"Full House”
Writers: Brian Michael Bendis & Mark Millar
Artists: Adam Kubert (p), Danny Miki (i)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Plot:
Meet Reed Richards – boy genius. His parents don’t understand him, his fellow students bully and abuse him and his only unlikely friend is a jock named Ben Grimm who may be more interested in passing Trigonometry than Reed’s friendship. Reed has it tough, but he is about to breach an area of science that will change his and three other young people’s lives forever.
Comments:
Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar deconstruct Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s 1961 concept and rebuild it with science fiction theories which should prove to endure for far longer than a decade. If you have never read a comic book before; the original concept of the Fantastic Four were four individuals; a scientist, a pilot and two tagalongs which served no purpose in the mission, who went into orbit in a high-jacked experimental rocket ship, became exposed to cosmic rays and returned to Earth with fantastic powers. Space travel was still a novelty in 1961, the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had just made the first manned orbit around the earth in April of that year, but today it’s a common occurrence and thus not as valuable a catalyst for the metamorphosis the Fantastic Four experienced. On the other hand, the idea of extra-dimensional discovery, much less travel, is purely theoretical and relegated to researchers of String Theory. For those not familiar with the concept of String Theory; it is very much like the Infinite Earth theory in the DC Universe where dimensions exist one upon the other only separated by variations in harmonic frequency. I learned about String Theory on the PBS television show NOVA. Cool, huh? I don’t foresee the concept that causes the metamorphosis of four youths into the Ultimate Fantastic Four becoming passé anytime soon.
Anyway back to the comic. Like the other two Ultimate titles, Spider-Man and X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four takes its time for character development. Bendis and Millar focus primarily upon Reed for the first issue, creating a personality brimming with both genius and youthful exuberance. I expect that both attributes will serve as the driving force which unfolds future tales of the fantastic. Aside from setting the stage, nothing much else happens, but this should come as no surprise to readers of the other Ultimate titles. If you think that remark was a complaint - think again. I appreciate all forms of comics story telling – after all I have almost every copy of Cerebus ever written. If I can survive some of the journeys Dave Sim has sent me on, then I can survive a comic book without costumed heroes and villains duking it out for thirteen pages. Besides I read The Ultimates for that sort of action. As long as the story is well written and appears to have a definite direction – which it does – I’ll hang around and spend my $2.25 for a quality monthly read.
Like most of Adam Kubert’s work, it’s top notch all the way. No complaints. His daddy taught him well. The art looks great - from Bryan Hitch’s cover - to the last page. The only quandary I have is: why did editorial change the solicited cover to the one finally published? Both look great, but for no other reason, it really pays to be consistent.
Final Word:
If you didn’t jump onboard for the other Ultimate titles, then here is your chance to redeem yourself. In fact buy two copies so you can auction one later to the Johnny-Come-Latelies. Marvel really should sign this crew to exclusive contracts before DC steals them away.
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