Technically, Fantastic Four was the second comic book I ever bought. At one of those Book Fairs Elementary Schools put on every year, I found a random issue and without knowing anything about comics or the characters or literally anything at all… I bought it.
Still not sure how that particular cover made it into the south Georgia schools.
But it would be a couple of years before I started collecting. At which point Fantastic Four became a mainstay in the monthly trips to the comic book store. Of the various Marvel series, I have the third most of Fantastic Four (Spidey and the Avengers being the Top 2). I’ve stuck with them through thick and thin. But eventually I did stop. And then Marvel stopped putting out the comic for far too long. And while I liked Dan Slott’s run, it wasn’t until Ryan North took over the reigns a couple of years ago that the book felt like the book it was always supposed to be.
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Fantastic Four (2022 Series) – Issues 1-26
Writer – Ryan North
Pencillers – Iban Coello/Ivan Fiorelli/Leandro Fernandez/Francesco Mortarino/Carlos Gomez
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This run of the Fantastic Four does something that many of the previous runs almost never seem to do: it allows the characters room to breathe. What I mean by that is North immediately breaks up our little group as in a battle which had happened only weeks before forces Reed to shunt the Baxter Building and everyone near it (including their kids) one year into the future. So in the aftermath of this, Ben and Alicia are off on their own trip, Reed and Sue on another, and finally Johnny is doing… well, he’s bumbling and stumbling in ways only he can (and has grown a mustache!).
There is a bit of genius in this move as it sets the reader up to ease into who the characters currently are. Instead of needing to worry about 4 or 5 or a dozen characters, North spends his time with one or two at a time. Weirdly, it feels more like a move in the middle of a run, but works as a perfect jumping on point.
Which brings us to the second big change for this series: most of the comics are either done in one or two issues.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love a 12 issues storyline with maximum stakes and world bending moments, but doing these smaller stories makes the comic feel like a weekly tv show (it has a very heavy X-Files feel without the heavy horror side). Each of our heroes have to lean less on their superheroing and more on their ability to figure out the current mystery. Plus he has really pushed some of their powers in ways I’m not sure anyone has done before. And Reed’s body manipulation has been, at times, a little creepy. It truly makes it something that you could pretty much hop on with any random issue and get a great idea of what’s going on without any trouble.
Throughout the 26 issues so far, they’ve:
Gone to a Dinosaur world and fought Dinosaur Doom
Dealt with a newborn AI
Fought a town where everyone there were Doombots in disguise
Helped a town stuck in a time loop
Released a bunch of trapped ghosts and then dealt with it using a cursed skull
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I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the art every issue. While Coello and Fiorelli have done the bulk, every artist draws some of the best versions of the characters I’ve ever seen. FF is supposed to be clean line and fun crazy science monsters, and they deliver each and every month.
Not to mention Alex Ross’s covers are… well, it’s Alex Ross. Not sure what I could possibly say that hasn’t already been said.
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If I had one complaint, and it is a fairly small one, is that I miss the lack of a big plotline running in the background. Yes, the kids being gone was sorta that, but since they were off screen for that whole time, it just felt like something we’d eventually get to (though the Doom spotlight issue was a direct result of this problem – and was excellent). I figure with this Emperor Doom storyline this will no longer be a complaint. I’m certainly looking forward to where Ryan North takes the Fantastic Four next.
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John McGuire is the writer of the sci-fi novel: The Echo Effect.
He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!
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His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Tales from Vigilante City, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com
