Now, if I were a smart man and could figure out how to do graphical changes to posters and the like, I would take a copy of the French Connection poster, paster over Hackman and Schneider's faces with images of Reed and Sue's and replace their car with a Fantasticar. Alas, I am not. But, hopefully, I've put that nice image in your head.
So, anyway, as the title (and maybe the opening ramble) alludes to, the past week's eading has been dominated by the Fantastic Four, with five issues (three regular and two specials) that connect Marvel's first family to the recent Empyre event.
Now, this hadn't been my original intention. With the exception of Flashpoint, I have never bought the singles for an event and the last Marvel event I bought a trade for was maybe Secret Wars in digital and Civil War (one) in print. Suffice to say, I, like almost everyone else, is tired of events and have rarely given them much notice since the early times mid 2000's. Therefore, the plan in its original form was to simply talk about the three FF issues from the main series (whether together or separately I dont know seeing as their release schedule got a little messed up).
However, that plan went out of the window a little over a month ago when, after picking issues 21 and 22 and opening the first of them up to read, I realised from the very first page that I would require the Empyre #0 special which related to the Fantastic Four. As a result of this, I decided to wait a little longer and read these two issues along with the third installment and the #0 and Fallout specials as bookends to the event.
In truth, this actually worked for me because I did find myself wondering (something I had wondered for years to be honest), 'Can you have a coherent story in a series which is tied into an event?'
Now, from my experience, you can. I remember Jeff Parker did a great little story in Thunderbolts during the Fear Itself event and the same goes for Mark Waid and Chris Samnee for Daredevil during Original Sin. However, I was aware that for every success there was, at least, an equal failure. With this 'tie-in' (which I use loosely because this isn't a series created solely to run alongside the event), I expected a strong outing given the writer, Dan Slott, was penning Empyre but given how his FF run this far had been ... inconsistent it did give me pause for concern.
Anyway, I've broken my thoughts down into three pieces: the opening special, the main series issues and then the Fallout epilogue. This will then (probably) be followed by my remaining overall thoughts.
Fantastic Four: Empyre #0
To begin this journey came one of two prelude issues to the Empyre event. However, not really caring about the event itself or the Avengers, I chose to stick only with the FF (and that's only due to the reasons previously stated). This specific prelude saw the Four, accompanied by Franklin and Valeria, run out of gas on the way home from some (not really explained) adventure. Fortunately, help passes by to give them a tow. Unfortunately, the galactic credits they have are no longer accepted due to the crash of the galactic economy.
As a result, the Four attend a casino controlled by the Profiteer for a fight event with plans for Ben to enter (while Val and Franklin go gambling). However, things do not go to plan when they discover that two children, one Kree and one Skrull, are forced to fight to the death time and again as the last vestige of the now ended Kree/Skrull war. This leads to the Four attempt to save the kids, repair their ship, get fuel and get out alive, while also trying to find out what caused the recent economic upheaval.
Now, I really liked this issue, as it had (in my opinion) all of the hallmarks of a great one-shot or annual like many I have read since I've been collecting Fantastic Four comics. I've often complained that Dan Slott seems to skew his run so far more in Ben's favour in terms of focus but here I was really glad to see (or certainly how it looked to me) that there was more of an even split amongst the team in terms of who was deemed most important to the story. Of course, that's not entirely true because, while almost all of the team seemed to share the screen time, Sue was probably the only 'lead' character who I felt was left out in the cold. As has often (seemingly) been the case, I got the impression that Sue was relegated to back up and the 'Ace in the Hole' with little else to do and little real influence and/or personality. I thought this was definitely a shame here because with Sue always being thought of as this motherly character throughout most of her depictions (which is also probably a major flaw but that's a conversation for another time), I'd have thought that this story was pretty much made for her and that she should've taken a more central role in the saving of these children.
Still, my enjoyment of this zero issue wasn't impeded by this glaring plot hole as there were other things about it which helped me make up for it. These included Ben and Johnny's banter back and forth (which I certainly feel is one of Slott's biggest strengths in his run) as they become fighter and manager respectively in an effort to win the fuel they needed. Also, what I really loved was, as brief as it seemed, the lingering question of what had caused the galactic economy to crumble which eventually led to the revelation that would be setting up Empyre proper. In truth that was the most intriguing element to me as it makes perfect sense that a war which has waged for so long would have become so entwined in life that its end would cause such financial problems for almost the entire universe (because they nearly all would have supported it in some way). It makes me wonder if this will become an ongoing focus of the Slott run now, just like I also wonder why that casino didn't have DNA scanners installed so they could check Valeria and Framklin's species rather than take their word that they are lying. I guess tech like that either doesn't exist or is expensive.
Before I forget, I'm also going to mention the art because Sean Isaakse's art rules in this issue, much like it has done in all of his FF issues to date. I absolutely adore his (and co-artist Paco Medina's) art style, as it's loud, colourful, vibrant and just totally pops to me. I honestly can't get enough of it and am sorry that they'll both be going. Speaking of which, incoming replacement R.B.Silva appears to have one page (to my knowledge, it could have been more) and it was nice, although it felt a little subdued compared with the other 30 something.
In all, this was a great issue and one I didn't regret picking up. Hopefully, that would be the same for the other installments.
Fantastic Four #21 - 23
Picking up where the Empyre prelude left of, the Fantastic Four race home to drop off Franklin and Valeria, along with the Kree/Skrull children, Jo-Venn and N'Kalla, respectively, before speeding off to the action (which takes place in Empyre ... presumably). However, rather than place them away from the action, the four kids find themselves in quite the opposite situation when a cult of ninja priests (and followers of the plant-like Cotati) descend on Yancy Street for these new alien arrivals with an attack that not even a 'New' Fantastic Four might be able to stop.
Now, as I've said previously, I've never found event tie-in's in regular series to be all that impressive. Waid and Samnee's Daredevil currently holds top spot for me with a quality story built out of a nothing connection to Original Sin. However, beyond that and Thunderbolts actions during Fear Itself, very little compares by way of the tie in.
With Fantastic Four #'s 21 through to 23, however, I felt like we have a contender because, oh boy, did I love this story. With the main cast away, Slott had to rely on the rather small supporting cast to carry the book. Fortunately, as with a few other issues during this run, I feel that Slott can write the kids and Alicia really well as all three come across likeable and sympathetic and characters I want to route for in the face of overwhelming odds. Those odds, of course, weren't exactly complex, interesting villains in their own right as the Priests of Pama a.k.a. the Cotati's Earth-bound cult felt (and looked) like nothing more than the Hand-esque Cannon fodder with weird tree based powers. That said, they served their purpose as an antagonist in a relatively simple but action packed story which revolved around the Kree and Skrull kids helping to restart the Kree/Skrull war.
That said, the arc isn't perfect as the third issue of it felt like the weakest as I read them, with it feeling rushed to get to the finishing line. Also, the plot, while entertaining, left me with a couple of questions that I dwelled on. These were, firstly, what was this Omni-Wave Generator and was it actually a canon device or a macguffin that Slott just dreamed up here and now? Secondly, and maybe most importantly in the scale of questions I actually care for answers about, why did Franklin become all so suddenly casual in the use of his powers? Thus far, it has been 20 plus issues (and a 4 part mini) about him dwelling on using up his powers. However, here it felt like that problem was gone (or most likely ignored), which did gripe me a little. Oh well, at least Sky didn't come across as abrasive and annoying this time around, so maybe that makes up for these things.
As for the art, both Isaakse and Medina's work is gorgeous. Both of their styles compliment each other perfectly. The stand outs examples are Isaakse's rendition of the new 'new' Fantastic Four and Medina's depiction of Alicia Masters which is gloriously beautiful. I've already said it once but will say it again, i will really miss their presence on this book. In fact, if I had one critique of their work it's that I wish Wolverine and Spider-man's FF outfits had fours instead of their badges (maybe on top of sewn in symbols as part of the uniform proper, although maybe that's why I'm not a fashion designer).
By the end though, I'm confident to say that this arc is probably one of the best two multi issue stories which Slott has created on the run so far (the other being the Hulk/Thing fight). I'm now incredibly intrigued by the relationship betweenWhat is the secret? How does Alicia know that kid?
Fantastic Four: Empyre Fallout #1
With Empyre at an end and Earth's heroes victorious, it is now time to pick up the pieces. With all connected parties coming together at the blue area of the moon, Questions are asked about the Cotati's weaponry, the Profiteer returns with unexpected demands and the futures of the Skrull and Kree children, N'Kalla and Jo-Venn is decided as a mysterious figure watched from on the horizon.
FF Empyre Fallout was something of a mixed bag for me. While it nicely wrapped up the Jo-Venn and N'Kalla's origin story and subsequent journey from bitter enemies to siblings (of a sort), the rest of the issue felt very unconnected to the Fantastic Four issues and the story held within it. In fact, the focus on who was backing the Cotati gave me the impression that this was more of an Avengers storyline rather than and Fantastic Four one (especially given the number of Avengers who make an appearance in this issue). This was something the end of the issue seemed to confirm to me with the reference of the upcoming reckoning of which I am not in any doubt will be the next big Marvel event and not a FF-only thing.
Still, it was enjoyable enough, with a nice bit of conversation between Franklin and Thor on Godhood and Johnny and Spidey on soulmate. Also, the return of Uatu was a glorious thing to see, especially in Sean Isaakse's art style. It's excellent to get yet another seemingly 'last' look at his work on ths four, which seems all the more 'fantastic' when coupled with Marcio Menyz's colours.
In truth, my thoughts on this issue as a whole are a little more favourable than they were before I started jotted down my notes. In the grand scheme of things, I'm not sure I actually needed to pick this issue up. However, I am glad that I did as it gave me some stellar art a cool moments, although i doubt I'll ever return to it for a re-read.
So, that's all five issues read and some were great, some were good and some were ... 'ok'. However, did they achieve what I was looking for? Overall, yes. When combined with the opening prelude, I honestly felt that the series arc told a coherent story with little to no gap in the narrative to make me go 'wait, did I miss something?' However, while it also added a sense of closure to the arc, I do feel that the epilogue issue was surplus to requirements here, as it contained a wealth of information relating to the Empyre event which probably makes sense if you read both but felt like a waste of time if you skipped on the event (like me). However, (as I said) the art certainly made up for this and it did offer some juicy tidbits that intrigue me.
But what's done is done and all five issue were certainly an enjoyable read combined. makes me look forward to the next Fantastic Four issues where we will be seeing Iceman's tenure on the team, (most likely) the new Grimm family dynamic, (hopefully) a Johnny/Sky/Peter/MJ double date, (possibly) more look into the Galactic recession and (doubtfully) Sue being centre of attention.
Hey, a fan can dream.
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