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

Quick Rating: Fantastic
Title: Part 1

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

There were long car rides. They lasted for hours and seemed like days.

There were drug stores with carousels filled with comic books. There were small shops that sold food and candy and, above the ice cream where no child could reach them, comic books.

My father walked into the store and pointed up at the distant shelf and offered to buy a couple of comics. It was going to be a long car ride, after all, and a man would do anything to limit the number of times his seat was innocently kicked in the back.

There was an issue of Superman where Lois Lane tossed herself off an airport observation deck in order to force Clark Kent into revealing himself as Superman. She kept up those shenanigans for the entire issue. I loved it. Then, I turned to Fantastic Four Annual #3. It had to have been a reprint. I’m only so old. The original was published in 1965. Maybe you’ve seen it. You’ve probably heard of it. It’s the issue where Reed Richards and Sue Storm married.

I had been to a couple weddings. I was still very young. Weddings were about a lot of people showing up who gave you a lot of attention. Also, you ran around with your cousins acting like a pack of maniacs- generally terrorizing the employees of whatever establishment hosted the nuptials. (Note that this predates the teen years when you spend your time tormenting the wedding band and the twenties when people begin to notice the amount of time that you’re spending at the open bar.)

The Fantastic Four wedding was perfect. Millions of superheroes and villains were there! How awesome is that! And they all acted just like my family! –except for the whole superpowers and fighting thing… I poured over that issue repeatedly. It was the greatest thing that I had seen since Yertle the Turtle. Iceman actually sent the Mole Men back to their underground domain with a huge chunk of melting ice! They knew just how I felt in the back seat of that car every time someone slid their front seat a little further back.

No more Superman for me! Make mine Marvel! (except for the occasional Justice League or Batman annual.) I found that by leaving that married couple alone on my bookshelf they would mate and produce other comic books. Soon, I had a collection.

So, I have a certain fondness for the Fantastic Four. You do not mess with them. I say this with full knowledge that I have read almost none of their comics in decades. (You Can’t Go Home Again would be an apt reference here, but it was only the title ofThomas Wolfe’s book. Then again, the protagonist probably did regret going home as much as he had discovered that home had changed in his absence.)

So, there I sat with the Ultimate Fantastic Four in my lap. The cover is attractive. I opened it and read, apprehensive. Rapidly, it became apparent that this issue was a prologue. That’s okay, but I knew, positively knew, that we would get our cosmic rays on the final page. (Forty years ago, the Fantastic Four were born of cosmic radiation when their spaceship left Earth’s atmosphere.) That had to happen, didn’t it?

But it didn’t. The entire issue is foreword. And yet I didn’t care- because it ends with one of those wonderful Pete Townsend-crescendo moments. You could just hear Roger Daltrey screaming in the background.

Do I dare quibble? The artwork was both great and yet… Marvel seems to have locked into this look for the new century that feels odd. I can’t put my finger on it, but it just seems odd. Give me time. I’ll either grow to like it or figure out what the problem is. Maybe it just feels blocky and fragile at the same time.

December, 2003

Quick Rating: A swing and a hit
Title: The Day Tom Strong Renegotiated the Friendly Skies

Writer: Mark Schultz
Artist: Pascal Ferry
Colors: Wendy and Carrie of WS FX
Letters: Todd Klein
Editor: Scott Dunbier

The entire world’s aircraft crash to the ground and Tom Strong must find out the reason. Packed into a neat environmental lesson, this tale also considers the early history of manned flight in Tom’s world.

I have not been thrilled by every tale told in Tom Strong, mostly because they felt just a little too… something or other—I only wish that I could put my finger on it. Top 10 and Tomorrow Stories (other seemingly defunct titles put out by America’s Best) always seemed to display that mastery of color and tone that defines most of Moore’s work. Promethea constantly walks the tightrope of comprehensibility over the net of entertainment. And then there has been Tom Strong, which gives all the appearance of being a pile of good ideas that was exhausted after a year.

Mark Schultz steps up to the plate to take his swing at the meandering life of Tom Strong. I loved Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. I even liked the cartoon show. The whole concept was an amalgamation of so many disparate elements and yet it worked somehow. I believe that was due to Mark Schultz’s talents as a storyteller more than the fact that the dinosaurs looked incredibly cool. Somehow he gets Tom Strong just right.

And the art is just right. Did I mention that there are sky creatures? And they look lovely. Here the story combined with the art raises my rating for both, which has not happened before. That’s an accomplishment that we don’t see often enough.

May, 2004