Listeners of the AIPT Comics Podcast already have a pretty good idea of how I feel about the new Fantastic Four run from Ryan North, Iban Coello, Ivan Fiorelli, and Jesus Aburtov. Just about every week that a new issue has released, it has appeared in our top books of the week. This series has not only proven to be consistently inventive and entertaining, but it’s also managed to make a full-on fan out of me. I’ve always enjoyed the Fantastic Four as concept, even when I haven’t tuned in regularly for their adventures, but the issues collected here in this sleek trade paperback (bearing gorgeous artwork by the inimitable Alex Ross) made this into a series that I legitimately look forward to reading every single month.
We all know the story of the Fantastic Four and why they do what they do, so this series skips the origins of the team and instead reintroduces us to the gang at a crossroads. An unknown tragedy has occurred, which has left the Fantastic Four scattered across the country. The first few issues of the book act as fantastic standalone adventures for Ben and Alicia, Reed and Sue, and finally Johnny, before bringing them back together in an emotional moment of catharsis for the whole crew.
The Fantastic Four are always stronger together, but this book goes a long way towards showing us just how much heart each of them have when left to their own devices. By showing us how each member of the team responds to a crisis without much in the way of backup, North and co. allow us to fall in love with each of them all over again. It feels fully earned when they at last team up and put their differences aside for the common good.
A few issues also find new ways of utilizing the various members’ powers in outside-the-box applications. From Reed stretching himself to an unheard-of dimension to Sue blocking out the sun by projecting her invisibility field, this series shows us things that are absolutely fantastic. North also neatly grounds everything in a very specific and clever intersection between comic book logic and actual science. The Fantastic Four live and breathe in a theoretical space, and from there, this creative team constantly pushes boundaries to give us something new and exciting. Not many characters who have been around for five-plus decades can make such a claim.
If you’re a lapsed Fantastic Four fan or are looking for a fun place to start, I cannot recommend this collection enough. The issues in this trade paperback are some of my favorite superhero stories of the last year — and believe or not, the series continues to get even better from here.
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