Ultimate Fantastic Four 8: Devils

Comic Info

Ultimate Fantastic Annual #2

Reprints Ultimate Fantastic Four #39-41 and Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual #2 (April 2007-June 2007). The Fantastic Four is faces off against their enemy Dr. Molekevic when he steals members of the Think Tank and learn how he discovered his underground kingdom. Plus, the Fantastic Four and their loved ones are faced by a threat from Diablo.  When Diablo kidnaps members of the Fantastic Four’s family, the Fantastic Four are forced to go into the past to confront him as Diablo makes a bid to take over present day New York City.

Written by Mike Carey, Fantastic Four Volume 8:  Devils follows Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 7: God War.  The collection features art by Stuart Immonen, Scott Kolins, Mark Brooks, and Jaime Mendoza.

Mike Carey returns to a more normal Fantastic Four story in these two stories. God War involved a complex Jack Kirby New God-esque storyline that was hard to follow and this collection calms down on the extreme storytelling.  Diablo makes his Ultimate premiere in this collection and it also deals with more of the Fantastic Four’s relationships with their families.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #41

The Moleman story from Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual #2 is pretty generic. It pretty much just involves the Moleman telling his origin combined with a minimal fight. It is a longer story since it is from an annual, but it doesn’t feel like many things happen in this story. The Think Tank is one of the weaker parts of the whole Ultimate Fantastic Four storyline (a similar idea is being used in FF to a better extent). The Moleman has always been a bad super-villain and the final fight with him in this issue shows why. He’s just not that much of a threat.

I have also never been a Diablo fan. I thought the dangerous alchemist was just a lame version of Dr. Doom without the technology. Carey does a better job showing him as dangerous than many writers do, but I still don’t see him ranking as a major super villain threat. One of the few distinctive things about Diablo was his fun almost jester-like costume, but that was even reconned out by the artists.

With two weak villains and two average to just below average storylines, Ultimate Fantastic Four 8: Devils seems like a pretty poor entry in the already questionable Ultimate Fantastic Four story line-up. The previous entry God War tried too hard to be inventive and this one tries too little. Ultimate Fantastic Four 8: Devils is followed by Ultimate Fantastic Four 9: Silver Surfer.

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 9:  Silver Surfer

Ultimate Fantastic Four 10:  Ghosts

Ultimate Fantastic Four 11:  Salem’s Seven