Love is in the air between our rocky love-bug, Thing, and his sweetheart, Alicia Reiss Masters. Marvel Comics is celebrating with a pre-wedding celebration in the form of this issue, out
So what’s it about?
Read our preview.
Why does this matter?
This book offers up three stories, the first by Gail Simone focusing on Alicia who– let’s be honest– haven’t had a ton of page time of late. The second is all about Thing swallowing his pride and asking a very important man for Alicia’s hand in marriage. Both stories reveal the stresses and trials people go through to be wed.
Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?
All three stories do well to capture different aspects of getting married and the stresses that come with it. The bachelorette opening written by Gail Simone with art by Laura Braga does a great job showcasing the weird nature of the pre-wedding party. Alicia, Invisible Woman and a few other super-powered friends (and non-super friends) go out to a strip club. I’ll say no more to avoid spoilers, but it’s a scene that isn’t very romantic and actually somewhat odd seeing as Alicia is blind. The story involves a past Fantastic Four supervillain and the story ends in a delightfully romantic, even gushy, ending.
The second story involves Thing and puts him on an adventure you might not expect. He’s asking for permission to wed Alicia and it’s a curious scene, not unlike an interrogation scene. Dan Slott does a good job with this story, giving it a particularly interesting ending that’ll have you thinking. The art by Mark Buckingham is quite good at capturing the facial expressions of both parties.
The last story is by Fred Hembeck with colors by Megan Wilson, focusing on the lament of the person Thing asked permission from. This is quite a fun comic strip style story with most of the action being exhibited in the eyes of the character talking. The story goes over some of the Fantastic Four’s history with the character and reveals how complicated and convoluted that past has been. It’s a nice reminder of what Alicia went through before tying the knot with her blue-eyed Thing.
It can’t be perfect can it?
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this issue seeing as it says “Wedding Special” on the cover and seems to suggest a wedding would take place. That is not the case. Instead, it’s the preliminary stuff, which is fine, but that cover sure is misleading! Though the three stories are perfectly fine and dandy I wasn’t blown away by them. I was hoping for bigger and more explosive stories a special might entertain. Instead, they’re low key and interesting enough.
Is it good?
I liked this special, but make sure you go in with the expectation of nobody getting married just yet. If you’ve been married I can imagine you’ll relate to the drams within, which tells you something about the narratives since they do capture reality well.
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