alyssa’s husband are taking a tour of Nu-Earth in a hover car (it’s a very “Hitchhiker’s Guide” moment). This when Reed gets the news that Earth’s environmental issues are much bigger and more imminent that recently believed. In fact according to the Nu-World group’s calculations, Earth has less than ten years before a cataclysmic meltdown. As they are explaining all of the benefits and reasoning of creating of Nu-Earth, they go over some of the initiatives they have taken that will benefit all of mankind: universal health care (the “Nightingales”), the banning of all weapons on Nu-Earth and a central universal police force (engineered droids known as CAP’s [conserve and protect]). The CAP looks like an set of over-sized Ultimate Iron-man aromor with a Captain America motif. The book concludes with one of the CAP’s escaping, countering his own programming and going after some soldiers on our Earth, because they are violating the law (having weapons). While it is a fun read, this would fall under a “robocop”ish plot device.
The side-bar with Johnny being seduced by a hot meta-villain bank robber is sort of a stand alone in the middle of the Nu-Earth story, and a tad annoying. Well-told and well-drawn… but in a typical Marvel fashion, the cover isn’t anything that is seen in the book.
Issue grade: B+
