{"id":33399,"date":"2025-07-24T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T08:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33399"},"modified":"2025-07-23T16:32:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T16:32:43","slug":"fantastic-four-the-life-fantastic-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/07\/24\/fantastic-four-the-life-fantastic-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic Four: The Life Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy J. Michael Straczynski<\/strong>, Karl Kesel<\/strong>, Dwayne McDuffie<\/strong>, Mike McKone<\/strong>, Drew<\/strong> Johnson<\/strong>, Casey Jones<\/strong>, Lee Weeks<\/strong> & various (Marvel)
\nISBN: 978-0-7851-1896-1 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Today sees the UK general release of the latest cinematic interpretation of the \u201cWorld\u2019s Greatest Comics Magazine\u201d. Here\u2019s a quirky book you could and should buy online and read in your Imax seat while all those other, lesser trailers waste your time prior to the big event. Thus we prove once again that it\u2019s never too late to catch up to the really good stuff…<\/em><\/p>\n

The Fantastic Four<\/strong> has long been rightly regarded as the most pivotal series in modern comic book history, responsible for introducing both a new style of storytelling and a radically different manner of engaging the readers\u2019 impassioned attentions. More family than team, the line-up has changed frequently over the years before always eventually and inevitably returning to Stan Lee & Jack Kirby\u2019s original configuration of Mister Fantastic<\/strong>, Invisible Woman<\/strong>, Human Torch<\/strong> and The Thing<\/strong>, who jointly comprised the vanguard of modern four-colour heroic history.<\/p>\n

The quartet are maverick supergenius Reed Richards<\/em>, his wife Susan<\/em>, their trusty college friend Ben Grimm<\/em> and Sue\u2019s obnoxious, impetuous younger brother Johnny Storm<\/em>; survivors of an independent space-shot which went horribly wrong once ferociously mutative Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship\u2019s inadequate shielding. When they crashed back to Earth, the foursome found all been hideously changed into outlandish freaks. Richards\u2019 body became elastic, and Sue gained the power to turn herself and other objects invisible – and latterly form forcefields. Johnny could more-or-less at will turn into self-perpetuating living flame, whilst poor, tormented Ben transformed into a horrifying brute. However, unlike his comrades, Grimm could not return to a semblance of normality on command… or at all…<\/p>\n

The sheer simplicity of four B-movie archetypes – mercurial boffin, self-effacing distaff, solid everyman and hot-headed youth – uniting to triumph over accident and adversity shone under Lee\u2019s irreverent humanity, coupled to Kirby\u2019s rampant imagination and tirelessly emphatic sense of adventure.<\/p>\n

Decades of erratic quality and floundering plotlines followed the original creators\u2019 departures, but from the beginning of the 21st<\/sup> century Marvel\u2019s First Family experienced a steady and sustained escalation in quality which culminated in repeated film attempts and a string of top-flight, radical reboots in their comic incarnations.<\/p>\n

The return to peak quality was the result of sheer hard work by a number of \u201cBig Ideas\u201d writers and this slim compilation – re-presenting Fantastic Four<\/strong> #533-535, and spanning January to April 2006, is one of the best, especially as its content is supplemented and bolstered by a selection of celebratory one-shots -specifically Fantastic Four Wedding Special <\/strong>(January 2006), Fantastic Four Special<\/strong> 2005<\/strong> and Fantastic Four: A Death in the Family<\/strong> (July 2006). These tales wrapped up a brief but splendidly entertaining tenure in the typist\u2019s chair by comics and screen writer J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5<\/strong>, Sense8<\/strong>, Amazing Spider-Man<\/strong>, Superman<\/strong>, Wonder Woman<\/strong>, Before Watchmen<\/strong>, Captain America<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Illustrated by Mike (Amazing Spider-Man<\/strong>, Punisher War Zone<\/strong>, Exiles<\/strong>, assorted X-Men<\/strong>, Justice League International\/Justice League of America<\/strong>) McKone – with inkers Andy Lanning, Simon Coleby & Cam Smith – the never-ending excitement and frenetic fun opens with a bombastic 3-part tale offering arguably the ultimate clash between the Thing and The Incredible Hulk<\/strong>… and possibly the funniest yet most heart-rending FF story ever written.
\n\"\"
\n\u2018What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas\u2019<\/em> opens as the Hulk – currently green, governed by Bruce Banner<\/em>\u2019s intellect and working for S.H.I.E.L.D. – dramatically fails to defuse a gamma bomb and is subsequently caught in the resulting detonation…<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in Manhattan, Reed & Sue are facing their greatest battle; attempting to stop civil servant Simone Debouvier<\/em> of New York\u2019s Division of Child Welfare from placing their children Franklin<\/em> and Valeria <\/em>into State custody to protect them from the FF\u2019s life-threatening influence and circumstances. It\u2019s almost a relief for the embattled parents to despatch their boisterous and understandably furious team-mates to Nevada so they can concentrate on navigating the tricky legal maze of the Social Services system…<\/p>\n

By the time the Torch & Thing arrive, it\u2019s to their worst nightmare: the gamma blast has seemingly devolved the Hulk\u2019s mind back to his primitive, enraged and devastatingly destructive state and supercharged his body. The heroes are all that stand between the unstable grey juggernaut and the utter destruction of the city…<\/p>\n

Utterly overmatched, Ben is pushed to his limits in \u2018Shadow Boxing\u2019<\/em> the rampaging beast, but even amidst the hurricane of shattering violence, he realises it\u2019s not rage but guilt that\u2019s pushing the uber-Hulk to such brutal excesses, even as back East Reed & Sue take a desperate gamble to keep their family together…
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\nThe transcontinental confrontations crash into a pair of stunning victories for heart and brains over brawn in the climactic finale \u2018To Be This Monster\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

The rest of this sleek celebratory volume concentrates on special editions and follows up with Fantastic Four Wedding Special <\/strong>wherein Karl Kesel, Drew Johnson, Drew Geraci & Drew Hennessy combine to venerate the past and offer tantalising glimpses of things to come as Sue & Reed go for a quiet meal and – thanks to the technological miracle of time travel – discover that every guest is the happy couple themselves, plucked from key moments of their fantastic past and incredible future…<\/p>\n

That gloriously heart-warming spectacle is followed by a far more tense but no less intriguing yarn from Fantastic Four Special<\/strong> #1 with Dwayne McDuffie, Casey Jones & Vince Russell depicting \u2018My Dinner with Doom\u2019<\/em> as Reed opts for fine dining and frank conversation as a way of finally ending the long-standing feud between him and the relentless, duplicitous Iron Dictator. If only Doom was as open-minded about the eventual outcome…
\n\"\"
\nFocus shifts to Johnny for the last epic as Fantastic Four: A Death in the Family<\/strong> (Kesel, Lee Weeks, Rob Campenella & Tom Palmer) sees the frat-boy goof suddenly forced to wise up, man up and make a horrific choice to save his beloved, fractious family from certain doom in another time-travel-tinged tale.<\/p>\n

In this story, however, there is no happy ending…<\/p>\n

A stellar combination of apocalyptic action, heartbreak, suspense and hilarious low comedy, this exhilarating compilation also includes stunning covers by McKone, Gene Ha, Leinil Yu, Morry Hollowell & Weeks for a warm, fast-paced, tension-soaked Fights \u2018n\u2019 Tights chronicle which will provide all the thrills and chills a devoted Costumed Drama lover or freshly-turned film freak could ever want.
\n\u00a9 2005, 2006, 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By J. Michael Straczynski, Karl Kesel, Dwayne McDuffie, Mike McKone, Drew Johnson, Casey Jones, Lee Weeks & various (Marvel) ISBN: 978-0-7851-1896-1 (TPB\/Digital edition) Today sees the UK general release of the latest cinematic interpretation of the \u201cWorld\u2019s Greatest Comics Magazine\u201d. Here\u2019s a quirky book you could and should buy online and read in your Imax … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Fantastic Four: The Life Fantastic”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[113,317,54,98,320,125,79,148,219,107,231],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","category-doctor-doom","category-fantastic-four","category-hulk","category-human-torch","category-humour","category-marvel-superheroes","category-romance","category-s-h-i-e-l-d","category-science-fiction","category-the-thing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8GH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33405,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33399\/revisions\/33405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}