FANTASTIC FOUR #570Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Dale Eaglesham
Hickman and Eaglesham's debut on Fantastic Four was a solid debut issue that has its faults, but manages to entertain nonetheless.
One complaint I can see being levied against the title is that it picks up threads from Hickman's Dark Reign: Fantastic Four miniseries with 'the machine' as the main plot propelling this first issue forward. If you didn't read DR: FF, you're probably in the dark about the whole thing and the mystery men, who end up being Reed Richards from other realities, that he ends up interacting with here. It's not terribly difficult to understand, but something to take note of if you are jumping in on what should be a reader friendly first issue.
While I liked the idea of Reed trying to fix everything and the introduction of these alternate reality Reed Richards, it's also not the most original idea ever. As some readers pointed out in Ryan's reviews, Alan Moore's Supreme had a similar storyline with the various Supremes interacting. Heck, even Spider-Man has had a Spider-Man Corps looking after the Multiverse in a recent Marvel Comics Presents.
Mild complaint over the recycling of common comic book tropes aside, the ending to this issue, which featured three Reeds wielding Infinity Gauntlets was more than enough to make me forget about every fault or minor quibble with the issue and think of the possibilities that scene evokes. Hopefully this will address whether our Reed still has an Infinity Gem or not. It'd be interesting to see the Illuminati played up more in this series if Hickman went that route as well.
On the art side of things, Eaglesham does some solid work, but nothing spectacular. To be honest, I found his depiction of a bulked up, beared Reed Richards a tad jarring. It just differed from every other interpretation of the character I've seen and took a little getting used to. Otherwise, I have no complaints with his work.
Verdict - Check It. Not a perfect issue, but a good Fantastic Four issue. More in line with classic interpretations of the team and personalities than the more over the top Millar work.
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