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No -- I'm not going to write a column where I
publish nothing but complimentary
reviews simply to boost their sales. These are
Fantastic Reviews because they focus
on one of my favorite Marvel super teams-- The
Fantastic Four. So sit tight, true believers
because this column is going to be rockier than
Petunia Grimm's favorite nephew.
First up is:
Fantastic Four - What Lies Between by Peter
David.
I'd like to say that most licensed property
novels are entertaining
at best and Ed Wood style train wrecks at their worst.
Marvel's novels are also
outside continuity which is normally another strike
against them. However I knew
I was going to buy this book when I saw it based on
two facts: 1) it is written by
someone known for doing very character driven stories
even in licensed books and 2) As stated
above the Fantastic Four is one of my favorite super
teams. (I haven't read it regularly in
awhile but -- hey this is a review of a Peter David
book and I know what you fangeeks expect
me to say -- but I won't. So there...)
Does the Fantastic Four -- which originated in a
visual media make the leap over to
prose well? Yes it does. The action movies along
nicely. There is a good degree of
humor. Reed, Sue, Johnny, Ben and Franklin all come
off like a family. Their individual
personalities match what we've seen in the comics
since the sixties. Sue and Ben come off
particularly spot on. It is hard to get Reed Richards
wrong unless you have him start saying
things like: "But there is an Air in Space Museum."
As long as Johnny is hitting on anything
female that isn't Sue he's still pretty much Johnny as
usual.
The plot is one most comics fans have seen many
times. However there are some nice twists
on some old tricks. I particularly enjoyed who the
two mysterious villains turned out to be. I
hadn't thought of it before they showed up-- but
looking back at it all I didn't know who else
it could have been.
There was however one problem I had. There were a
lot of pop culture references that placed
this story sometime between 2002-2007. There were
several scenes in which the President appears.
If we are to accept that than well -- there was
something off with Mister David's writing. While
unnamed, there are lines and other hints that it is
supposed to be Bush. Only he doesn't sound
like Bush at all. My mind wanted to think George W.
Bush but my heart kept screaming Martin Sheen.
Oh-- and the Ben and his new love interest plot
was quite amusing.
Grade: A-
The Last Fantastic Four Story - By Stan Lee and
John Romita Jnr.
Once or twice a decade Stan Lee will crawl out of
Hollywood for a few hours and write a comic
book. Sometimes the book is a moderate success like
She-Hulk other times it is a miserable failure.
(Solar Man, anyone?)
In some ways the premise of this story is similar
to 'Whatever Happened to the Many of Tomorrow?'
A big bad creature smacks down in the park. The
Fantastic Four have to fight it. All the other
heroes get their butts kicked.
Stan Lee, however, is not Alan Moore. Where Alan
Moore's story is one of regret, sacrifice and
acceptance. Stan Lee crafts a tale of hope and
optimism. We fans expect nothing less from 'The Man'.
Where Alan Moore dissects the super heroic ideal, Stan
Lee reaffirms it. He shows the guys doing it today
how it's done.
John Romita, Jr.'s art is nothing short of
spectacular. While in recent years he has tried not
to imitate his father's art style as much here doing
so really helped the story. If I hadn't looked
carefully
at the credits page I would have sworn that Marvel had
dug up an unpublished Fantastic Four from the
mid-1970s.
Grade: A-
Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four
This story has a lot of things going for it. It
has the Impossible Man. A lot of fast paced
action. Spidey in top comedic form. He usually is
when he has to team up with his quasi-rival
Johnny Storm. On top of that the art is absolutely
gorgeous. I expected nothing less from
Mike Wieringo.
Yes -- I admit this story is a bit silly. That's
the thing though. I don't think comics
should have to be dark all the time. One of the
common elements that make both The Fantastic Four
and Spider-Man work is that the characters work well
in the light and the dark. The team of Parker
and Wieringo definitely understood that in this
miniseries. It's hard to notice but if you look at
the art they change visually (if ever so slightly)
when they are in normal/light hearted setting like
outer space or anywhere in New York or just a tad more
realistic in Wundagore and Latveria.
Grade: A+
And now for a 'classic'. Well not really --
Superman and The Fantastic Four
by Dan Jurgens
Dan Jurgens's work has always seemed a little
strange to me. He's a writer/artist who does one
thing well (draw) and can occasionally pulled off a
story. He's done some pretty interesting
Superman stories in the past. He wrote a few 'At
least they're not Tom Defalco' Fantastic Four
stories.
Visually, the two worlds mesh well. There are a
few small faults. Sue's head looks a little
weird at times and Franklin looks more like a
mid-teenager than an 6-10 year old.
The story though -- by Rao -- you shouldn't be forced
to sit through it. It would expect the
'Maybe Galactus ate Krypton' gibberish from somebody
like Liefeld or 'Howard Whose Name Shall Not
Be Spoken Under Pain of Death'. But Jurgens? Then
he shoehorns in his Mary Sue villain the Cyborg
to highlight that he started out as a Reed Richards
parody.
Seriously -- I could have come up with a million
plots to work the two together better than that.
For instance they could played up the Kirby connection
and had The Newsboy Legion screwing around with a
Mother Box and swapping places with the Yancy Street
gang while both Desaad and Terrax try to
take advantage of the dimension swap to free
themselves from their various masters.
Still it was more enjoyable than Star Trek: The
Manga by far.
Grade: C+
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