Greetings! I've been away a bit, but I return with a review of the rebooted Fantastic Four #1! The issue has been out for nearly two weeks now, so hopefully I won't be spoiling anything for anyone.
Unlike with the recent reboot of Amazing Spider-Man, I've never been a regular collector of Fantastic Four. Sure, I've picked up runs here and there, but nothing consistent. Also, I'm familiar with their history and importance to the Marvel U, and a number of their key stories, so I'm not completely out of touch. And while I enjoyed the Secret Wars crossover from a few years ago, which is where we last saw Reed and Sue and the kids, I didn't keep up with Marvel Two In One featuring the Thing and Human Torch. That book chronicled Ben and Johnny's search for the rest of their family. Now that that is out of the way...
As has become the norm for Marvel, they printed this issue with a bazillion and two different covers. I chose the cover by Nick Bradshaw, as he has been one of my favorite artists of the last few years. His style reminds me of one of my all-time favorites, Art Adams. The header art for this column is from the Alex Ross cover. And the creative team on the book consists of Dan Slott writing, moving over from his record run on Amazing Spider-Man, and Sara Pichelli handling the art, along with Elisabetta D'Amico and Marte Gracia. I don't feel there should be any concerns with this crew working on the book.
The first panel is a shot of a family picture, an older picture as Franklin and Valeria look fairly young, with captions from each of the four describing their team. Their family. We then flow into Ben and Johnny going about their lives. Ben is running errands with Alicia Masters and Johnny being a celebrity at a Mets game with Wyatt Wingfoot. This is all interrupted when someone launches a Fantastic Four flare into the sky above New York. Torch leaps into action, excited that the flare is an indicator that Reed and Sue have returned. Whereas Thing tries to ignore the flare, believing his family to gone forever, as Alicia does her best to console Ben. It is revealed to be a prank by some Yancy Street kids. We cut to a newscast explaining this as a prank, just a week before the anniversary of the fateful flight that created the Fantastic Four. We get some soundbites from a few former FF members with their feelings on the situation.
Cut to a quick confrontation scene between Johnny and Jennifer Walters (aka She-Hulk), because Johnny has pressed charges against the youths, and Ben has hired Jennifer to defend them. Jennifer and Wyatt flirt a bit.
We then see Ben with his friend Shecky, checking on an apartment that holds some of the FF's memorabilia, finding that the kids broke in and stole the flare. Ben then opens a box that contains a "lost tale" of the Fantastic Four, and tells a tale of a time the team was lost on the other side of the galaxy. Their companion, Astronomica, tells them that she can lead them home using her scepter, but it requires one of them to sing a song to power it up. This leads to everyone revealing to Sue that she isn't as good a singer as she's been lead to believe, and results in Johnny being to one to get the job done. An endearing tale of the family dynamic of the team. After which, Ben reveals he's felt lost for quite some time, but just recently found reason to hope. And that he's about to go on his biggest adventure EVER! We see Alicia answer a knock on her apartment door, to find Ben knelt down on one knee. He guides her hand to find him, as she's blind, for those of you who didn't already know. Ben has a ring in his hand, and before he can even finish the sentence, Alicia shouts, "YES!"
Cut to Johnny meeting up with Ben and Alicia at a rooftop eatery, where they break the engagement news to him. But, when Ben asks Johnny to be his best man, Johnny angrily shouts NO. He says that Reed is the only who should be Ben's best man. This leads to an argument over whether Reed and Sue are alive, and Torch flaming on and flying off. He shouts to the night sky, to Reed, that he knows they're out there. To show him a sign. He returns to Ben and Alicia, dejected and crying, admitting that his family is gone.
We then get two panels of Reed and Sue, location unknown, working on something. Reed asks Sue if she believes in him, to which she replies "Always". Reed says that is why he can do the impossible. He then flips a switch. And everyone is bathed in the bright light of a large, illuminated "4" just between the earth and the moon. Johnny says it's about damn time.
We also have a back-up story featuring Doctor Doom regaining his control of Latveria, wearing little more than his mask, hood, and a cloth around his waist. And apparently back to his mystical powers. This is by Slott and Simone Bianchi. And a single page story featuring Impossible Man by Slott and Skottie Young.
As I mentioned before, I've never been a regular reader, but this issue intrigues me enough to want to stay along for a while. I really liked the story and want to see where Slott goes with it. Maybe the fact that there just wasn't any Fantastic Four for a few years was enough to pique my interest. This was discussed with some other members of the CBU recently, and how something similar might help the X-Men. Again, this was more of a recap than anything, but I hope you enjoyed it.
Everyone has issues. Mine are mostly comics.
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