Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Illustrated by David MarquesIn Manhattan’s most famous skyscraper, the Baxter Building, scientific genius Reed Richards hatches a plan that will change the lives of those he loves most — and the very course of human history — in a way no one could have ever imagined. Revisit the story that irrevocably altered comics and pop culture in this all-new graphic novel, modernizing the journey of Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm as they travel to the stars — and return with fantastic, devastating results! Plus: Witness the FF’s cataclysmic first battles with the Mole Man, Dr. Doom and Prince Namor, the mysterious Sub-Mariner, in a way you’ve never seen before. You only think you know the story! Also features FANTASTIC FOUR #570 by Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham.
The first of Marvel’s brand new series of hardcovers offering up entry points into the mythology of their biggest characters (or something along those lines) is here! Lord knows I love me some Fantastic Four, so of course I’ll give a version of their origin a thorough look.
Check behind the cut as I hold up Aguirre-Sacasa and Marquez’s version of the First Family to Lee and Kirby’s definitive classic (and personal favorite).
Fantastic Four #1 is something special. It is, in no short terms, the perfect example of everything I believe a comic should be and everything I love about them: a truly all-ages grand introduction to a set of fantastic characters for a brand new universe full of imagination with no limitations; a book that hits every note right, and not just through a lens of nostalgia or wonder. The book is a literal piece of history, putting Marvel on the map and introducing the first family in comics, pulling them together into a singular unit with a dynamic oft-repeated and an imagination never quite recaptured. It’s perhaps one of the single most important Marvel comics ever, and a wonderful example of the Golden Age of comics (all future drama and legal issues about character ownership aside).
However, for some odd reason, rather than find new ways to bring that particular comic to new readers, Marvel has created a new initiative to re-imagine these books for a brand new world. Taking that first issue as well as the fourth (and the inkling of an idea from the fifth), this re-imagined version of the seminal series finds four “ordinary” people traveling into space before being blasted with comic radiation and finding themselves face to face with an underground monster (and his owner, Harvey the Mole Man) before coming face to face with the modern marvel, Namor the Sub-Mariner (skipping stories from the second and third Fantastic Four issues featuring the Skrulls and Miracle Man, respectively). With these combined adventures, Fantastic Four Season One hopes to capture some of the same magic Kirby and Lee brought to comics in 1961, now with references to JJ Abrams and Mad Men.
There in lies the rub, though: the magic is never truly captured. Kirby alone brought so much to the art form that so few have since, with truly dynamic and sequential panels born out of the Marvel method and bringing characters vividly to life. The original issues of the Fantastic Four are pure bliss in comic book form, effortlessly exciting reads that are both enthusiastic and excitable. While some of the dialogue might be a tad bit antiquated and there is certainly an element of age laying in the gutters, there is a panache about the collaboration between Kirby and Lee that can not be beaten. Try as they might, Aguirre-Sacasa and Marques never reaches the highs that a few issues from their run had, let alone the entire run.
One of the worst elements of comics from the Big Two today is that when they produce content like this, it feels like they’re talking down to the average or neophyte reader. By publishing books on a Season One line and creating “easy access roads” to years of continuity and knowledge that most life-long readers worked to ascertain, Marvel as a company is somewhat insulting the rest of us who might want to read work by the talent involved, yet don’t necessarily have any interest in reading yet another version of a story told multiple times, albeit a few deviations. This isn’t the first time Marvel has produced a “modern day” version of a classic story like the origin of the Fantastic Four (or any major character/team), and it certainly won’t be the last. Aguirre-Sacasa and Marques could create marvelous content together elsewhere rather than try and rework something like this, and it feels like such a shame that they aren’t — yet here we are.
Continued belowHowever, Season One does have some redeeming quality to it. For all intents and purposes, this is in no way a bad comic; it just isn’t a particularly exciting one. Season One is pretty much a prime example of a book accomplishing its singular purpose, which is to repurpose the old into something somewhat new and make it work for someone who has never read an issue of Fantastic Four in their life. In its own way, Season One is similar to the Fantastic Four films (minus the charm and charisma of Chris Evans lighting up the screen), and while it certainly takes liberties with the source material in order to fit the Golden Age tale into the modern age, it doesn’t do so with any disrespect.
It is clear from the pages that Aguirre-Sacasa and Marques have a great love for the original books, and it’s this aspect that makes Fantastic Four Season One affable. For the most part, the book linearly follows the true origin of the Four, and even with the changes found in the origin story, the overall story works quite well. This may not be the story of the Fantastic Four, but its certainly a not unpleasant variation on a classic, with an experience similar to watching a band you enjoy performing a cover of a classic by a band you love. Aguirre-Sacasa’s tongue-in-cheek dialogue show reverence to that which came before, offering up a few direct references to Lee and Kirby’s work that add a nice element of nostalgia and humor to the book, while Marques’ very clean and sharp artwork alone gives the book a nice glow more in sync with the “standard of beauty” held in today’s environment (a cleaner polish in the colors you’re not likely to find in many other books of this nature).
The only thing really lacking from the graphic novel is the true sense of family and camaraderie the team has, but you get the sense that should there be a Season Two, there are plenty of threads left for Aguirre-Sacasa and Marques to develop on. The seeds are there, it’s just a question of wether or not they’ll ever be grown. (It certainly seems, by the inclusion of the first issue of Hickman’s run, that Marvel’s hope is for new readers to jump into the modern day rather than wait for more in this line, though.)
If you really want to read “season one” of the Fantastic Four, I couldn’t recommend the Marvel Masterworks collection of the first ten issues any higher. For the exact same price as this new book, you’ll get ten issues of comics at their very best. Fantastic Four Season One by Aguirre-Sacasa and Marques is not ostensibly that bad for what it is, mind you, and it’s certainly a good first entry into the entire Season One line, but in the end you can’t beat the King.
Final Verdict: 5.0 – Browse
