Having defeated Invincible Woman (an alternate evil version of Sue Storm) last issue, Fantastic Four #11 downshifts to cruising speed with a “day in the life”-style story written by Ryan North with art by Pat Boutin and Serge LaPointe and colors by Edgar Delgado.
When Maria Hill suggests that it’s a good time to start a new Future Foundation, the team (primarily Reed, Sue and Johnny) argue over what the concept should be, threatening to form a rift in the team. Ben volunteers to take all their ideas and boil them down, using his “everyman” viewpoint to create a charter for the Foundation that will please everyone.
Writer Ryan North does a good job of injecting the classic FF tropes into the story, like Ben and Johnny’s arguing, Reed’s eternal need to solve everything and Sue always having to fight a little harder to get her voice heard amidst the guys. Ben is especially fun here, self-flagellating as usual, feeling dumb and inferior compared to the other members of the team. He even laments that the only thing (no pun intended) he contributed in the last battle against Doom was hitting Doom with a hammer, which, let’s face it, was pretty awesome considering the hammer was Mjolnir.
But Ben, forever a sad sack, is as charming as ever here. His scenes with Alicia and their kids is especially wonderful, proving that the love between those two is just as strong as that between Reed and Sue.
Marvel
The issue’s not all rainbows and roses though, as the FF do battle with Crimeasaurus Rex, controlled by a deep-dive figure from the FF’s past. It’s a lovely story with a touching ending that gives us yet another aspect of Ben Grimm and I love that after all these years we can still be surprised by the big lug.
Also included this issue is a backup story by Stan Sakai and Brittany Peer, with the FF heading into the depths of Subterranea to battle a creature from the depths that’s destroying random skyscrapers across New York. Of course, heading to Subterranea means that they inevitably come into conflict with The Mole Man, who’s not happy that they’ve come calling. The story has that same wonderful combination of drama and humor that Sakai brings to his creation, Usagi Yojimbo. It’s always entertaining to see indie creators work with Marvel’s First Family, and I hope Marvel continues bringing on these creators (Maria Llovet please?) to give their interpretations of Reed and the gang.
Next issue concerns me because it focuses on Johnny and Reed in the past. I don’t know why Ryan North always likes splitting the team up. Personally, I enjoy the book the most when all four of them are together, but time will tell if next issue’s tale is as good as this one.
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