Fantastic Four #6 (2026 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In 2003, Marvel established an imprint for all ages. Unlike Star Comics in the 1980s, this imprint would star the heroes of the 616-Universe. First titled 'Marvel Age', the plots were taken directly from the earliest issues to bear the Marvel Comics brand name. Written by Stan Lee and featuring the art of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others. Marvel Age Spider-Man and Marvel Age: Fantastic Four. The retellings would be written by the best and brightest of the Marvel Bullpen with Manga inspired artwork by up-and-coming artists from the Japanese inspired medium. 

In this issue which reimagines Fantastic Four #6 from 1962, the Fantastic Four's most deadliest foes, Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner have joined forces. Doom has invented a device that can control the gravity of any object. The plan is for Prince Namor to visit the Baxter Building under the rise of a proposed truce. While there he will hide Doom's device inside the recesses of the skyscraper. 

It's actually not very hard for the Sub-Mariner to hide the device. While Sue Storm is Mister Fantastic's girlfriend, she's been developing feelings for Namor during their recent skirmishes with the ruler of Atlantis. Ben Grimm and Little brother Johnny Storm want to mop up the floor with Namor. Sue wants to finally have a chance to sort through her feelings. Meanwhile, Reed Richards smells a rat and right he is! Because Doctor Doom has activated his gravity device, sending the Baxter Building into outer space with the Sub-Mariner aboard! Heading directly towards the sun, with the oxygen running thin, I guess only so much can be said about honestly and loyalty when you make a deal with Doctor Doom!

The writing by Marc Sumerak was quite good. I've read this issue a number of times. The original, I mean. So it is a bit weird to experience this plot with references to more modern pop culture icons like Jerry Seinfeld. Though, did kids from 2005, when this Marvel Age issue was published, know who of the comedian and star of a TV series that went off the air 7 years prior? So the references are a bit awkward- too  awkward. But this is something that the big two publishers have been guilty of for decades. But it's also forgivable. Trying to relate to kids is hard. Not everyone can do it.

What, in my opinion, isn't quite so forgivable is the art. I should be a crime to think that you can't make a comic book for children without dipping into the Manga ink well. Sure, Manga is what has inspired a large number of artists who hit the scene in the past 30 years. But it should not be the only style of artwork that young comic book readers are exposed to. Especially for such an iconic family the Fantastic Four. That ever-changing look of characters based on their emotions which is a Manga staple just doesn't work with The Thing or the Human Torch. Heck, it doesn't even work with the plastic fluidity of Mister Fantastic. You'd think that it would considering that he's stretchy. But here, it just looks weird. Blame artist Alitha Martinez for that. However, I'm really confused as I've experienced some of her work before and it did not look like this. Maybe early in her career she tried the Manga route. If so, I am glad it was a phase or the comic collecting world would have been deprived of one of the most talented female artists of the past 2 decades.

If this  wasn't a FF comic book, I probably wouldn't keep it. But just like when I listen to Queen, a bad Fantastic Four comic is better than no Fantastic Four comic book at all!

Completing this review completes Task #8 (Fantastic Four Comic from the 2000s) of the 2026 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars

Marvel Age Fantastic Four, Vol. 3: The Return of Doom (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Before the advent of Marvel's all-ages Marvel Adventures imprint, the House of Ideas introduced young readers to their most popular characters with Marvel Age. Along with incorporating a handful of Manga inspired titles from Marvel's failed Tsunami line, Marvel Age retold the earliest adventures of Spider-Man, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four. Updated with modern twists, writer Marc Sumerak and artists Alitha Martinez and Joe Dodd followed the original plots of Marvel's First Family created by legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. 

Volume 3 of Marvel Age Fantastic Four, 'The Return of Doom' reprinted the last 4 issues of the all-ages series. 

Issue #9 sees Mr. Fantastic dogged by creditors in 'The End of the Fantastic Four.' Recent bad investments lead Reed Richards to accept an offer from Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner to star in a reality series starring the FF. In a challenge show similar to Survivor, it's a battle for survival as all of Namor 's challenges are secretly rigged as fights to the death!

Issue #10, the title story, ushers in 'The Return of Doctor Doom!' Victor Von Doom has escaped from am orbital prison constructed by Mr. Fantastic thanks to a pair of aliens called Ovoids. From the creatures' space ship, Doctor Doom discovers a way to switch bodies with Reed. Now Doom's mind is in Richards' body and the leader of the Fantastic Four is trapped inside the iron armor of Doom.

After escaping from the clutches of their arch-enemy, the Fantastic Four meet 'The Impossible Man!' In this retelling of the classic second story of issue #11, the are plagued by the madcap antics of the shape-changing visitor from the planet Poppup.

Issue #12 retells the team's epic first encounter with the green colossus, The Incredible Hulk. After another top secret project is destroyed, the United States Army calls upon the FF to investigate. General Thunderbolt Ross is convinced that the sabotage is the result of another Hulk rampage. Dr. Bruce Banner is convinced it's something else and he should know since he's secretly the Hulk!

Featuring modernized versions of some of the greatest Marvel stories ever written, the Marvel Age imprint only lasted from 2004-05. It's predecessor, Marvel Adventures vastly outlived Marvel Age, running from 2005-2012. The success was large part to the addition of Darwyn Cooke who crafted a story Bible that set Marvel's best and brightest into new adventures that were nostalgic without relying completely on the scripts of Lee and Kirby. The artwork was less manga heavy as the Marvel Age books were and reflected a more sleeker style that was more commercial. As with all good things, the imprint was dismantled in order to usher in books based on the Disney XD animated lineup that were set in the Marvel cinematic universe. Being that the Fantastic Four were the property of Fox Studios, young readers were no longer able to find new comic book exploits of Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, The Invisible Woman and The Human Torch by 2013.

Completing this review completes Task #8 (Starring the Human Torch) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Star Wars: The Life Day Cookbook- Official Recipes From a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Yesterday was Life Day. It's like Star Wars Christmas. First established as part of Star Wars canon, the Wookiee people's most sacred day was introduced in the Star Wars Holiday Special on November 17th, 1978. The special is notable not just because of how bad it was, but also because it contained a small animated segment that marked the debut of the galaxy's greatest bounty hunter, Boba Fett! 2023 marked the 45th anniversary of all that and it just so happened that yesterday coincidentally when I finished reading this Life Day themed cookbook.

The book is written as if it really did exist in the Star Wars universe. The writer is acclaimed chef of Maz Kanata, Strono 'Cookie' Tuggs, who is a main character at the Star Wars experience at Disney, was also the writer of the Galaxy's Edge cookbook from 2019.

There are over 3 dozen recipes written from Cookie's perspective. He talks about the actual ingredients and the planets that they come from. Thankfully, you're not expected to have bantha meat and mudhorn eggs on hand. Earth-bound writers Jenn Fujikawa and Marc Sumerak assist to translate Cookie's recipes with the human equivalent ingredients. 

If you look over the recipes closely, you'll realize that the Star Wars universe enjoys holiday treats that are similar to ours. Gloomroot Pancakes are the latkes with sour cream and apple sauce we enjoy at Hanukkah. Wroshyr Sap Cider is the hot apple cider that keeps us warm near a roaring fire. There are even some non-holiday recipes involved too. The color-changing Cirilian Noodle Salad is the magical Unicorn Noodles dish I've made with younger students for years now. Can't afford to buy supplies at the Black Spire Outpost? Cookie has you set with several DIY projects to make life day robes, trees and orbs. 

Speaking of the orbs. For Life Day yesterday, I taught some of my Culinary Arts students how to make a mini version of the jelly orbs recipes. I didn't have the right ingredients. But I was able to use a fair substitution. Hopefully after Thanksgiving, we'll give it another go with the required agar agar powder.

The photos in this cookbook were absolutely stunning. So colorful and vibrant. The food stylists behind these portraits deserve beaucoup accolades and I hope they've won some awards for them. 

Lots of great ideas. Maybe next year for some holiday fun in a galaxy far, far away, I might use recipes from this cookbook to my students to do a culinary venture based on Life Day. My student's might not enjoy it as much as me. But it'll be a heck of a lot less stressful than having to do a Thanksgiving themed sale. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars. 

Cooking With Deadpool

This was a birthday or Christmas gift from my Bride last year. You'd think that a cookbook by a fictional character would mostly be useful for entertainment enjoyment purposes and not be very useful to a professional chef and culinary teacher. Yet, this has got to be one of the most technically sound cookbooks that I have ever encountered in the celebrity chef/series franchise cookbook realm.

Segments are on advanced culinary terms like mise en place and spatchcock chicken. Articles on menu planning and the right types of knives to use abound in this book. There's some basic baking and chocolate work. Add in breakfast cookery, appetizers and breakfast and Cooking With Deadpool feels like the year-long Culinary Arts I course that I teach 9th-12th graders! Except Deadpool and his creative team don't seem to mind taking photos of work and the various steps more trickier recipes need in order to be successful executed!

That's not to say that this cookbook isn't oozing with Wade Wilson's signature off-kilter look on things. Each recipe has an introduction made by Deadpool that will dive into his past history as inspiration for the dish. Friend and X-Man Cable provides a couple of recipes for the book. Tex-Mex cooking gets a lot of love in this book. Spider-Man provides his Aunt May's famous recipe of wheat cakes! And yes! There is an entire chapter devoted to the Merc With a Mouth's beloved chimichangas!

While I did really appreciate the technical merits of this book, I did feel like some of the ingredient choices were odd. Okay- it's a cookbook written by Deadpool. It's not supposed to be totally normal. For instance, the tres leches cake uses pomegranate for moisture and garnish. That just sounds strange to me. The Latin American restaurant down the street from me uses cherries and it's A-MAZE-ING! So when it comes to the ingredient lists, feel free to adjust the recipe as needed without changing the steps. I'm making the ceviche recipe for my wife, but I didn't put as much onion or jalapeno as I know that's not quite her taste. As for some of the fusion dishes, like the beef stroganoff inspired meat pies, I admire the creativity and inspiration. Putting chopped celery in a tuna casserole is just blasphemy.

A book that teaches about cooking while very much full of Deadpool humor and lore!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Written by Marc Sumerak. Recipes by Elena P. Craig.

Marvel Action Classics: Spider-Man Two-In-One #1 (A Family Comic Friday Extra)

Some weeks there is just so much great stuff that you can’t contain it in one article. For this Family Comic Friday Extra, we take a look at the triumphant return of the House of Idea’s Marvel Adventures line in a series of reprint one-shots from IDW!

Marvel Action Classics: Spider-Man Two-In-One #1
Written by Marc Sumerak, Peter David
Art by David Nakayama, Mike Norton
Published by IDW Publishing
Pages: 46
Retail: $4.99

From 2005-2011, Marvel Comics was your place for all-ages comics. Under the Marvel Adventures line (formerly Marvel Age), all of your favorite superheroes and villains came alive in exciting exploits that captured the heart of classic Marvel while exploring unimaginable new plot-lines. Where else could you find the Hulk and Wolverine switching brains? Or Mole Man turning into a giant thanks to some Pym particles?

The essence of Marvel Adventures was that the comics were fun. They also happened to be quite funny. With a slew of amazing talent such as Darwyn Cooke, Aaron Lopresti, Skottie Young and Tommy Lee Edwards, the sky was the limit! And in some cosmic themed stories, that limit extended into the furthest reaches of the cosmos!

Unfortunately, with the coming of Disney XD’s line-up of animated series based on the Avengers, Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man, Marvel Adventures’ day were numbered. By 2012, the line was defunct. Instead of issues filled with original art and stories, Marvel Comics replaced Marvel Adventures with picto-comics. Here, stills from the cartoons were placed into order, word bubbles added, and put into comic book form. With a couple of pages of fun and games stuff, these comics took over for the Adventures line. Even the digest collections of Marvel Adventures stories were discontinued abruptly, immediately going into out-of-print status.

Sadly, the Marvel Adventures line was all but forgotten. Unless you got lucky at a used book store or maybe a dollar box at a comic book show, it was almost impossible to find anything from this imprint. Well, that’s all about to change!

This week, IDW Publishing was granted access to the Marvel Vaults in order to present some of the most exciting tales from the Marvel Adventures line. First up was a pair of Spidey stories in which the wall-crawler joins forces with some of Marvel’s powerhouses.

In the first story, Spider-Man falls under the spell of Amora, the Enchantress. With the sorceress now claiming the throne of Asgard, Spider-Man has unwittingly become her champion. That all might change when Thor, the god of thunder, arrives on the Asgard scene!

Then Spidey must enlist the help of the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange! When Flash Thompson is attacked by a fierce beast, Spider-Man comes to the rescue. Seemingly, Flash is okay. That is until the moon gets full and the bully turns into a werewolf!

Both stories were great. But Peter David (The Incredible Hulk) is a master at storytelling and his werewolf narrative just has something magical about it. The artwork of both stories is very good. However, it’s the art that has always been the one thing that I wasn’t a huge fan of with Marvel Adventures.

I love thick ink lines. I think it’s a throwback to the 60s and 70s comics that I grew up on. The Marvel Adventures books always featured ultra-modern artwork with characters made up of heavy muscles and pencil-thin inking. There’s nothing wrong with this style of artwork. It’s just not my cup of tea.

That being said, I’m excited that Marvel is giving a new generation of superhero fans a chance to discover Marvel Adventures. In the next few weeks, IDW will be releasing 2 more one-shots under the Marvel Action Classics banner- one starring Captain America and a second featuring The Hulk. The Hulk issue is due in stores on June 5th. Cap’s issue is currently TBA. But until then, you’ll just have to settle for your friendly, neighborhood, Spider-Man!

Marvel Action Classics: Spider-Man Two-In-One #1 debuted in print on May 29th, 2019.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.