F
Fantastic Four: The End Is Fourever
featuring James Robinson, Karl Kesel, Louise Simonson, Tom DeFalco and Jeff Parker
(Art by Leonard Kirk, Karl Kesel, Scott Hanna, Joe Bennett, Marcio Loerzer, David Marquez, Tom Grummett, Tom Palmer and Pascal Campion)
Book 4. The Quiet Man and Psycho Man have brought the Fantastic Four low, with Reed captured, Johnny depowered, Ben framed for murder and Sue desperately seeking her missing children. The villains then unleash a worldwide attack from monsters and duplicates of heroes stolen from the pocket 'Reborn' dimension created by Franklin Richards.
This is clearly billed as the last ever Fantastic Four story. And if you believe that, you'll believe anything. Nevertheless, the writers set out to send Marvel's First Family off with a bang, facing a world-threatening disaster that can only be overcome with their teamwork. Basically, the bread and butter of what FF comics have always been about. Throw in the Avengers, the Hulk, surprising help from old enemies, plus a welcome return for the Sleepwalker (you might not have heard of him, but I used to be a big fan) and what you get is a really enjoyable all-action romp.
I also liked that, after the main event is over, we get a series of more thoughtful and heartfelt vignettes focusing on the FF and their family. The book then ends with journalist Ben Urich writing a retrospective 'Where were you when...?' about the formation of the FF, which shows various Marvel characters in their lives before the dawn of the Age of Heroes heralded by Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny being exposed to those cosmic rays.
4 out of 5
Fantastic Four: The Movie
featuring Mike Carey, Stan Lee, Marv Wolfman and Mark Waid
(Art by Dan Jurgens, Sandu Florea, Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, Sal Buscema, Tony Dezuniga, Mark Wieringo and Karl Kesel)
A tie-in to the 2005 FF movie, this collection contains the adaptation of the movie itself, the 1962 story where the heroes meet Doctor Doom for the first time and two tales, from 1978 and 2002, looking back over the histories of Marvel's First Family.
The movie adaptation (previously reviewed separately here) is a perfectly good, slightly updated, retelling of the FF's origins. It's not amazing but, unlike the movie it's adapting, it isn't bound by early-2000s special effects and therefore looks much better than the movie ever did (unless you factor in how gorgeous Jessica Alba is... or Chris Evans, for that matter...).
The second story, by the legendary combo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby goes all the way back to #5 of the FF and I was intrigued to see how their first encounter with Doom went down. I was certainly surprised. There's the usually scenery-chewing megalomaniac stuff from Doom, but the story takes a dramatic turn when it's revealed that he's captured the FF in order to send them back in time to find Blackbeard's treasure. What follows involves the male members of the FF (Sue is, sadly, just the captive damsel in distress at this point) putting on pirate gear and sailing the seven seas. I was so dumbfounded by this weird tangent that I actually think I rather liked it. Much better than the usual 'death ray' sort of plot that Doom became famous for in later years. I also enjoyed the Easter Egg of Johnny Storm reading #1 of The Incredible Hulk.
The story from 1978 is the worst of the bunch here, being little more than the Thing listing off a bunch of things that have happened in FF comics in the preceding decade-and-a-half.
The final story features a marketing executive spending time with the FF in order to define their brand for merchandising purposes. Unfortunately, it's so transparently a vehicle for relaunching the FF in the real world that everything feels too on-the-nose. It's a Fantastic Four comic book story about why you should buy Fantastic Four comics and that's meta, but in the most depressing way.
3 out of 5