An awkwardly timed return to the pages of FF. this one hit stands the same month as the 2nd part of the oft-talked about Gang War story. I figured it should probably go first. The team on this is pretty special. First off, Roger Stern. His 2nd post-Spider-Man team book that he couldn’t help pulling Spidey into. Then, on line art, the team of John and Sal Buscema. The brothers didn’t work together all that often, so that’s pretty cool. John turns in breakdowns, which I gather is what he did almost his whole career, and Sal finishes. And then on colors, we have Glynis Oliver, maybe the best colorist of her generation. I mean, who could say no to all that? A fine detour. It opens, as FF stories often do, with tension between Torch and Thing, Johnny flying into a room where Sue & Reed are hanging out saying The Thing has gone crazy.
Ben heads down to the lobby with the intention of storming out of the building, but it happens today’s the grand opening of the FF’s new headquarters, Four Freedoms Plaza, and the lobby is swarming with press, including one Peter Parker. They want to know if Ben’s rejoined the FF. He’s only recently returned to the title, having spent a long time on Battleworld after Secret Wars, and when he came back to Earth and learned Johnny was dating Alicia (Or, you know, what was at the time meant to be Alicia), he stayed away, becoming an Unlimited Class Wrestler and getting up to other things, during which time he was replaced with She-Hulk. He was only just returned to the fold in FF 296. He gets in a cab and leaves, ignoring She-Hulk, who’s just walked up. Soon, she’s upstairs learning along with the others that Johnny asked Ben to be his best man… as he married Ben’s one true love. No wonder he blew up. Jennifer goes after him and finds him in a bar, where he recaps his relationship with Alicia. Then the FF’s dedication ceremony comes on TV, and Ben’s not in the mood.
Oh, hey, look who it is.
Spidey is really us in this moment. This seems like it won’t end well. Man, this team. John Buscema was one of the best to ever do it. Sal Buscema maintained his whole career that his real love was inking, even as he was asked to draw a million comics. It’s fun to see them work together. Meanwhile, She-Hulk and Thing make it to a bar in a part of town that’s largely being torn down, and Ben relates more of his and Alicia’s story, then recap Battleworld and what came after. Jennifer says Johnny was really trying to be nice, in a dumb way, and Ben says it’s probably fine, no one knows what’s it’s like to be him. She points out her cousin might disagree.
So, She-Hulk throws him out the door into the conveniently-being-demolished building next door, and riles him up into a fight, trying to get him out of his head.
As the construction workers watch from the roof of the bar and place bets, Thing crawls up out of the rubble, more upset that She-Hulk yelled his catch phrase than about any of the violence, which is pretty funny, and they really lay into each other. They keep pummeling each other until She-Hulk points out the guys cheering for him on the roof.
All’s well that ends well. Not exactly essential, but fun. And not unlike the goofiness Spidey and Torch got up to after this very wedding dissolved in FF 364 when Johnny was feeling down. These things are very cyclical.