Character find: Darla Deering

I've been far away from Marvel Comics for a quite a long time.  With time having proven me correct for my reasons to begin my boycott, and DC not wanting my money, I decided to give Marvel another chance, and it was obvious to me where I should start.  The Fantastic Four have always been special to me.  The first comic book I ever got was a Fantastic Four comic.  Marvel recently re-launched all of their titles in a bid to get those precious new readers, which I think is stupid but oh well, so I got on board with Matt Fraction's new run on boht FANTASTIC FOUR and its sister title FF.

Quick recap: the Fantastic Four are going off into space and it shouldn't be a long trip, but just in case they appointed a replacement team.

This brings us to Darla Deering.  She's a new character and was described as a celebritant like Katy Perry of Lindsey Lohan.  That induced quite as eyeroll, but the FF series was getting drawn by Mike Aldred, so I eagerly picked up the book.  That description of Darla does the character no justice at all.

She's on the team because Johnny forgot to pick a replacement for then they were on their trip and when he got reminded hey got ahold of the first person he could think of, which was the girl he was dating.  Shouldn't be a problem, after all they are only supposed to be gone for four minutes.  She is a pop star, and apparently a pretty famous one.  She has no powers at all.  Honestly, at first glance she has no place at all on the team.

Then we watch her a bit.

Reed takes Johnny at his word.  If he says that she is right for this, then that is good enough.  So there's Darla face-to-face with an in stasus Moon Boy who really needs to get back to his own time and she askes a very imporatant question: "Are we going to help him?"  There's this creature that looks barely human by our standards, but she empathetic to him.  So much so that she goes back in time with Johnny to help get him home.

She cares.  Great big heart-right-out-there-on-her-sleeve cares.

There she is in this whole new world that she's been asked to be a part of of surrounded by these amazing people.  She's awe-struck at times.  She's delightfully curious.  She's also quite scared.  More than anything that someone will get hurt because she does not think that she's cut out for the team.  Everything we've seen her do comes from one motivation: she cares.

From the adorable scene with Artie and Leech on the roof, to her crying her eyes out because she felt that she let people down.

She is delightfully and refreshingly human.  She's the character I want to follow through this great big weird adventure.

The New FF makes me sick

Blarg. Its Friday, February 11, 2011, I'm still sick, and this is The Side. It could just be a nice 24 flu bug like a normal person. Oh NO! I had to get the week long marathon of coughing, mucus, and crankiness.

No comic reviews today since I haven't made it out of the house mush further than Walgreens. I'm hoping to have some up Sunday. In the meantime, we can still get our geek on.

NEW FF!!

For those who have have been paying attention to Marvel, and more specifically to THE FANTASTIC FOUR, you probably know that they've bumped off Johnny Storm AKA The Human Torch. The storyline has gotten a lot of praise from readers and critics. I haven't heard much fan outrage because pretty much everyone expects Johnny to be back sooner rather than later. Nobody stays dead anymore in comics.

This of course opens the door for the return of H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot who will be taking Johnny's place just he did in that old cartoon where I think they put him in because they were scared kids would try to light themselves on fire. Wait. They're not doing that? Oh.

So its time for the return of New Fantastic Four! That's right, Spider-man, The Hulk, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider together again to fight monsters and have big science action adventures! Wizard magazine would be feeling so vindicated over the press it gave this way back when if they weren't busy closing their own doors. Wait. That's not happening either? Ah, but I am 1/4 right!



Spider-man will be joining up with the remaining members of the FF to form "The Future Foundation". The new costume designs are pretty sweet, although it doesn't really look that good on The Thing. Orange and white only really look good on a cream-sycle. Spidey's costume looks sharp. Its well designed, very different from any other costume he's worn in the past, but you can tell its Spidey just by looking at it.

I like the idea of Spidey on this team. He's usually used as such a street level character, but he comes into play with some of the great big science action stories in Marvel. I remember seeing a reference to the battle in which Thanos was turned into Granite and Adam Warlock died. There were all these big league superheroes there and I wondered how Spider-man got caught up in all of that. Spider-man is a science hero. He may not be as smart as a Tony Stark or a Reed Richards, but he's definitely no slouch. I like seeing him in these type of stories, because he's very much and everyman character and that let's the reader in on the story in a more accessible way. Johnny did much the same thing. I think that's part of the reason that I really bought into the friendship the two characters had.

If it wasn't for financial restraints I would actually buy this book, which would make it my first Marvel purchase in nearly 15 years. Its not because they killed off a character that I love. Its because (much like Morrison did with Batman) they're managing to do something interesting after he's gone.

MUSIC!!!

Back when 96X first hit the airwaves in this town it played music like no other station in town did. It was weird and different, and no much unlike the well worn rock tunes the more mainstream stations played ad nauseum. It was the beginning of alternative rock and this song was one of the one's leading the way.



That's a wrap for today in my week long misery. I'm going to go hunt for some chicken soup. See y'all Sunday.