Fantastic Four #534 (March 2006) and #535 (April 2006)

I was never a supreme Fantastic Four fan. I was huge into Marvel in the 1980s and very early 1990s, especially the X-Men. I think the X-Men fanaticism came from all my friends loving the group and Chris Claremont's absolutely fantastic writing. I also read my friend's Avengers books. As a kid devouring those comics back then, I still remember most of them by cover alone. I can still tell you what happened in most of them if you give me the issue number. Somehow, Fantastic Four never really made that list.

I picked up these two new books simply because the grocery store where I live in Nome, Alaska, had them. I don't have a comic store to just wander into. The store only has a limited supply and those are mostly Marvels for some reason. The only DC title they carry is Batman. Not a single Superman comic to be found. I liked last year's FF movie. I wanted a comic. I grabbed what is still dubbed "The world's greatest comic magazine!"

However, issue #534 started off swinging. The Hulk versus The Thing. I normally don't mind a quick start but there must have been something that happened in issue #533. The Thing does give a quick little synopsis that he has to bring The Hulk in because he has gone crazy again (apparently a recurring problem in the Marvel Universe from when I devoured them in the 1980s). But, and there is a big "but" here, the comic does not say "Part 2." It doesn't even have The Hulk on the cover, just a group shot that never happens in the actual comic because the four never actually appear together.

It is a pretty good fight though. The Hulk is seeing things in his brain, past events that he is fighting in his mind. The Torch is helping. It's pretty neat. Fun, slam-banging action that Marvel is good for. Unfortunately, it is "To be continued..."

So I had to pick up the next issue #535. I had to find out what happened. Luckily, my grocery store got it. I picked it up as my family and I were shopping and brought it home (another plug for getting the comics back into the grocery stores so kids-and kids at heart-can talk their families into snagging one every once in a while when at a regular store, but I digress).

More fighting. More slam-bang action. There's a sub-plot of Mr. Fantastic and his wife the Invisible Woman having to send their kids (when did they have the second one? I only knew about Franklin) to foster care due to some court order. The Hulk's inner monologue talks about the possibility that he "can never be free of the monster." The Thing gets whupped (which in itself is important to Marvel fans as you always wonder who would really beat who when it came down to it) and the Torch goes nova to protect him. Mystically, that pain shocks The Hulk back to his normal self. "I'm all right now," he says.

The fun little sub-plot with the kids and a switcheroo helps to prove Mr. Fantastic's point that his kids are safe by his side only. The Hulk and The Thing talk about "the end" and life goes on.

I could see myself being twelve and reading this. I could see showing my buddies and talking about it. I could even see me interpreting the discussions about the end and the being of a monster. It was a fun story and I didn't even have to have issue #533 to understand it. I don't have to read issue #536 now either. The story is over and done with. It was a good read.

But it's not for me anymore. I'm not twelve but twenty-one years older than that. Watching The Hulk and The Thing go at it and then a simple snap back to reality just didn't do it for me any more. I saw the switcheroo coming with the kids, either because of the absolutely phenomenal number of comics that I have read during my lifetime or the fact that I'm an English teacher and understood the plot structure and foreshadowing.

Some comics are good at twelve, like this one. Some are good at thirty-three, like the 1980s Hellblazers I have been getting into lately. I wouldn't have liked the Hellblazer comics back in the 80s. Sometimes, we can go back, and sometimes we can't. I guess there are age ranges, and limits, to some comics.