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Fantastic Four: Dark Reign #1 Review
- by Brian Cronin
- in Comic Reviews
If this is how Jonathan Hickman is going to write the Fantastic Four, then I am definitely looking forward until he has the book full time.
First off, who do I thank for the change in Sean Chen's artwork? Sean Chen has always been a good artist - nice, solid, dependable superhero style, but I've always found his work a bit TOO crisp. Remember when Tom Palmer was assigned the inker job on Chen's Wolverine? That was nuts, because Palmer's dark, moody style completely clashed with Chen's bright, clean style. However, in this issue, whether it was Chen himself, inker Lorenzo Ruggiero or perhaps colorist John Rauch, SOMEbody made Chen's art look a whole lot less crisp, and the humanizing factor really worked quite nicely. I enjoyed the art a lot. I hope Chen uses this style in the future.
While I am not a huge fan of having Reed beat himself up some more for the bad characterizations of past Fantastic Four writers, and I was fine with McDuffie's "Hey, let's just sweep it all under the rug and forget it!" approach, which paved the way for Mark Millar's current "How about we just tell some good Fantastic Four stories and not worry about where it all ties into current Marvel continuity?," I can understand that Marvel likes to tie stuff together, so if we are going to have the Fantastic Four tie into current Marvel continuity, and with a title like "Fantastic Four: Dark Reign," I think it is clear that we ARE going to have the Fantastic Four tie into current Marvel continuity, then at least I trust Hickman to do a good job showing Reed atoning for his actions during Civil War.
But really, that's just the assignment for this series, that's certainly not what has me looking forward to Hickman's run - what has me looking forward to his run is the way in which he more or less nails the various characters of the Fantastic Four. He even had Johnny and Ben have an amusing conversation with each other. I can't even recall the last time THAT's happened - Reagan might have been President.
Also, you have to love the fact that when Reed wants to work through his issues, he builds a gigantic machine. That's sooooo Reed.
And of course, being a comic book, thinks don't work out the way Reed planned, and hijinx ensue.
So Hickman definitely has a good handle on the group, and luckily, he'll be able to clear out the whole "explain Reed's Civil War actions" out of the way BEFORE he takes over the title with Dale Eaglesham, and then he'll be able to concentrate on the future!
A future that looks promising with a writer like Jonathan Hickman at the helm.
Recommended.
- Posted on March 7, 2009 @ 04:01 AM
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11 Comments
Greg Burgas
March 7, 2009 at 7:22 am
I didn't read it, but if all the heroes are "atoning" for Civil War, why is the registration act still in effect? It seems stupid.
Omar Karindu, back from an Internet Thogal ritual
March 7, 2009 at 7:52 am
Among the things Reed's blaming himself for is Norman Osborn getting to run the Registration program, which seems to have been the thing that snapped the Illuminati types out of it once and for all. Naturally, just in time for them to have no power over matters whatsoever....
Manglr
March 7, 2009 at 10:04 am
That just brings up one of the flaws of the whole Registration Act to start with...sure it's fine to have an accmulate power if one of "your guys" is at the helm. But how long is that likely to last if you federalize a system like that.
But then, I suppose it really doesn't matter as long as the 'heros' are never held accountable for not being registered. Which I suppose may be the next thing that bugs me about the Marvel universe. I could kinda buy why Tony didn't go after the New Avengers hard...but have no idea why Norman would go after any unregistered hero with great gusto.
Stefan
March 7, 2009 at 10:58 am
Jonathan Hickman is going to fix the Fantastic Four. This is exactly how the book should be written. It's been ages and ages and ages since I was this impressed by the FF monthly, and I'm so glad they're gonna clean up all this Civil War stuff and make Reed a hero again. Much as I've hated those recent characterizations, I don't like it when anything gets swept under the rug. If you've got a talented writer who can do it, let them work it out, bring the character through the wringer of redemption. So this, and then the ongoing series when Hickman signs about, will be a welcome addition to my fairly small pull list.
Nitz the Bloody
March 7, 2009 at 11:49 am
The Fantastic Four is a book that I've always wanted to be a big fan of, but have been continually disappointed in as score after score of creative teams fail to get it right. I thought that the work of Mark Waid and the late, lamented Mike Weiringo was off-the-charts awesome ( excluding the backfiring of bits like " Jack Kirby is God " ), but since then the creative teams haven't really done anything interesting with the team ( usually stuff like Mark Millar's Nu-World stories, which strike me as trying too hard on many levels ). And Ultimate Fantastic Four, excluding some of Ellis' stuff, has never clicked.
However, the descriptions of Hickman's Dark Reign series sound promising, and I hope to find a copy this weekend.
Brad Curran
March 7, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Fuck beans! I had no idea this came out!
T.
March 8, 2009 at 2:37 pm
From Tom Defalco and onward I've been disappointed with just about every Fantastic Four run I've tried, especially the horrible Mark Waid run. I never tried Millar's just because he's too self-consciously clever for my taste. But Hickman I have full faith in. Everything I read by him has been golden, and I like that he didn't grow up as an FF fan according to his interviews but instead had to read up on them specifically for this job. That means minimal chance for fanwankery.
FunkyGreenJerusalem
March 8, 2009 at 4:26 pm
So Millar, the guy who helped kick off this endless crossover after endless crossover business, is writing an FF book that ignores continuity?
Hi-larious.
Of all those runs, you point out Mark Waids to be horrid?
Oh T, the lengths you go to disagree with popular opinion...
alistairw
March 9, 2009 at 3:11 am
I still maintain Claremont's run was pretty damned good, especially issues #20 through #30.
J to the AAP
March 9, 2009 at 4:45 am
Because it's the law and none of them are Judge Dredd?
Also,
I second that.
T.
March 9, 2009 at 7:27 pm
I found all those post-Simonson runs to be bad (Simonson's was great and shamefully underrated). But I found Waid's to be horribly so. Because at least DeFalco's was in the 90s, when EVERYTHING at Marvel was bad. It was bad, but at Marvel during that time most things were bad. Waid's run was during a time when Marvel was doing great stuff all around, meanwhile Waid regressed Johnny to not just a teenager, but a borderline retarded slacker teen to boot. Even when Johnny was a teenager under Lee/Kirby, he was a brash, impulsive and cocky teen but never a dumb tool like Joey from Friends. He didn't just regress Johnny to a teen, he regressed him into a type of teen that he never was originally. Johnny Storm being revealed as the true source of the Yancy St. pranks just came off as really cruel and tasteless. Johnny and Ben may bicker but to think that Johnny would be THAT cruel to Ben was just excessive. Also, in his first issue Waid really wrote it in that nauseating DC-style (think Superman for All Seasons) where we get subjected with third-party worshipful and overly reverential characters beating us over the head with how awesome and inspiring the main characters are. I almost felt like I was reading a modern DC comic, I kept waiting for the word "iconic" to pop up. I'm a big fan of the "show, don't tell" school of heroics. Leatherskin Doom was an eyesore. Kirby as God was groan-inducing fanwankery at its worst. Roberto Acosta-Aguirre's run was pretty good, but since it was not in the main title I didn't count it.
If I was just being contrarian to be contrarian, I'd have included John Byrne's run to bash or I would have said I expected Hickman to be horrible.