FANTASTIC FOUR # 551
Written by Dwayne McDuffie
Art by Paul Pelletier
If you've been following Fantastic Four, or even my reviews of it, over the last few months, you'll notice that McDuffie has been highly erratic in terms of quality. One issue could be great while the next is just a train wreck of a story. With quiet trepidation I approached this Doom from the future storyline. I'm happy to report that this was a solid first part to what could be a classic Fantastic Four tale.
Building on the foundations of Reed's role in Civil War, McDuffie has Dr Doom, Black Panther and Namor come back from the future to stop Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four from taking over Earth. Apparently, Reed will take his '100 ideas', which spawned the Thor clone and Negative Zone prison, and expand on them with a 101st idea - an idea which involves curing all disease, hunger, poverty and equalizing wealth around the world, in essence creating a utopia.
I really enjoyed some of the scenes with Reed reacting to this supposed tyranny in the future. In the span of a few panels, he goes from disbelief to contemplation to, finally, curiosity as he asks what causes this future to come about. It just felt like the way someone who has had lots of time travel experience and is as intelligent as Reed would act.
However, the issue wasn't perfect. There's still a bit of a kinetic pacing - as if McDuffie can't control his urge to hurry through the plot, throwing random characters and plot elements at the reader without proper development, similar to the last issue which featured the introductions of about 10 separate characters as they tried to save the universe. He is no where near as bad as the last issue, but I have to point out there were a few hiccups here and there in this one.
Despite the few minor complaints, McDuffie delivers an incredible cliffhanger with the revelation that Sue leaves Reed in the future for Namor which results in Reed pulling out an energy weapon and blowing future Namor's head off. It caught me completely off guard and has me chomping at the bit to find out what happens next. I know the evil future Reed must have something to do with this, but I honestly can't wait to find out what McDuffie has in store for the rest of this arc.
Verdict - Check It. I almost want to give this a Must Read, but McDuffie's run has been all over the place and I'm hesitant to suggest people jump in based on this single issue. He could easily come back next month with another dud or it could be a masterpiece. His run has really been that erratic. If you're interested in the Fantastic Four or future stories with evil versions of our heroes, this is a solid first issue that you'll probably want to check out.
Building on the foundations of Reed's role in Civil War, McDuffie has Dr Doom, Black Panther and Namor come back from the future to stop Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four from taking over Earth. Apparently, Reed will take his '100 ideas', which spawned the Thor clone and Negative Zone prison, and expand on them with a 101st idea - an idea which involves curing all disease, hunger, poverty and equalizing wealth around the world, in essence creating a utopia.
I really enjoyed some of the scenes with Reed reacting to this supposed tyranny in the future. In the span of a few panels, he goes from disbelief to contemplation to, finally, curiosity as he asks what causes this future to come about. It just felt like the way someone who has had lots of time travel experience and is as intelligent as Reed would act.
However, the issue wasn't perfect. There's still a bit of a kinetic pacing - as if McDuffie can't control his urge to hurry through the plot, throwing random characters and plot elements at the reader without proper development, similar to the last issue which featured the introductions of about 10 separate characters as they tried to save the universe. He is no where near as bad as the last issue, but I have to point out there were a few hiccups here and there in this one.
Despite the few minor complaints, McDuffie delivers an incredible cliffhanger with the revelation that Sue leaves Reed in the future for Namor which results in Reed pulling out an energy weapon and blowing future Namor's head off. It caught me completely off guard and has me chomping at the bit to find out what happens next. I know the evil future Reed must have something to do with this, but I honestly can't wait to find out what McDuffie has in store for the rest of this arc.
Verdict - Check It. I almost want to give this a Must Read, but McDuffie's run has been all over the place and I'm hesitant to suggest people jump in based on this single issue. He could easily come back next month with another dud or it could be a masterpiece. His run has really been that erratic. If you're interested in the Fantastic Four or future stories with evil versions of our heroes, this is a solid first issue that you'll probably want to check out.
Follow each of us on Twitter:
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for checking out the Weekly Crisis - Comic Book Review Blog. Comments are always appreciated. You can sign in and comment with any Google, Wordpress, Live Journal, AIM, OpenID or TypePad account.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.