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POTW Archive:

• August 28, 2013 - Batman / Superman #3
• August 21, 2013 - Wonder Woman #23
• August 14, 2013 - Thor: God of Thunder #11
• August 7, 2013 - Quantum and Woody #2
• July 31, 2013 - Indestructible Hulk #11

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Story by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Art by Steve McNiven
Inks by Mark Morales
Colors by Morry Hollowell
Letters by Randy Gentile

Published by Marvel Comics | $2.99

Every now and then my friends and I get into a repetitive conversation about art. What makes art good? What makes it bad? That sort of thing. One of the arguments made by one of my friends often comes up and it drives me nuts. Let’s take something like any piece done by Jackson Pollock. This friend of mine looks it, shrugs and says, “I could have done that.” And I point out, “Maybe, but you didn’t.”

Sometimes you start to read a story and you can’t help but to think, “My god! Why didn’t I think of that? I could have written this!” But, to my argument, I didn’t. And neither did you. No, it took Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to write, what I feel like is the the most interestingly honest story about the Fantastic Four I’ve ever read, and this is only the second issue.

The premise is simple: the beloved Fantastic Four get their funding pulled and they’re kicked out of the Baxter Building. It’s their worst nightmare, out on the streets, penny-less, forced to survive in the real world. It’s so simple, its genius. Sure they’ve survived the Negative Zone and countless other dangers, but how do they fare on the streets of New York?

The Fantastic Four has always been a family book. What with Sue and Reed being married, Sue and Johnny being siblings and Reed and Ben being best friends, the stories about this super-group, while dancing around the Fantastic, have always come down to family dynamics. That’s what makes them different from the Avengers or the X-Men, who also have the family aspect to them but unlike the Fantastic Four, they’re not actually family.

So what happens when you take a family out of their normal situation and place them in a trying situation? Usually they fight, and then come together to help and support each other. How can you do that with a family that has been from one end of the universe to the other? Well, you take the “Fantastic” away. Make them cram into a small apartment together. Make them get “real” jobs. Give them Spider-Man-like problems. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa asked these same questions and has begun to weave a very dramatic and, as I mentioned above, honest story about just that.

So far we’ve seen Ben come to grips with being forced to only be able to do grunt work, we’ve seen Johnny realize that he has no real relationships outside of his family, we’ve seen Reed rack his brain trying to use his genius to help his family in some way, shape or form. And finally, we see the family’s strength come from the heart of their “mother” in Sue. Now this is what I call high-drama. Who needs Doom or Namor to fight? I’d take this anyday.

Steve McNiven and Mark Morales are collaborating on some truly fantastic art. Reminiscent of Travis Charest, the clean lines and details to the pencils are brought to live by the tight lines and shading of the inks. This is a real story that needs to be shown in a realistic manner and this team is doing just that.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had any interest in the Fantastic Four. I don’t think I’ll start reading the ongoing title, but for now, I’m hooked on the reality of the Fantastic Four as just a regular family.

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