"Ultimate Fantastic Four: Frightful"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Ultimate Fantastic Four: Frightful” as presented in Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection format.

            Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm/Human Torch, and Ben Grimm/Thing were altered in a teleportation malfunction and became the Fantastic Four. After their public outing, the team were returning to their home, the government think tank the Baxter Building, by helicopter with military escort. As their helicopter approached the Baxter Building, it was hit by an electromagnetic pulse. The Fantastic Four softened the helicopter’s crash landing into the Baxter Building roof. Upon disembarking, the Fantastic Four and their military escort discovered several identification cards belonging to Baxter Building staff scattered on the roof, including Franklin Storm’s, Sue, and Johnny’s father. As the Fantastic Four and their military escort entered the laboratory levels, they received a taunting message from Rhona Burchill, the setter of the trap. Rhona had been a Baxter Building applicant but had been denied admission due to Reed’s acceptance in the think tank. Upon discovering the Baxter Building staff tied up, the Fantastic Four and their military escort were incapacitated by Rhona’s robotic servant, Bobby. Rhona projected her life into Reed’s brain using a serum Rhona devised. Rhona started an auction on the Fantastic Four, selling them to Latveria. As Rhona attempted to load the Fantastic Four for transport, Reed was able to revive. Reed also revived the other members of the Fantastic Four. Realizing she was beaten, Rhona managed to escape, threatening revenge on Reed. Later, Reed received a distress message from a Reed Richards from a parallel universe.

            Crystal, princess of an advanced sect of humans living in a refuge called Attilan hidden in the Himalayas, fled to New York City, displeased at her impending arranged marriage to Maximus, brother of Black Bolt, king of the civilization. As the royal guards attempted to bring Crystal back to Attilan, Johnny attempted to come to her rescue and fought the guards but was beaten. Johnny and Crystal were saved by Crystal’s teleporting dog Lockjaw. After retreating to the Baxter Building, Crystal explained her situation to the Fantastic Four. Crystal was snatched away and brought back to Attilan, where she was scolded by her sister Medusa, the Queen. The Fantastic Four used Lockjaw to teleport to Attilan. The Fantastic Four were discovered and fought the civilization and the royal family. Feeling their refuge had been tainted by the Fantastic Four’s presence and the violence they brought, Black Bolt destroyed Attilan, and the civilization left to live in a new place where they would remain undiscovered by the human race.

            The Fantastic Four stopped a group of Chrono-Bandits from committing a time crime that would have eliminated the human race. Upon returning to the Baxter Building, Professor Storm tried to remind Reed that he was a scientist foremost and not a superhero. With the help of the Reed Richards from the parallel universe, Reed was able to build an interdimensional teleporter. Reed teleported to the other Reed Richards’ universe, only to discover he had been deceived. This universe had been overrun with a zombie plague, and zombie Reed Richards had used Reed to find a way for the zombies to find more food. As Reed tried to escape from the infected superheroes of this world, he was rescued by Magneto, who had not been infected, and who was protecting a small group of survivors who had not been affected by the plague. The zombified versions of the Fantastic Four used the teleporter to reach Reed’s uninfected world. The uninfected Fantastic Four contained the zombified Fantastic Four, then used Reed’s teleporter to travel to the infected world to save Reed. The Fantastic Four and the survivors used the teleporter to travel to the uninfected world, but Magneto stayed behind to destroy the teleporter to ensure the infection could not spread further. Upon returning to the Baxter Building, Sue and Johnny were reunited with their mother, whom they had been told died in a car crash fifteen years earlier.

                        Doctor Mary Storm had faked her death and abandoned her family to lead a scientific exploration into the lost continent of Atlantis. Doctor Storm had successfully discovered Atlantis and had come to Sue to ask for the Fantastic Four’s help in reaching a depth Doctor Storm’s team was unable to reach. Sue agreed to help, but Sue told her mother that after this, Sue never wished to see her mother again. While diving in Atlantis, Reed, Sue, and Ben discovered what Doctor Storm’s research believed to be the tomb of Namor, the King of Atlantis. Namor was awakened, and in his surprise, came into conflict with the Fantastic Four. The Fantastic Four were able to subdue and restrain Namor. Namor offered to reveal the secrets of the advanced sciences of Atlantis, provided Namor gave them to Sue. Sue agreed, much to Reed’s jealousy. Doctor Storm asked Reed for Reed’s help in translating the Atlantean carvings from around Namor’s tomb. Sue and Namor took a trip through New York City. Namor attempted to put the moves on Sue, and when Sue rejected Namor, Namor attacked Sue. Reed translated the carvings and uncovered that what the Fantastic Four found Namor in was not a tomb, it was, in fact, a prison. Johnny and Ben tried to come to Sue’s rescue, but Namor overpowered Johnny and Ben. Reed arrived in his Fantastic Oh-Five, a robot with the combined powers of the Fantastic Four, but even that was not enough to defeat Namor. Reed used a helmet that converted Reed’s thoughts into three-dimensional constructs, but the power it required was too costly, and the device was shut off. The Fantastic Four were able to overpower Namor, but in defeat, Namor summoned a water monster. Sue was forced to give into Namor’s demands in order to make Namor retreat. Doctor Storm left to meet with the new owner of the company that provided funding for Doctor Storm’s work, Victor Van Damme/Doctor Doom.

            Reed traveled to the past to the day of the teleportation accident that gave the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom their powers. Reed found the Fantastic Four were intent on making sure the teleportation accident didn’t occur, a decision that surprised Reed. Back in the present, Johnny was celebrating his birthday. Johnny played a prank on Ben that made Ben a laughingstock at the party. The Fantastic Four realized how much the transformation into the Thing upset Ben, and as Reed had been unable to cure Ben, the Fantastic Four concluded the only way to fix Ben would be to ensure the teleportation accident never occurred. The Fantastic Four enacted this plan, and the world changed. The Skrulls had provided the human race with a drug that gave them superpowers, and everyone on the planet except Ben Grimm took them. Thor was president of the United States of America, and Reed Richards was vice president. The Super-Skrull was making a visit to Earth to meet with President Thor. However, the Skrulls were secretly not benevolent and used this same tactic to assimilate technology and resources from races of planets before eliminating them. Sue found this out, and the Super-Skrull eliminated her. The Skrulls used the drug to eliminate the entire human race, save for the one human being who hadn’t taken it: Ben Grimm. Ben fought the Super-Skrull, then had to use time travel technology to prevent the Fantastic Four from averting the teleportation accident. With the world back how it was supposed to be, Ben was again depressed… until he met a blind woman named Alica Masters, who was not put off by Ben’s outward appearance as the Thing.

            While on a double date with Ben and Alicia, Johnny fell ill. Reed, refusing to destroy the zombie Fantastic Four, continued working on finding a way to return the zombie Fantastic Four to the infected universe after discovering in ten days’ time, inter-dimensional transference between the two universes would not be possible for another fifty billion years. The Fantastic Four discovered Johnny had an alien incubating inside him that would be potentially devastating to every living thing on Earth, and that the alien would hatch in seven days. The military planned to exile Johnny to the N-Zone to protect all life on Earth. With no one else to turn to, Reed, Sue, and Ben went to Latveria to see Doctor Doom to ask for his assistance. The zombie Fantastic Four escaped captivity, and the top half of the Baxter Building was sealed to contain them. Doctor Doom agreed to help Reed get rid of the alien in Johnny, provided Reed allow Doctor Doom to secretly swap bodies with Reed. Seeing no other option, Reed agreed. Doctor Doom in Reed’s body, Ben, Sue, and Reed in Doctor Doom’s body returned to the Baxter Building. The zombie Fantastic Four planned to use Reed’s teleporter to bring the zombies of the infected world to an uninfected world. Doctor Doom in Reed’s body used a spell in an attempt to banish the alien in Johnny to the N-Zone but instead summoned it to Earth. The alien needed a human host, and Reed in Doctor Doom’s body had to find a way to get rid of the alien, stop the zombie invasion, and return to Reed’s body.

            Okay, now that we’ve got the plot summary out of the way, let’s move on to the individualized segments of my review. We’ll start off with, as we always do, my own individual input on the graphic novel. I will say that I found this book to be relatively enjoyable. I found the portrayal of the Baxter Building as a government sponsored think tank to be an interesting concept. I enjoyed the Ultimate introductions of the beings who are otherwise known as the Inhumans, and of Namor. I thought the zombie story arcs were well executed, and I liked how Magneto was forced into the position of a protector of humans. I actually found myself enjoying the return of Doctor Storm into Sue and Johnny’s lives, she was just a character I loved to hate, and the helmet scene with her was hysterical. I enjoyed seeing a world where everyone had superpowers and how the one normal person who didn’t subscribe to the Skrulls’ miracle drug had to save the whole human race. I loved seeing how far Reed was willing to go for his friends Ben and Johnny, both to try to find a way to cure Ben of being the Thing, and of saving Johnny from the alien. Changing history and swapping bodies with your worst enemy shows the signs of a truly devoted friend. That said, I honestly didn’t feel like these stories really stood out. To me, they just weren’t anything super special or spectacular. I liked these stories, but I just wasn’t totally wowed or blown away by them. Also, Thor should not legally be able to be president of the United States of America, according to the Constitution since he was not born in the United States. I’m not even sure if he’s even legally an American citizen. Now, as this is a graphic novel, we have to focus on the art as well as the story. I will say that I did not enjoy Jae Lee’s work in this graphic novel. Visually, I don’t like the way Lee draws faces. I was a fan of Greg Land’s work on the rest of the graphic novel, though. Another thing I critique when I review a graphic novel is the title, how appropriate it is for the graphic novel as a whole. The potential given choices were “Think Tank,” “Crossover,” “Tomb of Namor,” “President Thor,” and “Frightful,” the latter four all being three issue story arcs and tied as the longest story arcs in the collection. Given these choices, I do feel like “Frightful” was the best possible choice as title for this collection. Finally, I’m going to talk about the cover. This collection’s cover features the Fantastic Four in the foreground, with Doctor Doom in the background, holding his hands up with strings coming from his fingers, attached to the Fantastic Four. I feel like this cover is trying to say that Doctor Doom is holding the Fantastic Four like puppets under his control. I also don’t feel like this truly happened in this collection, so I feel like this was not a good choice to use as a cover. I feel like there could be better choices for covers that would more accurately represent this collection and deliver on the promise given on the cover.

            Next up, we’re going to discuss accessibility. Now, I know some of you might not know what I mean when I apply the word “accessibility” to a book review, and some of you have been to at least one of my over seven dozen other reviews and already know what I mean by this, but I do have to explain it again. The question I’m posing is “how accessible is this book?” What I mean by this is, how well can a person who knows absolutely nothing about the Fantastic Four obtain this book, read it cover to cover, and understand everything as it is presented with no outside knowledge of the subject matter? I will say that this book is vaguely accessible. It’s marketed as Vol. 2, and it does begin exactly where Vol. 1 left off. It builds on a storyline that has already been constructed. However, this does have a sense of self-containment. It collects issues from one series only, and does not tie in to any events or storylines from other comic series from the time of release. It does feature characters from other series in supporting roles, but knowing their full histories is not imperative to understanding this particular volume. If you’re new to Marvel Comics and are looking for a place to start reading, I don’t recommend picking this as your first choice, but if you do read the previous volume first, this series is fully accessible.

            Moving on, I’m going to give this graphic novel a numeric score. I score media on a very basic scale, on exact whole numbers ranging from one through ten. If a book gets a score of a one, that means it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever read and that I regret every cent I spent on purchasing it and every second I spent reading it and wish I could take it all back. If, however, I score a book at a ten, that means that this is one of the best things I’ve ever read and spending the money on it was worth every cent and the time I spent reading it were some of the best hours of my life. I’m often a very tough critic. I don’t just give a book a ten unless it truly is perfection and there was nothing I can complain about. When I score a book, I’m considering if the story was thoroughly enjoyable, if the art was consistently visually appealing, if the title accurately describes the essence of the storylines, and if the cover is an accurate depiction of the content inside the book. So, based on all of these factors, mixing everything together and blending out a score, I’m ranking this book as… a six. The stories were not of the highest caliber, the art was for the main part visually pleasing, the title was adequate, but the cover did not deliver on its promise.

            Finally on our docket of topics to discuss is my recommendation segment. This segment always answers two separate questions. Question number one is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers? The second question is, regardless of if I would personally tell you to read this book or not, what qualities of a reader would find this book most appealing? To answer my first question, the answer is yes, I do recommend this book to you. If you’ve read this review and are now completely invested in reading this book based solely on the words you’ve just spent the past few minutes reading, I would tell you to go to your preferred online retailer, your favorite bookstore, your local comic book store, your public library, or try to mooch it off of a friend who loves Marvel. As for the type of reader who might like this, we’ll go beyond the obvious of fans of the Fantastic Four, Marvel, and the creative team, and I’ll say readers who enjoy zombie stories would like this, horror fans could find this enjoyable, and readers who enjoy stories about utopian societies becoming dystopias might find this book up their alley.

            Okay, we’re getting to the point where I’m about ready to wrap everything up. There are a few things I’d like to discuss before I hit post. The first is that I have been doing this blog for almost six years now. In that time, I have published over 190 posts. In the past, I have posted short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials. There is plenty of other content on this blog, so if you ever have some more free time and are in the mood, please continue browsing timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my work. I’ve reviewed prose novels, comic book events, and manga, as well as reviewing over seven dozen other Epic Collections. I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released, and if possible, put up a review as soon as I can after reading it. I post on a very frequent basis because of this. These two types of content are my main focus on his blog at the moment. If you liked this review and have time, feel free to check out my review of “Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Fantastic” for more Ultimate Fantastic Four content. My next review is going to be “Deadpool: X X Baby” you can expect that to be posted within the next two weeks following this review, so keep checking back for it. I’ll be doing this blog for as long as I possibly can, so you can expect this blog to keep coming for quite a while. That’s all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Fantastic"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Fantastic” as presented in Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection format.

            Twenty-one years ago, Reed Richards was born. Eleven years ago, Reed was a young genius. He was bullied in school for his smarts, and his father was not understanding of his son’s intellect, so Reed only had his mother and best friend Ben Grimm in his corner. One day, Reed discovered another plane of existence. He began to try to breach the barrier, attempting to send some of his toys to this other dimension. He made it his Middle School Science Fair project, and he succeeded. A recruiter for the United States Director of Mainland Technology Development was in attendance and saw Reed’s project and came to Reed’s family, offering to take Reed to a “think tank” for young geniuses called the Baxter Building in New York City. Reed was introduced to Professor Franklin Storm, who informed Reed that although they were aware of this other dimension, which they called the N-Zone, Reed was the first to break through to it. Professor Storm had two young children, Sue and Johnny. Sue was also part of the think tank program. Five years ago, Reed was working on using the N-Zone as a transporter. One night, fellow Baxter Building Student Victor Van Damme snuck into Reed’s room to look at Reed’s formulas for the N-Zone. Though originally mad, Reed and Victor agreed to work together to further both Reed’s work in teleportation, and Victor’s work in robotics. General Ross of the United States Army fired Baxter Building scientist Arthur Molekevic for trying to create life through bio-technological methods. Five years later, the teleporter was ready for its first test. Reed invited his old friend Ben to view the test. Reed, Sue, Johnny, Ben, and Victor were all on the platform to watch an apple be teleported from the Nevada Desert to Guantanamo Bay. However, the teleporter did not teleport the apple, and Sue, Johnny, Ben, and Victor all disappeared, and Reed was able to elongate his body. Ben reappeared in Mexico City; his body transformed into rock. Johnny reappeared in France and could catch on fire. Susan reappeared in the desert, but was taken by Doctor Molekevic’s ani-men, with the ability to turn invisible. After being fired, Doctor Molekevic discovered an underworld 1.4 miles directly below the Baxter Building and had access to the Baxter Building mainframe and had been watching over its activities since he was fired with his creations. Johnny tried to learn to get his combustion powers under control. Ben was furious at Reed for mutating him, and Reed promised Ben he would fix them. Doctor Molekevic sent one of his creations, a giant monster, to the surface in order to bring Johnny down to him and Sue. Reed, Ben, and Johnny defeated the monster, then went below to rescue Sue. While fighting the monster, Johnny learned that while he was on fire, he had the ability to fly. Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny were reunited, and Sue learned she could create force fields that she was able to manipulate and move.

Reed determined that before the test, Victor must have changed the coordinates in the teleporter, and that it had instead sent them through the N-Zone and came out of it with these new powers. Reed and Sue grew romantically involved. Victor had reappeared in Copenhagen and had transformed into a metallic form. He had set up a Keep, where he used a mind-controlling tattoo to keep his own community. He sent a swarm of killer robot bugs to attack the Baxter Building. Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben were able to destroy his swarm, and Reed recognized this work as Victor’s and was able to reverse-trace Victor’s location. The United States Army was going to go to Copenhagen to arrest Victor for attacking the Baxter Building. Reed wanted to get to him first so he could get the codes he used for the transporter so he could attempt to reverse the effects of the transporter before they lost their only opportunity. Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben flew in Reed’s old invention, the Fantasti-car, to get there before the Army did. Victor reviewed the cameras from his robots and saw Sue, Ben and Johnny now had powers, but did not realize that Reed had also had powers since he had no abilities to use that aided in destroying the swarm. Victor shot down the Fantasti-Car, and he and his community fought Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben. Reed was unable to get the codes from Victor.

Reed continued to try to understand how to recreate the conditions of the accident, but Sue and Johnny decided they didn’t want to change back to the way they used to be. Reed decided the best way to get the information would be to actually go into the N-Zone himself. Sue, Johnny, and Ben agreed to go with him. Reed got the Army to agree and had a space shuttle decommissioned and refitted with his technology to make it able to travel through the N-Zone. The shuttle was renamed the “Awesome.” The four took the Awesome into the N-Zone. While in the N-Zone, they picked up a transmission. The four flew to investigate and Reed made contact with a lifeform in the N-Zone. The four arrived at a space station and were invited aboard. The lifeform was called Nihil. He used a special translator to communicate with the four, and Reed told Nihil that they hailed from another universe. During their conversation, Johnny’s skin turned to ash, and the four had to return to the Awesome to get back to their universe to treat Johnny. Reed and Ben went back to offer Nihil a way to establish communication between his universe and the N-Zone, but Nihil didn’t want that. The N-Zone was a dying universe, and he wanted to conquer a living one. Nihil tried to eliminate Reed and Ben, and Reed and Ben fought Nihil and his minions. Reed and Ben managed to retreat to the Awesome, and the four flew back to their universe. Unfortunately, they were unable to close the portal before Nihil and his minions could fly through. Nihil shot out the Awesome’s engines, and the Awesome crashed in Las Vegas. Reed, Sue, Ben, and the United States Army then had to fight Nihil and his minions in the streets of Vegas, and the existence of a new team of superheroes became known.

Okay, we’ve covered the synopsis. That’s just the first part of a Tim Cubbin review. Believe me, there’s plenty more content coming. Anyway, I start of my critiquing segments with my personal thoughts about the book. So, I’ll start off by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. As some of my regular readers know, I have been reading Marvel Comics regularly for nearly twenty-five years now. The issues in this Collection were originally published between 2004-2005, and I read them pretty close to the time of original publication, but it’s been over fifteen years since I last read these issues, so experiencing them again was a genuine pleasure. Now, for context, this is my fourth review of a Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection, the Ultimate Universe was created back in 2000 to attract new readers by throwing away forty years of history and starting fresh with new stories for the classic characters, like Spider-Man and the X-Men. This eventually led to the Ultimates, which was a reimagining of the Avengers. Marvel eventually decided to move on to Fantastic Four in the Ultimate Universe. “Ultimate Fantastic Four” actually really was my introduction into Fantastic Four comics. I never really went for the classic Fantastic Four too much, even as my tenure reading Marvel went on. My only true foray into the classics was “Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” two years ago, so if you want to compare original “Fantastic Four” to “Ultimate Fantastic Four,” please check out that review after completing your read of this review. But anyway, that’s enough history, let’s get on to what actually matters. So, yes, I really enjoyed the stories. I found this origin story of the Fantastic Four to actually be more compelling than any other I’ve read or viewed. I found Mark Millar’s take on having them gain their powers through a joint through the N-Zone to actually be more interesting than any others, which pretty much all involve something to do with space. Mind you, this was my first real Fantastic Four origin, too, but I don’t think any other origin has been as ambitious or as original as Millar’s was. I think pretty much every other writer has tried to do something similar to what Stan Lee did back in 1961, so something different is actually welcome. I remember seeing “Fantastic Four” in 2005 and being slightly disappointed with seeing them get their powers from a solar flare. As far as 2015, I honestly don’t remember how that one went, it was so bad I’ve tried to completely block it from my memory. Now we have “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” coming out in less than a month, I don’t know how that’s going to compare. But once again, I digress. That said, I support Millar’s choice with going with something different. I also like how he, Brian Michael Bendis, and Warren Ellis didn’t rush in with names, either. Nowhere in this book do they call themselves “Fantastic Four,” “Mister Fantastic,” “Invisible Woman,” “Human Torch,” or “the Thing,” although Johnny is attempting to shop names for them, but never do those original names actually get spoken in this entire volume. I liked that they weren’t rushing into being superheroes. I also liked Millar’s/Bendis’ idea to call the character Victor “Van Damme” and not “Von Doom” or “Doctor Doom.” I hate to say it, but I always found “Doctor Victor Von Doom” to sound kind of cheesy. I liked how Victor actually became metallic rather than just wearing a suit of metal, I thought that was really cool. I liked that Victor was a descendant of Dracula, even though I honestly feel like it serves no purpose, I just thought that was interesting. I liked the decision to call the other dimension the “N-Zone” rather than the “Negative Zone,” and I liked Ellis’ version of Annihilus, “Nihil.” I actually thought I caught a lapse in continuity with the inclusion of General Ross, but that did get addressed in this book, so I was happy Ellis included the line he did about Ross, or I might have been rather disappointed. And I must say, Adam Kubert and Stuart Immonen did a fantastic job illustrating this book. I felt that the quality of the artwork was consistently exemplary. All-in-all, I found this book to be outstanding and thought all the writers and artists did an amazing job with producing this book.

Next up on the agenda is the ever-important issue of accessibility. Now, I say this every single time, but I know I always have new readers with every post I do, so I have to say I again every single time, so if you already know my next sentence, please bear with me. When I say the word “accessibility,” it may sound a little odd, so to clarify what I mean, when I use the word, I am saying if this book is has the ability to be picked up by a person who knows absolutely nothing about Marvel Comics or the Fantastic Four and still be completely understood by that reader. Like I said before, this is a new universe and a new origin, so the answer to the question of whether this book is accessible is a definitive yes. You can know absolutely nothing about anything Marvel or the Fantastic Four and still be able to completely follow this entire book with no problems. It is one hundred percent self-contained. There are a few references to other characters and occurrences in the Ultimate Universe, including the Ultimates, but not knowing who or what they are does absolutely no damage to understanding the content of this particular book. If you now want to start reading Marvel Comics because of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” this is a perfect place to start, in my humble opinion, as there’s no other real history there, and it’s a more modern take than the one done by Stan Lee back in 1961, and it has banger art.

Okay, now we’ve finally come to the central point of this review: the numeric score. My scoring system is a very simple scale. I score on a scale of one through ten. One is the lowest score I give and that means that this book is not worth being taken off the shelf at all. Ten is the best score I could possibly give and that means that this book is absolute perfection and should be purchased off of every shelf and have to go into reprints every two years due to the need to restock. My regular readers will know that I very rarely give books a ten because I find it extremely hard to consider something perfection. There have to be absolutely no flaws. Sadly to say, this book is not a ten. While I thoroughly enjoyed consuming this book, I just don’t feel it meets the standard of perfection. That said, I’ll choose not to keep you in suspense like I usually do and just tell you that I do feel like this book is worthy of a nine. There were a few points in the story that just weren’t the greatest, and some of the panels of art did come out a little off but not enough to take away from my enjoyment of this book like some artists do. And I will say, when a graphic novel has multiple writers and artists, that is muddy waters because of the varying level of talent. However, I will also say I found every creator of this book to be on pretty much the same level.

Moving on, since I have been blathering for quite a while now, I will move on to my recommendation segment. In this segment, I say two things. The first is if I personally recommend this book. The second is whom I think is the best audience for this book. As for the first, that is a resounding yes, this book definitely gets this recommendation. And to the second, if you’re a neophyte fan of the Fantastic Four, I feel this is a perfect book for you. If you’re a longtime fan of the Fantastic Four and are looking for a fresh new take on an origin that has always been told in a similar manner, I feel like this book is for you. If you’re a fan of the original Marvel Ultimate Universe, I recommend this book to you. And if you’ve never had any vested interest in reading the Fantastic Four but for some odd reason are reading this review and are now interested in reading this book based solely on the words I’m typing now, I say you should not hesitate to try to read this book.

Okay, I’ve been at this for quite a while now, and I think we’re all about ready to just move on with our lives. First, though, I’ll talk a little about me. I’ve been doing this blog for five years now and have done over 160 posts. I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, but due to disability, I am unable to get a job as a professional journalist and instead work at a grocery store. This blog is my unpaid second job that I do on days when I’m not working at the grocery store. Would I love to be a professional blogger? Yes! But that just doesn’t seem to be in the cards, and honestly, I’m okay with that. Is this what I wanted when I graduated high school nineteen years ago? No. But my life isn’t super horrible right now. Anyway, you really don’t care about all that. What you do care about is that I have a lot of content you can view on this website. I’ve done over five dozen book reviews like this one at this point, and I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials as well as these reviews, so if you like my work and are in the market for something different from me, keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for all of my work, there’s plenty more to enjoy. I’m a very avid Marvel Comics collector; I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as early as I can after publication and attempt to get a review up if possible. I think at the moment there are only four Modern Era Epic Collections I haven’t reviewed due to not having had a laptop at the time of reading three of them. and not being able to get a review done promptly enough after one other and felt I would not do an accurate review of that one, and not having had the need to reread those four books yet. But since I purchase so many books, you can expect me to have a lot of content for you. Marvel always puts out at least one Modern Era Epic Collection a month. There are no further upcoming Ultimate Epic Collections at the moment of my drafting this post. There’s another Modern Era Epic Collection coming out five days from the point of my drafting this review, and I’m going to purchase it as early as I possibly can, and hopefully I can get a review of it up for you, so you can probably expect to see that in the next three weeks, so keep checking timcubbin.blogspot.com for that one. I might try to get some other kinds of work up here and there too, so check back for that, too. Follow me on X if you don’t already so you know when I’ve done a new post. Tell your friends and family about me if you think they’ll be interested in my work. Feel free to leave a comment for me, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Like, share, retweet, do whatever you can on the site you’re on. And I say to you until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" by Stan Lee

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format, written by Stan Lee.

            Reed Richards is a brilliant scientist. Susan Storm is the woman he loves. Johnathan Storm is Susan’s young brother. Benjamin Grimm is Reed’s best friend. At the height of the “Space Race,” Reed invented a ship that could travel to space in order to study cosmic rays. Reed, Sue Johnny and Ben ventured to space, but Reed had not properly reinforced the shielding of the ship and the rays bombarded the four travelers. After crashing to earth, the four realized that they had been imbued with super human powers. Reed could stretch his body to great lengths and became Mister Fantastic. Sue could turn invisible and became the Invisible Girl. Johnny could fly and create and control fire and became the Human Torch. Ben’s body became stone and he gained super strength and became the Thing. The four as a team became known as the Fantastic Four. The team soon discovered that there were now such things as super villains and the Fantastic Four became a team of super heroes to stop those who wished to inflict evil upon the Earth.

            The Mole Man, who lived deep under Monster Isle, decided to destabilize the surface world by destroying atomic facilities to ensure his rise to new ruler of earth.

            The race of intergalactic aliens, the shape-shifting Skrulls, traveled to Earth and impersonated the Fantastic Four, the only beings who could prevent a Skrull invasion of Earth.

            The mysterious Miracle Man wished to prove himself better than the Fantastic Four with his amazing feats of magic.

            Namor, the Sub-Mariner, having gotten over a case of amnesia, returned to his underwater kingdom, only to find it destroyed, and swore vengeance against the surface world, whom he blamed for the devastation of his home.

            Reed’s college rival, Doctor Victor von Doom, abducted the Fantastic Four, and forced Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, and Thing to travel to the time of Blackbeard in order to spare the life of the Invisible Girl.

            The Invisible Girl struggled with her romantic feelings for both Mister Fantastic and Sub-Mariner. When Doctor Doom and Sub-Mariner teamed up, it was the mutual attraction between Invisible Girl and Sub-Mariner caused the alliance between Doctor Doom and Sub-Mariner to fail and bring Sub-Mariner to the aid the Fantastic Four against Doctor Doom.

            Kurrgo, the Master of Planet X, mentally turned Earth against the Fantastic Four in order to enlist the Fantastic Four to prevent the destruction of Planet X.

            The Fantastic Four met the blind sculptress, Alicia Masters. There was an immediate attraction between Alicia and Thing. Alicia’s stepfather became the Puppet Master and used radioactive clay to create figures that he could mentally control.

            As the imminent threat of bankruptcy descended upon the Fantastic Four, the team reluctantly accepted parts in a Fantastic Four action film put out by S.M. Studios to save their home, the Baxter Building.

            Doctor Doom invented a device that swapped his body with Mister Fantastic’s body, and Mister Fantastic had to both convince the Fantastic Four of the swap and return Doctor Doom and Mister Fantastic back to their proper bodies.

            Mister Fantastic continually tried to cure the Thing from his rocklike body, always to only temporary results. The Fantastic Four also found themselves as media darlings swamped with fan mail. The fun-loving Impossible Man from the planet Poppup arrived on Earth and caused chaos that only the Fantastic Four could bring to an end.

            The Fantastic Four were summoned by General “Thunderbolt” Ross to attempt to defeat Ross’ most pressing problem: the Incredible Hulk, a rampaging monstrous being. Mister Fantastic was paired with scientist Bruce Banner, who secretly under times of great anger, fear or stress, transformed into the Hulk.

            The Fantastic Four traveled to the moon to defeat the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes.

            The Puppet Master took control of the Sub-Mariner in his revenge against the Fantastic Four.

            The Mad Thinker, a man capable of calculating any situation before it happened to the instant, used his Awesome Android in his attempt to defeat the Fantastic Four.

            Doctor Doom used his shrink ray to send the Fantastic Four to the Micro-World, a quantum realm that he had taken over. The Fantastic Four then had a team-up with the size changing Ant-Man to defeat Doom and return to their proper sizes.

            Doctor Doom then unleashed his “Followers” to disrupt the Fantastic Four at inopportune moments.

             The Skrulls genetically enhanced a Skrull Warrior to become the Super-Skrull, an agent with all the powers of the Fantastic Four at a higher strength level.

 

            I personally highly enjoyed this graphic novel. Stan Lee is my absolute idol and the artwork of Jack Kirby has always thrilled me ever since I started regularly reading Marvel Comics, having gotten a collection of classic X-Men issues written by Lee and illustrated by Kirby, and I always thought they were an excellent team. This graphic novel contained “Fantastic Four” #1-18, originally published between the years 1961-1963. Some current readers might say that this was too corny. Yes, I can admit to the level of cheesiness. Some of the inventions did sound kind of lame or dumb, like “The Pogo Plane” or “The Fantasti-car,” just to name a few. Some of the jokes were not actually funny. Some of the comments might be considered offensive were they published today. Take into consideration this was the time of the Cold War and the “Space Race.” For that reason, the technology that the Fantastic Four used for space travel and other details about space and space travel has modernly been debunked. And yet, I was mostly able to overlook these flaws. I also have to discuss the art. This artwork is iconic for comics of the time period. I’ve said this in a lot of my reviews that every time period of comics has basic standards in artwork. I felt like Kirby epitomized the art of the time. But, it is just that: art of the time. It’s the same as old horror movies; kids these days might see a monster in a classic horror movie and laugh at the absurdity of the monster. Kirby’s drawings of Thing and the Human Torch’s “flame on” design were pretty wonky. And Doctor Doom’s face plate mouth did have different expressions, which realistically should not happen. But I honestly did my best to ignore all these things, and succeeded pretty well at it.

            I make it a point with my review posts to explain accessibility, or to say what readers may need to know to fully enjoy the story content. “Fantastic Four” #1 was the start of the “Marvel-Age of Comics” and is very classic, so honestly, it’s a gateway book for Marvel Comics. A reader could have never picked up a Marvel comic book or watched a Marvel comic book movie or TV show or played a video game based off of a Marvel comic and still completely will have no difficulty with picking up on the storylines and understand the book.

            Now, I’ve got to get to the moment of truth: my numeric score. I score on a system of 1 to 10. 1 is my lowest score, 10 is my highest score. Now, when I score a graphic novel, I take everything into consideration, the art and the story. So, all considered, I give it an 8. It’s as high as I can go with the corniness of the story and the wonkiness of the art. I really enjoyed it anyway, but there were flaws which had to be addressed that prevent me from scoring any higher.

            Well, I do have just one more thing to address in this paragraph, then next paragraph I’ll wrap it up: Do I recommend this book and to whom do I recommend it to? If you’ve never read a Marvel comic book before and are considering starting to read comics, whether because of movies and television shows that interest you, or have no Marvel knowledge whatsoever, then this is the perfect book for you. If you’re a Fantastic Four fan but have never read the issues in this book, I totally recommend this to you. I’ve been reading Marvel Comics for over twenty years and never knew how it all started, so this was very informative and enjoyable for me. I totally recommend this book to pretty much anyone who wants to start reading Marvel comics or is a current reader who never experienced the classics. So, basically, if this review interested you, then read this graphic novel.

            So, a few more notes before the torture ends. (If you’re still here after all my blathering, you are THE BEST!) I’ve been away from this blog for a while, but now I’ve got things sorted out and I am officially back. I have literally written dozens of Marvel reviews and other reviews, so if you liked this post, there are dozens more like this, so feel free to keep checking them out. I also write short fiction, short nonfiction, poems, editorials (particularly my B’ings series that will be returning in the next few weeks, if you don’t know what it is, check it out), essays and several other forms of writing, so feel free to keep perusing those. I will also be posting on a fairly regular basis, so you can keep checking for my if you like my posts. So, until next time, as always, Tim Cubbin… out!