Fantastic Four: The Prodigal Sun

This had been one of those buys I've been eyeing up for a while prior to picking it up during a spree around Black Friday, although this was mainly due to the particular character name in the title.
 

I think it's probably very obvious by now to anyone who sees what I post that I am a big fan of the Fantastic Four. To this day they are still my number one comic, characters and team and, regardless of their main title's quality at any given time, they are characters I am always likely to pick up nigh on everything about.

 

Fantastic Four:
The Prodigal Sun

Therefore, it probably seems pretty obvious that this title would have made might my pull list when it was originally released. However, while my love for the four is absolute (well, nearly) the same can't be said for crossover events, 24th which I've had a mixed history of enjoyment. As such, I tend to give such crossovers a wide berth (a rule I ignored for the Lazarus Contract, to my detriment).

 

However, my need to read the Fantastic Four beat out my worries about crossovers, although maybe I should have been a little more disciplined.

 

The Prodigal Sun storyline traverses through Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer and Guardians of the Galaxy one-shots as those titular characters cross paths with 'Prah'd'gul' (I hope I spelt that right), and elemental prince whose is travelling back to his home world in an attempt to seek revenge on his brother. However, Prah'd'gul must first contend with a couple of detours when his spaceship crash lands in the Savage Land.

 

Man v Dinosaur; An average
day in the Savage Land?

As my brief synopsis may attest to, this story turned out to be less about the characters whose books are a part of this crossover and more about Peter David's (presumably) new creation Prah'd'gul (or as Ben references him, Prodigal, hence the title). For this reason I feel a little bit screwed over because, while the book states 'the Fantastic Four' in the title, they are anything but the stars of the show as they only appear in two of the issues (and the second of those is more cameo-esque). That said, not even their own title feels like theirs as they appear are seemingly bit players behind the roles Prah'd'gul and Savage Land natives Ka'zar and Shaana.

 

In fact, none of the various 'lead' characters from any of the three instalments feel like anything more than masters of ceremonies to me, literally standing around and watching Prah'd'gul's story unfold. Only the Surfer gets any real influence into the story (although, I suppose the FF do at the end of their instalment), but otherwise, this entire story most likely would have happened in the exact same way without their involvement.

 

I guess this just strikes me as odd because I wonder if this story needed to be placed within any of these books as surely Peter David is a great enough writer to deserve focusing directly on his own creation, either at Marvel or independently.



What an Epic image!!!

That said, none of this is in any way hinders my enjoyment of the story. I thought the Prodigal Sun was a fun little read and felt it introduced an interesting character in the form of Prah'd'gul, even if he sounded a little too human (although, so did Norrin Radd in his issue). I was also glad to get a bit of insight into Ka'zar and Shaana and their world of the Savage Land, a part of the Marvel universe in which my knowledge has always been lacking. Of course, not all of the issues were equal, with the middle part squaring Prah'd'gul off against the Surfer more interesting, exciting and epic. That said, the other two instalments were still great to read, the first giving me what I want while the last was ruined (for want of a better word) by the only major downside which I could see in that the story ended a little abruptly, as though another issue was expected. In fact, I kind of hope for a follow up to see the ramifications of the finale (although that may still happen in a future follow up).



Manna's artwork through this
crossover is out of this world
(somewhat literally)!!!

As for how it looked, I thought that Francesco Manna's art style over these three issues was gorgeous. I can't really describe how it looked or compare it to another artist's style but it felt very .... organic, giving a nice, soft, easy on the eye vibe which suited the story and world's perfectly. I think this was best exemplified by the scenes involving the Silver Surfer, who looked really epic, as well as the full appearance of Galactus, which was just breath taking (in my opinion). 2019 has shown me a lot of great artists drawing the FF and now I can add one more to that list .



So, overall, I thought that the Prodigal Sun was a good read and one I'm glad I took the chance and time to look at it, even if I wish the FF, the Silver Surfer and (I guess) the Guardians of the Galaxy had had more screen time and influence.

 

But then, maybe I'm just being greedy because this title was still one which entertained me and left me kind of wanting to see a continuation of Prodigal's story.

 

I wonder if I've just contradicted myself there?