Ah, Prime Rib and Filet Mignon have come to Fantastic Four. Well, Millar’s kinda Weird Brother of Prime Rib at this point (sorry) but I digress. I dropped this title after the second issue of McDuffie’s run and was really looking forward to the Authority/Ultimates team making this book formidable again. Let’s just say ONE of these fine folks is doing his damnest. To be fair, Millar certainly has the dialogue down but really, for the first issue of a four part story we should get more than three pages of actual story progression. Really, the entire first half of this story is kind of a waste. Sure, the humor’s alright, but the equation between the two isn’t balanced at all.

Meanwhile, Bryan Hitch is busy taking every page and making me want to eat it. If only this were printed in edible ink…

But yeah, Hitch gets an extraordinary number of great set pieces to awe us with and succeeds on all fronts. If anything I’d say this issue is worth picking up just to see him draw our heroes on a runaway train in the 1600’s.

I have high hopes that the next issue will be great now that we’re moving into a story instead of the Mark Millar Presents: The Fantastic Four Super Fun-Time Family Hour (minus the family).

PS: If the F4 logo weren’t on  the cover twice and the stupid magazine style headlines weren’t cluttering it up this would be just about the best cover dress on the shelves.