Comics / Comic Reviews / Marvel Comics

Fantastic Four #584

By Colin Andersen
October 27, 2010 - 17:45

Though I have never reviewed an issue of it for Comic Book Bin, Fantastic Four is and has been my favorite comic books since I first started really reading comic books when I was eight years old. As such, it is easily the comic book that I have the most extensive knowledge of and the most vested interest in. Because of this, I have been following Jonathan’s Hickman’s time on the book very carefully. Fantastic Four has been in an unfortunate limbo in recent years where it seemed to have minimal stature, aside from Mr. Fantastic, within the Marvel Universe as a whole and has also suffered from some less than stellar creators on the series. Though many have had potential, no recent creator has quite delivered the quintessential Fantastic Four stories that I have been looking for. Luckily, Hickman seems to have turned that around and made this a series that seems to recognize its roots once again, even if it is not entirely perfect.
    Issue #584 is the second issue in the “Three” storyline that has been receiving a lot of press lately. The death of member has been stated repeatedly to occur in this story arc and the cover even has a countdown to it. Despite Hickman’s success so far, I’ve still been very wary of this development as the Fantastic Four doesn’t have much history with well-written or long-lasting and impacting deaths. For better or worse, this particular issue does little, at least overtly, in moving the reader toward that development. Instead, Hickman

focuses on The Thing and his new-found one week a year where he gets to be human. As far as I’m concerned, this was the best possible story to follow. I have always loved “slice of life” stories that ground the fantastical characters that often exist in comic books and I don’t think it works for any superhero team better than the Fantastic Four. Watching the Human Torch take his teammate out for a night on the town is at once entertaining ( see: the Yancy Street Gang and Superhero Poker) and heartwarming. It was truly great for an author to show off how great friends Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm are and, though it is present, that they don’t have to be used to play pranks off of one another. Hickman really understands the relationship these two have and I loved it every minute of it. Even better was the way the sequence ended, with Johnny’s reintroduction of a long-standing FF supporting character that has been absent from the book for far too long, even if said characters seen seemed to happen too rapidly given the pasts of everyone involved.
    Each of the other characters gets face time in the book as well. The Invisible Woman heads of to Utopia, home of the X-men, to meet up with the Sub-Mariner for negotiations to unite New and Old Atlantis. This scene added a nice bit of crossover between the X-men and the FF that goes a long way toward making the FF feel like more of a part of the Marvel Universe. There’s an especially great two-panel sequence where Emma Frost and Sue Storm exchange “greetings” that perfectly sum up both of their attitudes. Meanwhile, Reed Richards (while examining the Fault, another nod of the head to the Marvel Universe) gets an unexpected visit from the Silver Surfer who is less than pleased about his discovery from last issue. I was surprised at just how well Hickman was able to write the Surfer as well. While it was clear he was upset, he also seemed to trust Reed and view him as a friend. It was a much more rational and appropriate, in my opinion, interpretation than he has received in other series, such as Chaos War and Thanos Imperative. I also enjoyed the decreased focus on the Richards’ children this month (even from the letters column!). They have received a bit too much screen time lately and this has taken away from the team itself.
    Unfortunately, I’m not quite as pleased with the art team on Fantastic Four. Don’t get me wrong, Steve Epting does a great job illustrating the book, but I’m not sure if it is the right fit for this particular series. Epting, while delivering some great character designs (I really enjoy his Thing and Silver Surfer) and composition, uses far too many shadows. It gives the issue a darker look than the series should have. Some would probably argue that this is a dark arc for the book and this style is therefore appropriate, but no matter how dark the stories have been, Fantastic Four has always been a rather bright and colorful book and I just didn’t get that from Epting. Alan Davis’ covers however, are phenomenal. They are so good, I almost wish he would stop doing them because it just makes me want to see him do interiors for Fantastic Four again.
    Despite all the positives, there are some issues I had with this month’s book. First of all, I’m just so tired of the interpretation of Ben as being so depressed about his lot in life that was used in the opening pages. It’s just so clichéd at this point, especially when Ben has so long been characterized as coming to terms with, and even embracing at times, his status as The Thing. However, seeing Ben liked that made his human pages all the more enjoyable, so maybe that was the points. I also didn’t much care for Johnny’s gags as Ben’s expense when he took the serum at the beginning of the issue. These exact jokes have been used so many times that they cease be enjoyable even if they were meant as some sort of continuity gag. My only other real problem was wondering when this issue takes place in regards to Thanos Imperative. Since the Fault is specifically mentioned within the issue, one would think, given his involvement in Thanos Imperative, that the Silver Surfer would not have time to be doing investigative digging around the center of the Earth. Maybe the Fault reference would have been better left out, despite it helping Fantastic Four re-integrate itself into the MU.
    Phew, this review got a little longer than my average review. I guess I just had a lot to say. Suffice it to say, I’m really enjoying Hickman’s work on Fantastic Four and, though I’m still somewhat skeptical about “Three” as a whole, this was easily one of his best issues yet. Nearly every character felt spot-on in how they were written and all of my story problems amounted to little more than nitpicks and that speaks to the quality of the issue. Fantastic Four #584 may have just made it into my top ten issues of the series ever and I would recommend it to anyone, whether you like superheroes or not. These characters felt like real people with real personalities and, though you might not understand who some of the ancillary characters are, even new readers will get an instant feel for who the FF are. If you’ve been hesitant to give Hickman a try on this book, then I encourage you to at the very least, flip through #584 and see if it changes your mind.

Rating: 9.5/10

Rating: 9.5 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12