Comic Info
Comic Name: Ultimate Fantastic Four
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Mike Carey
Artist: Mark Brooks/Tyler Kirkham
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2008
Ultimate Fantastic Four #50
Reprints Ultimate Fantastic Four #47-53 (December 2007-June 2008). Reed has become obsessed with the idea of the Cosmic Cube. He is so obsessed that Sue is allowed off on a mission to Russia which leads her to be a prisoner of Ivan Kragoff. The Fantastic Four end up on a rescue mission to Russia with the help of the Crimson Dynamo. When the Fantastic Four head back to New York they find Reed’s experiment has gone out of control and that Earth is facing the threat of Thanos the Mad Titan.
Ultimate Fantastic Four 10: Ghosts is written by Mike Carey. It follows the events of Ultimate Fantastic Four 9: Silver Surfer. It is divided into two stories, the first called “Ghosts” is about the Red Ghost (illustrated by Mark Brooks) and the second story called “Four Cubed” involved Thanos (illustrated by Tyler Kirkham).
The first story involving the Red Ghost bring the Red Ghost (Ivan Kragoff) into the Ultimate Universe. Kragoff meets his fate at the hands of Doctor Rutskaya who is kind of like the Marvel Universe Super-Apes. The story feels a bit rushed and Red Ghost doesn’t get his dues since he gets killed early on. I did enjoy the inclusion of the Crimson Dynamo in the story especially since he was always primarily an Iron Man villain.
Ultimate Fantastic Four #53
The second story involving Thanos is much more developed. It spins almost directly off the previous collection and is much more developed. I wish that the story had been presented more like the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, which had more issues and involved more teams. I would have liked the Ultimate equivalent of the Infinity Gauntlet in twelve issues or so. Despite that, it was nice to see the Ultimates show up in the battle and despite a rather distracting storyline involving Thing, the whole resolution of the Thanos-Cosmic Cube saga was good. Thanos (if written correctly) is always an interesting villain so it would have been cool to see more development for his character. Carey seemed to provide an interesting blend of Thanos and DC’s New Gods (which always were so close to Thanos & his kin storylines).
Ultimate Fantastic Four 10: Ghosts is a bit of a frustrating book. It isn’t bad, but with such rich characters it could have been better especially since I liked what they did with the end of the story. Carey seemed to make it a bit unnecessarily confusing and I think the story could have been streamlined more to make it even better. Ultimate Fantastic Four 10: Ghosts was followed by Ultimate Fantastic Four 11: Salem’s Seven.
Related Links:
Ultimate Fantastic Four 1: The Fantastic
Ultimate Fantastic Four 2: Doom
Ultimate Fantastic Four 3: N-Zone
Ultimate Fantastic Four 4: Inhuman
Ultimate Fantastic Four 5: Crossover
Ultimate Fantastic Four 8: Devils
