Fantastic Four Spoiler Zone
January 25th, 2011 by david brothers | Tags: fantastic four, jonathan hickman, steve eptingSpoilers after the jump, though I figure that you already know what goes down.
Station identification: Fantastic Four 587 is written by Jonathan Hickman, drawn by Steve Epting, inked by Rick Magyar, Mike Perkins, and Steve Epting, colored by Paul Mounts, and lettered by Visual Calligraphy’s Rus Wooton. Fantastic Four, of course, is a Stan & Jack Joint. It’s good–buy it today, buy it tomorrow, or wait six months and buy it digitally because Marvel doesn’t know jack about digital comics.
First, here’s the scene where Johnny Storm dies:
GO TEAM DAI-FOUREN!
Second, read Laura Hudson interviewing Jonathan Hickman and then check out David Uzumeri’s analysis of why Johnny had to be the one.
Third, what did you think? I don’t have time for lengthy thoughts right now, but I thought it was a well done issue, even if the death looks painfully easy to turn around. Hickman did good, and Epting was okay. Something about that guy’s faces don’t work for me all the way, though. More later–I’ll hop into the comments when I get off work.
edit: This is a photoshop, y’all, dang. My lettering is awful! If you want to get the joke, watch some Gurren Lagann. And understand that this is the blog that will pierce the Heavens.
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Early front-runner for Big 2 comic of the year.
Thanks for saving me four dollars, internet. Well done!
A+ to the Ruin of the Comic. A- to the issue. It’s a solid midpoint/first act ender to Hickman’s role. He’s also pacing it well and it had a lot of fun character nods.
You can tell a comic is solid when you know what happens but still enjoy it. It’s never about the what, but the why.
From That Interview:
“So let me just say that whatever is coming down the pike, Doom’s relationship to the surviving members of the Fantastic Four is going to be very interesting during the next year.”
Oh God.
Oh GOD.
Deep inside the wardrobe is a cloak and hood coloured in a certain special shade of blue…
12 issues of the new FF then Johnny comes back when they renumber back to #600 for the anniversary.
and people will complain.
I guess I’m the only one who’s going to laugh at that reference – but I thought it was F’in hilarious, so…
“If you decide you’re going to be a wall that’s standing in my way, then I have something that’ll open a hole in you every time. And that something is my drill!” *insert wang in last panel*
<_<
Don't much care for it either way, but I'll probably check out the trade. Unless Doom or Ben grow a beard as awesome as LordGenome's, in which case I'd get a damn subscription. There's a sad shortage of awesome facial hair in superhero comics.
Human Torch never did get that bank loan 🙁
General thoughts– Hickman’s run has been overall good, but not great. Tommy Edwards was overall crap and brought it down, but Epting and Eaglesham were pretty okay. Hickman has been doing this interesting thing with his scripting where issues end on anticlimaxes, almost as if they were documents of a specific event rather than a straight up story, if that makes sense. The text pieces at the end of some of the issues push that feeling even more. It makes for an interesting and slightly… I guess wrong reading experience, one that runs counter to traditional cape comics. I feel like there’s something to examine there with regard to his pacing and all, but I can’t quite figure out why it works. Reading Fantastic Four in chunks is infinitely better than reading one issue at a time, too.
@James: That’s dumb–comics are a whole lot more than just a single event. It’s how you get there, not what’s waiting at the end. It’s a good story.
@Stig: Yeah, that’s almost definitely gonna happen in Future Foundation.
@seth hurley: That’s my guess, too. Hickman already has a few really obvious outs set up, including a death cult that’s all about the Negative Zone turning death into life. Hopefully Marvel can get in some really exploitative marketing for that issue, too. “It’s not that we think you’re dumb, it’s just that we know you’ll jump through these hoops over and over again.”
@JTabon: Hickman’s run is pretty good, and you can check out issues for two bucks on ComiXology. It’s pretty good at that price.
I haven’t read any of this run, but I’m mildly interested to check it out.
The lettering looks pretty bad though, that last page especially.
@david brothers: That’s Neil Edwards by the way. Tommy (Lee) Edwards is pretty good!
KAMINAAAAAAAA!!!
@James W: I’m hoping you caught the part where David photoshopped that last page. His final words are actually “Flame on!” as would sort of be expected.
Actually now that I have it in my lap and look at the actual words, he edited it all. Oops.
@Syrg: D’oh. I half-wondered, but like I said I haven’t read any of this, and it all seemed plausible enough.
Oh well, sorry for being a dumb-dumb, David, and sorry for impugning your lettering! (Though it looks up to Marvel’s standards, at least…)
@James W: Yeah, you’re correct–my bad after a long day. My lettering is awful man, no worries. I’m surprised so many people thought this was the real text.
@Syrg: The second page is the original dialogue, but yeah, I relettered everything.
[…] (By the way, I forget—why was Ben Grimm wearing a bucket on his head at that point?) Finally, David Brothers posts the panels in which the one who bites it seems to bite it—I’ve heard nothing but good things about writer Hickman’s run on the title so far, but boy, […]
Johnny went out in a Bolivian Army ending, huh?
Have to say that the art did a good job of selling this. Going to have to pick up the trade when it comes out.
@david brothers: “Comics are a whole lot more than a single event.” Well, sure, but that’s not how Marvel are promoting this. There not saying, “Hickman is writing a wonderfully complex and engaging story that will keep you coming back every month.” They’re saying, “we killed a major character in this issue! And we put the issue in a plastic bag so you know it’ll be collectible! You loved it when we did this stuff in the 90’s, right?”
I’ve been reading, and enjoying, Hickman’s FF since his first issue, and what’s my reward for being a loyal customer all this time? I get the publisher leaking the ending two days (it was in my rss feed Monday night) before I get to read it myself.
Part of the reason I like reading comics as opposed to collected editions is the joy of cliffhanging each month. If a publisher doesn’t want me to have this experience, I’m happy not to read their titles. There are plenty of other good comics out there.
@James: The marketing and the story are two separate things. Of course Marvel is going to push a death as hard as they can. That’s a way to boost their profits. It makes sense.
I correctly guessed Johnny’s death months ago, and got official word on Monday, and I still enjoyed the issue. The spoiler isn’t the point, and I don’t think knowing the death was coming ruins the story at all, because it isn’t about the death itself. It’s about what happens leading up to it and the aftermath.
You don’t get, nor deserve, a reward for being a loyal customer. You buy the book, you consume the book, and you move on.
Dat Gurren :c00lbert:
Also I liked it, I’m picking my issue today but I read my friend’s who got his yesterday. It was well done, I actually cared and he went out swinging.
@david brothers: Of course loyal customers get rewards for loyally consuming. It’s just good business sense for a company to keep their existing customers happy. That’s basic Business 101.
I also correctly guessed it would be Johnny who’d die. I thought it was foreshadowed pretty heavily during Hickman’s first year on the book, but I didn’t know, or want to know, for sure until the book was in my hands. There are plenty of was to promote an book without spoiling the content. Ask anyone who’s ever worked in pr.
The simplest thing Marvel could have done was just moved their media push to Thursday, after all the hardcore Wednesday comic nerds had seen it. They would have made the exact same amount of sales to the casual buyer and/or collector crowd since every single direct market retailer preordered the book months ago.
Or, if Marvel really wanted to make some bucks, they should have just waited until the expensive hardcover collection came out and then promoted it to the mainstream media. They probably could have gotten the book on the NY Times Bestseller list that way. Now it’s just old news.
@James:
But it’s only fake news when it fake happens the first time. There’s a window.