Clobberin' Time #1

I am a sucker for team-up comics. I try to collect every such series there is. From the Batman laced adventures of Brave and the Bold to the arachnid antics of Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up, if it pits a well known hero with a array of partners ranging from A-list to Z, I will collect it. So when I learned of a brand-new team-up series starring the ever-loving blue-eyed Thing, I was thrilled and requested a copy of issue #1 from my favorite LCS. 

Steve Skroce does double-duty as both writer and penciler in this new team-up comic. Issue #1 has Dr. Bruce Banner visiting the Baxter Building for one of his routine gamma ray check-ups conducted by Dr. Reed Richards. While Mr. Fantastic is pre-occupied by some strange readings, Ben Grimm and Banner encounter a strange-looking intruder in the Fantastic Four laboratories. 

Looking like Iron Man and Doctor Doom were fused together by a bolt of lightning, this intruder sends The Thing and Banner to an alternate universe. In this new world, the pair learn that it's due for destruction by a giant kaiju looking creature. Hulking out, Banner and Thing easily subdue the beast. And then friends of the deceased invader decide on revenge...

I was intrigued by the cover of this book from the very beginning. For the first time in my 45-years of life, I saw just what happens if you were to break off one of those golden stones from Ben Grimm's mutated hide. There's blood and muscle under there! I was expecting something gray and oozing like cement. Needless to say, it really got my attention.

The initial cover art showed such an eye for detail, I was reminded immediately of Frank Quietly. I wish I could say that the interior drawings were just as good. But with the exception of the mysterious infiltrator of the Baxter Building, everything else was subpar looking and inconsistent! There's one scene where Grimm's left eye is all bruised up. Yet throughout the rest of the book, Steve Skroce keeps switching that damaged eye from the left to the right and back. I really felt due a No-Prize on catching this flaw!

The story itself is a mess. Skroce peppers the dialogue with rambling thoughts that never go anywhere. There's the whole scene where Thing is stranded on this other world when he gets a text from Johnny Storm that makes zero sense. It doesn't move the plot anywhere and seems totally unnecessary. 

Then we have the preview of next month's issue. It promises a teaming with everyone's favorite mutant, Wolverine. Okay, I'm on board. That Tony Stark/Victor Von Doom character is back again. Good, because I wanted to know just who in the heck he was. But this fella seems to be ripping Ben Grimm apart brick by brick. Each stone that makes up Thing's body looks like a tiny mushroom cloud erupting from Ben Grimm's torso and it made me sick to my stomach...

My favorite comic book store wanted to know if I wanted to complete the series run by the end of this weekend. For ordering purposes. Once I completed this whole thing, I was left just feeling that I really don't like this book. If I come across the collected trade, I might give it a read. The mysterious villain who sent Thing and Hulk across dimensions is intriguing. But I'd have to find it on the shelves of my nearby library as I do not feel like wasting anymore hard earned money on this. 

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 3 out of 10 stars.