Ice asked me yesterday if I was reading this and if I liked it. I said it was one of the worst things I've ever read. He asked why and what I didn't like about it. I couldn't give him an answer. I could not articulate what it was I hated and wondered if I was just throwing out hyperbole.
So I pulled the 2 existing issues out and re-read them. I wasn't throwing out a hyperbole. It really is terrible. I don't normally devote much time or brain power into analyzing something I don't like but since Ice asked...
My first and most obvious problem is with the art. Leonard Kirk is not good. Reed's face on the cover of #1 is terrible and it's all I can think about whenever this book is mentioned. I screen capped a shot of Franklin's face from issue 1 that I'll be putting in the bad art thread as well.
The writing: It feels like James Robinson had a neat idea for Franklin's Heroes Reborn world to come to life but had absolutely nothing to build around it. The solits tease Ben Grimm as being in prison for murder and Dragon Man sentenced to death...what?! Fantastic Four is not a dark book, and it's not a murder mystery. This book is at its best when it's about science, exploration, and family. After 2 issues this book has literally none of those things.
On top of that, Robinson does not get these characters at all. During Mark Waid's run on this book there was a story in which Johnny got put in charge of the FF's finances and grew up a lot in the process. Hickman took that even further and really made him mature when he became ruler of the Negative Zone...Johnny is not the himbo that he used to be. But somehow he has regressed back into that in just 2 issues of this book. His manager has him sign an agreement saying he won't travel through the multiverse or visit the Negative Zone and Johnny signs it without a second thought. Huh? The supporting cast of this book knows how important exploration is to what Reed does, and he just agrees not to do it any more because he has a contract put in his face?
He writes Sue - an amazingly strong character - like she's weak, moody, and mean. She's already snapped at Reed sarcastically a few times in two issues...she just doesn't do that. It's not in her character and it's not how she treats Reed, no matter how much is going on or how much stress she's under. She's being written like a cliche weak woman.
His Reed is probably the worst though. This book is already full of stupid, stupid comic book science like a gun that targets Fin Fang Foom's physiology (what?!) and a "cytotoxin" that "interacts with the (aliens') unique genetic composition" - he got an alien, took it back to his lab, did a complete examination on it, and invented this cytotoxin in a matter of minutes, literally. There's just no intelligence to this writing and it's a book that requires intelligence.
Gah. Everything about this book is stupid and this is the worst Fantastic Four book I've ever read. This is worse than the Dwayne McDuffie filler being pumped out around the time of Civil War.
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