Fantastic Four (1996) #2

It seems I inadvertently bought the same book twice!

In 1996, Marvel made a dismal attempt at being trendy with a "Heroes Reborn" marketing campaign. My memory of this period is a little hazy, but I believe that Marvel's A-List heroes were believed to have died but instead had been transported to an alternate universe or some damn thing. Once there, they basically ended up reliving the key moments of their origin stories, unbeknownst to them.

Most of the material appeared to be quite craptastic to me and since I'd pretty well given up on Marvel by then anyway, I didn't buy into this whole scheme. Until yesterday.

Heroes Reborn was far out of mind when I bought this book. It wasn't until I had a closer look at the creative team that I realized what I'd purchased.

This issue, however, is pretty much a retelling of the story I read and wrote about yesterday from the fourth issue of the original Fantastic Four series. So what the hell, let's see how they managed this.

Being the second issue, things are already in motion. The FF have just acquired their powers and are battling the Mole Man (Ugh...). As they escape his tunnel lair, they appear to be surprised by a sudden flash of light.

We switch to Atlantis and the HR versions of Krang and Dorma, looking quite good.

Orthus, with paler skin, could be any number of the early Image Wolverine ripoffs. I'm not sure why Krang feels the need to remind him that they are cousins, but there you have it.

Krang, being an asshole, sees the above tragedy as an opportunity to goad Namor into attacking the surface world.

So none of this seemingly random crap about being found with amnesia in a homeless shelter and needing a shave. To this point, the Namor material feels more like it is meant to update the beginning of Daredevil #7.

We cut to the SHIELD Heli-Carrier. The earlier flash of light was SHIELD abducting the FF. SHIELD, having no shame, now asks for help to subdue repel Namor's attack.

He IS a legend! Is that a little admiration we see in Sue's demeanor? Not certain if I'm seeing what I expect to see, but I do know the expression on The Thing is spot on.

The Fantastic Four go to meet Namor and things go about how you'd expect.

*Groan*. Why does EVERYONE throw Namor back in the ocean? Think! Do you use a flame-thrower to beat The Human Torch??

Understanding that he is outnumbered, Namor calls on his own "Doomsday Weapon".

Giganto! Now there's a post tag I didn't expect to use a second time!

I got swerved into buying Heroes Reborn material that I expected to be putrid, and I'd planned on avoiding all alternative reality versions of this character to focus on the "primary" version, but I'm not disappointed that I got this issue. I suspect that it was among the better books at the time. It's a decent enough attempt at that cleaning up wonky history and the art is spectacular.

I'll get around to #3 sooner rather than later to complete the "re-imagining" of Fantastic Four (1961) #4 then get back on track.