Fantastic Four #14 *spoilers*

[Crimz]

The motivation was weak and could be much better, but he is still an interesting villain. The last page just confused me even more.

[Master Planner]

Quiet Man,although generic villain in his motives,he is quite interesting as a concept.He is like a low-calories Dr Doom,but while Doom was theatrical,pompous and demanding the attention of the audience,Quiet Man is the opposite.He prefers the backround,the behind-the-scenes.In many ways,he reminds me of Alrich Killian in IM3.A man who decided to hide himself behind proxies.

But,i agree with Iron Maiden.Leave Lee-Kirby run as it is and not use it to boost a newcomer villain to earn credits.

[Moriarty]

i think Quiet Man has potential too. hopefully he will be fleshed out more before this current volume ends.

[John Ossie]

Quiet Man is certainly an interesting villain with potential, hopefully we will get him more fleshed out like you say Moriarty. My fear is we won't but hopefully we will.

[jackolover]

I thought I'd seen this somewhere before. This reminds me of Fantastic Four #34, A House Divided, with a guy by the name of Mr Gideon. This John Eden, The Quiet Man, looks just like this Gideon character, and he started the same thing as well, by dismantling the FF, and having excessive wealth.

I wonder what will make this story different to the Gideon story, because the FF defeated that guy in one issue? Robinson is going to have to avoid the pitfalls Gideon fell into, to make this gambit against the FF more lasting. If Gideons wealth couldn't stave off the FF, John Eden is going to have to anticipate the FF always win when they stick together, so even when the FF reform, John Eden is going to have to make that work to his favor, instead of the eventual FF victory, that always seems to occur.

What strikes me as interesting here, is that Reed considers Eden as humorous for extending this vendetta on the FF this far, for such a trivial excuse, that it becomes an obsession. And John Eden thinks he is ready now to expose himself, so he must have had some plan around being exposed and still destroying the FF. The way Eden is using Franklins Heroes Reborn personnel and the Invaders, (instead of the Avengers), tells us Eden is more comfortable without Steve Rogers involved, or, he knows Rogers would want to arrest Reed before Eden can terminate Reed.

The real test here for John Eden, is the initial sting he felt that started him on this obsession, and that is Sue Storm. Does he still obsess over Sue? Is Eden the source of Namors obsession with Sue too, and that's why Eden wants Namors Invaders here?

[jackolover]

Anyone have a scan of the Quiet Man over the Fantastic Four's history collage? Love the way they did that.

Also, maybe there's another man standing behind the Quiet Man! But, while I enjoyed the issue, I also thought that he was pretty generic. But everything else about him is great! The face changing thing! That he was also the lawyer! Would've been cool if they revealed he was Johnny's most recent producer/agent for his music.

The face changing thing is stealing from Superior Iron Mans Extremis deal, over there, except John Eden doesn't have to pay for it.

[jackolover]

I agree on the initial motivation part, it just seemed either too shallow as it was explained or simply generic. However, as a character I think QM has enough potential to be the Moriarity to Reed's Sherlock. Doom has always been the kind of antithesis to Reed and what the FF stand for; he's selfish, egotistical, and obsessed with control. QM, on the other hand, is almost a perversion of what makes Reed and the FF who they are. QM isn't outside the equation like Doom and his magic, he's the one UNKNOWN variable that is just as elusive and cunning as Reed is thorough and methodical. I hope he gets a chance to grow into his potential in future stories.

If we were to give John Eden the symbolic position of Capitalist Society, (run on the creation of wealth, and that being the substance and fabric of society), how is Capitalist Society attacking the concept of the FF, here, and why? Is the FF somehow threatening Capitalist Societies foundations, so it has to retaliate by eliminating the freedom of the FF's arsenal of inventions that Society can't get its hands on? You have to wonder about the symbolism here, where someone like Reed Richards has attacked the Intelligencia he formed to see in the future, and then Reed Turn around and criticise that Intelligencias failure to perform, and he started the Future Foundation.