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Fantastic Four Annual #1 - Fairy Tale

4

Sue heads to Latveria to get back her daughter!

The Good

Annual issues are a giant mixed bag. Many times, the creative team takes a month off and someone else comes in to do a one-shot. Sometimes, there's a cross-over annual event. Sometimes, we get actual progression to the main story line. With this issue, we get a bit of a side-story that actually progresses the characters and the overall main story currently happening in the main series.

Sue heads to Latveria to let Doom know she wants her daughter back, Valeria. Sue is very passionate and at a breaking point. She has been through a tremendous amount of stress and grief recently, and dealing with Doom is not something she's looking forward to. She finds that her daughter is fine with staying in Latveria and wants to help Doom make a change.

Could this have worked in the monthly series? Yes and no. A slimmed down version could have, combine with the other elements of the current FANTASTIC FOUR series, but this story needs to have a home in an annual issue where it's not necessarily a must buy issue for readers, but it will add tons of depth to the main story.

You know how I've been saying in every review of this book that I love how writer James Robinson embraces that past of Fantastic Four and utilizes it in contemporary storytelling. Spoilers ahead (maybe). Doctor Doom and Sue have a bit of a battle, and throughout the issue, we can see Sue start to succumb to the stress and emotional distress she's been having. At the end of this battle, which Sue wins, like the bad ass she is, but Doctor Doom comes to the conclusion that someone is sharing her mind: Malice. This isn't a confirmation at all because that could or couldn't be where Robinson is taking this story, but I love the idea that we could be headed down that road. I feel like Robinson knows all my favorite FF stories and is bringing aspects of them into this series. I now wait for Psycho Man to show up and for the FF to go back in time to kill Hitler... or Hate Monger.

The Bad

A part of this may be on my own ignorance, since I started becoming very invested in Fantastic Four when Robinson took over writing duties, but I don't know much about Valeria, Sue's daughter. She's very obviously smart, but I felt her dialogue seemed a bit too adult at times. The dialogue on it's own is great, but doesn't feel fitting for a super-smart child, even though the message does fit. Note: I know 0 super-intelligent kids.

The Verdict

FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL offers an awesome complimentary story to the main volume. It's full of tons of extremely well-executed dialogue and the story has a great pace to it. I had a bit of a problem with how Valeria spoke, but a lot of that may come from my own ignorance of the character. Regardless, it still was problematic for me in this reading experience. Aside from that minor issue, I really enjoyed this issue and almost everything about it. I highly recommend checking this one out if you've been enjoying the main series