Last night, I got caught up on the adventures of the Fantastic Four. I read four new FFs and the recently revived Fantastic Four #600 and 601. It's really no surprise that Marvel came back with the long-running Fantastic Four comic. By "ending" with #588 last year, I figured Marvel would run the title FF for a year (12 issues) and then come back with #600. It was just too coincidental. I assume Marvel didn't think about FF doing so well, though, and so now they've decided to keep both Fantastic Four and FF. And, to my knowledge, this is the first time that the Fantastic Four has had two ongoing monthlies at one time (with the exception of The Thing comic back in the 1980s (which I really enjoyed!)).
 |
| Fantastic Four #236 (1981) |
The Fantastic Four was the first comic to get me hooked on comics. I picked up several issues at my local comic book store in the early 80s and got hooked when John Byrne was writing and drawing "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine." His amazing illustration lured me, but it was his character portrayal that kept me around. I loved the realism he put into each story and his development of Sue Storm from weakest member of the team to the strongest. He showed her getting pregnant, having a miscarriage, and taking on the dark Malice personality, etc. He not only showed Sue as powerful, but he made use of Reed and Sue's son, Franklin, as well, by making the future Franklin Richards into a person to be feared.
 |
| Fantastic Four #275 |
I also loved the romance between Johnny Storm and Frankie Raye, as well as the love triangle(!!) between Johnny, Ben Grimm, and Ben's long-time blind girlfriend Alicia Masters. Byrne was all about developing relationships, and that really made the comic stand out. And when The Thing stayed behind on the Secret Wars planet, Byrne added She-Hulk to the mix, thereby adding a lot of "fun" to the book and equaling out the gender ratio of the team.
 |
| Fantastic Four #554 (2008) |
After quitting comics in the mid 1990s, I began reading the Fantastic Four again with issue #554 in 2008 when Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch came onboard as the new creative team. Unfortunately, the series has been "meh," even with the change in writers and artists over the past few years. And none of the team members look attractive. Johnny looks like he's got a receding hairline and couldn't possibly be the ladies' man he's made out to be.
 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #657 |
Even the story "Three," in which Johnny Storm dies, wasn't (pardon the pun) fantastic. In fact, Amazing Spider-Man #657 did a better job of handling grief and showing emotion than the Fantastic Four's own comic(s).
After the "final issue" of the Fantastic Four, the new comic (and team) FF came out. It was slightly better than the original, but still lacked the "oomph" of Byrne's Fantastic Four. Only when Barry Kitson is illustrating do the characters really stand out and look attractive again. That was what I first thought upon reading FF #10 last night. The colors throughout each panel were so vibrant, too.
 | ||
| From FF #10, but I'm unclear as to why Sue and Reed are wearing around their costumes to water their plants. Don't they have any sweatpants or anything? |
Sadly, with FF #12, Kitson is gone again, and the art by Juan Bobillo flounders in comparison. And, with the team returning to the reinstated Fantastic Four comic, is the Future Foundation (FF) team now just a larger version of Power Pack, made up of just the random children (human and non) living in the Baxter Building with Sue and Reed's kids? This version of FF probably won't last.
So I'm not sure what the future holds for Fantastic Four or FF. Can they ever return to true greatness? At least Barry Kitson is returning for Fantastic Four #602. Let's hope Marvel wises up and keeps him around. The Fantastic Four really deserve to be more visually appealing to their readers. Now, how about that character development so they can actually be deserving of "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" title?
No comments:
Post a Comment