FANTASTIC FOUR #28

 This story is written by Dan Slott, with pencils from R.B. Silva

 

Cover by Mark Brooks

It is good to see that they managed to improve upon the last issue of this story arc … oh, sorry that is a little bit of a lie. Honestly, as a finale for this arc, I really expected the narrative itself to be so much better than it was, as I feel that it did have at least a small amount of potential. I wouldn’t have such a problem with the way that this turned out, if it weren’t for the fact that every issue of this series, since the ending of “Empyre”, seems to have been the victim of massive hyperbole. Line such as “A new era” or “A decision that could change their lives forever” create such huge expectations for every story, often building a ridiculous amount of hype, but as has been the case far too much recently, the story rarely deliver for those with such high expectations. This may sound a little bit strange, but if you are not actually intending on following through with something, surely it makes more sense to simply not build up so much hype with this hyperbolic language? I understand (with my limited brain capacity) that this is not, in any way, a good method of doing business, but I feel that it would lead to a lot less disappointment and complaints further down the line.

With that totally sound logical argument out of the way, let us now move on to something that could be seen as slightly more positive. It seems that Norrin Radd is beginning to make the rounds once again, appearing twice, in two different titles no less, in about as many weeks, following his quizzical appearance within the pages of the “King in Black” event. His arrival in this book, thankfully, was so much more functional, as he was the vessel used to transport the Ultimate Nullifier back to Earth, in the misguided hope that it could be used to defeat the Griever at the End of All Things. It is very hard for me to put into words how much I have always enjoyed the way that Dan Slott writes Norrin, and his multiple appearances in the recent past really almost make me yearn for him to have his own solo adventures once again. Sadly though, no matter if it is Dan Slott writing said theoretical series, or if it somebody else entirely, I feel that they have really told all of the stories that they possibly could with Norrin now. Put quite simply, I do not believe that it is possible to capture the magic that was produced by the “Silver Surfer” run of Dan Slott and Michael Allred ever again. This is due to the incredible writing of the relationship, and subsequent ending of said relationship, between Norrin Radd and Dawn Greenwood, which was so wholesome, being perfectly developed over the three or four years that it was being released. Of course, Allred’s unique art style was also part of this magical feeling, perfectly suiting what was a totally ridiculous world. As I say, the writing of the Surfer here was also excellent as always, managing to both be the voice of reason, while still also being surprised at the turn that events have taken in his absence.

The most interesting part of this story, which isn’t a difficult thing to accomplish considering how below average it all was, has to have been the deaths that three quarters of the Fantastic Four, along with Dragon Man, were subjected to at the hand of the Griever. Diablo being the apparent cause of Dragon Man’s demise made sense, as he was the one that gave him life in the first place, I have no complaints about this; apparently, in some future that we will never likely see again, Sue is going to be the final victim of Doctor Doom, having saved her for last due to an incident where Sue unmasked his hideous visage to the eyes of the entire world, which is a nice piece of continuity that I am surprised Dan Slott even bothered to remember; Ben’s final moments will come a the hands of a new character called Rapture, who we will probably never meet again, because comic book logic; but perhaps the most intriguing scenario that was presented to us here was the apparent ultimate death of Dr. Reed Richards, as it will come at the hands of Ben Grimm. In this future moment, something has come to light, which has completely shattered the friendship of the two men, which we are informed will soon be revealed. This is the kind of hype that I am totally on board with, although I do it hesitantly, as knowing my luck this has now been teased, and before it can get anywhere near being revealed, it will be announced that Dan Slott will be leaving the title, with subsequent writers not remembering this seemingly important plot point.

And so, we now reach my opinion of the end of this story, and how utterly deflated it left me feeling. The solution to the problem of the Griever at the End of All Things, quite simply, was to send her to the literal End of All Things, that’s it … it was that goddamn easy. We didn’t need anyone to be Ultimately Nullified, we didn’t need the awesome Fantastic Four Iron Man suit, we didn’t even need the collapsing of 4 Yancy Street. All we needed was for Reed Richards, one of the smartest people in the Marvel Universe, to actually use his massive brain right from the very start of the story, and we could have avoided every single thing that happened here, including risking his son Franklin for the 1,000,000^th time in this run (or so it seems). This conclusion was about as disappointing as if the Fantastic Four had baked the Griever a cake and apologised for everything that had happened (I mean, at least with that scenario, there would have been some worthwhile action). I already was not looking forward to the next couple of issues, due to them being tie-ins to “King in Black”, but now that this story has completely fallen flat on it’s face, I am even less enthused about the upcoming interruption. For this, I feel a little sorry for Silver Surfer, as he has gone off to plonk all of the alien refugees on their new planet, only to have to come right back, and probably get battered by Knull (I don’t know, we have to wait a couple of weeks for that). 

In conclusion, this was yet another disappointing addition to what has otherwise been a consistently solid run for the Fantastic Four. Maybe Slott should calm it down a little bit for the next while, write some less reality ending stories, focus on developing the new Grimm family, just really make us care about all of the new people that he has introduced in recent times. I also hope that, now that she has gone off to the end of time, the Griever is done with for a few real-life, and in continuity, years, just so that we don’t have to here her annoying spiel every again. I apologise to anyone who wanted to hear my thoughts on the artwork, but I am simply just not qualified to say anything other than that it was good, and R.B. Silva is an utterly tremendous talent, who could draw most books and not look out of place. 

 

I WILL BE GIVING THIS ISSUE OF “FANTASTIC FOUR” A “C” GRADE.