1. Sticking Impossible Man with Arcade was simply inspired. I demand more Impossible Man in this book!
2. I usually hate when Reed does the disinterested father thing with Franklin Richards, but the payoffs for it here were absolutely great. First, we get the Human Torch totally relating in a perfect manner for his character, then the reason Reed ditched Franklin being that Valeria and her classmates were figuring out how to make The Thing human.
3. Speaking of which, the Thing’s tiny “I’ll take it” response to finding out he could be normal for a week out of the year was one of my favorite comics moments in recent memory- legitimately touching.
4. So, when did Franklin get his powers back? I feel like this is something I should remember.
5. I love Spidey and Iron Man being Franklin and Leech’s favorite heroes until Johnny gets to be the hero. It’s all about the Torch now!
6. Hickman pulls the difficult balancing act of keeping Johnny brash and arrogant, while still being human off as well as anyone.
7. Two things really stuck out to me about Neil Edwards art here. First, I absolutely love his different versions of Impossible Man. He just seemed to have so much fun with it.
8. The other awesome piece of his art, and this is the more important, is that his facial expressions are absolutely perfect. Given how much this book is character driven, that makes him an awesome fit.
9. The quick interlude to Nu Earth is the least interesting part of the book thus far. Not surprising since it came from Mark Millar’s lesser run on the title. I’m assuming when all hell breaks loose with the Ultron collective, this will pick right up.
10. Rating: 9/10 – One of the best, most fun stand-alone single issues of a comic I’ve read in a long, long time. The events here, notably Franklin’s powers and Thing’s humanity, will have far reaching effects without necessitating storylines. The main plot was just pure fun, and the characters were pushed into new and interesting directions with proper motivation, not big events.
