Okay, so I was never really in danger of reading this anyways, but you have to keep the snark muscles working. And really, how often does an opportunity this perfect present itself?
FANTASTIC FOUR – A DEATH IN THE FAMILY – ONE-SHOT Written by Karl Kesel Pencils & Cover by Lee Weeks The Invisible Woman is dead! As Reed cradles his murdered wife, lost in grief,
Wow! A stretchy super-hero’s wife dies, and trauma ensues. Thanks, House of Other People’s Ideas!
and Ben rampages after Sue’s killer,
Because someone touched his stuff!
Johnny defiantly decides to do whatever it takes- no matter the cost or consequence- to see his sister alive again.
Awesome! Super-heroes violate their deepest principles to protect and avenge the women-folk! It’s as fresh as 2004!
What he does will change the way the Fantastic Four look at him forever.
Does this seem eerily familiar to anyone else?
“A Death in the Family”— not a dream, not a hoax… and not to be missed. Includes bonus Fantastic Four issue #245! 64 PGS./Rated A …$3.99
Adding further nuance to the solicitation is a passage from the latest Joe Fridays at Newsarama:
Question: Isn’t Sue going to be dead as of May? We don’t want to quote you, but we seem to remember something to that effect?
JQ: Yes, this is true, so how the heck is this going to happen?
NRAMA: That’s what we’re asking you?? Isn’t dead dead? [laughs]
JQ: Yes, dead is dead and is dead in this case as well. Don’t dig any further, therein lies madness.
Now, if you have to specify that this is a real, serious, lasting death, it might be time to call a moratorium on deaths in general, because they’ve clearly lost all meaning.
Okay, that workout completed, I’m not going to flip into complete hypocrite mode and talk about how Death Note Vol. 4 (Viz – Shonen Jump Advanced) hinted that a previous demise could be undone, which has left me happy beyond all proportion. I’m not really going to talk about it, because it’s rather spoiler-y, but I am going to say that the new information about shinigami revealed in this volume gives me great hope regarding the ultimate fate of poor Naomi.
And I will defend myself by saying that Naomi’s apparent demise wasn’t constructed to punish or motivate some man. It was because Naomi was a threat to the book’s pro/antagonist because A) he’d touched her stuff, and B) she was smart and tough enough to scare him silly.
Last but not least, extra credit has to go to Alexis Kirsch, Death Note‘s translator/adaptor. This book is packed with characters, dialogue, and plot twists, and it can’t be easy to make sure everything stays intact from the original Japanese. It’s got to be a lot of hard work, and Kirsch does a fabulous job contributing to the creation of a riveting mystery series.