Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1994-12-01 00:01:30 |
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Fantastic Force #2
Issue(s): Fantastic Force #2
Cover Date: Dec 94
Title: "Zarathustra"
Credits:
Tom Brevoort & Mike Kanterovich - Writer
Dante Bastianoni - Penciler
Ralph Cabrera & Sandu Florea - Inker
Mike Rockwitz - Editor
Review/plot:
After introducing the team and having them fight a classic FF villain last issue, the second issue of Fantastic Force hooks the audience for the long haul by introducing... *checks notes* ... Zarathustra and Lord Moses?!?!
Sadly, no, that's not the Overmind. Even the Overmind wouldn't save this, but at least he would be something familiar to hang on to. I said last issue that a problem with this series is that it's bogged down in DeFalco continuity. I don't know if Lord Moses and his Haven and whatever came from DeFalco, exactly, but it definitely feels like more of what we've seen from DeFalco - the Occuluses and Warlord Karguls and such. I don't know that Tom Brevoort & Mike Kanterovich took any direction from DeFalco but they've certainly embraced his plotting style.
A reporter named Paul Alvarez interviews a Professor Isaac Sandor at Empire State University. Sandor is working on the Omnivirus, which, despite the ominous name, is meant to cure diseases. But Lord Moses has sent Zarathustra and a horde of goons to retrieve it. Psi-Lord and Huntara detect the extradimensional traveling and take Devlon to investigate. Vibraxis, intent on hammering home his one-note personality, has walked away from the team already, but he eventually becomes aware of the fight at ESU and joins in.
The alternate dimension warrior women develop a special rivalry.
But Zarathustra gets away with the Omnivirus and returns to Lord Moses, who is interested to learn that Franklin Richards wears "the armor of a Psi-Master of Elsewhen".
I almost want to embrace all this talk of Omniviruses and Elsewhen and the like. If it were played up in a faux-Silver Age way, it could be a lot of fun. But everything is deadly serious in the way of the 90s way. On top of that, none of the characters have any depth. It's just a lot of dry boring nonsense.
Quality Rating: D
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A
References:
- Empire State University is mostly rebuilt after being burnt down by the Human Torch in Fantastic Four #371.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
Lord Moses is given one of first Doctor Who William Hartnell's most famous lines. That's a pretty piece of petty theft.
Emperor, adopted warrior daughter, Out(er)world(s)... is DeFalco or whoever trying to channel Mortal Kombat?
Lord Moses turns out to have nothing to do with Elsewhen- his backstory is tied to Isaac Sandor's- I think this mess was all Breevort's and Kanterovich's.
Does Strauss make a cameo?
@Brian C. Saunders: Yipes! That's pretty damn ballsy of Brevoort & Kanterovich to blatantly lift one of the most famous speeches from the entire Doctor Who series (originally seen in episode six of The Dalek Invasion o Earth, and then shown as a clip almost two decades later at the opening of The Five Doctors).
Well, considering it took me over 20 years to notice, Brevoort & Kanterovich seem to have gotten away with it. At least until Marvel gets around to reprinting the title....
If I had actually bought this issue when it first came out I'm sure I would have noticed it back then, but I didn't so fnord's site is the first time I'm seeing it :)
