By J. Michael Straczynski, Mike McKone, Andy Lanning & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-9774821-5-3
The Fantastic Four has long been rightly regarded as the most pivotal series in modern comicbook history, responsible for introducing both a new style of storytelling and a decidedly different manner of engaging the readers’ impassioned attentions.
More family than team, the line-up has changed many times over the years but always eventually returned to Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s original configuration of Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing, who jointly formed the vanguard of modern four-colour heroic history.
The quartet are actually maverick genius Reed Richards, his wife Sue, their trusty college friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s obnoxious, impetuous younger brother Johnny Storm; survivors of an independent space-shot which went horribly wrong once ferociously mutative Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.
When they crashed back to Earth, the foursome found that they had all been hideously changed into outlandish freaks. Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible and form force-fields, Johnny could turn into self-perpetuating living flame, and poor, tormented Ben was transformed into a horrifying brute who, unlike his comrades, could not return to a semblance of normality on command.
The sheer simplicity of four archetypes – mercurial boffin, self-effacing distaff, solid everyman and hot-headed youth, uniting to triumph over accident and adversity – shone under Lee’s irreverent humanity coupled to Kirby’s rampant imagination and tirelessly emphatic sense of adventure.
Decades of erratic quality and floundering plotlines followed the original creators’ departures, but from the beginning of the 21st century Marvel’s First Family experienced a steady and sustained climb in quality which culminated in their own film franchise, currently experiencing its own radical reboot.
The return to top-quality was the result of hard work by a number of “Big Ideas†writers and this slim hardback compilation – re-presenting Fantastic Four #527-532 (August 2005-January 2006) – celebrates the transition from one to another. When J. Michael Straczynski took over “The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine†– with illustrators Mike McKone & Andy Lanning providing sublime visuals – he looked back at the most fundamental moment of the long-lived franchise and found something new to play with…
It all begins with ‘Distant Music’ as an tortured ancient creature asks a devastating question which has shattered many worlds over the ages before cutting to Earth and now where a currently impoverished but still relentlessly inquisitive Reed Richards is unfortunately about to ask the same thing…
Happily he is distracted by wife Sue who drags him to dinner just as the team’s accountant is delivering a shocking piece of news to Ben Grimm. Apparently the rocky pauper has just become one of the richest men on Earth…
Another lucky distraction arrives in the form of Nick Fury, keen on mending fences whilst politely ordering his former friend to join a secret government project.
As Ben lets his newfound affluence go straight to his head, Reed reluctantly heads for Nevada and a hidden lab where scientists are trying to determine exactly why the ever-present Cosmic Rays beyond Earth have affected nobody to the extent they did the Fantastic Four so long ago.
Now Chief Researcher Dr. Stephen Crane claims to have discovered those particular mutative radiations were of a most specific configuration and that they are about to repeat for the first time in years…
To exploit the event he and his government backers have replicated almost all the factors in Richard’s originating space-shot and now just need Reed to fine-tune the details of his long-wrecked ship: details absolutely necessary before America can send up a platoon of ordinary patriotic grunts and bring back a legion of unstoppable super-soldiers…
The unappetising mission continues in ‘Random Factors’ with Reed’s distaste growing and his suspicions further fuelled, even as in the Big Apple Ben’s monetary excesses continue.
Sue meanwhile is keeping a secret of her own. Simone Debouvier of New York’s Division of Child Welfare has just informed her of an official investigation. State authorities are concerned that the Fantastic Four’s lifestyle pose a danger to children and are looking into taking young Franklin and Valeria Richards away from their obsessively do-gooding parents…
When a full test goes catastrophically wrong in Nevada, Reed finds himself under suspicion of committing sabotage and with the military on his heels escapes back to New York in ‘Appointment Overdue’. He lands right in the middle of a family crisis but can’t stop to deal with it because he is carrying a terrifying piece of news: the specific Cosmic Rays which transformed amateur astronauts into superheroes might actually have been a carefully constructed message. Moreover the communication from the great unknown is due to repeat imminently…
After depositing the kids on the Moon with the Inhumans even as General Clement Bragg leads troops into the Baxter Building, the FF blast off in their own spaceship to intercept the cosmic communiqué before once more crashing to Earth in a desolate region.
This time however an astounding entity which has been abiding within the energy message crawls out of the wreckage with them but Bragg’s rapidly responding forces are less than interested in learning ‘Truth in Flight’ and open fire on the creature. Much to their regret…
The entity is in mysterious communication with Ben and possesses bizarre space-warping abilities, so in an eye-blink it ferries the cosmic quartet back to the city where the tragic story of the ancient truth seeker – so much like Reed – is an amazing confirmation of how some traits transcend species.
Sadly, the quester also has obsessive enemies of near-divine power and they have noticed the Entity’s re-manifestation. In an instant the skies are filled with colossal vessels determined to end the searcher – and any other beings it might have infected with dangerous inquisitiveness – in ‘Many Questions, Some Answered’ and to save everything Reed must embark on the most momentous extended trip in all the annals of creation, realising at long last ‘Any Day Now… I Shall Be Released’…
Winningly combining stellar spectacle with apocalyptic action and hilarious low comedy, this splendid romp comes supplemented with a cover gallery by McKone &Lanning plus a brief picture feature on the artist’s ‘Thing Reference Sculpture’.
Funny, warm, challenging and exhilarating, this fast-paced, tension-soaked chronicle provides all the thrills and chills a devoted Costumed Drama lover could ever want.
© 2005 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.