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Fantastic Four By Jonathan Hickman, Vol. 4 (2011)

by Jonathan Hickman(Favorite Author)

4.29 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0785151435 (ISBN13: 9780785151432)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Marvel

series

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman

review 1: And this is what it all comes down to. I knew what was going to happen and still I was shocked at how emotional it (and I) got. The last issue was by far my favorite of the entire series - really, really well done. When reading this volume, I was confused here and there, and I couldn't properly follow all the different storylines. I read the first three volumes a while ago, so I should've reread them before starting this one but alas, I was too impatient. All in all, I was never really too excited about this series - though the third volume was definitely my favorite as it picked up all the threads from the first two volumes well and made the story cohesive.Unfortunately, another change of artist. I know it's normal to change illustrators but ah, I fucking hate it. I have ... moresuch difficulty adjusting and I just never got used to Epting. I hated the way he drew Johnny.
review 2: The Fantastic Four has been a book that most writers struggle with. Marvel's first family seemed to be a riddle for most writers through the 80's and 90's and rarely did anyone seem to get the book just right. Englehart made radical and completely silly changes, like bringing on Crystal of the Immortals and Ms. Marvel to replace a retired Sue and Reed. Before that we even saw She-Hulk join the team (although I really loved Byrne's work on the book). I just don't understand what was so hard for everyone to understand. Everything you need to know is written in the first 100 or so issues. Use Galactus, the Silver Surfer, Annihilus, Mole Man, Dr Doom, the Ultimate Nullifiier, etc, and keep up with the current tone of the other books in continuity. Instead, we got a lot of family-drama/time-travel that was completely convoluted, but quite a bit of fun at the time, for me. I fell off the Fantastic Four after Heroes Reborn, that marketiing ploy by Marvel to get people to buy the books with all the Image talent coming back into the fold. I just don't think that anyone understood that the classics work. You don't have to change the roster, you don't need to kill Sue Richards a time or two, there's no real reason for Franklin to come back as "Psi-Lord". Spider-man was fighting the same 10 villains for 50 years or so, and unless you come up with a classic like Venom, just don't bother with anything new. Fast forward about 10 years or so and I pick the book back up because Mark Millar is writing an arc and I'll be damned if the man isn't just too much fun. As with pretty much everything he does, it went completely over the top. But it got the book back on track. With Millar's run over, who better than Jonathan Hickman to take the reins. But Hickman disappointed me. It didn't seem like he could ever resolve an arc and he didn't segue one story into the next. Everything felt abrupt. It was like it was tripping over itself to get somewhere... but where?Volume Four is the culmination of Hickman's workk and I can say that in some respects it feels very satisfying. In others it is a complete let-down. All the work Hickman put in may have felt much more rewarding if he had comcluded some arcs, left a few open ends, and pulled loose threads toogether in this volume instead of making iit a barrage of the end of every story he wrote over the course of the book. At least Hickman gave us what we wanted- Surfer, Galactus, Annihilus, Mole Man. Hell, even Namor shows up. It's great. He has enough new ideas so that he isn't just recycling old stories, and enough of the characters we know and love to anchor us firmly to the book. The last part of this volume is touching, and Hickman doesn't need a bit of dialogue to make the loss powerful. We can also chalk that up to Dragotta's artwork. There is a moment at the end of the book with Spider-Man and Franklin, and it reminds me that the books shouldn't be all big, cosmic stories. A big part of the reason we read these books, any books, is that we need to relate to them. We need them to be human. At least for a minute.His years of building up to this may not have paid off the dividends we would have all liked, and the 2 or so years leading up was a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows, but Hickman really makes me feel liike he's laying a new framework for future writers on the book. Let's all just hope Matt Fraction doesn't tear it all down this November. less

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