the vynsane asylum

I read that Quesada ate crow and apologized to Waid and Weirengo, so they are staying on the book. And the creative team set to replace them are getting their own FF book, Marvel Knights style instead. those crazy kids...

Smart move. I've been very happy with Marvel pretty much since Marvel Knights started up - and I mean across the board. I didn't really go in for the renumbering and restarting of the core titles, but the work being churned out has been better than average on the books I read. Here's an SAT style question for y'all to answer:

Waid is to FF as _______ is to ______________.

a) flies are to shit
b) Silver is to Norrin Rad's shit
c) Jenna Jameson is to blowjobs
d) big dinks are to male pornstars

Choose the MOST correct answer for highest possible score.

I choose C. Top notch work in the field of choice.

Good answer, and solid rationale. Academic minded you are, EP. Welcome to Harvard.

WhooHAhoo! What's been shakin' with Marvel's First Family?

Reed Richards has turned into a raging, puckering douche.

Ben Grimm has turned into a big turncoat dissenting nancy...who moved to FRANCE. What a douche.

And Sue and Johnny have quit the team.

They should permanently kill off one member of the Four and replace him/her with Dr. Doom.

Hey, why not? They're letting Green Goblin run a registered Superhero team and he's crazier than a shithouse rat!

Anybody reading the Millar/Hitch run?

What exactly IS the price tag of building a copy of Earth? This is why I love comics.

I just read they were reprinting it with a Joe Quesadilla cover.

Wasn't a big part of the hype that they wouldn't reprint it?

The hype was they weren't overprinting the bagged 1st print version in anticipation of heavy reorders.

Speaking of "Spoilers" I made a hearty attempt to avoid being spoiled before I actually bought the issue today. And failed. My newspaper had a big article on page 2. Turned the page and 'Arrghhhhh!' I screamed. "What?!" Yelled my mom. "Dammit. I didn't want to know." I replied. "Oh I should have warned you. I saw that this morning."

When I got to the LCS I talked with other guys and found the same thing had happened to several of them.

And then of course, CBR was good about avoiding spoilers yesterday, but then posted a story about the Quesada 2nd printing with a pic of said cover. Which of course features Johnny Storm. 2+2= Dead Human Torch.

Oh well. I'll give my thoughts on the actual story in my 'What Comics did you buy' reviews.

I've done a cursory search and noticed a lot of retailers saying that it wasn't going to be reprinted. Some are from earlier sales pages, others are comments that Marvel immediately announcing a second printing makes them (the retailers) look like liars to their customers.

Yahoo had a story from either AP or Reuters on their mainpage with the headline being a spoiler. You'd think they'd know. This would be like every TV station and newspaper running a story all over the place on May 20, 1980, saying, "Vader is Luke's Father? Can It Be?"

Well, Diamond's circulation over the past year or so has been hovering around 40,000. Assuming not every single copy is getting purchased by collectors, really only about 30,000 out of the 400 million Americans would be incensed at the story being "spoiled" for them. I can see how the Associated Press wouldn't place that at the top of their concerns.

Hmmmmm.....

Click me.

First of all, Hickman's run on Fantastic Four over the last three years has been epic and stellar. Highest recommendation.

Second, digging in the back issue boxes and pulled out a bunch of annuals and oneshots and such. First up is
Fantastic Four Special Edition. A oneshot from 1984 that just reprints FF Annual 1 and a few bonus Byrne pinups. Kirby/Lee is so unintentionally goofy I was cracking up the entire time. The part where the "eminent authority on undersea life" is called by the U.N. to exposit about the history of Atlantis and Namor(basically and excuse to flashback and tell Namor's origin). This goes on for 8 pages, a sizable chunk of the 35 page story. Then at the end, this "eminent authority" who you would assume his credentials were vetted extensively before being allowed to speak before the U.N. rips off his Entire Facemask and shirt to reveal Namor, who declares war on the human race!
Awesome.
Fantastic Four Roast. A oneshot from 1982 celebrating the FF's 20th anniversary. Written by Fred Hembeck and drawn by Everyone, it had pretty much every hero and villain in the Marvel U at the time making dumb roast jokes about the FF. I wonder why they don't do more books like this anymore.