What If This Was The Fantastic Four?: A Tribute to Mike Wieringo – Review

By Jeff Parker (Writer), Mike Wieringo and several volunteer artists (Art), and Val Staples and Leanne Hannah (Color Art)

I’m a fairly easy guy to please when it comes to comic book art. The more realistic it looks, the more I like it. Therefore, I tend to not like “cartoony” art. There are only two artists who are the exception, one is Paul Pelletier and the other was Mike Wieringo. I’ve never been able to put my finger on it, but something about Mike’s art was both pleasing to the eye and simply fun. His art was a huge reason of why I thoroughly enjoyed Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. When I found out about this issue, it was obvious that I was going to pick it up.

The actual story chronicles the “replacement” Fantastic Four – Spider-Man, Wolverine, Grey Hulk, and Ghost Rider – from Walt Simonson’s classic run and asks the question “What if the original Fantastic Four had died, and these four became their permanent replacement?” Within, we see their hesitation to unite and then their eventual bonding as they face several of the old Fantastic Four’s foes together. The story isn’t all “feel good” as we also have to see the world’s coping with the loss of the Fantastic Four. (Rather fitting, considering the several tributes included of those still coping with Wieringo’s death.) And it must also be mentioned that the fight with the new Frightful Four is pretty darn awesome.

Of course, the art is also spectacular. The first several pages are Wieringo’s last work while and the rest of the book is finished by many of his friends and colleagues. Some pages are better than others, depending on the artist, but as a whole the art was very well done.

As mentioned earlier, the second half of this is filled with several tributes written by Mike’s family, friends, and co-workers. I didn’t know too much about him, but I enjoyed his work, and after reading these, I feel as though I have come to know him and appreciate his art a little more. If all of this isn’t incentive enough to buy this issue, Marvel is donating all profits to the Hero Initiative, a charity that helps current and former comic book creators in need. Being a tribute, this is hard to properly rate, so I’ll give it three grades.

Story: Grade: B-

Art: Grade: A-

As a Tribute to Mike Wieringo: A+

-M. Staples