I know we’re all getting tired of the new #1s that Marvel is insisting on: rebooting each series (sometimes after only ten issues), resetting the storylines, and swapping up creative teams. The idea, presumably, is to offer up a new jumping-on point for new readers, though the end result seems more often to present a jumping off point for people who were enjoying the previous run – one less comic to pick up on an increasingly expensive hobby.
Marvel
Usually, these series resets come with a change in creative teams, story arcs, and narrative directions, but these alterations are only partially true of the new Fantastic Four series. Writer Ryan North has stayed on board, though the great Humberto Ramos has come aboard as series artist (but the last series dealt with changing artists already). There are new stories to be found, but the new series begins halfway through the previous storyline – the One World Under Doom crossover issues – and the original series handled new stories and stand-alone issues just fine as it was.
As for new narrative directions, it’s too early to tell what changes might be made to the overarching plot, at least not from the first five issues collected in Save Everyone, the first collected volume of the new series. In those five issues, Ryan North handles his writing duties as smartly and colorfully as he ever has; the book positively sings with scientific principles, intelligently rounded characters, and unique concepts.
Marvel
The opening narrative – those Under Doom crossover issues – is a rather epic time-travel narrative dealing with Forever Stones, Time Sleds, and evil save-states. The following issues show off North’s tendency to single out members of the cast and give them time to shine, independent of the team’s superheroics. Alicia gets an adventure solving her own (horrifying) mystery; Invisible Woman helps out Black Cat in a super-powered locked room mystery.
Bringing Humberto Ramos aboard means the book looks unlike any other Marvel book on the shelves: Ramos is notably one of the most stylized artists in the superhero business, his loose and cartoony lines lending a manic energy to the proceedings. Fantastic Four wasn’t a bad-looking book before its reboot (artists like Cory Smith, Francesco Mortarino, and Iban Coello made the book look dazzling and fresh), but now it has a unique calling card in a superstar artist.
No, Fantastic Four’s new reset doesn’t feel necessary – it just happens to be a victim of MCU synergy. But one hopes that the new #1 didn’t drive people away; the book is simply too good not to be in people’s pull lists. None of its charms were lost; now free of its larger crossover constraints, it shines all the more brightly. It’s a standout book from a publisher currently suffering an identity crisis, and it needs to be celebrated.
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