Fantastic Four 588

So here it is, the final ever issue of the Fantastic Four. Johnny Storm’s dead, Spider-Man’s waiting in the wings to become the new fourth member, there are new costumes, a new direction, it’s the end of an era, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.

Is it hell as like. Even the least cynical of mainstream media commentators have remarked on the highly familiar pattern here: a highly publicised death, a year or so of an equally highly publicised new direction, and then….a miraculous return from the dead. It’s superhero comics, dummy. Everything can and does happen and death is not the end. Even if writer Jonathan Hickman is genuine in his intentions, then the marketing powers that be will see to it that all is reversed come the first whiff of merchandising revenue. Or the Fantastic Four movie reboot as it’s known. The signs are there and planted already – the death of the Human Torch was never actually shown, just a body disappearing beneath a legion of rather fearsome-looking beasties.

Anyway, here’s the aftermath: a near wordless issue covering last month after the Human Torch’s death. It’s doesn’t fall too far into the trap of mawkishness. There’s the usual parade of heroes and villains paying tribute in one form or another, the silently shed tear, the obligatory overcast funeral. But equally there are surprises in the form of emotional withdrawal, and a creepily effective appearance of Annihilus holding up a scrap of the Human torch’s costume. It’s well-paced and subdued in tone, and bar a couple of scenes that completely mystified me (why would Thor and the Hulk attempt to present Ben Grimm with a Human Torch memorial figurine in the desert?), it’s deftly handled.

The art is handled by Nick Dragotta. He has notable strengths, primarily the ability to communicate what’s happening through facial expressions and, fittingly, there’s a sizeable Kirby influence. His weaknesses are equally apparent though, with some rather clumsy postures, and the flow of images from panel to panel can sometimes seem disjointed.

There’s a backup story featuring Spider-Man and Franklin Richards, which is similarly quiet in tone, as they share their retrospective experiences of coping with grief. It’s stripped back, with understated dialogue, and, as with the main story, the art manages to communicate emotion well.

The final few pages are devoted to a preview of FF#1. It looks interesting, but I’m rather cynical about the introduction of Spider-Man into a comic that has really always been governed by a family dynamic. But hell, you know everything’s going to revert back to the status quo in a year or two, so why fret about a minor detour in the comic’s history? Make the most of it, it looks as though it might be fun. In the meantime, this is a fine “final” issue.