FourthMan Reviews: Fantastic Four #554

On SCHWAPP, I'm endeavoring to open things up to allow others to be part of the blog. Someone I've always respected the reviews of would be Lee Newman aka FourthMan at Newsarama. He's, also, part of the team over at Ultimate Comics.

Fantastic Four #554
Published by Marvel Comics
Written by Mark Millar
Pencils by Bryan Hitch

When Jack Kirby and Stan Lee first brought us the Fantastic Four way back in 1961, the book was pretty simple. You had four good friends who had recently acquired super powers fighting Earth threatening evils. Like many comics, somewhere along the way the book became convoluted, but more importantly it lost a good bit of its fun. Marriages and galactic evils complicated things until the book stopped being a best seller. Not even JMS could get the book to sustain some kind of success. McDuffie’s recent run was fun, but wildly uneven and mired by poor art.

Enter Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. Like Millar or not, he does know how to write an opening issue (Civil War #1 and Wanted #1 are more than proof enough for this. Heck, my understanding is that Wanted was optioned for a movie off of the first issue alone). He brings all his skills to this issue. From and opening sequence that reminds one of Back To The Future III to an honest portrayal of what the Baxter building must be like on a day to day basis. The fun is brimming from the get go. Millar also doesn’t ignore recent events, with Sue still wanting to be independent, going so far as to form her own super hero team. And the marriage problems are referenced not only in the dialogue of non team members, but in the look in Sue’s eye when Mrs. Fantastic shows up.

Really much of the issue is a breather. It is cleansing of the palate if you will, but the last four pages bring something that Jack and Stan would have done. There are big ideas brought up. Really big ones that left my jaw on the floor, especially given the teaser of next issue’s cover.

A lot of that jaw hanging has to do with Hitch. He is one of the greats, there is no doubt. The coloring is a little washed out for his pencils; I remember the penciled previews looking much strong then the actual issue. My other criticism is that Johnny looks a little odd, but when he flames on, who cares. That look in Sue’s eye I mentioned previously was certainly part of the script, but Hitch is the guy who executes it. Really, the issue is impressive in the art, but for me the real kicker is the two page spread on 21 and 22. This is the Hitch I love. I have not seen art that detailed from him since the early issues of The Authority. The page literally seems to go on forever. Simply breathtaking.

Millar and Hitch bring the fun, the big ideas, and still manage to bring a family dynamic and soap opera to the book. If the first issue is any indication, then the next year of the Fantastic Four should be some kind of run.