“Fantastic Four: Negative Zone” #1 is a one-shot that doesn’t shake anything up but keeps its heart in the backstory. Beware spoilers ahead!
Written by Mike Carey and Ryan North
Penciled by Stefano Caseli and Steve Uy
Colored by Erick Arciniega
Lettered by VC’s Corey PetitOne of Reed Richards’ greatest discoveries is the extradimensional Negative Zone that exists parallel to our own universe. But now, an experiment that Reed began many years ago has come back to roost—and the Fantastic Four will once more have to venture into this hostile expanse in order to put things right! Plus! Ryan North and Steve Uy bring you the first adventure of those bizarre new heroes in the Baxter Building, the Fantastix!
“Fantastic Four: Negative Zone” #1 is a one-shot story staring Marvel’s first family and a backup with their incredibly endearing knock-offs, The Fantastix. The main story by Mike Carey, Stefano Caseli, Erick Arciniega and Corey Petit is a solid sci-fi story starring at the FF but unfortunately is mostly forgettable. While the main story may leave a lot to be desired Ryan North, Steve Uy, and Corey Petit give the Fantastix a delightful outing.
Carey’s main story, “Ethical Dilemmas in Modern Science” is very straight forward and not too original for the FF. Reed has created an experiment. The experiment goes bad and becomes a threat. Reed and the team go to stop it. They do and leave it as destroyed. However this time, Reed goes back because of an ethical reason that it could be used to stop something more dangerous later. “Fantastic Four: Negative Zone” #1’s main story is not much more than a classic sci-fi story structure not really presented in an exciting or interesting way.
While it’s not a totally new story, the main story serves as a decent enough introduction to the Fantastic Four and the Negative Zone. The Thing even provides a helpful explanation of some of the major Negative Zone players which is useful later in the story. The team’s powers are used well and their fight against Reed’s experiment is engaging enough. However, the biggest problem of the “Fantastic Four: Negative Zone” #1 is that the characters are mostly just watered-down versions of themselves. Ben and Johnny sound vaguely like themselves but on the whole, everyone interacts as though they are co-workers instead of a family with over fifty years of history. Outside of a select few phrases, most of the dialogue is in service to advancing the plot or explaining some pseudo-science with little characterization or a sense of relationship. Sometimes plot over character can be justified but this story is far from interesting enough to warrant that sacrifice. One could argue that this is the story is Reed Richards and his three assistants with the focus of the story being on his failings as a scientist, which again is a story that has been done to death at this point.
Artistically, Stefano Caseli and Erick Arciniega tell the story as well as they can. All of the characters are on model and the action is quite dynamic. In many ways, the art is reflective of the script in that it does not go out of its way to reinvent the wheel but also lacks character. Caseli’s linework is very clean and the framing of panels creates a very clear sense of what or who we should be looking at. Caseli’s use of low angles also creates a sense of drama throughout. Caseli’s page layouts are full of overlapping panels during more dialogue-heavy scenes, but lets action scenes breath with three or four panels stretching across the page. The art lacks a sense of character in terms of expression. Caseli’s faces look great but they never emote anything other than a sense of concern on the situation at hand which is possibly indicative of the script not giving much of a reason to draw anything different. Arciniega’s colors are strong through the issue and aid in storytelling by giving a sense of space, time, and danger when it comes to flashbacks and action.
In contrast to “Ethical Dilemmas in Modern Science,” the backup “What are the Fantastix For?” is chocked full of character from the jump. Ryan North’s Reed Richards has more character in his gross eyeball hand than all of the main story.
Continued belowNorth’s script focuses on the Fantastix, and serves as a solid introduction to their whole deal for those not up on current “Fantastic Four.” North leans directly into the notion of the team as a knock off Fantastic Four and makes the premise of the team finding themselves in that lens in an incredibly earnest and funny way. This story is also pretty straight forward, in order to prove themselves as a team worthy of the Baxter Building, they head out and try to fight crime. The earnestness of the story comes primarily from the characters, particularly from Darrel “2-D” Paine, who gives two inspirational speeches in the story. Jack “Iceberg” Pierce goes down the line and describes how specifically each character is a knockoff prior to 2-D’s speech which could have been played for laughs and dismissed by the rest of the team but in a change of pace, the speech is sincere and the team responds positively which makes the Fantastix instantly endearing. North sets them up as knockoffs, who know they are knockoffs but are going to try anyway which is not only a fresh concept but also very sincere in a way that humor backups don’t tend to be. Leave it to the writer of “Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” to write something both funny and wholesome.
Steve Uy also serves as a counterpoint for the main book’s artwork with a much more cartoonish style and warmer colors throughout. The Fantastix are drawn distinctively with incredibly expressive faces and distinct body languages which aids in the humor and characterization. The warmth of Uy’s colorwork adds to the warmth to the rest of the story as well.
Ultimately, “Fantastic Four: Negative Zone” #1 leads with a decent enough sci-fi story that does not really try anything new but lacks strong characterization. However, the backup story may not make up for the 4.99 cover price but provides a warm and sincere backup story with Marvel’s newest knockoffs on the block.
Final Verdict: 6.5 – “Fantastic Four: Negative Zone” #1 is the trail mix of comics: mostly bland but with a sweet part that you’ll want to skip directly to.
