Quick Rating: Looking Forward to the Ultimate Lockjaw
Title: The Fantastic, Part 4

See Through Is Not What It’s Cracked Up To Be

Writers: Brian Michael Bendis/Mark Millar
Pencils: Adam Kubert
Inks: John Dell
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Chris Eloipoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio

If you read last issue, then you knew the Moleman would be back, but the person that you are awaiting is Dr. Doom. Well, I won’t tell you, even if this review is not hot on the heels of the issue’s appearance. What does happen is more character interaction and Moley pursues his wacky goals.

I will tell you that the pace remains glacial. I don’t normally believe in conspiracies, but I’m rethinking that. For instance, the residents of a certain Scottish town might just mess with foreign visitors’ sense of reality by telling tales of a large aquatic monstrosity. Also, it might not be a surprise to learn that a certain major comic book publisher decided to pad its hit new comic book series by inserting long, drawn-out sequences with minimal action.

Somewhere over the rainbow, you may have seen an ancient video called How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. It featured Stan Lee, in all his glory, and John Buscema, trying to go with the flow. The one thing you learn is that Marvel comics are about “action.” Oh, you learn this over and over. You learn a few other things, but they’re best experienced first-hand.

So, the folks overseeing the Ultimate line-up definitely got the message about character. They have a load of character. Somehow, the original stories of Reed and Sue and Peter and Matt and the Professor and Ginger and Mary Ann managed to convey character through action. To be honest, I’m not even certain this is a fair complaint. If they’d already fought and defeated Dr. Doom by this point, I’d probably be complaining that we didn’t know who they were. I wouldn’t mind feeling a bit more forward thrust though.

March, 2004

Quick Rating: And things begin to happen…

The Fantastic: Part 3

Writers: Brian Michael Bendis/Mark Millar
Pencils: Adam Kubert
Inks: Danny Miki
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Chris Eloipoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio

Issue 3 and we see some superpowers- isn’t that what we’ve all been waiting for? We see the outcome of the explosion at the end of issue 2. The four youths have been transformed into the super-powered beings that we have been expecting. They are scattered across the globe, with Sue Storm being the only one in imminent danger, although all four are reasonably freaked out. Victor Van Damme is the only victim unaccounted for.

The images in this chapter were much more disturbing than those that had appeared previously. I found them oddly appealing. In fact, I seemed to like the art the best so far- maybe that was because this was the first issue where the pictures often carried the story.

In my review of Issue 2, I wrote:
Only two comic pamphlets outsold it last year (Batman 619 and JLA/Avengers 1). And yet:
-more people can name all six Friends then all four of the FF
-more people watched the cable golf channel last week than read this comic book
-more than a hundred times as many people bought Shazam comic books at their peak as bought Ultimate FF
-Stan Lee, as a character, has appeared in more released movies than Reed Richards
-the person standing on the left in a comic panel still speaks first
Everyone focused on the point about Friends, which seems to me to be the most like comparing apples and oranges. The second point draws on the same television/comics-battle-for-your-diversion-dollar deliberation. Comics will always come up short. Everyone views television as free. Flip it on (and it’s always there in the American household) and you’re magically entertained. Also leaving aside the last point (which fascinates me in the same way that mirror reflections do), the third and fourth points are what should concern anyone interested in the comic book industry as a viable concern. Shazam was a milestone in the comic book industry, along with a few others, because of its popularity (setting aside a discussion of how good it was, though it was often quite good). Yet, it was truly nothing special in the eyes of the general public. It was a comic book and you bought them and you read them and you threw them away. I do not think that people are any less aware of the existence of comic books than they were fifty years ago. Yet, it is very difficult to buy them. I don’t think a single child in my son’s elementary school could be given three bucks to buy a comic book and accomplish the task on their own. At that age, everyone in my neighborhood was bike-riding to the drug store and gleaning the best off the comic racks. Moreover, making a Fantastic Four movie will not change that. It will only change when comic books are printed on cheap paper, cost a dollar, and most people throw them away when they get old enough to fill that same shelf space with equally worthless novels. Maybe it’s nice to be the only one in your neighborhood that can pronounce Sub-Mariner correctly, but this art form is being hoisted on its own petard.

I cannot let the Ultimate Fantastic Four letter column debut pass without comment. For reasons that elude me, Marvel has allowed Brian Michael Bendis to handle the letter column. Anyone who has read Powers has to wonder at the wisdom of the choice, at least with any sense of corporate behavior in the wake of the horrific Super Bowl revelation that Janet Jackson has breasts. I only hope that no photos of Bendis’ booby make an appearance anytime soon (accidentally included with the page layout by Millar).

February, 2004

Quick Rating: Paced for the long run
Title: The Fantastic: Part 2

Writers: Brian Michael Bendis/Mark Millar
Pencils: Adam Kubert
Inks: Danny Miki
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Chris Eloipoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio

The titan has reared its head again. Ultimate Fantastic Four has moved on to its second issue. Only two comic pamphlets outsold it last year (Batman 619 and JLA/Avengers 1). And yet:
-more people can name all six Friends then all four of the FF
-more people watched the cable golf channel last week than read this comic book
-more than a hundred times as many people bought Shazam comic books at their peak as bought Ultimate FF
–Stan Lee, as a character, has appeared in more released movies than Reed Richards
-the person standing on the left in a comic panel still speaks first

I bring this up because your perception of the Ultimate line is going to color your perception of this comic book; because your perception of Marvel is going to color your perception of this comic book. The Ultimate line is a huge money-printer hidden in its basement that Marvel has revealed finally and it’s the beginning of the end of that great house of ideas. The Ultimate line is the natural progression of the House of Ideas as they meander into the new century. The Ultimate line is the greatest contribution to the comic book art form since Will Eisner first decided to draw circular panels.

As neutrally as possible, this issue of Ultimate FF proceeds with Reed Richards’ introduction to the youthful think tank that is the Baxter Building. We get to meet characters that give off that wonderful frisson of acknowledgement, déjà vu, and foreboding. We also get to see the further development of Reed’s research into the N-Zone. That’s it.

For the folks who like Marvel and the Ultimate line, the issue does a great mass-media job of portraying scientific research, even if it is mostly bogus. How often do scientists get credit for hard work? Nothing much happens, but anyone with any knowledge of the history here can tell where we’re going and simply enjoy the slow movement. A lot of groundwork is being laid here and who can complain about a lot of groundwork when you want to hold up a building for a few decades. Smoldering tension is not necessarily a bad thing. The art is lovely, glossy, and professional.

For the rest of you, the issue gets by on clues and innuendo. It is slow moving- too much time establishing relationships that won’t matter for months, by which time we’ll all have forgotten the bases that were laid. The artwork is thin and worried.

So, the Ultimate line is probably doing nothing to bring in new fans to the comic book nation, despite Marvel’s best efforts. I don’t think a Fantastic Four movie would change that either. The people who are buying this comic are the same people who buy any other comic- just more of them are adding this to their pull list than Battle of the Planets Meets Pirates of the Dark Water. And you’re reading this because you want to like it or want to hate it. That’s the nature of the fan. So, share these first two issues with your friend’s kid brother and let him get to know what should be a cultural touchstone.

January, 2004