Comic Info
Comic Name: Fantastic Four (Volume 2)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski/Dwayne McDuffie/Stan Lee/Paul Pope
Artist: Mike McKone/Nick Dragotta/Paul Pope
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2007
Fantastic Four (2) #539
Reprints Fantastic Four (2) #538-543 (August 2006-May 2007). The Fantastic Four have always been a family. When war breaks out among the superheroes, they must choose sides. Join Captain America and oppose the Superhuman Registration Act or join Iron Man and bring in their friends who oppose it. Divided, the Fantastic Four are facing one of their greatest challenges…and family might not be strong enough to survive.
Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Dwayne McDuffie with additional work by Stan Lee and Paul Pope, Civil War: Fantastic Four ties into the bigger Marvel Civil War storyline. The issue also features the Fantastic Four’s 45th Anniversary issue (Fantastic Four (2) #543) which also serves as a wrap-up for the Civil War storyline.
Civil War was a bad idea. The comic started out strong and did raise some good questions on the ethics of being superheroes, but this comic even pokes fun at the storyline which shattered the Marvel Universe (and which I still feel it hasn’t rebounded from).
Fantastic Four (2) #543
The story for this collection feels rather disjointed. The timeline for the events seem pretty skewed and it is unclear how much time passes between events. In the first issue Johnny is barely clinging to life but a few issues later he’s fine. The Thing travels to Paris in a dramatic departure and returns a couple issues later. Sue and Reed’s relationship is probably the most shattered in the story but it is hard to tell when they even “break up” or get back together because of the time passing in odd ways.
What I do like about the collection is that it puts a lot of slights toward Marvel and their treatment of the Fantastic Four. The Fantastic Four isn’t a big seller but it is part of what made Marvel…“Marvel”. Thing travels to Paris where he misses the simpler days of just fighting villains and no government conspiracies and then the whole team reacts to lack of interest in celebrating the 45th anniversary of the team. It feels a bit of a knock to the company.
The Civil War was meant to play up to the “adult” audiences of comic books, but it also seemed to forget that part of the fun of comics was escapism. The storyline led to worse limited series that also lacked fun and took away from the comics. The Fantastic Four was Marvel’s “first” comic and this shows some of the story’s dying gasps…and actually references it. The storyline also set-up a new team line-up involving the Black Panther and Storm…which is always a shocker in a book where the team is a family. Civil War: Fantastic Four was followed by Fantastic Four: The New Fantastic Four.
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