I’ve been a fan of the FF since I first saw the terrible cartoon show from the 90s. What made it so god awful (besides the lack of talent or budget on the project) was that the Fantastic Four was made into a team of super-heroes. This is so wrong. The FF are a family first, heroes second. It should always be a mixture of the mundane and the cosmic. I want to read stories with Johnny and Ben going back in time to settle if Lincoln was taller than George Washington or Reed and Sue going to an alien world with the kids on a family vacation, only to have Reed get side tracked with something causing a disaster. The Fantastic Four are a family of adventures who attempt to lead normal lives with fantastic devices and machines. Hickman has tapped into this already and it’s firing on all cylinders. The makings of a cosmic adventure start in this issue but it is all in the background. The main premises of this book is Franklin Richards birthday party, an average mundane family tradition. Instead of your average guest of Sally and Jimy from class, you get Artie and Leach, the Power Pack, and Spider-Man. I was glad to see the Wizard Clone show up in this issue. I was afraid Hickman was going to drop the character. His exchange with Sue was great and eerily creepy. Moments like that enrich this book and create the sacred and the profane atmosphere that make the Fantastic Four great. Not to mention the best present Franklin Richards could ever ask for, relevancy in the Marvel Universe again.

Elijah aka
the Cold War Kid