FF #4

"Escalation"
written by Matt Fraction
art by Michael Allred
colors by Laura Allred

The worst date saboteurs of all time make "Escalation" a delightful—and occasionally sober and a little sad—issue.  Alex Power is an idealistic teenager with a principled but unrealistic attitude toward superhero political intervention, and he ill-advisedly turns his idealism on Scott Lang, pushing buttons with a brazen, adolescent insensitivity.  And while the right to govern is a complicated diplomatic matter subject to cultural prejudices, Power's particular brand of idealism is poorly considered and overly simplistic.  Scott Lang's response is understandably, if equally unadvisedly, brusque and hot-headed.  Lang may be lovable to FF's readers, but as Jen Walters mentions to Wyatt, the FF is full of "kids that just are not taking to Scott, who's either too smothering or too aloof" (FF #4: 11).

Troubles at the FF aside, Jen's maybe-date with Wyatt Wingfoot is adorable.  The Moloids, who've attached themselves to Jen in the absence of the Thing, have also developed little crushes on She-Hulk, and when they find out about her dinner with a friend, they decide to team up with future mastermind Bentley-23 to sabotage the date.  Except everything they do ends up improving the date.  Trying to coerce the maître d' to do something "unimaginable" to them over dinner, he ends up footing the bill for the restaurant and giving a bottle of wine to every table.  Attempting to interrupt their date by stirring up Blarrgh the Lost Leviathan of New Amsterdam, they end up lighting up the ice under the couple's bridge in the snow.  Trying to light a fire with a stolen Fantastic Four device to distract them from their conversation, the saboteurs succeed only in turning up the heat in their bar and luring them onto the dance floor.  Upon discarding their failed plan, they light up the sky in a warm pink, providing a romantic light for the lovers' kiss.

The final reveal in the episode is certainly troubling.  Medusa, who earlier in the issue taunted the old Johnny Storm into losing his temper by questioning his identity, sneaks into Bentley-23's room, consoles him about the failure of his plans, and reassures him that she wants him to achieve his destiny, which as he understands it is to become a super villain.  Trouble may very well be underfoot at the Future Foundation, but it's not because of Scott Lang.

[April 2013]