Maybe the most fun part of reading a Fantastic Four comic the last few years is having no idea what you were going to get. Outside of the last few issues, Fantastic Four #12 follows the series formula of being a quick one and done (at most, really a two and done, but not this month) where you get something weird, you get something interesting, and you get something funny. I’m happy to report that the latest Fantastic Four issue is all of those things, and brings back the levity without sacrificing the seriousness.
Fantastic Four #12 starts with a time anomaly, which is not unusual for the Fantastic Four. While trying to explore exactly what has gone wrong with the timeline, most of the Fantastic Four and their extended family wiped out. With only Reed and Johnny surviving, it’s up to the two of them to save the world – and their family.
Marvel
The two are transported back to ancient Rome, where they’re dealing with a very familiar alien invasion. The same aliens that invaded Earth during the last arc, “The Invincible Woman”, decided the Fantastic Four were too hard to deal with, so they went back in time to the Roman Empire to avoid them. Using his smarts, Reed and Johnny, the only two FF members to survive the trip back in time make up a plan to work together with the local Roman legionaries to try and push back this alien invasion.
Using a combination of their wits and their powers, Johnny and Reed are pushed to pretty far extremes to save the Earth without breaking the natural course of history. You know, ish.
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First off, this issue is funny. There are several moments where writer Ryan North lets Johnny be Johnny to great effect. Even more impressive than that, is his ability to let Reed be Reed, which is genuinely equally as funny. This levity is a hugely welcome change of pace after the long and heavy “Invincible Woman” arc that has taken up the last five months of the book. It was awesome, sure, but it’s genuinely great to have a one and done issue with two dudes going back in time and fighting aliens along with Roman ballistas and catapults.
One of my favorite parts of the Ryan North era penning the book is the way he so casually brings body horror into the script. Reed does messed up things to his body this issue, which is generally par for the course for the book to date, but really stand out. The way he stretches his eyeballs out of his cranium to see something hyper specific or stretches his face to insane proportions just to block out light to make it harder for the aliens he’s fighting to see is weird and awesome and fun. The banality of the weird stuff he does to his body is so much to watch unfold (and stretch).
Penciller Pat Boutin did such a great job with these small moments, as well with the redesign Reed gets in this issue to blend in with the times. I don’t get to say this in a review often enough, but Reed with the longer hair and extended mustache/beard combo? Hubba hubba. Awoogha, even.
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Johnny’s humor and everyman attitude is used to great effect in this issue. One of the funnier jokes that kept rearing its head in this issue is the “how often do you think of the Roman Empire” that blew up on social media a couple years ago. However, maintaining that ideal is perfectly in character for Johnny and was a fun through line to follow from the start of this wacky adventure.
Fantastic Four 12-5
Fantastic Four #12 was a return to what has made this series work for the last few years. It’s an interesting concept executed to a high degree and didn’t have the baggage or universe-ending implications of the previous arc. The focus on two characters of the team was used to great effect to show why each individual member is not only important, but why they’re unique and are constantly bring out the best of their teammates.
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