Reviews
Episode #18: The Cure
Original Airdate: June 9th, 2007
Reed has come up with yet another cure for Ben, and to everyone’s amazement… it works! Ben is human again, but there’s one catch: he doesn’t remember the Fantastic Four. Ben’s memory has been reset to his life just before the flight that transformed them all into Super Heroes. And now that they’re down a member, the Mole Man decides the time is right to strike!! Even with the She-Hulk stepping in for Ben, it looks like this time the Mole Man may win. Unless a very human Ben Grimm can stop him.
Credits
Story By Dan Slott
Written by Chris Yost
Directed by Franck Miohel
Music by Noam Kaniel
Animation By Sunmin/ The Animation Studio/ Fantasta
Voices
Mr. Fantastic - Hiro Kanagawa
Invisible Woman - Lara Gilchrist
The Thing - Brian Dobson
Human Torch - Christopher Jacot
Review
Stu - This episode sees She Hulk make her debut in the show as a replacement for The Thing, who has now reverted back to pre-Fantastic Four days. Luckily, the show’s creative team went to the one man who understands She Hulk best, the man who revamped her comic book and made it one of the very best on the rack, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Dan Slott!
Slott is no stranger to The Thing either as he served as the writer for his criminally cancelled solo book last year so it’s no surprise to see that both serve as central characters to the story here.
She Hulk has a pretty terrible track record in animation as her presence (and puzzling network interference) basically ruined the excellent Incredible Hulk cartoon back in the 90’s so I admit to being a little dubious to seeing her appear on TV again but she comes across really well here. She had a great design in both her FF costume and her original costume before she joined the team, based on her current outfit from the comic book. Given how Moonscoop usually go in an original direction with their models it was surprising to see them use the purple/white costume here, but it did look great on the small screen. Great casting too, no signs of a Cree Summer calamity here!
The villain of the episode is The Mole Man who hasn’t really been developed since his last appearance. He’s never really had any real motivation in any of his appearances in any medium and just about everyone is perfectly aware of this – Reed even informs him that his plan to crush the surface world is pretty dumb as Subtornia will be destroyed in the process.
One of the better parts of the episode is the casting call for The Thing’s replacement. Dan’s fans will no doubt recognise Squirrel Girl and be amused by Johnny’s instant dismissal of her and equally amused at Reed’s anger when the 2 dimensional man says he can stretch too! The highlight is Johnny’s girlish yelp as Jen changes into She Hulk and towers over him. Christopher Jacot has this character nailed – I don’t think we’ve ever had any version of The Human Torch that’s as good as this one. Speaking of cameos, lookout for an appearance from The Incredible Hulk on The Mole Man’s TV. We’re still waiting for the sequel to Hard Knocks Mr. Fine, hopefully they’ll still have the rights to him by the time season two airs, should a second season be green lighted.
Overall, The Cure stands one of the show’s best efforts so far. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing She Hulk again.
Media
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