Written by: Dan Slot
Art by: R.B. Silva, Juanan Ramirez, and Zé Carlos
Colors by: Chris O’Halloran
Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Release Date: 12/16/2020
Price: $3.99
Either Dan Slott has little faith in his readers to remember anything that has happened in his run so far, or Slott simply writes recap to pat himself on the back for remembering what he wrote last month. Either way there is too much time spent in this book reading non organic conversations that didn’t move the needle any further into the bigger story or Fantastic Four. But let’s be honest, it’s a breath of fresh air after reading Fantastic Four Road Trip two weeks ago.
Let’s get gripes out of the way so we can end on a good note. Recap. Some books need it, some don’t, but the lovely thing about Marvel is the recap or “preview” on the credits page. Dan Slott disregards this and feels the need to make majority of his characters sound like robots in order to “catch new readers up”. Johnny Storm was basically breaking the fourth wall in explaining to Sky that Griever was bad news. Any further and it would have felt like I was in an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Griever, a Universal destroyer. An amalgam of DC’s Perpetua and Marvel’s Knull. The constant reminder and repetitiveness of the use of words like “idea”, “concept” in describing herself was eye rolling. Slott is simply making it out to be “impossible” to defeat her so that when the Fantastic Four do finally defeat her it’ll be this grandiose thing. Just because Slott has this character saying she’s invincible, doesn’t make it so. It needs to be believable. Show, don’t tell. Something comics in general have a problem with these days.
If there is one thing the Fantastic Four title has been consistent with since Dan Slott’s run began it’s color. Colors have always popped in this title and it works very well. Art is always subjective but R.B. Silva, Juanan Ramirez, and Ze Carlos did an excellent job in this issue. Having three artists may be a little odd for a random issue number (#27). This may be due to Slott’s scripting method (The Marvel Method, recently discussed on Disney+’s 616 documentary).
Final Thoughts:
It seems like every odd number issue is a good enough read to not want to pull my hair out. Slott is relying too much on the past 26 issues to push a story forward. After the Fantastic Four deal with Perpetua, I mean Knull, excuse me, Griever. . . they’re all starting to look the same. I hope we can look forward and jump into more stories that Slott has set up rather than mingle around smaller fillers.
7.5/10
Weird Science Marvel Comics 
I agree, the colors do look good. But the story waste too much time. Slott really wants The Griever to catch on with readers like Knull did. But she lacks genuine cool factor, let alone an organic connection to the overall Marvel cosmos. She’s just…there. Like Perpetual only worse without the build up.
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Sorry, that should’ve been “Perpetua.” Dang autocorrect.
Also, Valeria points out how sadly useless the Power Pack have been. They were supposed to bring back the Molecule Man, and all they did was find a piece of him (and The Maker, for some reason). If Slott were smart, he would be coordinating with Donny Cates, since Cates brought in the new Council of Reeds. That’s a story that SHOULD be explored in the main Fantastic Four book not Venom. Instead, it looks like he doesn’t even know about it. Or doesn’t care, I can’t tell anymore with him.
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