Barry Kitson

the Complete Collection Vol. 2

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman

This run of the Fantastic Four is already one of my favorites, if it hasn't already surpassed the original Stan Lee/ Jack Kirby run. The creativity and sheer inventiveness in these pages is a little mind-blowing. What Hickman did in his time on the comic just made so much sense. Even two volumes in, every character has had a trial and arc that perfectly suits their strengths and weaknesses: we see Reed Richards, especially, as the real Mister Fantastic-- a true family man, a genius with a heart, for once. You can tell Hickman has done his homework on this book, as writing any characters with a 50-year background of stories must be difficult. Somehow he delivers, though, and it's not just technically good-- it's really, really enjoyable. Mark Millar's stories that I absolutely hated got totally justified here. Hickman took the boring, action movie-standard of that run and made every element much weirder, much more fun. He also ignored the Galactus-punching robot, which I'm really happy about. It was a literal Transformer. Come on Millar. Anyway, good comic. Fun, smart, and the Future Foundation kids are really cute. I mean, they could shoot you into a black hole using rolled-up socks and a paperclip, but they'd look cute doing it.

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman the Complete Collection Vol. 2

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