Things are heating up on every front against the Cotati! Nefarious secrets are revealed in space! A She-Hulk vs Thing showdown! It’s all here in an issue by Al Ewing, Dan Slott, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia and VC’s Joe Caramagna.
Allison Senecal: Yowza! What a penultimate issue. I know there are several wrap-up issues as well, but this sure felt like the big “well how is this gonna shake out?” chapter.
Tony Thornley: I can’t believe we’re near the end already! DANG! I don’t know if I’ve liked the pace of the event or not, but here we are!
The Wedding Of The Century!
AS: It is truly wild to me that one of the BIGGEST 2020 moments in comics is a flashback, if a well-done flashback. I feel like everyone has been waiting for a Young Avengers-attended Wiccan-Hulkling wedding for years, and we finally get it, folks! To be honest, it is kinda %$&#ing fantastic that they saved it for a big line-wide event and not a one-shot, not a side tie-in series, not a Young Avengers series that, let’s admit, wouldn’t get as many general eyeballs on it. And it does work well as a rushed Vegas wedding. I dunno, that just has a very good chaos vibe to it. AND ALLAN HEINBERG!!! (And who I assume is an unnamed Jim Cheung!!) What a good touch. Weep.
TT: Oh my gosh, I wondered why he looked so much like an actual person! Why didn’t I put that together? Hah! And yeah, looking at it again, the other guy does look a lot like Cheung. What a great nod to their creators by Ewing and Schiti!
This really was such a big swing as a whole. The entire event hinging on the Marvel Universe’s most prominent gay couple (sorry Northstar and Kyle!), their marriage forming a literal magic bond, and that bond being what could save the world. If we don’t get a Ewing-written, Teddy and Billy led Avengers series coming out of this event I’m going to be incredibly disappointed.
AS: We must be??? They can’t really call it Young Avengers anymore… kinda like Teen Titans and Titans. But we have to be getting some kind of secondary Avengers team. Either straight-up the Young Avengers line-up or, as you said, at least with the new married couple at the helm. My mind rails against “Avengers in space” but Teddy leading a Cosmic Avengers thing could be cool, depending on the roster and mission statement…
TT: My mind is reeling at that now, and I hope we didn’t just get our hopes up for something that doesn’t happen. But speaking of the Young Avengers…
Look at the guest list. It’s literally the perfect group of people to be at the wedding. Ewing and Schiti didn’t pack it with Captain America or Iron Man or Spider-Man for the eyeballs. It’s the original Young Avengers (INCLUDING ELI!) (AS: AND BIG CASSIE!) and America Chavez. It could have included Prodigy and Loki too I’m sure, but I don’t actually think losing them is a problem. This is a small intimate occasion with their best friends in the world, and there’s no ignoring that.
Let’s backtrack a couple pages though. Did you notice the same detail I did? It’s subtle but it’s significant. Schiti and Gracia do something really important here that I didn’t catch at first.
AS: I am prepared to feel dumb in about ten seconds. Tell us what it is!
TT: The eyes! I didn’t even catch it at first, but Billy (and Johnny) mentions Teddy’s dreamy eyes, and we get three really clear panels of Teddy’s deep, sky blue eyes. However, last issue, in the close-ups we got of Teddy? His eyes were yellow. I might go back further and see if we get any more clear panels of his eyes before that, but it was a detail I didn’t even catch at first. [NOTE: Yup, before #4, all deep sky blue!] Ewing, Schiti and Gracia were telling us the entire previous issue that something was wrong, and no one caught it!
AS: Dammit! I didn’t notice if there was a change at all. I figured last issue they were SO yellow because pretty obviously R’Klll after that issue #3 reveal, but…I do wonder how far back it goes, you’re right. This also led to us getting Johnny Storm admitting he has indeed noticed Teddy’s baby blues. At least that’s definitely how I read that. Can Marvel please just let this boy be bisexual and happy about it? Or sad about it, but you know.
TT: Johnny is totally giving off that vibe, and always has.
AS: One last thing from me here but I was worried the Billy-and-Teddy-in-bed and obviously post-sex was going to be relegated to only the Hulkling one-shot, but we got it again here, and I think that’s important and surprisingly as hell, honestly.
TT: I don’t think it’s something we would have gotten even a year or two ago, so this is a pleasant shock!
THE IMMORTAL THING
TT: So as Billy, Carol and Johnny teleport away to save Mister Kaplan-Altman (I’m just assuming they’d hyphenate because they’re adorable like that) we flash to Wakanda, where both T’Challa and Ben Grimm are receiving the beating of their lives. This is one of those super-typical event comics things, but I really like that Ewing’s script gives the typical punch fest some great emotional depth.
AS: As much as I love Ben, I admit if terrifying Zombie Plant Husk She-Hulk wasn’t here I could have likely mentally checked out. However, SHE is so compelling and horrifically sad conceptually that it’s like “jesus christ” at almost every panel with her. SUE can’t even get her. SUE!! I think that’s what really terrified me. Sue didn’t hold back. She tried the brain bubble trick. It didn’t work. Ben bleeding is also extra horrific for some reason. Oof. I started tearing up a little because this fight between the two of them really did feel that visceral and perhaps final.
TT: And even worse that the husk of a body providing this beating is someone that Sue and Ben would consider family! At this point, Jen is basically the fifth member of the Four, and here are two of the strongest willed characters in comics who are being beaten to death (yes in Sue’s case not literally) by their sister. You can practically hear the pain in Sue’s voice as she’s trying to save the life of the man who’s become her brother. My hell this is such a loaded scene.
Just curious, was there any point in the fight that you thought that Jen was going to come back through the Green Door and take control back of her body? I kind of did but I’m glad it didn’t happen.
AS: Honestly, no? Not in this issue anyways. I’ve expected the bulk of her stuff with that to go off narratively in her Immortal one-shot and this event is already so fast-paced now that I don’t think I’d like her return stuffed in either. BUT, I know we both did have an inkling that the one-shot would be timed that way so maybe that will happen in the finale? Not sure I love the scheduling making that one-shot a potential flashback issue, but it could be cool. My brain has been so jiggled around by the Covid scheduling I no longer know how anything is structured! It’s fine. I also wonder at the mechanics of her coming back to that body? Is that possible? I’m trying to think of anything similar (with a parasite or long-lasting effect) happening in Immortal Hulk. I suppose it will all be answered…
And yeah, god, Jen’s history with the team really just made this extra soul-crushing. It makes it a little more intimate and nitty gritty than the following T’Challa battle, even if that IS essentially for the very ground of Wakanda…
TT: It’s almost like it’s a battle for the soul of the Fantastic Four, and the Cotati see that this is a battle they can never win. In what’s probably THE moment of the crossover, Benjamin Grimm stands back up from the worst beating he’s taken in his life, and tells Cotati-Hulk that he’s got people depending on him, so he’ll never quit, and well….
DAMN!
I’M THE IMMORTAL THING. PUT UP YA DUKES.
Sometimes I forget how much I love the Thing.
AS: Me too! But when he’s good, he’s GREAT. I love him so much.
TT: Can we get him back in an ongoing series of his own until the end of time? Just. Do. It. And I have to note- it’s canon that Ben IS immortal, but I sincerely doubt that’s on his mind when he tells Cotati-Hulk that. That is just pure Ben Grimm awesome.
Only Got Four Minutes To Save The World!
AS: Things are not lookin’ good for T’Challa. The Cotati have a seemingly neverending army and the king of Wakanda is only one man. A really, really bad-ass one, but still only one. “Target me.” I shivered, hoooo boy. This doesn’t feel as intimate as the Thing-She-Hulk fight but it does have that epic gloss to it, yeah?
TT: That’s a line that only T’Challa could deliver without feeling like pure cheese. It basically feels at this point that it’s just Panther versus the Cotati, and you kind of think that he could pull through it and win. I mean, if any superhero could defeat an entire invading alien army on their own, it’s not Batman, it’s the Black Panther.
I know we usually talk more about writing in these write ups, but Schiti drew the hell out of this fight. It’s one of those comic book fights that wouldn’t be nearly as good in animation or film. The Panther is just a blur of motion, and instead of making him a literal blur on the page, Schiti captures him in still moments as Hulkling’s Sword is flashing around him like a hyperactive bolt of lightning.
AS: I think Schiti really carried this issue emotionally. The previous scene too, with Ben and She-Hulk. His attention to facial expression in this event has been astounding but especially in this issue. Those “final” desperate moments come across so well. The “NO!” panel is just so good. And, of course, who delivers the worst blow to T’Challa here? Swordsman, who else.
TT: And to think you and I LIKED Swordsman back in the Avengers prequel issue!
I think that moment is really interesting by the way. T’Challa says he had a plan with the sword, but all we see him do is chop foliage here. Then he gets taken out by Swordsman, and DIES. If it wasn’t for the blood, I would think T’Challa is remote piloting his suit, a la Iron Man. There’s got to be something more to it than we’re seeing. This is T’Challa, the best strategic mind in the Marvel Universe. This is the guy who could beat Batman every time. I can’t even begin to guess what the plan actually is, but he has to have an ace in the hole.
And then we jump back into space.
AS: Oh absolutely, unless this is why *scary music* we haven’t had Black Panther solicits in ages. Kidding. Kidding…but I do bet that’s part of the marketing strategy to absolutely freak people out. But hey, the dude is on that Marauders cover so. Wink wink.
And yes, space. And Teddy in a *jazz hands* bondage mask. Bold choice. This just confirms what we’ve all figured about R’klll posing as Teddy. Poor Super-Skrull. Dude really tries over and over to do right by Teddy and protect him and make amends in his own way, and keeps absolutely fumbling it.
TT: This is something I’ve liked about the Super-Skrull. The guy started as a more black and white villain, but he’s evolved into a loyal soldier, and a noble character. Yes, Earth heroes usually end up on the opposite side of a battle against him. However, there’s this always a nobility and regal nature to his actions. To see him deflate at realizing he failed Teddy was another case of Ewing packing all sorts of emotion into the story.
AS: So, uh, by the time this is happening, R’klll has already triggered the Pyre, which phew, really ramps up the tension here at the end. T’Challa appears dead. The Death Blossom is looming. Carol and Johnny and Billy are about to have a knockdown drag out fight against the Kree-Skrull Alliance commanders. Ben is trying to hold off Jen…and uh, the Sun is gonna explode in like 9 minutes?
TT: And who’s going to save the world? The Iron Fantastic! Err… Fantastic Man! Mister Iron! Dammit… There’s no good portmanteau for this. It’s Reed and Tony, with Reed wearing some badass Iron Man/Fantastic Four armor.
With 9 minutes to save the world… It’s going to be an interesting final issue, isn’t it?
AS: I personally am NOT ready to see Reed’s powers while he’s IN an Iron Man suit. I already find them so disconcerting. I am making such a FACE right now. But yes god, going to be quite the finale.
TT: After this issue, I’m excited to see what’s next.
Marvelous Musings
- R’Klll’s trial by combat form is creepy, and I don’t know why more Skrulls don’t go full horror movie more often.
- I take back every nice thing I’ve said about Captain Glory.
- No you don’t.
- I still love him, he’s awful but great – Editor Chris
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
Allison Senecal buys books professionally and comics unprofessionally.
