Fantastic Four Annual #33

I got this in a collected edition (Marvel tales by Alan Davis) with all three annuals of this story plus Thor the truth of History as a present and well since I couldn’t find this on Comic Vine and really this is probably better off reviewed broken down I thought I’d review each individually. I got this from my dad who new I’m a big Alan Davis fan so got me this paperback as a present for Christmas and I’ve decided to give my thoughts on it.

Plot

The Thing and Human Torch are sleeping in the Baxter building after messing the whole place up they are woken by an alarm when something goes off to do with magic and Dr Strange arrives and then takes them to a graveyard and then there is a magical explosion and they are all sent to different periods in time.

Review

I don’t know what to think really my main problem is this not very new reader friendly I mean I probably should have got the Clandestine hardcovers before reading this but I was lost first off as to who everyone is I do learn it all in the end but first off the book I was lost in every way apart from obviously the Fantastic Four and the guest star (Spoiler) Doctor Strange who is the one constant non-clandestine character through these annuals. More on that point later but really I wanted to see what these were like because well I know Clandestine is viewed as one of Alan Davis’s best work and I wanted to see what he did with them and what he did with these characters and what he would do in each individual annual and how he would use each extra character (The Fantastic Four, Daredevil and Wolverine)

I praise Davis for choosing to take this story through the perspective of the titular characters of this book i.e. the fantastic Four this goes a long way to try and make this feel a bit more new reader friendly involving these very well-known characters but there treatment….. is well there pretty useless Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm, the Human Torch is trapped in a bottle for half of this issue (not spoiling how) and well Thing gets chucked around from different time period to different time period having no real effect on anything more literally trying to help a character in this issue but is outmatched by almost everyone in the Clandestine and he’s controlled by the main character of this issue Vincent for part of it. The only character who manages to do anything that is non-clandestine is Dr Strange but really he’s not the main character and he doesn’t appear that much so overall all the characters that aren’t clan destine get shoved to the side apart from Doctor Strange but he doesn’t appear much anyway so I wasn’t really pleased with the usage of the non-clandestine characters in this book but basically this is perfect for Clandestine fans but for people looking who expected a Fantastic Four story they are going to be very disappointed I could stop their on my review as this is my problem with the issue as this is all that I really hold against but it’s a large problem for me as I felt the title of this issue is misleading it should not have been a Fantastic Four annual instead it should have been Clandestine with the Fantastic Four (phrased better obviously) which is what it felt like but now onto the more positive side.

The story jumps about in time a fair amount and between different characters but it’s easy enough to follow and the story itself is very enjoyable it’s a fun tale in this annual and well while I think Thing was chucked around a fair amount I did like his characterisation which was a caring character looking after the main character of this book Vincent very well and doing his best no matter what to help him there were some heartfelt scenes with him in this issue and I did like that part of this issue.

The story as I have said earlier revolves around the character Vincent one of the Clandestine and it jumps through several time periods of his life we view him as a child when I think he’s a teenager and when he’s an adult while obviously we skip parts of his character development due to him ageing but I guess this was explored more in previous Clandestine stories and the information given in this is enough to understand the crucial points of what he is going through and how he is so Alan Davis did make good of what choosing the correct words to give you a good impression of his status quo. While I have my problems with other parts of the issue I cannot deny he did well with the Clandestine and there characterisation as while this is mainly Vincent centric I liked the characterisation of the other Clandestine when they did appear.

Back to the negative part of the issue this isn’t complete story I know this was always meant to continue to the next annual but I wanted a little more closure and at the end the answers to what was going on the answers come fast and aren’t properly explained at least I couldn’t tag along to the story to know what was going on I just wanted a little more closure on the story and the ending just felt a little forced so that questions would be carried over to the next it just felt a little off.

The highlight of course is the art Alan Davis is one of the best artists out there and whenever he is going to be drawing a book you know it is going to be really good looking and this is no exception and in fact this maybe better than his normal work but that is probably because Davis has had all the time he wants to pencil this as I know some of the pages for this were originally shown in 2009 and this is out of continuity as Dr Strange is still the sorcerer Supreme and the Fantastic Four have got their old costumes . Everything about Davis’s work is amazing the detail in his work and the panel composition especially on scenes in the past and in particular in a mystical world in this issue that are particularly impressive. Davis is also good with emotion and body language in this annual as all characters always look alive and in this annual it is needed and helps to improve the story a lot. The colours by Javier Rodigruez are fantastic they are very vibrant and help to improve the look of this book and I love how he can do light and dark colours very well in the same book.

Verdict

I’m not sure what to think this is a fun and emotional story and I would say it’s well worth buying but if you’re not familiar with the Clandestine and you expected a Fantastic Four story you’re going to hate this as the characters aren’t exactly treated well but this book is worth it for the art it’s just incredible.

3 stars