After the negative reviews, I feel like I owe Marvel a good one:

I came dangerously close to ignoring this Point 1 issue because I thought they were just going to rehash the team’s origin. I was so very, very wrong. The title is so cleverly misleading that I’m not even going to say anything else about this issue for fear of spoiling it. Just go pick it up, then set aside the cash to stick with this series because Hickman is definitely not going to disappoint. 

Ever since Fear Itself ended, this book has turned into a revolving door of guest appearances from other Marvel universe teen teams. New students showed up then immediately left two issues later when Veil and her new friends stopped by. The Runaways came over for a pointless fight. Now the mutant kids from Utopia are visiting to make some heavy-handed commentary about the AvX political climate. 

In fact, starting from about Issue 21, I think the majority of the action of this book has taken place out in front of the school. They don’t actually have class at the academy, I guess. They all just stand around the yard waiting for the next super hero team to drop off or pick up more super powered teenagers. 

Guys, as soon as this AvX nonsense blows over please choose one roster, screw the event tie-ins, and go back to writing intriguing stories like you did your first year. 

This is really going to be more of a rant in general about how Marvel is failing to capitalize on the mind-shattering success of the Avengers movie to draw in new readers. 

Everyone absolutely loved the Hulk. Every conversation I overhead as I left the theater was about the Hulk. I bet they’re selling the crap out of Hulk merchandise right now. It’s just unfortunate that the Point 1 issue of the primary (green) Hulk series that these potential new readers are being asked to jump in to is a bizarre, convoluted mess. 

Despite the poor reviews, I actually enjoyed the whole Island of Dr. Banner arc, but this issue makes a hastily-arranged segue from that story. It deserved a much cleaner transition that could satisfy existing readers and spare new ones from the confusion. 

Speaking of confusion, why on earth was The Orb even in this issue?!

I’m going to save you some trouble and post the only enjoyable sequence in the entire book: 

Over the past few months, the FF and Fantastic Four titles were busy building up to a pan-galactic, time-jumping battle to save the planet. Granted, it was a fun read, but what I love about these books is that they take the time between earth-shattering events for a little character development. This issue has no heroic battles and no foreshadowing to the next big event.

It is literally a story about Peter Parker and Johnny Storm sharing an apartment. 

If you’re thinking about jumping into FF, then this is probably a good place to start. At the very least, it’s just a fun one-off story, and it has inspired at least one more blog post to follow this. 

(Source: comicvine.com)