FANTASTIC FOUR #587

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Avg Rating: 4.5
 
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Story by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Steve Epting

Size: pages
Price: 3.99

Here’s a problem I have with this big death in the Fantastic Four. Marvel just seemed to handle this in a very bizarre way. First they say to avoid spoilers they were going to polybag the issue (which they did). But yet they decided to release this a day earlier and then let the entire news media spoil it for everyone. It doesn’t make sense why they flipped flop so quickly but let me tell you something: They didn’t need to do any of this.

You didn’t need to polybag anything or make such a huge fuss about it. Yes a death of a character is big, and for this series losing a family member is huge. But the point of this arc wasn’t to kill a character off; it was about change. Every single character here has evolved whether it be physically, subconciously, or downright have a new title to their name. Hickman handles the death so professionally that when the character dies, it isn’t for shock value. The character dies by growing into an adult and trying to keep the family alive. Never for shock value, it’s just here to tell a story. So while Marvel is trying to gain attention for someone dying, Hickman is trying to tell a story that just so happens to have a death and not be the backbone of the story.

Getting to the end of this issue, a lot of things happen. Reed has to save an entire planet before Galactus destroys it, Sue has a huge political matter to deal with involving Namor, and Annihilus picked a bad time to invade Earth with Johnny and Ben at the Baxter Building. Hickman is able to bring all of these stories to a solid end point or even hinting at things to come for the future. While there are moments that seemed to designate as padding (especially involving the Kids) it all flows pretty well. Definitely there is a ‘best panel’ moment for me in this issue involving Sue and Namor but I’ll let you figure that out on your own.

Epting also continues to deliver with more amazing panels and a lot of tribute to Jack Kirby. He just handles all of the chaos (all four of them) very well and it’s never confusing to figure out what’s happening. Also, one minute it seems like this is an action movie with Ben/Johnny, and the next it’s a serious drama involving Sue and Namor. The best moment is where the death occurs and Epting handles it so well. From the moment where the character tries to stop him/her from sacrifice to the actual death itself; Epting handles it perectly. The last page really says it all with a great, emotional weight put on the character who had to witness it all.

So with the ridiculous hype, this book achieves so much more then a death in the family. Hickman handled the death perfectly well but also doesn’t make it the point of the issue. It’s all about moving on and growing up, at least that’s how I feel the message is with this arc. Every character has now changed in some way, shaped or form and it’ll be great to see where Hickman goes from here. Let’s just hope Hickman handles the death well from here on out and not make it a ‘sensation’ like how Marvel handled it.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 5 - Excellent

Comments

  1. Guaranteed it will outsell any other single Hickman written comic by about 500%
    ie– he has every reason to be happy. And the hype surrounding the death didnt even prevent most readers from enjoying these great FF issues either.  

  2. Great review. Great book.

  3. I liked how they didn’t make the death meaningless but I was hoping that Reed would be the one to kick it. Despite the death, the Namor/Sue panel was my favorite part. I also liked how Ben changed back at the last minute and how Johnny was obviously thinking, “that figures”.

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