The ball keeps on rolling with this run by Hickman and Epting. This really is the best time to be a Fantastic Four reader right now. Hickman brings a lot of his ‘scientific’ fiction to the family and Epting continues to draw it beautifully. We now have the Council of Reeds to deal with, and just what do they have in mind? Of course the obvious answer is to destroy the ‘real’ Earth.

I’m not sure what Hickman is, a writer or a demi-god, but he can balance a lot of stories into a single entity. He can easily turn a story to a drama, then a comedy, and then all out action in a whim. I love all of the humor in this book, from the Wizard acting all out creepy to The Mad Tinkerer…..acting all out creepy. But there is a great sense of Doom going around this comic and I’m not saying that because Doom is in the book. Hickman is finally putting these four cities into a major problem and it looks like the shit is hitting the fan next issue. But I like how the twist of the issue is that we know why Valeria and Doom are working together. It’s a nice twist and it’s the first time I think we saw a group of villain working together because the heroes ask them to.

Epting again delivers the goods with this issue by putting a lot of detail in each panel. Hell he took the time to make a detailed volcano and secret base for every villain the beginning. He is also able to pace this issue pretty well too. One minute it’s just a conversation between two guys, the next we see a big panel of Utau the Watcher. I’m not sure how he’s able to do it but Epting also brings a lot of ‘Jack Kirby’ into his pencils. Everyone kinda looks like a Kirby drawing, especially coming from the monsters. Add in some really good, muted colors by Paul Mounts and it’s a really good looking book.

Like last issue, I am really starting to get into this FF run. Sure it really has no difference to Fantastic Four and right now Spider-Man really has no business being on the team. But Hickman is just bring in a lot of fun and mystery to the family. It’s what the Fantastic Four should be and this is definitely a definitve run in the making. It looks like there is a big payoff coming next issue from previous stories by Hickman. I can’t wait to see where he’s gonna take this family.