Review: Fantastic Four #582

Nathaniel Richards leads the nascent Fantastic Four into the conclusion of his multi-dimensional championship - - a bloody confrontation that may have disastrous consequences for the entire timeline.
 

The Good   

Wow! Is Hickman great with dialog, or what? He's got a handle on Doom's voice throughout, but that scene where Nathaniel defers the dirty work to him was some piercing stuff. As if the drama couldn't even be ratcheted up enough, the "evil" Nathaniel's manic monologue about the FF cheating him out of his rightful victory added an even more intense dimension to the scene. "Do what it is you do, Victor" indeed. I've been enjoying the combo of Edwards and Hanna here, who lavish everything with the same kind of dynamic detail I've enjoyed in Hitch's work. There may be some parts that look less rendered than the others, but the stand-outs are amazing. 

The Bad   

Maybe it's the nature of the beast when it comes to time travel stories, but I was still a little befuddled as to exactly what grown-up Franklin Richards does to Nathaniel at the end of this. Maybe it'll get explained next issue. Actually, maybe there needs to be a mortal kombat championship of future Franklins, because I'm still leery of this dredging up Hyperstorm. Also, maybe Hanna was more responsible for what I was so impressed with last issue, because the art seemed a little more inconsistent here. Not everything was rendered as uniformly well as I would've liked.

The Verdict - 4/5  

The FF have always interested me the least out all of Marvel's major characters. I usually see them working only as figureheads and guest stars, so Hickman needs a medal for not only making this something I can take seriously, but for also getting some genuinely cool moments in. Seriously, Doom's handling of the "evil" Nathaniel has to be one of the better single scenes I've seen in a while.