So should I consider picking this up, in spite of not picking up on Carey's current run of cosmic brouhaha?
Yes.
Ultimate Fantastic Four 7: God War left me cold, even though it was pretty good (an easy three stars out of five), but
Ultimate Fantastic Four 8: Devils was pure joy (four stars easy, and I was the perfect audience for it, because I used to be buggy about alchemy, and I could see Mike Carey had put in the time to do it right).
You might have the same experience of not connecting with one but liking the other.
The Mole Man story is good, the dialog is good, and the art is good too. The whole thing has a sense of fun that I missed in
God War.
We cleared up the loose end of the other kids in the Baxter Building in an interesting way, so the story was good for continuity too, I mean good for setting up a universe where fun things happen.
There's no guarantee that you will like the Mole Man story as much as I did. But you might. This is not similar enough to
Ultimate Fantastic Four 7: God War that if you don't like one you won't like the other.
These are glory days for
Ultimate Fantastic Four fans. Things are good, and they're only looking better. There are no dud
Ultimate Fantastic Four trades, just OK ones (
7: God War) and good or great ones (
8: Devils). I want Mike Carey to write
Ultimate Fantastic Four forever.
(Happy dance! ~ Happy dance! ~ Happy dance! ~ Happy dance!)