Jay Emmerich’s Reviews > Fantastic Four Epic Collection, Vol. 4: The Mystery of the Black Panther > Status Update

Back half of the Annual. Liked that Jack Kirby wrote and drew a short story where he was having fun with it. Stan and him clearly were joking around often in the bullpen. The other story with Silver Surfer was nice in the way that it touched on the consequences of a story without having the Fantastic Four getting involved in it. One more bit of reading and I'll be done!

#67, it was interesting to read these last two issues and not know what organization was being represented here. I still don't know. I thought it might be AIM or Hydra, but it's never explained. Don't know when I'll be able to read issue 68, so I will be curious to see if I come back to it if Adam Warlock is more of a character. Found the overall storyline interesting. Only a few more pages to go.

#66, I was thinking we were setting up for some Hydra type stuff, but we got to the end and realized we're setting up Adam Warlock. I've been really surprised with how many Guardian of the Galaxy characters have been popping up in this, but it's all space age 60s stuff, so it makes more sense than I initially thought it should. A good issue.

#65, surprised that the tease for this issue in the last one only amounted to less than a page of the story here. Enjoy that we're getting some downtime with the characters, but might prefer to get the whole issue as that. Reed's line of "wives should be kissed and not heard!" is actually crazy. Like that we're getting more of the Kree. Ronan without blue skin but his normal costume looks really weird.

#64, surprised at how they introduced the Kree here. And it's in a way that teases it and allows for time to build to more. Curious how quickly they'll establish the kree/skrull rivalry amongst other things. Stan Lee definitely had a thing for Ancient Aliens and secret cities, there's no doubt about it. Wish we could've gotten the "break" promised at the beginning of the issue, but oh well.

#63. At this point in reading, this is starting to feel somewhat like Power Rangers, and not necessarily in a good way. Easy, breezy, fun action that happens every other issue or so. Couldn't fully comprehend how the fight between the 7 characters went down because it was getting spread out and we were shifting back and forth. There's a handful of side characters that felt like they've disappeared to some degree.

#62, I was surprised to see The Negative Zone coming into the picture here. Enjoyed that the Inhumans storyline continues to develop, not necessarily moving towards a resolution as much as they're just supporting characters in this narrative. Will be curious to see if they stop showing up anytime soon. Blastaar gives me Doomsday (DC, not the new movie) vibes.

#61 feels like another intermediate chapter. Sandman as a fantastic four villain feels wrong, but I'm enjoying that the universe is a sandbox. I also noticed Peter Parker and Mary Jane at the football game which is was a cute touch. Don't know where the stuff with the inhumans is going. This ends with a solid cliffhanger though.

#60 ended with an underwhelming resolution, but it was solid. The appearance of The Watcher feels like it will be significant in the long run so I'm curious to see how that plays out. The inhumans are also here but I don't think we've got to the end of that story. Doom cannot be defeated that easily.

#59 went in just the direction I wanted them to. I liked seeing the FF licking their wounds, while Johnny goes mad trying to figure out how to beat Doom. Surprised that the inhumans plot got resolved without our characters being involved, but I'm hopeful that they'll help take care of super over powered Doom as he ravages the Earth. A good issue.