There was a time when the cover of the Fantastic Four boldly claimed "The World's greatest Comic Magazine!" If that proclamation was still on this comic, it would only serve as bitter, horrible irony. While at times the Millar and Hitch run on FF showed small flashes of promise, on the whole, it has been one huge disappointment. Millar has taken all of the character development and growth done by Mark Waid and flushed it down the toilet. He has taken all of the things that make the FF great and just ignored them, along with 50 years of continuity. Can't make a baby interesting? just make her a super genius, even though she was proven to be normal earlier. The family dynamic that makes the FF different from every other super team in comics? Ignore it. While you're at it, ignore Franklin, too. Don't like the fact that the Thing is the heart and soul of the team, the lovable "idol a' millions?" Just make him a rage-aholic jackass. Human Torch is written as a parody of himself, and Reed and Sue have never been less interesting. Also, remember the last 50 years, when Dr. Doom spent all that time proclaiming himself the greatest thing in the world and saying he would never think anyone was his equal, let alone his superior? Let's just toss that out the window and say that he has been serving some until now unmentioned "master" all along. And Doom's master is a guy with the power to........apparantly warp reality, but all he ever uses it to do is show the FF different versions of themselves in different multiverses. This was probably the most boring "fight scene" in comics history. Hitch's pencils are pretty strong, except the way he draws the Thing, which i hate. But you can't even notice the pencils, because the coloring is so awful, I don't even want to look at it. Can you tell I don't like this issue? This is probably the worst comic i have read in ten years. Which is a shame, because I am a fan of everything else of Mark Millar's I have ever read. When millar and Hitch were announced as the creative team on this title, i was reallly excited. I thought "They can't screw this up!" Sadly, I was wrong.
Story: 1 - Poor
Art: 2 - Average
Wow, really thought-provoking review. Before now, I hadn't really noticed now much characterization was tossed out to make the current run possible. But then again, I'm not much of an FF fan and the only time I read the book even semi-regularly was in the late '90s (but I've gone back and read 80% of the godly Byrne run). I guess I just liked the high-concept pseudo-science stuff Millar was doing earlier in the run. I haven't read this particular issue yet, but, yeah, the idea of Doom bowing to a master is kind of awful. The whole premise of Doom is that he is such an egomaniac that he would never bow to anyone, and before now it's been a pretty important character trait that he's EARNED everything he got--bad or good--no matter what evil he went through to get his way. So the idea that all his time he's been in the debt of some unheard-of cosmic villain rings really false to me.
Posted by flapjaxx on 07/01/09 at 10:02 PM