Marvel .1 Nonsense

(Read at  your own Risk) Spoiler alert! Fantastic Four 605, 605.1 & 606

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I have to admit that I’m not the greatest fan of Marvel. I spent my first years as a comic reader reading Flash, Batman and the Legion of Super-Heros. I did however spend the better part of my pre-teen years (tween I think they call it these days) reading every book with a mutant in it. Eventually over time I started running out of appetite for giant Marvel cross-overs, constant title rebooting and mass floods of popular comic characters in 12 titles a month. That’s not to say that I don’t have my fair share of Marvel comics in my collection. In fact I have a fairly big soft spot for Marvel’s first family. When I take a Marvel Sabbatical, you can count on the Fantastic Four being the first title I reach out for when making my return. Generally speaking, I don’t read much Marvel and FF is what I tend to gravitate to, and thus, turned out to be my first encounter with the Marvel Point One stuff.

The idea of the .1 issue number is to signify to non-readers of a particular title, that this is a good jumping on point, that doesn’t require a commitment of having read the most recent issues of that series.

Point One on Marvel.com:

Point One: A great jumping on point for new readers setting up new stories and conflicts for Marvel’s top heroes!

Fantastic Four 605

Reed builds a time travel device with his father (typical FF storyline) and travels to the future to see what the future holds for the Fantastic Four. He finds Ben outliving everyone. (apparently he doesn’t age as the Thing, only in human form does he age) After Reed returns, he forgoes doing the science thing and retires to the couch to share a beer and watch some tv with the Thing.

Awesome heartfelt family story that you get from time to time, that I thoroughly enjoy as a FF fan. This issue would be a perfect Point One. You might be a little bit out of the loop on the whole future being rewritten thing and slightly lost regarding the most recent eploites of Franklin Richards, but this doesn’t hinder the enjoyment of the issue at all. Besides, it’s the future. This could be rewritten at any time.

Point One Material? Yes. Maybe feel a little out of the loop with the whole future rewritten stuff.

Fantastic Four 605.1

Set in a What if motif, this issue is about an alternate universe version of our beloved family where Nazi    Germany has won WWII and they, the Fantastic Four are Nazi’s. (well three of the four. Ben is a Jewish pilot in a concentration camp) Reed Richards super Nazi genius devises a way to eliminate Hitler and take over for himself. With the GodHand (infinity Gauntlet) he battles and defeats everyone and eventually finds himself in limbo where he meets several other Reeds with GodHands from other universes. They comprise the Council of Reeds. fin

The story is fun. You don’t have to have been reading FF for the last year and a half to enjoy it. The story doesn’t lead into the next issue. Its a good stand alone story. But wait. Did I mention something about a ‘Council of Reeds’? WTF is a ‘Council of Reeds’?! This issue essentially is a origin story for the ‘Council of Reeds’. The Council has been the base antagonist for FF story lines for the last year and half! Its a group of Evil Reeds that have come together to dimension hop and world destroy. Based on this Marvel Point One issue, Nazi Reed is the leader of the council.

Point One Material? Yes. Standalone issue. Although this story is a origin for previous FF storyline antagonists.

Fantastic Four 606

Warm and fuzzy issue where the family risk life and limb battling fierce creatures on an alien landscape to save a friend’s life.

If this isn’t a Marvel Point One issue, then maybe I’m missing the whole point. You can take this single issue contained story and insert it into any point in the timeline, in the history, of the Fantastic Four and this issue would fit in. This is a perfect jumping on point for ANY reader. New, old, adult or child, this issue is pure Fantastic Four fun without the commitment of being a long time reader. This issue defines the Fantastic Four for me.

Point One Material? Yes. Straight forward single issue story. My choice for a hoping on point.

I’m not sure I understand Marvel’s strategy on this whole Point One thing. Let’s break it down.

Choose the Right Jumping on Point: In the case of FF they didn’t pick the right issue to be the jumping  on point. 606 is the pure hopping on, no strings attached issue and to not make 605 a jumping on point, is to have new readers miss out on a great Fantastic Four Story.

What are they telling their readers?: Marvel has been doing the Point One issue number since Feb 2011. Right now Amazing Spider-man has had two Point One issues. Marvel is stating to new readers that you have one shot a year to jump in on Amazing Spider-man and not be totally lost.  This is the first FF Point One and I’ve been reading it for 17 months now.

Marvel Decimal System:  Appending decimals to the issue number is just stupid. Marvel has a history of messing with issue numbers. How did the FF even get to #600 to begin with right? Remember Heros Reborn? FF (and most of the rest of the Marvel Universe) relaunched with Issue 1’s back in late 1996 and then again in late 1998. Now back to FF Vol 3 (current FF Vol). Just forty-two issues into the Vol, Marvel renumbered it. FF Vol 3 issue 42 was actually issue 471. To reach 471, you have to add all the issues of Vol 1 (416) and all the issues of Vol 2 (13) and add all the issues of Vol 3 (42) to reach 471. Eventually the Vol 3 issue numbers were dropped entirely to maintain these new numbers. (confused? I don’t blame you) Without this number change Marvel wouldn’t have been able to celebrate FF #500 or even #600 earlier this year. (this isn’t the only title they F’d with to hit milestone issue #s)

Marvel won’t follow it’s own rules: Going back to FF #600. Great jumping on point! This issue covers the death and return of Johnny Storm and sets the stage for what is going on and for what is to come. There is no way in HELL that Marvel would mess with a key milestone issue and work in a Point One, even though this is a great jumping on point.

This Point One stuff isn’t total nonsense. It’s helpful for me, (someone who doesn’t read a lot of Marvel) to be able to know when an opportune time might be to grab up a Marvel book off the shelves. How would i make this better?

Screw the Marvel Decimal System: Get rid of the dumb-ass decimal point and make the marker some sort of symbol or maybe even better yet a color change in the Marvel Logo. Make the traditional Marvel logo of red background and white letters to be inverted to signify jumping on points.

DON’T BE STINGY WITH JUMPING ON POINTS!: Why wait for everything to be clear to signal a jumping on point? Why not address all issues that could be jumping on points? End of story arcs? Rehash issues? If Amazing Spider-Man has only one good jumping on point a year, I’m not waiting around for it. I’m going to read other things.

I’m chalking this one up to a Marvel Marketing Fail. I think their heart is in the right place, the idea was just poorly executed.

Until Next Time... GO READ FANTASTIC FOUR!!!!! Go to your local Comic retailer and pick up at least the last three issues. (all of them valid Point Ones!) Start reading it! Oh and watch out for key Marvel Point One issues. You won’t want to miss a key jumping on point… yeah…right.