There’s a true delight at the heart of The Impossible is Probable, one more interested in the potential of fun of Fantastic Four comics than the propensity for epic world-building (or destroying).
This isn’t to say that the stakes aren’t high in these stories – there are at least three points where the fate of the world is in question, and of course, there are the personal stakes that have been lingering through the last eleven issues of Ryan North, Iban Coello, and Ivan Fiorelli’s Fantastic Four: Marvel’s First Family is still striving to reunite.
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It’s just that the types of stories being told in this series bounce from high concept to high concept without being bogged down by the looming specter of an endgame – there is no Reckoning War, no Hickman-architecture, no impending apocalyptic event; the book is allowed to breathe without a ticking clock of severity.
The Impossible is Probable contains some of the most zany, mind-boggling adventures to date, the sorts of stories that can only happen in comics (or, at least, can best happen in comics). This is a book with dinosaurs, god-brains, and life-threatening super-science experiments, and yet somehow none of those things are the book’s whole purpose. There is no mastermind engineering the Fantastic Four’s downfall by using god-brained scientist dinosaurs. These are separate, completely isolated events.
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That sort of episodic storytelling seems to be gaining more of a foothold in Marvel Comics of late – while the X-Men have been facing the genocidal end of their civilization, books like The Avengers and Doctor Strange have been having tight, nicely contained mini-arcs, more closely resembling Marvel before the necessity of annual, line-wide events that restructured the status quo.
No book seems to get that mindset – and to absolutely revel in it – the way that Fantastic Four does. It’s a book that enjoys playfulness above all else. So much so that when that over-arching emotional concern – the Baxter Building, along with the Fantastic Four children, was shunted out of time, leaving the FF to wallow in loss – is resolved at the end of issue #15, the following issue allows for a hilarious kid’s adventure without missing a beat of good times.
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The book also pays special attention to defining its characters, ensuring that each member of the FF, Alicia, and the four children get moments to shine, whether that means a big action beat or a simple, telling character interaction. No one feels neglected, and no one is ever used as a narrative tool rather than a living, emotional being.
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In the last volume, Ben and his dog got a story that reminded readers that Ben, as an astronaut, is scientifically educated (rather than the big dumb lummox so many write him to be); in this volume we get a telling issue about Sue’s particular archeological skill set. It’s a nice way for the character to shed the stilted “I’m just a super-mom” trappings she is so often saddled with. Even under the threat of multiversal super-villainy, the book adds detail to the character’s humanity and history.
To top all of it off, the work of Coello and Fiorelli (with Francesco Mortarino and Carlos Gómez contributing this volume, as well) showcases those characters with striking humanity; there is rarely a moment where a character’s face doesn’t register earnest emotional clarity, which is a necessity in a book that strives to deepen individuality. Even Coello’s dinosaurs feel vividly and emotionally human.
The Impossible is Probable continues the series’ excellence and never loses sight of the heart and joy of the characters. It’s the Marvel book most in touch with itself, its characters, and its legacy; it’s a lovely book to spend time with.
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