Sunday, December 9, 2012

Review: Fantastic Four #1 & FF #1


Fantastic Four #1 & FF #1, Marvel Comics - Written by Matt Fraction with art by Mark Bagely and Mike Allred.

As First Issues go Fantastic Four #1 felt more like FF #0. There’s a set-up and a premise but no real plot to speak of.

That said, the only thing you really need to glean from this story, titled “Unstable”, can be found in two separate, but related, bits of dialogue uttered by Mr. Fantastic himself, Reed Richards. The first bit, which comes almost half-way through the book, is “Uh-oh.” The second comes in the very last panel. Looking sincerely at his wife, Reed says, “Trust me.”

Now, coming from any normal person, those two phrases would be completely innocuous at best and only marginally significant at worst. But when spoken by some one who is, arguably, the smartest person on the planet, and who has a tendency to put curiosity ahead of caution and discovery before discretion, well those four little syllables are sure to spell BIG  TROUBLE!

Great set up

Story – 6 ½ unstable molecules. Art – 8 ½ dimensional portals.


This brings us quite literally to FF #1.

Here we are treated to the expected “gathering of the team” story, but interspersed with delightful little vignettess of the Future Foundation Kids taking turns to explain just what the Future Foundation means to them. As humorous as these were, my favorite scene in this issue is the one where Ben Grimm (the Thing) is trying to recruit Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk) in the gym. 

While I am not a huge fan of Mike Allred’s more cartoony style, I think he did a passable job here though his “tech” could use some better detail. He manages to get a more realistic feel to his drawings on this book, and in at least one panel, She-Hulk looked quite beautiful. 

Worth Checking Out!


Story – 8 floating heads; Art – 7 white jumpsuits.


You Can Find Fantastic Four, FF and lots of other cool comic books at

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