The last issue of FF was by far the worst of the series to date. It had a confusing story and more importantly a pretty shitty artist on board. So instead of moving away from all the Inhuman’s mess, Hickman once again goes further into the ressurection of Black Bolt. Also we still have Greg Tocchini as artist…..This is gonna be a long read….

To be fair, let me put Hickman down on this review too because he’s also the culprit of some bad choices in this issue. There is absolutely no drama in this story. Even if you read the entire Abnett and Lanning space opera (especially with War of Kings) you still wouldn’t find much enjoyment out of this. We get a confusing mess of Black Bolt, somehow, returning to his people and also getting right into the War of the Four Cities. You’d also think that the return of a somewhat major character would be dedicated to a few pages of happiness with his people. We don’t get any of that. Black Bolt quickly gets back on the throne and the characters pretend he never left in the first place. Again with no real drama or stakes so far with his return, I get the feeling that Black Bolt isn’t really important to the story even though that can’t be the case here. Also, whatever is integral to Ronan the Accuser didn’t make much sense but hopefully Hickman will use it to some degree in the future.

After this issue we have to hope that Marvel, DC, or any other comic company will never hire Greg Tocchini again. His pencils, once again, are just laughable and just plain unfinished in some cases. It’s a shame because there are flashes of some decent layouts. The panel of Black Bolt fighting the tentacle monster, or his ship landing on the Moon should be impressive. But instead they are drawn very lazily and his inking actually ‘smushes’ the art to make it look more ugly. His character’s are also a joke, with some looking like they are missing their skull or their eyeballs are completely missing. The drawing of the Evil Reed Richards towards the end is a joke.

Thankfully, and don’t call this a spoiler because I am saving you right now, Steve Epting seems to be back on the book next week. Let’s pray that Tocchini will never get involved in an integral book every again. But blame should also go to Hickman as well because he tells a boring and somewhat confusing mess of a return for Black Bolt. Yes he might be important to the ‘War of the Four Cities’ storyline, but there was absolutely no reasoning behind these two issue fillers that you couldn’t tell in a single issue. I still want to say that FF is the best Marvel book being published now, but this two issue arc definitely hurt that title thanks to some poor writing and shitty art.