Fantastic Four #609 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman (writer), Ryan Stegman (art), Paul Mounts (colors), and Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story:  The Nu-World leftovers decide to return home.

The Review:  For the most part, Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four and FF have been doing a whole lot of wheel-spinning for the last couple of months.  We can all thank Marvel for that, as they decided to keep Hickman on after the natural endpoint of his run.  As a result, we get issues like this one.

We’ve reached the point where Hickman has so nicely wrapped up every loose end (well, barring Bentley’s family background, which are the only remaining issues I’m looking forward to) that this issue actually sees him dealing with loose ends left by OTHER writers runs.  Hickman seems to have so run out of mileage that he’s left picking up Mark Millar’s leftovers from a much maligned idea and story-arc.

Fantastic Four #580 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Neil Edwards (pencils), Andrew Currie (inks), Paul Mounts (colors), and Rus Wooton (letters)

The Story: Franklin, Leech, and Johnny head to Arcade Toys for “the most impossibly awesome toy event ever.”

What’s Good: With wacky characters like Arcade and Impossible Man and most of the action taking place in a madcap toystore, the book reads like a really fun kids movie or cartoon of the sort that adults can also find enjoyment in.  As a result, there’s a lot of energy and gleeful abandon to the book, making it basically impossible to dislike.  It’s the kind of action that just makes the reader happy and that’s never a bad thing.

Certainly, Arcade and Impossible Man’s larger-than-life presences are more than welcome and make the comic a livelier and more welcoming experience.  Both characters suit the kids movie tone perfectly and give the book a sense of familiarity.  They’re two Saturday morning type characters and as such, they offer a bit of a reprieve from the big ideas that Hickman usually layers his books with.  I do love Hickman for those ideas, but giving us a little break now and then can be refreshing and liberating.  That and Impossible Man, when written well, is always a barrel of fun.

Amidst all the wackiness, there is solid character work as well.  I was pleasantly surprised by Hickman’s writing of Johnny this month, who came across as uncharacteristically paternal, loving, and even, dare I say it, responsible.  His relating to Franklin’s situation and the advice he gives his nephew hit home and provided something of a tender moment between the two.  Basically, Johnny acted like the perfect uncle this month.  All of this was still distinctly Johnny, however, with his characteristic narcissistic remarks peppered throughout.

The final scene, which involves the Future Foundation seeking a cure for Ben’s condition, was intriguing as well.  I found it particularly effective due to bittersweet note it ended on.  What the Future Foundation does for Ben is so limited, yet for Ben, that’s already a miracle.  It’s heartwarming to see something done for Ben, but also sad that it took this long and is so deteriorated in effectiveness as a result.  Hickman struck this balance perfectly.

Fantastic Four #579 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Neil Edwards (pencils), Andrew Currie (inks), Paul Mounts (colors), and Rus Wooton (letters)

The Story: Tired of self-limitation among the scientific community, Reed looks to prepare the next generation of thinkers.

What’s Good: This is one of those issues of Fantastic Four that demonstrates why the title is perfect for Hickman, linked as it is with ideas he’s had since Transhuman.  That is, specifically, the refusal to accept limitations and glass ceilings and a simultaneously idealist and escapist belief in infinite potential and boundless possibility.

This is laid out in the book’s strongest scene, an extended speech by Reed at a conference scientists, where he condemns them for their inertia and self-limiting.  It’s a beautiful fusion of Romanticism and scientific thought, and a bold, exciting message of hope.  It’s also highly relevant to our world as well, with Reed actually calling out the decision to suspend manned space missions.  Reed’s speech is some of the finest writing I’ve ever read from Hickman particularly because it’s so pertinent to the human condition and contemporary society in its ideas and sentiment.  It’s also, of course, perfect for the Heroic Age.  Simply put, the sky is the limit but, in Reed’s eyes, we’ve stopped looking up.

This idea of “no limits” extends to a conversation between Reed and the Wizard.  The Wizard is wonderfully written by Hickman, stark raving mad and spewing just barely incomprehensible pseudo-science babble.  Reed’s explanation for his reasons behind taking in the Wizard’s clone is very well linked to the speech with which he opened the issue, almost as though Reed is putting his own words into practice.  He will raise the boy in order to prove that there are no limits to human potential; genetics, destiny, and predestination are bunk in the face of a nurturing environment.

Fantastic Four #573 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Neil Edwards (pencils), Andrew Currie (inks), Paul Mounts (colors), and Rus Wooton (letters)

The Story: Johnny, Ben, and the kids go to Nu-World for a vacation but what they find there is a far cry from being a resort.

What’s Good: Probably the best thing the issue has going for it is its generic tone.  The book is a wacky, retro sci-fi adventure.  While Nu-World has become a dystopian mess, Hickman uses this as an excuse to fill the issue with a scuttling, disembodied brain and a hero with a goofy helmet blasting apart robots by the dozen with his ray gun.  It’s cheesy, but definitely fun, like a bad 70s sci-fi flick.  There’s also a depiction of a pseudo-scientific, transcendental sort of mass suicide that sort of reminded me of Logan’s Run with astronauts.  I’m probably alone on that, but it’s cool nonetheless.

I’ve never been a fan of the kids, but Hickman actually made me enjoy their presence.    Both Val and Franklin have a comical way of undercutting Ted Castle and his planetary problems, but in different ways.  Val makes it all seem so simple through her intellect, while Franklin approaches the situation and his circumstances on an entirely different level, as a child would.  There’s a beautifully paced sequence where he offers a grieving Ted Castle a sandwich, tugging the heart-strings while providing a laugh.

Through his wacky sci-fi hijinks and his use of the brain and the kids, Hickman takes what could’ve been a heavy-handed, grindingly tragic affair and turns it into something much more light and fun.  That said, by the time the issue ends, he still gives a little glimpse of the epic nature of what actually unfolded, finishing the book with a beautiful retrospective montage, narrated in a simple fashion that metatextually breaks the comic into its component parts and making it seem all the grander in retrospect.

What’s Not So Good: Despite all this, under perhaps a more cynical lens, it’s hard not to be very well aware of the fact that this issue was more or less written to serve a simple purpose: sweep Nu-World under a rug.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it, but it can be a bit frustrating when a writer’s purpose is so abundantly clear.  The comic is as much a story as it is a means to an end.

Of course, if Hickman is writing this issue solely to be done with Nu-World, that also means that several characters are treated cursorily, perhaps not with the respect they deserve.  There’s not one but two character deaths, both of which are insultingly brief, abrupt, and underwhelming.  Like Nu-World itself, it’s clear that Hickman just wanted them out of the way.   The Nu-World characters have little page-space, don’t flesh themselves out much, and basically show up just to remind us that they’re there.

Furthermore, while the art isn’t atrocious or anything, Neil Edwards is a far, far cry from Dale Eaglesham.  His artwork just feels very generic, with little sense of individual style or flair.  It does the job without attempting to do anything more.  Edwards also struggles with headshots.  Two panels in particular, one of Johnny and one of Psionics, are total botches.

Conclusion: Enjoyable for what it is, but it creaks a little at times due to the weaker art and Hickman’s obvious motivations.

Grade: B

-Alex Evans