Written by Jonathan Hickman
Illustrated by Barry KitsonFOREVER PART 4 It’s Galactus versus the Celestials! Plus, the return of the Future Foundation!
The sprawling epic that is Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four run continues its madness. After the ridiculousness that was #602, can things possibly get any crazier?
Spoiler: Yes.
Follow the cut for more.
The scale of this arc is above and beyond your typical superhero fare, and is even grander in scope and consequences than some or the larger Marvel Cosmic stories. If you haven’t been reading, let me condense what’s going on into a single sentence: While two warring intergalactic empires use Earth’s orbit as a battleground, mad gods from a parallel earth cross over and do battle with a planet-eater. Yes, it’s crazy, but Jonathan Hickman handles it well. A story so massive can be difficult, because if it is either taken too lightly or too serious, it can – and will – become stupid rather quickly. The secret to making such a story work is by balancing the massive, universe-shaking elements with more personal, human moments, and that’s what Hickman does so well. On the one hand, we have Galactus giving the rogue Celestials a verbal beat-down that just drips with the weight of the matter at hand; on the other, we have great moments featuring the members of the first family – sure, they may be doing the impossible (or even the fantastic, if you will), but under Hickman’s pen that doesn’t make them any less human.
While Steve Epting was the original “big name” attached to FF and the relaunch of Fantastic Four, veteran Barry Kitson has been knocking it out of the park just as well as Epting – perhaps even more so. Epting’s art can be very finely detailed, but sometimes runs the risk of seeming static. Kitson, on the other hand, is always dynamic (except for the one instance in this issue where a panel is copied and pasted, but blame deadlines for that), and really fits the – to continue running the phrase into the ground – massive scale of the story that Hickman is telling. Kitson is not at all trying to be a carbon copy of Jack Kirby, but he’s certainly taking some cues from The King’s work, especially his later Marvel work. The issue is saturated in Kirby crackle and otherworldly energy waves that are extremely pleasing to the eye, but – much like Hickman – Kitson doesn’t let his experimental sci-fi work disturb his human figures, which are still as well-proportioned and expressional as ever. My one complaint?
It seems that now that Johnny’s back, Spider-Man is being given less attention from a writer and an artist’s standpoints: Pete does and says less and less each issue, and for some reason I find something really weird about the way Kitson draws his face. That’s neither here nor there, though.
The one thing that particularly bothered me about this issue was, oddly enough, something I loved while reading. Before I go any further, though, stop reading this paragraph if you want to avoid spoilers. Still here? Alright then. The segment of the issue where the remaining mad Celestials fused into one massive being was, at first, and to use the professional term, awesome, and fit so well into the sense of ever-increasing scale that this arc has been driven by. By the end of the issue, though, it felt more like a gimmick from a Saturday morning cartoon, or an over-the-top anime. Think about it: The Celestials need a way to best Galactus – or, the story needs Galactus to be beaten in order to heighten the dramatic tension – and so they combine, do just that, and then are separated by the evil Reeds’ machine. As giddy as seeing the Composite Celestial made me, after setting the comic down for a bit I can’t help but feel like it was a bit of a forced plot device. But that’s me.
That aside, this issue was one of the wilder rides of Hickman’s run so far – and that’s saying something. To shamelessly steal borrow something editor-in-chief Matt Meylikhov said to me while discussing the issue via email:
A lot happens throughout the book, and as much as Hickman has been offering up pay-off after pay-off, this — the penultimate issue — feels like a mix of high concept storytelling and blockbuster action before the final fist pump moment. More often than not, you get one or the other.
Since “Three,” the run has had its ups and downs, but if the final issue of “Forever” continues the trajectory set between this issue and the one before it, we’re in for one hell of a finale.
Final Verdict: 8.8 – Buy it!
