Fantastic Four#587 REVIEW (A Farewell To A Good Friend)

Cover by Alan Davis

Fantastic Four#587

Written by: Jonathan Hickman

Drawn by: Steve Epting

Inks by: Rick Magyar, Mike Perkins, and Steve Epting

Colors by: Paul Mounts

Page Count: 28

Price: $3.99

Publisher: Marvel Comics

SPOILERS ARE PRESENT IN THIS REVIEW! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS ISSUE YET AND DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHO DIES THEN SKIP THIS REVIEW AND COME BACK LATER.

So here we have it. The Fantastic Four ‘death’ issue Marvel has been hyping for about six months now. I only read the first part of this story arc, “Three” and then I dropped it since I wanted to save money. After reading this issue I really wish I had kept reading FF because I was LOST. Reed Richards was in Nu-World fighting Galactus, Sue Richards was with Namor, etc. Basically the FF and Reed and Sue’s kids are scattered across the universe and I have no clue what’s going on. I think I would’ve enjoyed this more had I read the issues that came out beforehand.

All that aside I actually enjoyed this issue. It keep things moving and everything led up to the final scene. I am a big fan of Jonathan Hickman’s work and while this isn’t as deep or mature as some of his other works have been it still keeps the entertainment quality that is present in his previous work. It’s fairly evident in this issue and the issues I bought when Hickman first started his run on Fantastic Four that he understands the family PERFECTLY. There is not one moment in his run where I’ve questioned the character’s motives or if they would have done that. I LOVE how Hickman portrays Franklin and Valeria, Reed and Sue Richards’ kids. Their little rascals who get bored easy and cause a bunch of trouble, but also are a big help when need be. Again the story was confusing to me, probably due to the fact that I haven’t read a few of the issues before this one. Also there were a lot of splash pages in this story which I think is a lazy way of reaching your deadline on time. Splash pages are used for EFFECT and NOT for REACHING YOUR DEADLINE ON TIME.

There also were a lot of pages with little to no dialogue, but towards the end Hickman uses these types of pages EFFECTIVELY. HERE’S WHERE THE SPOILERS COME IN. The page I’m talking about is the pages where The Thing watches as Annihulus’ army surrounds Johnny Storm as the door closes on him as The Thing sheds a tear. The last page is The Thing holding Franklin and Valeria in his arms. Those kinds of pages with little to no dialogue are what they should be used for. I also love how Sue Storm puts Namor in his place during this issue 🙂

I’m not a huge fan of Steve Epting, I liked his art on Captain America, but for all intents and purposes the art didn’t really enhance nor let down this issue. It didn’t help that there were THREE INKERS on the book, one of them being Epting himself. The art does look inconsistent in certain places of the book, again because of the different inkers.

So with this issue we say good-bye to Johnny Storm AKA the Human Torch. He has always been my favorite member of the FF. I loved his coolness he had about him and the light-heartedness he brought to the team and I ALWAYS enjoyed it when he and the Thing would argue and fight, see Marvel Fanfare#15 for a GREAT example of this 🙂 I even remember my dad handing me his Human Torch action figure for me to play with and I remember my uncle pretending that the action figure was actually on fire and was burning him, as he doused the toy with water.

So good-bye Human Torch… we’ll see you in about six months to a year 🙂

RATING: B

My Two Cents: Old Man Logan 2, Ultimate Thor, and the end of Brand New Day

All of the following topics I’m about to ramble about were found at Bleedingcool.com. The links to these articles can be found if you click here, here, and here.

Old Man Logan. What can you say about it? Well, it was a top-selling book by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven and was also nominated for an Eisner award. It must be good right? I read it several months ago and was disappointed. Actually saying it was a disappointment is me being nice. I could go through everything that I didn’t like about the story (which was pretty much the whole thing), but that would take too long and frankly I’m sick of talking about Old Man Logan.

So now I’m sure you can imagine what I felt when Joe Quesada (Marvel’s Editor-In-Cheif for those who don’t know) pretty much gave Millar the green light to write Old Man Logan 2. All that Old Man Logan consisted of was never-ending mindless violence, misogyny, lazy story-telling and editing, boring art, and a story you can read in the time it takes to walk your dog. This is why the industry hasn’t jumped forward much. Let’s face it. The countless movies haven’t done much to increase the books sales by a huge amount, or at least for a lasting amount of time. I don’t want every comic book to be something that I could’ve written with a 12-year old kid or something that reads like a daydream somebody had. If you like this kind of stuff then by all means continue to enjoy it. I will never belittle anyone just because they liked something I didn’t like. In fact I know some people who liked Old Man Logan.

Let us move on to more happier topics:

Evidently at the upcoming San Diego Comic Con, writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Carlos Pacheco will be announcing a project for the Ultimate Marvel line that’s scheduled to come out in October. That book is Ultimate Thor. I have never met a Jonathan Hickman book I haven’t liked (i.e. Nightly News, Red Mass for Mars, Shield, Fantastic Four, and Secret Warriors). I am excited for this, but if it’s $3.99 for 22 pages of art chances are I won’t buy it and will wait for it at a used bookstore. Hopefully Carlos Pacheco can draw the art on par with the art in Avengers Forever.

Just one queston to throw out there: Where is Red Mass for Mars#4 Mr. Hickman?

Onto the final topic:

After 101 issues after One More Day, Brand New Day will be ending. I thought BND ended when the logo for it came off of the Amazing Spider-Man issues, but whatever. It will also end it’s 3+ times a month schedule and it has been reported that Dan Slott will take over as the main writer of the book, which I would approve of in a heartbeat. I’m hoping that with this new beginning of the Spider-Man universe will restore the character to the one that I grew up with and love. Dan Slott has my faith and trust to do just so.

Feel free to contribute to the discusion by leaving a comment! I look forward to them! Hopefully next time I’ll have something to talk about other than Marvel 🙂