Farewell to a Hero (But there´s no body)
In a series where the writing usually overcome the art, this issue proved that Steve Epting, beyond any doubt, is a master in penciling comic books. All the issues (# 583 to now) have great art, but I think Epting left the best to the end: amazing panels, only one double spread page - and the crucial one, totally justified - perfect distribution of the characters per page, Epting has such an incredible feeling for position and character body movement, it´s just completely outstanding what he does. I´ve loved all the environments that he penciled: the Nu World at the brink of destruction, the Negative Zone and it´s forces preparing for invasion and the sub aquatic diplomacy (Sue´s got a hand to it) and how Epting captured every meaning and hidden narrative (ghost words), optimizing the writing to it´s best is an ability that isn´t shared with all the artists. Paul Mounts is a huge colorist and he gives Epting´s art such a great boost, it´s amazing! In the end Hickman´s narrative and dialogues focus more in the arc story that relates to the fallen hero, differently of the previous issues, when all the three stories received equal treatment, and they were both excellent: the line of thought, the gathering of people thinking a way throught it, trying to figure out an escape, the tension, very accurate and interesting dialogues. It was a great run and a very well writen story, people often accuse Marvel and other big publishers to kill their characters only to increase sales and in a few months or so bring the hero back from the dead, but I don´t think this was the case: I truly believe this was a structured and planned arc story - like Hickman said in a lot of web sites - and the fact that it culminated in the "death" of a character it´s nothing to diminish the greatness of the creative team and the comic book itself. It was awesome seeing Epting penciling the Fantastic Four and now I´m looking foward to FF.
4.5 out 5