The Human Torch is no more! In the aftermath of Johnny Storm losing his powers in the last issue, how will he handle facing off against the Wizard and the Wrecking Crew’s new and upgraded Frightful Four? Well, if James Robinson and Leonard Kirk have anything to say about it, with the help of his family.
Illustrated by Leonard Kirk
“THE FALL OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR” PART 4
• FLAME OFF!!! JOHNNY STORM has lost his powers! • The HUMAN TORCH is no more!!!
• With one member down, a new threat emerges — the WRECKING CREW…with powers mysteriously elevated to A-level destruction as they team-up with the WIZARD to be a new, devastating version of the FRIGHTFUL FOUR!
• And as BEN and ALICIA’S romance rekindles, so looms the PUPPET MASTER with dark plans for both of them.
• All this and the return of FF members ANT MAN, MS. THING and SHE-HULK.
We like the new “Fantastic Four”. Like, really like it. After having its ups and downs since Jonathan Hickman’s writing revitalised the team, James Robinson and Leonard Kirk have brought in a fresh spin of the classic feeling of the book. “Fantastic Four” seems to have finally found the right balance to exist in the 21st century without feeling old fashioned or outdated and it’s entirely down to Robinson and Kirk’s right mix of having the team feel like a true family (as well as including the more modern “family is who you choose it to be” lessons from Fraction and Allred’s “FF”) and giving them genuine superhero challenge. That challenge this issue is a new and improved Frightful Four and boy is it a doozy.
Other than the first issue, this series has been more on the talky side than the action side of spectrum. And while Robinson’s dialogue and character writing serves that well, it’s almost felt as if Leonard Kirk was being a little underutilised. Thankfully, that’s not the case this issue as pretty much the entire issue is built around the clash with the Frightful Four. Not only does that mean we get to see exquisitely laid out pages of some of the most fun action in comics for a while, but we get pretty much a whole issue dedicated to it. This shows that Leonard Kirk is this series’ secret weapon as he gets what makes the different powers of each of the cast so fun to play around with and how to tap into that and build excellent two page spreads around them. And it’s not just the classic F4 team that gets in on the action (minus Johnny Storm, of course), but a Medusa-less FF shows up. That leads to the best set of panels in a Fantastic Four book in a long time as She-Hulk and Ant-Man help The Thing catch the Fantasticar as it rolls down the street.
That’s what makes this creative team so great: they get that “Fantastic Four” should be, above all else, a fun book to read. Even despite James Robinson’s attempts to bring the family to their lowest points, and we’re already beginning to see that with the lost of Johnny’s powers, the writing is built to make this a light book to read instead of a dredge into grim darkness which would not be befitting of the team. As I mentioned, this is the issue equivalent four vs. four tag team, so the writing is slightly light. However, this issue does one very clever thing in the writing and it really shows the ramifications of Johnny not being a powered member of the team by having him be right in the middle of the fight with the Frightful Four. Robinson then thankfully swerves past the possible ‘woe is me’ pitfall by still having him contribute to the fight.
The name of the game with this series is bringing the Fantastic Four back to the fun adventure stories that they work best in. This issue nails that by giving Leonard Kirk free reign to bring the most fun aspect of the F4 and the FF’s powers to the forefront in an issue-long knock down brawl with the Frightful Four. While that leaves James Robinson focused on character writing rather than really furthering the plot, it’s not a bad thing as his character writing is solid and the artwork and action more than make up for it. If you have been waiting for a series to recapture the magic of the Fantastic Four, this is the series you should be buying. If not, you should still be buying this anyway as Robinson and Kirk are an excellent creative team and are really putting their all into this series and putting out their best possible work.
Final Verdict: 8.2 – This is good comics, you guys. Buy.
