Writers: Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar
Artists: Adam Kubert and Danny Miki
Publisher: Marvel
The Ultimate titles have officially been proven futile. Ultimate Fantastic Four #1 is a sad, sad, debut.
The "new universe" which is supposed to be "accessible to new readers" has turned into one of the bigger wastes of Marvel's paper stock in recent years. By "accessible", we apparently want to see dragged-out stories written by people who don't know anything about the original characters (Mark Millar on X-Men comes to mind), and thus becoming a whole new continuity with no "accessibility" or necessity.
Now granted, I understand Marvel's ethic is generally to take things as slowly as possible, but I wish the sheer entertainment value was higher. The first issue, for all the hyped accessibility and greatness, is anything but that. All I know is that every other page there's an "x years later" and then some unconnected event which does little to establish character.
I mean, the only thing that's really agreed upon so far is that Reed is brilliant. There's no conflict, defined characters or a sense of what we're getting into. Every scene seems to be based loosely on Reed's brilliance in comparison to everyone else in the book, who come off more as two-dimensional pawns. He's nothing but another clichéd, misunderstood nerd. Very stereotypical: the concerned mother, the aggressive father, the government's interest, the bullies in school…haven't we read about this before a million times?
The dialogue's like being in a band room where every instrument's playing something different. Some of it sounds like Bendis, other lines sound like Millar. It's very choppy and inconsistent, and not believable at all, as are none of the characters in this book. It's as if each panel were thrown in a bag and pulled out at random.
Another thing: if Reed Richards is ten years old in the toilet scene, why are all the "bullies" much older? Did they just happen to be walking around an elementary school? And a young Ben Grimm is going to get them all away just like that? And is Reed still ten years old at the end of the book? If not, why isn't there more indication that he's older? Or is Sue really supposed to be that well developed as she's just hitting double-digits?
I was never impressed with Adam Kubert's art, but he does seem to be improving. His faces are still a bit inconsistent, and I don't appreciate the cartoony colors, but what else is new in the world of comic book coloring?
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had charm in their Four. I don't know what this contrived mess is. There's no sights to see, interesting characters to meet, and everything that happens you'll expect. Look to Mark Waid if you're looking for that modern sense of Fantastic Four adventuring.
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