Pick of the Week
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Price: 2.99
When the news hit that Jonathan Hickman would be writing Fantastic Four, we all agreed that it was probably the best book for Hickman, new to Marvel, to be writing. If you’ve read any of Hickman’s previous work like The Nightly News or Pax Romana, then you know that Hickman is not only a writer with big ideas, but they’re big, smart ideas. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more unintelligent (and I mean that in a good way) than when I read Hickman’s comics. Knowing that Hickman was a smart writer, with big ideas, you can see why Fantastic Four seemed like an opportunity for Hickman to excel. I just had no idea that he’d be excelling by his second issue in.
I have a feeling that over this run of Fantastic Four with Hickman, along with Dale Eaglesham on pencils, that I’m going to be eating my words. You see, after Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s run on Fantastic Four was pretty much a non-event, I was convinced that while we all have a soft spot for Marvel’s first family, that perhaps their time has passed, that the days of Fantastic Four being a major title are gone. I’m not saying that Hickman and Eaglesham have done that in two issues, but if there ever was a chance, it’s with this run.
The trap that most creators seem to get caught in with the Fantastic Four is the desire to emulate the great Stan Lee/Jack Kirby years. Everyone says how the Fantastic Four is about the family and big, cosmic ideas, and while that’s true, no one has been able to take that concept and push it into the 21st century. Mark Waid and Dwayne McDuffie have probably come the closest in recent years, but in my opinion, they fell just short. And yet, in just two issues I’ve seen the potential of someone doing just that; building upon what we know and believe makes the Fantastic Four special and pushing it forward; not too far forward, but just enough to make it feel fresh and vital again. They’ve started out on the right foot, shipping on time (I even remember what happened in the last issue #570 without having to think too hard), and are bringing the quality right out of the gate.
How so? Well for instance, this issue begins with Mr. Fantastic, along with various parallel versions of himself, armed with Ultimate Nullifiers, fighting Galactus on Earth-2012. In the first three pages. Talk about facing one of the tropes of the Fantastic Four head on, and just shoving it out of the way. Ever since the classic tale of the Fantastic Four vs. Galactus as told by Lee and Kirby in the 60s, all creators seemed to treat Galactus with such reverence, using him as some sort of “oh shit!” moment, again and again, until the point where 40 years later, I’m pretty much non-plussed when I see the big guy in purple. Bringing him in early, and disposing of it quickly, Hickman has made a ballsy statement, proving that he is inching the Fantastic Four back into relevancy with new, big ideas.
In the last issue, we ended with the climax of Reed Richards being introduced to “The Council,” a group made up of Reed Richards from the various parallel earths and issue #571 shows us more about the mysterious alterna-Reeds from around the Marvel multiverse, specifically the leaders. Three Reeds wearing Infinity Gauntlets who spend a week with Reed as he learns about how they have solved hunger and done good for the world, and how they’ve solved evil and have dealt with the constant threat of Doctor Doom, and how they have the power to do the impossible. A question is posed to our Reed as to whether or not he will join them. His decision is interrupted by another big idea in the Marvel bag of tricks that makes perfect sense and shows just how far Hickman is willing to take this.
Even with his masterful use of the concept of the Marvel multiverse and the exercise of learning more about these Alterna-Reeds, Hickman does not lose sight of the personality of the Fantastic Four, with a scene of the whole family in the beginning of the book. The scene is brief and not particularly unique in any way, but it flows effortlessly. Hickman has shown early that he has a handle on what makes this family work and the dialogue/banter between them is a blast to read. Part of me thinks that he could forget all the “big” ideas and just write a family book and it would work.
Listen to me, gushing about Hickman and his writing and completely glossing over the other amazing aspect of this book: Dale Eaglesham’s art. Again, the shadow of Stan and Jack looms large and I find it immensely gutsy of Eaglesham to take a direct inspiration from Kirby’s vision of the Fantastic Four. I love it. It’s reminiscent of Kirby, while being completely unique to Eaglesham’s body of work. The style is clean, with coloring being done directly to Eaglesham’s pencils by the talented Paul Mounts. So the end result is almost like what we could expect if Kirby was penciling Fantastic Four today, as opposed to 40 years ago. Eaglesham’s imagination is already being put to the test with these alterna-Reeds, making each one unique and yet vaguely familiar. I don’t think there was a single page that I didn’t linger on after I read it, admiring the layouts, composition and character expressions. This is some of the best work I’ve ever seen from Eaglesham and I want to savor it.
Ultimately, I enjoyed this issue so much, I could even look past a typo in the dialogue, as the epic story and art completely obliterated any chance to nitpick about it. It’s simply just that good.
So let me eat my words. I hope that the rest of you heed my advice, jump on board early and help thrust Fantastic Four back to the top of the comic sales charts, because if the future of this title is anything like this issue, then we’re in for a hell of a ride.
Ron Richards
“…This morning, I rode the bus to work while reading Twitter…”
ron@ifanboy.com
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My pick of the week as well. Here’s what I posted about this elsewhere:
Fantastic Four this week is quite possibly perfection. Whoever said this run is going to be legendary was totally correct. This is going to be the definitive Reed (and by extension FF) story. My god. It’s everything a Fantastic Four book should be. Hopefully Hickman ends up illustrating an arc of this himself. So much fun. If a kid walks into a comic store for the first time and picks this up (a reach, I know), he’s going to be into comics forever just like those kids who read The Dark Phoenix saga so long ago.
Yup, that was the best FF issue I’ve ever read.
I hate you guys , now I have to add another book to my pull list. I am buying 12 books a week now.
Wow, I’ve been reading comics in issue format for about 5 months and this is the first time I’ve ever had the same POTW as the site on Ron’s week. More importantly, after checking I noticed this is the first time I’ve picked a Marvel book. But let’s face it, this was one badass comic book.
It just kept building, showing you all aspects of The Council. I’ve never read Fantastic Four before 570, so I don’t know if the marital tension between Sue and Reed is new or not, but I really like it. Fantastic Four is the poster child for comic book cheesiness, so it’s nice to see some drama in the mix. Not being too into Marvel, I had to look up why the ending was a big deal, but now I’m definitely interested.
I’d have to give moment of the week to either the argument between Johnny and Franklin, or to the cat bath scene in Power Girl. Just a thought… since moments of the week are mentioned more and more frequently on the audio podcast, why not just make them official someway… either all three hosts naming them in a mini-segment on the show, or something on the site like The Best of the Week in Covers? I guess the audio show kinda unofficially serves this purpose, but it’s something to consider…
Terrific choice, Ron!
The December issue of FF apparently has Neil Edwards on pencils. After having grown to like Eaglesham’s art, I was hoping for a lengthy run from the current creative team.
I apologize if this was mentioned in the review. I haven’t received the issue yet.
I was really looking forward to this, knowing just how classy the first issue was. Then I found out it was on a list of 6-8 Marvel books that won’t be shipping to the UK this week. No reason why, just disappeared into some giant shipping hole somewhere. Very disappointing…
I’m with Slockhart on this one. This is also the first time my personal POTW was picked early and had it match the site’s POTW. And it couldn’t have happened with a better issue. This thing smacked of so much awesome. Reed kinda being a dick to Susan, the Reeds discussing the Farm, and the beautiful spread of Galactus made this an easy pick for me in a week of 5 star books.
Now I really can’t wait to hear you discuss this come Sunday.
I’ve really liked the first 2 issues as well and will now be reading the FF ongoing for the first time ever.
One of the things I found most interesting is that the focus has been on Mr. Fantastic. Everything else so far is just a footnote. It’s about him feeling his own wasted potential and perhaps even feeling his own mortality as he sees his son getting older. Good stuff.
mine as well.
My POW as well. While the art in Detective Comics absolutely floored me, Hickman wrote the best script of the week. This arc is well on its way to being one of my favorite reads of 2009.
I’m glad to hear FF is actually good. I don’t recall the last time I heard that. Good for Hickman.
I’ve relegated this to trade wait status, but it sounds great. Definitely looking forward to it, and enjoying the enthusiasm in Ron’s review.
‘Detective’ was my pick, great use of color and panel space; I’m still thinking about it.
I’m glad to see everyone on board for the FF. The FF have been my favorite Marvel Team since I was a kid and it is nice to see Hickman give them a much needed revitalization.
This is totally Pick of the Week!
This book was my pick of the week as well. Absolutely great in every way. I particularly loved Reed defending himself from Sue’s inevitable attack by arguing that the subject he’s most versed in is HER.
I don’t want to be the guy who does this, but I can’t help myself…
@ Ron
Nonplussed… you keep using this word. I do not think it means what you think it means. To be nonplussed is to be perplexed or bewildered, you seem to be using it in the context of being "ho-hum". Just an FYI, I don’t mean to be snarky, just pointing it out. After all I can never keep straight which of "all of a sudden" or "all of the sudden" is correct, so it’s not like I’m the be all and end all of proper word usage.
Awesome. Absolutely awesome. I loved the whole book from "I’d really rather have Spider-Man" to "I’ve studied you the most" and "I’ve got a little Doom in me." Again, awesome!
In a week of great comics, this was my most anticipated book of the week, yet I somehow left the store without it in my pile. Lo and behold, Ron, Conor, Josh, and Paul give it 5 stars and 3 of them make it the pick of the week! Now I have to decide if I go back to the store this week just for this issue, or wait until next Wednesday. I feel iffy about waiting because the last time this happened to me, I forgot to buy Captain America #25, even though my store had it that Wednesday, but of course they were sold out by the next week. Oh boy.
makes me want to delve into ff continuity… but i won’t
I want fat reed to trade places with our reed, it would be pure awesome. I wonder what Hickman is going to do with Doom, the Reeds said he was the universe’s biggest threat so hopefully we will get a epic showdown of a million Reeds vs. a million Dooms. POW for me, cant wait for the next one.
Doom?
Excellent pick Ron! This was going to be my POTW, until I saw the gorgeous art in Detective 857 and it almost brought a tear to my eye.
Ah, see what joy a crossover-free Marvel comic with a good creative team can bring?
Goddamit, I was actually holding a copy of this issue in my LCS but then I made the bonehead decision to PUT IT BACK ON THE SHELF! This, of course, is the second time in a row I’ve done this with the book becoming POTW, as I was in the same scenario last week w/ Vengance of the Moon Knight.
Superman: Secret Origins #1 was my POTW because Johns is working his mojo like he did with Green Lantern and Flash, and making me care about the Superman mythos.
Yeah, I just read this last night and was blown away. I haven’t read all my books yet, but so far it’s either this or Superman: Secret Origin for POTW. I’m really glad I jumped on FF last issue.
Superman Secret Origin #1 is my POW. This pick is an big improvement over last weeks good job Rob.
Matthew
@mguy77 did you read Vengeance of Moon Knight? There wasn’t one criticism that I could come up with for that book. I think it was a great pick!!!
Nope.
Old Man Logan was the correct pick!
I really enjoyed FF and Superman: Secret Origin. Both were 4-star books for me. 5-star books were probably Detective and Spider-woman (I just had to ignore that I had "read" the motion comic). 5 stars because they were just excellent in both writing and art.
However, my PICK went to Immortal Weapons #3. Odd, among a week of great comics, but… I read it late at night and it totally engaged me. I hadn’t expected to care about the Dog Brother #1 story… but it was really quite good. It resonated with me more than any of the other books.
Old Man Logan was dumb fun but it delivered on its Western premise. Wednesday Comics had a mix of good and bland endings (surprisingly, I thought Supergirl had one of the best wrap-ups). Madame Xanadu wrapped up its arc with a slightly generic ending, which is too bad, since I had been championing that new arc from the start. Oh, and X-men: The List was a pretty good story as well.
A very astute review, i thoroughly enjoyed this book, one scene that really struck me was the the conversation between Sue and Reed. Where Reed begins to sound like a pompous ass then turns it around on a dime into in his nerdy science way is romantic and shows his love for his wife. I began reading FF regularly during Civ war and had not been very impressed by it, but i’m so glad now that i have stay with it otherwise i would have most likely missed this great creative team and their stories. X-men the list was ultimately my pick but this would be a co-pick if i had the choice.
I love Jonathan Hickman, I think his FF run will be memorial. I love this pick as well…..but for some reason I am trade waiting on this. Fantastic Four doesn’t interest me enough to pick up in issues, even with Hickman as writer. Besides, I’ve learned collecting his work in trade is much better then in issues. Cause you get the entire story in one dose and not get confused issue by issue. I tried following Secret Warriors in issues, but that got me no where. Still I’m sure this is just as great as advertised.
My pick was Superman Secret Origins by the by. Fantastic start to flesh out Superman’s beginnings and everything about it had a warm hearted; golden age feel to it. Also helps that Gary Frank did some of his best work in this issue as well.
I have to say this issue had an uphill battle to be POTW, but hell, if it did it. I’m a big fan of the Waid/Weirengo run and this immediately reminded me of that run and classic Lee/Kirby stuff all the while being its own thing. Awesome stuff.
Wow, I used to love the FF, I always look back fondly on the Byrne run. But I haven’t cared about them since the whole Johnny married a skrull story-line. It’d be great to enjoy the book again. That said, I’ll wait for the floppy.
The sooner Eaglesham is off the faster I can start enjoying Hickman’s run on this.
Wowee wow wow! Pick of the week for Ron, Conor, Josh, and Paul! Sweeeep! Even that old grump Kimski gave it 4 stars, which is mighty high praise indeed.
I think Eaglesham is just about perfect for the FF. He draws Reed and Sue like Kirby did.
I’ve never been an FF fan, but with as much good talk as there is surrounding this book, I might have to start picking up Hickman’s run.
i’m a little "nonplussed" as to why Old man Logan wasn’t choosen….
No, This was really good. Deserving of the pick
I was thinking while reading my comics, "What will POTW be this week?" on Ifanboy, yes I think of you guys 😉
My POTW as well. I haven’t loved FF this much since Dwayne McDuffie’s run.
It’s sad to see a brilliant original like Hickman sell out for a buck and start writing mainstream superhero junk. And he’s giving up his art, too. Ugh.
I hope Alan Moore slaps a hex on him for this crime.
@Browncoatjedi – Did you read the issue? Because if not, you’re literally just flaming. One of the only ways to make a career in comics is to write mainstream superhero comics, and a quick check of your pulllist indicates that you buy them too, or have. There is a way to be more constructive and that’s not it.
It would be cool to see Hickman do the art in this as well. How we does the art in Nightly News could totally work for Fantastic Four.
But Eaglesham is a great artist in his own style; so I won’t complain. More I see this as pick though; less I wanna wait for trade and pick it up in issues.
My pick to this was very fun to read, Hickman gets this stuff so much more than I thought he would I am glad he amped up the whacky factor even more than in the Mini. Plus he has me interested in child characters, hmmm that sounded bad, What I mean is at least they are not boring little also rans or silly gag moments in this and the first issue
Digging the throwback Logo to the 1970’s FF books of my youth… awesome.
I really like Eaglesham’s Reed. Feels Kirby-esque.
I want to read this comic, but my LCS got shorted on it’s order. And of course, it’s pick of the week.
I feel like my avatar.
When was the last time all three of you guys made the same comic as Pick of the Week?
I just noticed josh and conor made this their pick as well.
Detective 854 a couple months back I think.
This was a great pick, and Hickman is one of those rare writers who seems to shine in mainstream work as well as his independent work.
i just had a chance to read this. A really really good issue.
If i could speculate about what will happen next… The council of Reeds will turn out to be bad dudes, yeah? I could see that they might eventually force our Reed to hurt our Sue as a strange initiation.
The collection of Dooms will be freed. Maybe coming back at other point further down the line in the story.
But Let’s talk about Old Man Logan… i thought it was oddly disappointing. I think it has a ot to do with the Hulk eating Logan. That was stupid
That was a little questionable, however it was also awesome! How many times has Wolvie actually beaten the Hulk? Is this the first?
Loved this book, and would love to see Hickman do art for at least one issue during his run while writing it.
@Kickass: If you think that you were reading this issue wrong.
I have another comment to add…
Doom?
Great review! Loved this book as well. It’s a meaty story that "keeps on giving", complemented by some of the best art in the biz today. And I gotta admit I kinda like beefy Reed, heh.
Doom?
Srsly though, Immortal Weapons #3 took away the pick from Fantastic Four #571.
A definite five star book. This is some good comics. My POW, however, was definitely the Old Man Logan Finale. I grinned like an idiot the whole time I read it. Great stuff.
@Neb: xD! I had the same expression. This was a strong week. I almost had to really think about it:
Old Man Logan?
Immortal Weapons #3?
FF 571?
Cuz ya know it wasn’t going to be anything else, blackest night wasn’t around, thank god. I didn’t really see any tie ins either.
Why does everyone keep saying, "in just two issues"? The bridge concept goes all the way back to the beginning of the Dark Reign Fantastic Four series where the 4 get stuck in other worlds because Norman Osbourne comes in and pulls the plug on them. This is actually Hickman’s 7th FF issue if you factor in that series which has a hell of a lot of relevance to the current arc. I can assure you that and I didn’t even read the last two issues of it yet!! Guess I’ll just get the trade now?
FF is great now though. I definitely don’t want to argue about that.
@robby: That’s actually a good point. This isn’t his only 2nd attempt at the FF. But I think in the grand scheme of things; this is Hickman doing the FF his own way. Cause while not all of the Dark Reign mini was Osborn doing dirty deeds, Hickman probably had to do a rough outline for Marvel to make it relevent to the status quo. But yeah it sounds like for the last seven issues of Hickman FF; it’s a big hit.
@robbydzwonar
Because most people have only been reading this for 2 issues and this is the main book.
I’ve only read 2 issues.
It is written and it well be known.
Josh is
I LOVE the Fantastic Four. It is easily my favorite "team book" in comics. Yes, I know they are a family and not a team, but I am referring to a book that features several super heroes on a monthly basis. I love everything about them. I love the characters. I think they are some of the deepest, best constructed characters in comics history. I love their powers. i love the villains, who are so much more than just Doom when given the chance. I love the wacky cosmic adventures and the crazy concepts. I love this book. I’ve read a ton of it over the years, from the Lee Kirby stuff that started it all all the way through to the current day. Whether the book is a hit or an afterthought, I’ve usually been there. The Millar/Hitch run broke my heart. I hated that run. I hated the stories, I hated the art, I hated it in every way. I was reading it, seeing what was being done to one of my all time favorite series, and I just could not wait for it to end. I read Hickman’s first issue, and it gave me a lot of hope for the future of the series. Then I read the second issue, and I almost cried tears of joy. The book that I love is BACK. Thank you, Hickman and Eaglesham!
Also, Old Man Logan did not compare to this at all. OML was a lot of fun, but it was a very simple, completely predictable and unoriginal plot, with some cool moments that tried to make the violence interesting and some great artwork. It was a story line that was really nothing special at all, but done by excellent craftsmen. And there was no reason to make it last that long. It easily could have been a 2 or 3 issue arc. The only thing padding it out was Millar’s sick imagination and writing Bruce Banner ridiculously out of character. If it was 1985, this would have been a one issue story and lost nothing in the condensing. It was fun, don’t get me wrong, but it never even entered my mind as a Pick of the Week contender. Fantastic Four stayed with me and had me longing for the next issue. Old Man logan, which started great, just had me glad it was over.
Detective Comics was my pick. SO awesome, my eyeballs almost imploded while reading it.
I think i’m gonna drop a title and start picking up this book, or until this runs over.
I’ll be giving it a try after reading that review – thanks ron.
For all the McNiven and OML fans, you should check out Marvel Knights 4. Good Fantastic Four series and features McNivens first work for Marvel.
@ifanboys:
looking over my profile, I did not make some of those comments like the one above. Has this happened to other people? There was also a comment about me wanting to "plug power girl."
I know I did not say those things, it’s just not me. And I gave up smoking tons of pot 2 years ago.