I have found… and I feel like I might even have talked about this in relation to J. Scott Campbell before… that artists famed for drawing sexy ladies don’t tend to draw men very well, and vice versa. Look at those weirdos! You can barely tell Johnny has a nose. At any rate, we open on Dr. Julia Carpenter being taken to meet the rest of the Roxxon Brain Trust.
Odd assemblage. Two Original Recipe mad scientists, one private eye (Why do they need a private eye?) and whatever Ultimate Layla Miller is. Bendis can’t help himself with the Ultimate versions of his creations, but who could blame him, really? Anyway, the big punch at the end of last issue has created a shockwave that knocks everyone back and sends a huge cloud of dust and debris flying off the top of the Baxter Building.
Sue’s force field only holds for a moment, and Ben goes rushing back in over her objections. The resulting impact is enough that the building appears to be collapsing, and Rick Jones is unpowered and falling to his death. Classic.
The building comes down, right on Sue. The chaos seems to have knocked out Captain Marvel and reverted him to normal, but all they find of Sue is her shoes, because Rick has whisked them away…
Meanwhile, the Roxxon Brain Trust is discussing the attacks and what to do about them. Dr. Sterns says that these attacks have to have been a robbery. That the places hit were too full of valuable scientific objects for it to be anything else.
Whoops!
Rick really sucks at this.
The mastermind of all this is… Reed Richards?? Can it be?? We’ll see next time.