Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates, Swipe File | Tagged: 600, Comics, entertainment, fantastic four, jonathan hickman, Swipe File

SPOILERS – Swipe File: Fantastic Four #600

The six hundredth issue of Fantastic Four is out today – if you count the previous issues of the FF comic in the total. Which they do. It is also the fiftieth anniversary of Fantastic Four #1 – and the beginning of the Marvel Universe. Back in August.

And for some reason, the comic in question isn't polybagged. Has Marvel realised that bagging a comic already spoiled in the New York Times is counter productive? Or have they seized on the idea that knowing the end of a story actually enhanced the reader's enjoyment of a book?

Well, this issue fights against that. Rather than leaving us on a cliffhanger of a shocker ending, it gives us the bit that everyone will be talking about less than halfway through the story, then goes into everything the build up to that moment in flashback.

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So first up here's that moment, as Spider-Man opens a portal to the Negative Zone. And finds waiting for him…

Yup, Johnny Storm, alive, leading a horde of Negative Zoners, with Annahilus humiliated as some sort of pet. But how did he get there?

Well, you can read the details of his not-deadiness yourself, but the overall scheme sees Johnny Storm imprisoned on another world… forced to fight in gladiatorial combat… until he can overthrow his captors… and return to Earth triumphant…

Hang on… wait a minute.. haven't we been here before?

I mean, it's also Spartacus and Gladiator I suppose, but even so… too close too soon? Planet Torch?

In Swipe File we present two or more images that resemble each other to some degree. They may be homages, parodies, ironic appropriations, jokes, coincidences or works of the lightbox. We trust you, the reader, to make that judgment yourself.  If you are unable to do so, please return your eyes to their maker before any further damage is done. The Swipe File doesn't judge, it's interested more in the process of creation, how work influences other work, how new work comes from old, and sometimes how the same ideas emerge simultaneously, as if their time has just come. The Swipe File was named after the advertising industry habit where writers and artist collect images and lines they admire to inspire them in their work. It was swiped from the Comic Journal who originally ran this column, as well as the now defunct Swipe Of The Week website.

Comics courtesy of Orbital Comics, London.

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