Dan Slott's Fantastic Four (so far).

(Note: This is my thoughts on Fantastic Four #1-5 as well as the Wedding Special. Some spoilers may be included. Sorry.)

As I write this, it is the day after February's final New Comic Book Day and I had picked up issue 7 of Dan Slott's Fantastic Four run. As I walked back to work, I found myself having some trepidation with reading it. I found myself wondering 'am I actually enjoying this series or am I just picking them up for the sake of it?'

Therefore, as I wanted to return to writing a post a month about the comics I pick up from my pull list and this was only the second month of 2019, and so having little in the way of catch up, I thought that I would go back through the first five issues and the wedding special and lay out what I thought about them.

The entire of Dan Slott's Fantastic Four so
far (the digital copies anyway)!!

This first arc (or two if Comixology is to be followed) from Slott, Pichelli, Casselli, Kuder and more and various others follows two plot threads: The first being the return of the Richards family, while the second focused on the wedding of Ben 'The Thing' Grimm to Alicia Masters. Now, I could try to be more in depth about what exactly happens in these first six issues but 1. this may push into spoiler territory (which I'd like to avoid and, besides, it's better to find out when reading) and 2. what I've said are pretty much the meat and potatoes of the series so far.

Funnily enough, this simple level of storytelling is actually what I prefer and after hammering through all these issues I realised that I do really enjoy this run so far.

I'd previously post about the return of the Fantastic Four and how, while I thought Slott would do some big cosmic stuff, I was worried about how he'd handle the characters in general. Fortunately, the worries have thus far been proven to be completely unfounded as all these characters feel exactly as I believe they should be after who knows how long I've been reading them.

With the first three issues, revolving around the return to the Marvel Universe of the Richards Clan, the book felt exactly as I know it from the get go. These first three instalments really felt like Slott was showing me (and naysayers in general) not to worry as he gave us a specific focus of the books identity with each issue. The first issue focused on the characters in their normal lives, playing out their family dynamic than their superheroing. Meanwhile the second issue was more about the outlandish, incredible, exploration notion that the team have always strived to be as it followed the Future Foundations escapades during their 'missing years'. Finally, the third issue felt like a combination of the two while focusing on some big action/superheroics. For me these three issues felt like quintessential FF in both look and feel, action and reaction.

Now, the fourth issue was, for me, the let down of the first arc. That's not to say that it was bad in anyway as the FF return to Earth to find a Fantastic Four-like analogy having taken over their home and possibly their place in the MU. I enjoyed this as, once again it showed off the characters exactly as I remembered them; with Torch jumping straight in and Reed making some cool deductions at the end. However, I felt that this issue was included for little reason beyond moving the team to a new base (which doesn't make it a bad thing).

However, it's the Wedding Special and #5 which were the best of the bunch in my opinion. These two issues, which presented the lead up to as well as the wedding itself, showed the family perfectly as a family. Now, I don't know if I've mellowed in my old age but watching the Batchelor/Batchelorette parties, seeing Ben get permission to marry and even Reed's decision on a Wedding Gift were infinitely better reads than them defeating Galactus or going to Hell or almost all of the other adventures they've been on. And what made these issues better were the art talent they got (not that Pichelli and Casselli's first four issues weren't awesome) as Michael Allred beautiful homage of early Kirby work (which I recognised panel for panel having read it recently) was perfect while I absolutely loved Adam Hughes single panel showing the ladies out on the town.

All of this was capped off with a final shot of the newly happy couple which just took my breath away in both look and dialogue.

So, I've gone on a bit longer than I expected to go but, suffice to say, I think my worries as I picked up issue 7 were seriously out of whack. I will admit I'm a little worried about seeing the Four fight Doctor Doom so early in Slott's tenure, but he's proven me wrong before and so I'm willing to read/re-read them knowing they'll probably meet my seal of approval.