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FANTASTIC FOUR #581

The first of a two-part story featuring the return of Nathaniel Richards. Follow us as he jumps through time back to the college years of Reed, Ben and Victor Von Doom and recruits them for an impossible mission in the future.

WRITER: Jonathan Hickman
PENCILS: NEIL EDWARDS
COVER BY: ALAN DAVIS

Price: $2.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 33.7%

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Comments

  1. Avatar photo OttoBott says:
    July 26, 2010 at 2:40 pm

    Edwards has been absolutely killing it over the past two issues. Major improvements from his first couple of issues. Good for that guy. You can tell he’s working hard trying to do Hickman’s scripts justice.

  2. Avatar photo KickAss says:
    July 26, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    Edwards is great, despite what the iFanboys say.  This is my favorite Hickman book, by far.  It’s excellent.  He fits better here than any book.

  3. Avatar photo snappants says:
    July 26, 2010 at 4:06 pm

    This book (for me) has been living off the good will earned from Hickman’s first three issue arc and then a few of the one offs about the different cities.  I feel the art has gotten worse and the stories are starting to be a little more throw away.  After reading the annual and the prior issue, this book is totally on notice for me.

  4. Avatar photo JimBilly4 says:
    July 26, 2010 at 4:34 pm

    I remain an Edwards critic. I think Hickman has not entirely pulled off his balance of 1-2 issue story arcs with the larger tale he has been trying to tell. The shorter stories tend to be a bit dull (Human Torch vs. Arcade… yawn), but I am really liking his longer tale and the big ideas that go with it. I know you want every issue to be accessible to a new reader (especially when you are trying to get new readers with a still newish writer), but I think Hickman should probably play to his strengths and really concentrate on longer arcs. Just my 2 cents.

  5. Avatar photo har13quin says:
    July 26, 2010 at 5:04 pm

    Hickman can do no wrong in my eyes. Love this, love secret warriors, love S.H.I.E.L.D. love it all. The art is perfectly good in this as well.

     This FF is obviously not going to be to everyone’s tastes, but I love the off the wall weirdness and longform story telling.

  6. Avatar photo USPUNX says:
    July 26, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    Love this book. The only issue I didn’t enjoy was the one off in nu-world. And the only reason I didn’t like that was because I skipped the Millar run so I had no idea who any of those characters were.

  7. Avatar photo Peterparker18102 says:
    July 26, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    Still really enjoying this

  8. Avatar photo bjbancroft says:
    July 26, 2010 at 5:48 pm

    @Ottobott – I honestly have no idea what you are talking about. They need a different artist on this series ASAP! His faces are all asymmetrical and fucked up looking. I can deal with it because Hickman is a master of the universe.

  9. froggulper says:
    July 26, 2010 at 6:57 pm

    For me, all the artists Hickman has had on FF so far have been kinda "eh". I’m not complaining, though. It’s been decent enough.

    I just wish the "big picture" of his run would start coming together already. I’m enjoying the run, but the way he’s talked in interviews, it’s like he has this big plan or something, which is going to end with #700. And I just don’t sense much of anything coming together beyond very vague, disparate hints.

  10. Avatar photo OttoBott says:
    July 26, 2010 at 7:21 pm

    @bjbancroft – Compare #579 or 580 with #573-4 and you’ll see tremendous improvement on Edward’s part. Yes, there are problems, but not nearly as many in later issues and they aren’t really bothering me as much as they are you. Diffrn’t strokes, I guess.

    I also don’t get all these complaints about the done-in-one stories. I’ve been having such a fun time with this title, and the single-issue format makes buying the monthly worthwhile, again.

  11. Avatar photo USPUNX says:
    July 26, 2010 at 10:27 pm

    @froggulper: Eaglesham was amazing during his run.

  12. Avatar photo KickAss says:
    July 27, 2010 at 1:22 am

    @Snappants – The FF Annual was not by Hickman.  It was by one of Marvel’s worst writers, sadly.  Don’t blame that on Hickman.

  13. Avatar photo JonSamuelson says:
    July 27, 2010 at 5:32 am

    Yeah, I’ve got to admit…  I’m totally in the bag for Hickman.  For whatever reason I just love the stuff he writes.  It’s interesting for me to finally have a cerebral writer who I absolutely love, who is really hit or miss with other people.  I enjoy Hickman like other people enjoy Morrison, I think.

  14. Avatar photo rockingeek says:
    July 27, 2010 at 11:37 am

    Yay, time travel!

  15. Avatar photo zlbenson says:
    July 27, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    I still have no idea whats going on almost ever in this run of Hickman’s – but I still love it – it seems so just so epic in the ideas being tossed around and I am imagining that all will come to a head and all will make sense at some point. I’ve dropped a lot of books because of financial reasons, but this is one of the super-hero books I’ve kept on my list.

  16. Avatar photo Meanmrmustid says:
    July 27, 2010 at 7:29 pm

    Is this a good jumping on point?

  17. Avatar photo OttoBott says:
    July 27, 2010 at 11:19 pm

    …about as good as any other point, I’d think.

  18. Avatar photo SummerSleep says:
    July 28, 2010 at 6:45 pm

    @ meanmrmustid If you’re looking for a good jumping on point, issue 579 was the best of the recent issues. 580 was kind of a stand alone.

    I love what Hickman has done with the FF so far, but I don’t get the great family stuff that Millar and Hitch were able to pull off. That said, for me, this is the best book being put out by Marvel currently.

  19. Avatar photo Meanmrmustid says:
    July 28, 2010 at 9:41 pm

    Ended up picking this up, quite enjoyed it.  Might go back to start of Hickmans run on the Ipad as I think the first 6 issues are on there at the moment. Read the first issue a few mths ago when it was free and never got around to reading the rest.  Been reading Fantastic Four from the beginning (Lee/Kirby) this week so has sparked my interest again.

  20. Avatar photo cubman987 says:
    July 29, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    Loved this issue!

  21. froggulper says:
    July 30, 2010 at 8:51 am

    Great issue.

    On the ongoing art debate: I thought this issue was pretty damn good. Regarding Eaglesham, I liked some of his issues more than others. I keep wishing that Alan Davis drew the interiors and not just the covers, though. Still, while I don’t think the art has been great, consistent, or consistently great, it’s been good enough and hasn’t taken anything away from my reading experience.

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