Fantastic Four #10 (May 2019's Pull List)

So, I recently posted a 'breakdown' (I'm not sure of what other word may be more accurate) of all the comics I had reviewed for Pipedream Comics over the course of May.

This was a slight variation on my round up in April because, during that month, I included all of my pull list comics amongst those.

However, I figured I'd give my pull list comic a post of it's own because 1. It is only one comic and I felt I had written more than enough about the other nine for one post and 2. this comic actually gave a lot more thoughts than I had expected it to.

Fantastic Four #10

So, Fantastic Four #10 is a tie-in issue to Marvel's latest all-encompassing event, War of the Realms. During this issue, as the Richards family try to integrate themselves with their new Yancy Street neighbours, Malekith's army of creatures from across the realms attack in order to destroy something unique which the FF have in their possession (which I'm going to try and avoid spoiling by revealing). However, while this the tie in part of the story, the main focus is on Franklin and his adjustment to the new status quo now that he is older and less powerful.

Now, back in April, when I knew this tie in was coming, I had something of a sense of trepidation about getting round to read it. This is simply because, while tie-in's to events are not entirely bad, they are (in my experience) mostly bad. In fact, the only one I can think of which was good was the Original Sin tie in on Daredevil.

Therefore, I have to admit that I was very surprised when I finished reading and discovered that I really enjoyed this issue, with it being by far the best of Slott's run so far!!

 

It's always good to see Mr Fantastic
Stretching out a punch.

I think what it is that I loved about this issue is that it didn't attempt to fit a square peg into a round hole by forcing this characters to be more relevant to the main event than they actually are (or could be). Instead, this issue focused on the characters themselves and their ongoing lives and stories before simply throwing a nugget from that event in order to give it the barest of connections to appease the higher ups. In fact, Slott, Medina and co. could probably have had all the tie in stuff removed from this issue and the story would probably have been just as good.

What really hooked me to this issue though was that we got to see Franklin as the primary focus (which makes a nice change from the so far Thing-centric run I feel we've been having). I thought that the entire issue really spoke volumes as it played on a number of ideas, specifically Franklin growing up. This is because I felt that Franklin spent almost the entire issue losing his identity, which can be considered a staple part of growing up, and makes perfect sense given that he's lost his home, his friends, his powers are fading and now he is in this new street where the rules don't make sense and no one is like him. If this isn't a powerful list of analogies for growing up and being a teenager, I don't know what is!

Franklin and Johnny. A
dynamic I wish I'd seen
more of.

 

Of course, I do think that this issue missed out on a couple of things, particularly using more of the other FF members. I'm starting to think of Johnny as more of a background character here and that the series is 'all Thing' (which does tell me that I need to pick up Slott's Thing series). However, I would have loved to have seen a quiet moment later in the book between Franklin and Johnny where the latter makes the former realise the error of his ways, 'teenager to (original) teenager.' Also, instead of the ending we were given, I'd have really liked to see the Richards kids hanging out with Alicia, calling back to an earlier, more awkward scene between Franklin and the new Mrs Grimm but allowing them to go full circle.
 

Paco Medina's Ben Grimm is a 'Thing'
of beauty. May there be more to come.

That said, these are just ideas which are rattling around in my head after reading and doesn't take away from the fact that Slott's story along with Medina's art (to which I haven't said how much I really love Medina's art in this issue. It's such a gorgeous look, especially his 'Thing', who looks truly awesome. If Medina stays on this book I would not be unhappy) really made this a fun, engaging and beautiful to look at read.

I've been struggling with Slott's run so far, managing to slowly get on board with each subsequent issue. This issue might be where I finally get to where I need to be and I look forward to the next issue....

....and then the one after that, which gives me a Thing/Hulk smackdown!!!