Written by: Dan Slott

Art by: R.B. Silva

Colors by: Jesus Aburtov

Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Release Date:1/27/2021

Price: $3.99

If Fantastic Four is anything, it’s proof that the “Marvel Method” can give plenty of time for Marvel to print out a cool looking book, but can never give Dan Slott enough time to think of a clever way to finish a story.

SPOILERS

R.B. Silva and Jesus Aburtov always do a great job with the fantastic four book. It’s always bright, colorful, and vibrant. The pinks, purples, and blues always pop in this series. There’s always something that catches your eye on every page. The art is the reason why I get so frustrated towards Dan Slott. He chooses to tell the readers with dialogue about every little thing that is happening or happened, instead of showing us with such a great creative team. Dan Slott has big ideas, I see the appeal with each one. Unfortunately those big ideas are bogged down with dialogue after dialogue, conversations that feel really pointless to the story at hand.

The idea of Silver Surfer teaming up with the Fantastic Four sounds like fun, but believe it or not, after reading this issue, it feels like the FF may have the Superman problem. Is there anything too big for them now? Dan Slott wrote the biggest MacGuffin since “Rosebud” and I’m afraid readers may see it as some sort of genius idea from Slott. Dan has been getting away with writing mediocre endings to the countless stories in Fantastic Four and they go no where. Griever, a being so full of hatred, tortured the Fantastic Four, for who knows how long, just to be talked down from the ledge and gets to push the fast forward button on life? That is what satisfies her? This goddess of destruction should relish in the possibility to destroy everything in her wake. Why would she be so satisfied to see everything end in an instant without her being the cause of it? It makes her character so mediocre, so non-important.

Dan Slott does give us a peak at Marvel’s Future State inside Grievers torture bubbles. The end of Dragon Man, Ben Grimm, Sue Storm, and Reed Richards. All dangling threads of psychological trauma for Slott to take advantage of in the future, but most likely won’t. Although I wasn’t impressed by the deaths of Dragon Man and Ben Grimm, the deaths of Sue Storm and Reed Richards could have been played out a little more. More context makes for better entertainment. Fleshing out those two mini stories could have given the readers more time with character building in showing why Sue should really feat Dr. Doom or the future of Reed and Ben’s friendship. Those threads interest me more than sending Griever first class to the end of the universe.

Final Thoughts:

Dan Slott’s execution to the numerous ideas in this book were just off. They all have potential, they all looked really cool. They just needed to actually settle into the story long enough to actually be something. Maybe the fact that this book is monthly is hurting it from being apart of the hype I almost forgot this book was still being published. With bigger things happening and other voices being louder, Fantastic Four continues to be the kid alone in the back of the bus.

6.5/10