Fantastic Four #32: Bride of Doom Part 1 - Rule of Engagement with SPOILERS
Or subtitle: [B]Is this the way to celebrate 60 years of the Fantastic Four??[/B]
This month's story with the farcical romantic escapades makes Three's Company look prestigious. For me the only highlight was that Crystal didn't directly take part in the story. Smart lady. It was also nice to see Slott bring Luna into the story, even if it was a small role
Quite honestly, I stopped reading Slott's Fantastic Four around issue 12 or 13. I was planning to catch up a bit for getting this but never got around to it. Maybe that is for the better. As far as I am concerned, Sky can be dropped from this series and I doubt anyone will miss her. Even though Lyja is not getting treated very well by Slott, I'd rather she hang around a bit.
For drama we get a new (to me anyway) terrorist group called Ultimatum. At first I thought they might be part of a Latverian resistance group but it turns out they don't like monarchies in general . Maybe they should have started smaller and gone against Monaco instead. Their only role in the story appears to be just to fill a couple of pages.
So after the boring brawl is over Sky leaves in a huff after seeing Johnny help Lyja get back on her feet after she got knocked back Skye's blast. Johnny in turn brushes off Lyja. The next thing we know Johnny is in the sack with Zora/Victorious when they get interrupted by the astral form of Doom who tells her he must go off to see about a grave dangers facing the universe (see Guardians of the Galaxy). Doom tells her that he wants her to become the Bride of Doom and watch over Latveria in his place. Victorious accepts enthusiastically which probably will deflate Johnny.
On a side note, it has to be said: The way things are going, Ben and Alicia are a bit of a bore as a couple.
Although I do like Zora/Victorious as a new character, this marriage thing is a bit weird IMO. It's amost incestuous to me since Doom had stated in last year's solo series that he thought of her as the daughter he never had. Maybe Slott is harkening back to medieval times when some royal marriages were closely related, cousin marrying cousin and so forth. Knowing how comics work these days I doubt this will be permanent anyway. Or there will be a catch.
The second story with Reed and Victor dueling each other with swords was a bit more interesting even if iy only serve the purpose of Doom getting Reed to be his best man. It would be beneath Doom to simply ask...he has to have Reed lose a duel so he is forced to comply.
Well, let's hope next issue is an improvement. and Slott does something worthy of the occasion of the 60th anniversary