Fantastic Four #540

Written by J. Michael Straczynski

Pencils by Mike McKone

 

Last issue saw the Thing proclaiming, in dramatic fashion, his desire to sit the Civil War out by going to Canada. As Civil War #4 showed, he hasn’t exactly left yet. This issue has him finally proclaiming his desire to leave, yet again, except now he’s going to France instead. Whatever.

 

The issue is really about the break-up of Sue and Reed and Reed’s subsequent break-down. Sue first helps yet another anti-registration superhero escape and yet again, she is not dealt with. Someone in the organization, if they are to be in-character within even the Civil War event itself, would come out and proclaim the necessity to take Sue in before she goes rogue. She is certainly a powerful person (as this issue shows) who would be a great boon to the anti-reg side. Of course, no one does and she just leaves unmolested.

 

Sue’s argument seems to be that doing the right thing is more important than doing the legal thing if those two spheres happen to conflict (a statement I agree with). Reed argues back that without law and order we are nothing but savages, a view that is just short of full Thomas Hobbes philosophy. I must first admit my ignorance here, I’ve never been the biggest FF fan so I’m not really qualified to say whether or not these statements are in line with the characters’ past, but certainly Reed’s opinion, if always held, should have come up way before now. He certainly wouldn’t have supported any of the various vigilantes who operate outside the rule of law, like Spider-Man.

 

In the waning pages, we get a reprint of the speech Reed gave Peter Parker at the end of the Amazing Spider-Man #535. The monologue tells the tale of Reed’s Uncle Ted whose life was ruined by McCarthy era politics. It is supposed to be his defining reason for why he supports the Civil War. The order in which all this was shown and how, is hardly ideal. In Spider-Man, we got a nice flashback sequence to actually see Reed’s Uncle Ted. It seemed out of place there, but even more so now that we have to read through it all again without said flashbacks.

 

For readers of the Fantastic Four it must seem absurd that instead of getting the full-blown treatment for one of the book’s main characters, we get a scene meant to show Iron Man’s distrusting nature. Wouldn’t it have been more prudent to let this book get the flashback sequence and have Amazing Spider-Man get the scene showing Iron Man spying on Peter Parker? Wouldn’t that have made sense? Is Marvel even trying anymore?

 

It should be a sign that the two solo books of the top pro-registration characters are telling stories about how crappy their lives are now that they’re pro-reg. While all the other books are focusing on the noble aspects of defying the evil U.S. government. We aren’t debating dictatorship versus anarchy here—there is a much finer line to be drawn. Such a debate need not take a right/left tone but for either relevancy or because of a lack of understanding of the issues, it has.

 

The problem is that the right side is being portrayed through the lens of the left, as if all those on the right wish for dictatorship. The arguments for the right are only those caricatured by the left and furthermore, if the real-world right is doing something wrong (and I certainly think they are), then including that in arguments of the ‘pro security side’ doesn’t make a fair case for their philosophical argument. One can be a hypocrite and still be correct.

 

I’m giving this issue the mediocre rating because of its bad portrayal of the scene between Reed and Peter and because the Thing’s last proclamation seems to have been entirely forgotten. His re-iterating of his intention to leave comes off as anti-climatic.

 

Rating - 5