I didn't spring for it, since I've long since soured on Bendis, but I'm still curious about his Infamous Iron Man #2, guest-starring the Thing; who probably was not overly supportive of Doom's new role as 'Iron Man.' I wanna see Ben just shut him down, although I'm not sure that's what ends up happening. On the other hand, I did hop on this dollar book: from 1994, Nova #11, "Those Who Would Destroy Us" Story and pencils by Chris Marrinan, inks by Mark Stegbauer.
If that title sounds familiar, it was a classic Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four; and this one guest-stars the team's only current member: Ben Grimm, recently scarred up by Wolverine. Who had been part of the previous new FF, it almost feels like Marvel was really considering changing up the team. Former replacement She-Hulk and 'associate' Ant-Man are there as well, and would be needed as Four Freedoms Plaza is attacked by the Hulk, Dragon Man, and Dr. Doom; all of whom are there to kill Nova? All three are robots--technically, Dragon Man had always been a robot; I'm not sure if this was the original or a dupe. They're joined by Armada, who flees when Ant-Man figures out how to defeat the robots.
Dragon Man splits, the Hulk robot is seemingly atomized but very obviously could've escaped into the sewers, and the Doombot is smashed up real good by Ben, who just has to hate those things. The heroes briefly consider forming up as a new Fantastic Four, but "Naaah!" Nova doesn't get a break, either, as he's immediately swooped up by Nick Fury, to take care of some loose ends from previous issues, even though his girl Namorita protests. (She may have been 'Kymaera' then, but Rich still calls her Nita.)
I wasn't familiar with Marrinan, but he had penciled most of the series to that point, took over writing in #8, and would stay on until #16. New Warriors writer Evan Skolnick would write the last two issues for this series, possibly an attempt to consolidate those titles.
Wow, that 90's art tho! Definitely a signature from that era. A new FF using those 4 huh? I mean it could temporarily work, Ben is Ben, Nova is Johnny, She-Hulk takes Sue's role and Scott takes Reed's. Ben wasn't w/ Alicia at the time, so maybe there's romantic tension between him and Jennifer, Nova's the stereotypical hot-headed young guy to play off Ben, and Scott's the resident genius, except he's nowhere near as smart as Reed, but somehow smart enough to pull out a last minute win maybe. He'd definitely would less insufferable and overbearing like Reed can be.
ReplyDeleteNaaaah, it'd never work.