Written by Jonathan Hickman
Illustrated by Juan Bobillo“ALL HOPE LIES IN DOOM” Part One
The beginning of a 4-part arc that runs parallel with FOREVER in the Fantastic Four. We’ve teased it for years, now find out exactly how Doctor Doom and the Future Foundation will save us all.
A new day dawns for the Future Foundation! Okay, not really. Things actually just progress from the point they left off in last week’s Fantastic Four #600 for the Richards Children and the various other youths that will (supposedly) define the future of the Marvel Universe. I have to say, when I heard that the cast of FF would be split into two books, one focusing on the traditional Fantastic Four portion of the cast and one focusing on the largely new or redefined youths that have been running around the Baxter Building for the last year and a half, I was pretty stoked. Afterall, Jonathan Hickman piloting the Fantastic Four-verse has been a comic book godsend and him doing it twice a month could only be a universal good.
Click on down to find out if this was the case or not.
I really really wanted to love this comic. I am an unabashed Hickman fanboy and, in particular, I love the work he’s done with Valeria and Franklin Richards. I think the lighthearted element they and the other kids brought to FF and Fantastic Four before it really made those books unique and likeable and also masked the more intriguing machinations of Valeria until they were ready to be known. I think giving the group their own book to expand those plotlines was a stroke of genious (granted, one that came out of a most likely editorial decision to bring back the core Fantastic Four book). All of that combined should have made this book a slame dunk.
But then Juan Bobillo ruined it.
I’ll admit, I really like unconventional art in comics. I like it when characters don’t look quite human but still human enough to stay connected to. I like odd approaches to character physique and facial expression as much as I love well defined versions of those two things. Chris Bachalo and Jeff Lemire are two of my favorite artists of all time. With all of that in mind, I still felt like Bobillo’s work was awful enough to legitimately distract me from the story. When a reader needs to use extra brain power to get past the art and into the story, that is not a good sign for any comic. And I’m the guy that found (and continues to find) things to like about Travel Foreman’s work on Animal Man, so you know I’m capable of forgiving poor art if it services a fantastic story. That said, this took things to another level entirely.
All sense of consistency was lost from the very first page of the book. Now, I’m willing to admit that Bobillo being such a jarring shift from some of the other artists to illustrate the book (most notably Steve Epting) may have had something to do with my inability to enjoy it. However, that is an almost miniscule factor here when placed against the contorted, misshapen characters that change shape from panel to panel (poor Leech looked to be about a foot tall in some panels), the awful facial expressions that carried zero emotion or the absolutely flacid backgrounds. Simply put, I am unable to find anything redeeming about this artwork. It is an albatross around the neck of what should be a Top 10 book.
All of that aside, it is great to see Hickman begin to pay off not only plot threads he’s weaved in this book, but also in what can only be called a partner book to everything he writes in the Marvel Universe, SHIELD. By bridging elements of both books, he manages to create synergy between the sum of his works (elements of SHIELD found their way into Secret Warriors as well) and appears to be entering the “multi-part epic” phase of his career as opposed to the “writing a bunch of comics” phase most could see him in. Being able to pick up a comic with his name on it and knowing that I will not only get to read a fantasticly told story individually, but also knowing it is a part of a grander epic is what makes him a must-read writer in my mind.
However, ultimately the story is sullied almost beyond repair by the art. While I can tell there are interesting elements of the overall story to be found here, I just can’t get over the fact that Valeria’s eyes are as big as her head, Leech is a bumpy elf that I can only determine to be Leech by the fact that he’s green and Dragon Man looks more like a Rorshach test than one of the most uniquely designed characters in the Marvel Universe.
Final Verdict: 5.0 – Track Down An Original Script and Hope They Find a Better Artist For This Book
