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Comic Info
Comic Name: Ultimate Fantastic Four
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Stuart Immonen
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2008
Ultimate Fantastic Four #8
Reprinting Ultimate Fantastic Four #7-12 (August 2004-December 2004). Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny try to determine what happened to cause Reed’s experiment to fail, and Reed decides Victor Van Damme has to be found. When Victor has a preemptive attack on the Baxter Building, Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny head to Denmark where Victor has set-up a community to protect himself.
Written by Warren Ellis, Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 2: Doom is a follow-up to Bendis and Millar’s run on Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 1: The Fantastic. The collection features art by Stuart Immonen.
Ultimate Fantastic Four is a reimagining of the Fantastic Four. It continues the origin story of the Fantastic Four (which still doesn’t have a name). While the story is not bad, it also feels like it needs to move faster.
The second story arc on Ultimate Fantastic Four doesn’t really work. This is a bit of a disappointment because I’ve like Warren Ellis’ work in the past. The story just doesn’t flow or go anywhere. The first part involved the mystery of what happened to Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny, and Victor and does have some interesting looks at how the Fantastic Four’s bodies work with their powers. It also presents the origin of Victor and his family’s ties to Vlad the Impaler. The second part is a really poorly set-up and staged battle with Victor and his followers. It never really develops and feels like a real letdown.
Ultimate Fantastic Four #9
The art is nice in contrast with Adam Kubert’s art on the first story arc. It is a very clean and has a bit of a cartoonish look to it. I’m not a fan of Doom’s animal-like design, and it looks like Ellis and Immonen wanted Doom to look really cool. Dr. Doom already looked cool. His humanoid metal appearance in this story is quite lame and actually makes the character less threatening and interesting. Despite trying to change up Doom’s basic appearance, he still got a green cloak? If you are altering so many things about a classic character go all the way (like Doom 2099 or something).
Ultimate Fantastic Four 2: Doom is a poor follow-up to The Fantastic which wasn’t the best story to begin with. Dr. Doom is one of the great villains in comic history and to introduce him to the Ultimate line in this poor fashion is weak. It shows a trend to the direction that Ultimate Fantastic Four and if the Fantastic Four’s most dangerous villain is this poorly designed, what will it mean for the series as a whole? Ultimate Fantastic Four 2: Doom is followed by Ultimate Fantastic Four 3: N-Zone.
Related Links:
Ultimate Fantastic Four 1: The Fantastic
Ultimate Fantastic Four 3: N-Zone
Ultimate Fantastic Four 4: Inhuman
Ultimate Fantastic Four 5: Crossover
Ultimate Fantastic Four 8: Devils
