The Good

We've seen Ben Grimm given a once-a-year cure from being the Thing. It's once again time for his transformation and it's Ben's wish to return to a certain point in the past to visit Yancy Street. Seeing his adventure and the reason for his visit is fascinating to see as it unfolds.

It's not often we get to see Ben in his human form and it is a glorious site. He is more than just a hero made of rocks. Of course the fact that he's in Yancy Street's past is a kick as well.

While this is happening, we start to see the seeds being planted for the team's next visit which might change what we know about a certain character, in a big way.

As a fan of Mark Bagley, it's always great to see what he does each issue. Seeing his version of Yancy Street in the past is pretty cool. You have to love his rendition of Ben Grimm as well.

The Bad

The story was enjoyable but just seemed to be lacking a little something. Ben has a reason in mind for visiting the past. You have to assume he didn't make it clear to Reed and the others what his actual intentions were. It does say something about Ben in the way things turned out. It just felt like his once-a-year transformation happened too quickly and didn't even last an entire issue.

It might be nitpicking but the fact that a year has passed in comics since Ben's last transformation is a little unsettling. Yes it's been a while (in our time) but the passing of time in comics, even at a slower pace, shouldn't be addressed. Comic characters remain ageless in a sense due to this and it allows for more stories. Maybe it's time to allow characters like Franklin and Valeria to age another year but looking at the big picture, it's not something I really want to think about.

The Verdict

The idea of the Thing returning to human form once a year is a neat idea. Unfortunately that time feels as if it's come too quickly and passes by even quicker. The action in this story passed by way too fast and it feels like it was just setting things up for the possible big implications hinted at for the next issue. Ben Grimm in Yancy Street was cool but with his 'mission' changing, it just felt like an average story instead of being allowed to have story elements fleshed out. I just wanted more from the issue. But we do have a pretty big twist possibly coming next issue.

Never a good thing to see one of my favorite titles only pull in a 3.

i wish this would have been a 2-parter.

Any Theories as to how Franklin and Valeria seem to remember the Age of Ultron as a dream?

I want to see thing get control of his powers one of these days. :\ And it be sick if he could turn into that molten form he turns into last issue that looked sorta like the fear itself thing.

I think I may drop this title. It's not that bad of a book, I just don't enjoy it as much as a lot of my other books and would like to make some room for Harbinger. I may pick up next month because I am interested in this whole Ben and Doom fiasco.

I've read this current run and enjoyed individual issues themselves but the overall storyline isn't quite moving as I'd like. Feel like the Four are in space just to free up Earth for the FF title rather than them being in space to diagnose Reed's issues.

Ouch. I think it was a good idea, I just don't think the execution has been as great here as with FF. I do like the singular story type focus each issue though.

i really enjoy FF right now

You know it's funny. When the marvel now titles were all announced I thought I'd love Fantastic four and hate FF. Now that I've been reading them Fantastic Four bores me a bit and I absolutely love FF. I'm not a huge Bagley fan so the art didn't excite me and the story is just OK, I know Fraction can do better. Probably going to stop getting F4 here until something exciting happens or there's a FF crossover.

What goes against Thing's character? If you're talking about the fact that the origin of Doom was Ben's fault, then I really don't see a problem. I mean, what's the big deal? Let's take Hulk as an example, since he is a character you love so much. He lifted the freaking Mjolnir. Even people like Captain America or Superman (in crossovers) couldn't do that, so why should Banner be able to do it? Yes, he decided to suddenly start helping humanity, but Captain America has been doing that since the 1940s. It's absurd, but you certainly didn't care that much at all.

I really don't mean to start a fight or offend anyone, but it just seems to be nitpicking.

@theacidskull: Started using his brain to pay off for whatever tragedy the big guy causes. And I just wanted to point out that it's not unecessary. I mean, why would he do that for absolutely no reason? It's been a while since I read this issue, but, as far as I remember, there was a refference to what he did at the last page (Reed and Sue were really shocked) and Franklin and Val were going to college.

The reaction to this book has surprised me. It's one of Marvel's current best, and definitely Matt Fraction's current best. I would drop all my other Marvel titles before this one.'