The Fantastic Four's fall is taking a while. A LONG while.
Writer James Robinson, artist Leonard Kirk, inkers Karl Kesel and Jay Leisten, and colorist Jesus Aburtov continue with the first story arc of this monthly Fantastic Four series; the Fall of the Fantastic Four!
The Good
In this issue, The Fantastic Four fight the new Frightful Four! This new Frightful Four consists of Wizard, Wrecker, Thunderball, and Bulldozer; all whom are working for a new villainous boss that has a secret agenda for the Fantastic Four.
I enjoyed the artwork for this issue. The art team really does an amazing job with the artwork and they make it look fantastic! From the colors to the inks to the design of the world, everything is pulled off with a great attention to detail.
The Bad
The story of the "Fall of the Fantastic Four" is going multiple places, but it doesn't really seem to have a singular direction. Obviously the end goal is the Fantastic Four [temporarily] disbanding for reasons that have been teased in the first issue, but the story hasn't necessarily gone down that path [yet]. With the explosion at the Baxter Building, having to fight inter-dimensional aliens, and now having to fight a new Frightful Four-- the story is going everywhere, but forward. Yeah it's a bunch of fun to see these fight sequences drawn out [sometimes], but adding characters like the F4 substitutes to aid the F4 in fighting the Frightful Four; it just makes me scratch my head. Because once they appear in this issue, they won't be seen anywhere in the next one!
Hopefully all these events that have happened in a four issue time frame will start to make sense towards the end of this story arc; but for now -- each issue just feels isolated.
The Verdict
I would recommend reading Fantastic Four, but this first story arc is going everywhere but up. Hopefully it starts to get a better sense of direction in the issues to come, but for now, I didn't like this issue. 1 out of 5.
Last FF review: