Fantastic Four #606 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Ron Garney (art), Jason Keith (colors), and Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story: The Fantastic Four go on a mission in a strange environment to save the life of an old friend.

The Review:  I think Hickman came into this with a good idea, but due to comics being just as much of a visual medium as a literary one, if not moreso, that idea just cannot be executed.

The problem is that so much of the issue hinges on the big twist at the end.  Hickman does his level bet to keep it mysterious as to where exactly the Fantastic Four actually are and what their mission is.  The whole issues is meant to tease you and keep you guessing as to their mission and location, only to shock you with its genius at issue’s end.  The problem, however, is due to the fact that we can actually SEE their surroundings means that we already know what the twist is just few pages into the comic.  So we’re left with Hickman playing coy with us for an entire issue, acting like he’s one step ahead of us when, actually, we’ve figured out the ruse long ago.

All of this teasing and coyness that’s so focused on keeping things a secret (when we’ve already figured it out), also leads to some really lifeless dialogue.  In fact, I’d say it’s the most lifeless, drab dialogue of Hickman’s entire run, who usually is able to communicate so much heart and significance in very few words.  Here, it’s just a bevy of science-talk at best.  None of the dialogue really carries any emotion or character and it feels like the characters are just going through the motions.