By Colin Andersen
July 14, 2011 - 16:24
What’s that you say? You wanted the Future Foundation to actually appear in your copy of FF #6? Well that’s just too bad. Weird as it may sound, none of the members of the titular team so much as cameo in this month’s issue of FF, unless you count their headshots on the recap page (I don’t). Luckily, that doesn’t keep FF #6 from continuing to be an appealing book, but it is a little disappointing nonetheless.
Instead of out regularly scheduled heroes, this issue focuses on providing some backstory for how Black Bolt was able to make his return from his apparent death at the end of War of Kings. However, very little of FF #6 even deal with that.
Luckily, Jonathan is an absolutely masterful writer no matter what subject matter he is focusing on and FF #6 is still a great, fun read even if you have no clue what is going on; his handling of the Supreme Intelligence’s dialogue is both appropriate and amusing and there is great use of the heritage of certain other Marvel character familiar to the FF that is currently living with the Inhumans. However, no matter how well written the story is, it ultimately still feels superfluous at this moment. I’m sure most people, like me, were hoping to see the story of exactly how Black Bolt makes his triumphant return, but it seems that will have to be a story for next month and the lack of any of its main characters is disappointing and makes it feel as though the series as a whole has been temporarily sidetracked.
This strange mix of good and bad aspects of the story is also a problem in the art for the issue. This month, Greg Tocchini steps up for penciling duties and, while his art is by no means bad, it lacks the polish or consistency to really be considered good. While I have enjoyed Tocchini’s artwork in the past, he comes off a rough Gabriel Hardman with this issue. It may have been deliberate, but his work looks almost unfinished at points with extremely rough inking on his lines that make for some add shapes at times.
Despite all the problems with this issue, it is still mostly solid and Hickman has more than earned my trust with his work on Marvel’s First Family so I have faith that this issue will lead somewhere both interesting and exciting down the road. Even if you don’t feel the same way, it is still an excellent “historical” work for the Marvel Universe as a whole and I still recommend that anyone that has enjoyed FF so far not stop now.
Rating: 7 /10