Written by: Dan Slott
Art by: Sara Pichelli
Published by: Marvel Comics
After the five year absence the original Marvel Family comes home.
Question on everyone’s mind is:” was it worth the wait?” The book certainly looks pretty with Sara Pichelli on the art duties, but the book seems as more of an extension of Marvel Two in One and less like a proper Fantastic Four book. It seems like this is a Fantastic Four 0 issue.
Slott after years of working on Amazing Spiderman has taken the reigns of Fantastic Four. There are some interesting developments here that happen; especially around Ben Grimm aka “The Thing” but the book is littered with flashbacks that are meant to reintroduce old readers and show the new readers what exactly happened to the Fantastic Four.
By doing this however, the book splits the expectations of what exactly it is trying to be. Is this going to be a continuation of the story that ended so many years ago or is it going to be a brand new start where new readers are going to be able to jump onboard and enjoy these adventures. It is that split that acts a determent to this issue; even though the characterization and the motives of the characters are on par.
Sara Pichelli really deserved this book. She has been doing stellar work for Marvel for many years now, from Ultimate Spider-Man to Guardians of the Galaxy and beyond, that it is nice to see that she gets such a flagship title under her belt. One could say it is THE flagship title of the Marvel universe. After all it is the book that put them on the map.
Her art here continues to astonish with some subtle changes to her previous style but not enough to make it unrecognizable. She really manages to adjust to drawing these characters in a new light and manages to put her own spin to the designs with keeping them instantly recognizable. It is almost that Marvel gave her Guardians of the Galaxy if as to test her, and if the first issue is any indication her art will certainly not disappoint here.
Fantastic Four was a book that was missing from Marvel catalogue from a while. It was a void that was certainly missed regardless of anyone’s views why it was there. It is great to see the book back and hopefully it will have more of an epic feel going forward and maybe issue #2 will be a true Fantastic Four book.
If you are longtime fan of Fantastic Four fan you are going to be pleased that the book is back even with it not hitting all the notes and if you are a new reader you can get a small sense of what this book meant for lot of people and why it is a staple in the Marvel Universe.
