Ultimate Fantastic Four 2006: A Year In Review

Gemini

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much like my UXM, and USM year in review threads

well last wednesday the last issue of ultimate fantastic four of 2006 was released, since we always post our thoughts for single issue's after they've been released, i thought we should post our thoughts on the entire year now that 2006 is over for ultimate fantastic four

2006 was not a small year for the ultimate fantastic four (issue's 26-37 and Annual #2), we've had namor's tomb, president thor, frightful, The Annual, and god war, the issue's were pretty good this year, and the arc's were far better than ultimate's current average, for a whole year this series did really well in my opinion

We had the conclusion of the namor arc, reed's time travelling created an alternate universe where everyone was super powered and thor was president, the marvel zombies returned and doom was comdemned to the zombiverse, and now the FF are confronting Thanos and Ronan in another dimension which may have horrible consequences on earth

not a bad year the good definatley out way the bad, i'd give the year an A

how would you guys rate this year? and what's your outlook on 2007?
 
Re: Ultimate Fantastic Four a Year In Review

B. The Thanos stuff is really dragging things down.

Millar's stuff was great, over-the-top fun.
 
Re: Ultimate Fantastic Four a Year In Review

Yeah, it was. Fantastic Four were everywhere this year, too. In USM, in Extinction, they met the X-Men. They totally made their mark on the universe.
 
Re: Ultimate Fantastic Four a Year In Review

Best title this year, sans Ultimates.

I'm not a huge fan of what Millar did, but it has grown on me. President Thor and Frightful were both really good. Carey's run has been very good in my opinion so I really don't have too many complaints.

A-
 
Re: Ultimate Fantastic Four a Year In Review

I loved this year. Namor only gt me slightly excited, but President Thor and Frightful ROCKED. (Sans the fact that Thor could never BE president, as he is a native of Norway, but whatever). I love that the Fantastic Four are the ones being primarily tapped for Cosmic-level stuff. I would love to see X-men and Spider-man stay completely out of that and the Ultimates only very rarely. With how Kirkman handled the Shi'ar, I suspect, at least in his hands, the X-men will stay out of the FF's way.

Overall, this is tied with X-men as my favorite series of the year: A
 
Re: Ultimate Fantastic Four a Year In Review

Had a great time with Millar's issues. The best the title has had yet. And Carey, while not up there with Millar, still makes it enjoyable.

A-
 
Millar's stuff brings this one down. C-. That is definitely giving the title the benefit of the doubt, too. Millar was terrible writing this title.
 
I think it's been a pretty good year for UFF. Millar's stuff was decent- the Tomb of Namor arc was pretty bad, and President Thor was alright so long as you didn't think about it too much- but Frightful was phenomenal. And then there's Carrey's run, which is the best arc so far of UFF, in my opinion. So, there've been some stinkers, and there's been some really cool stuff too- so:

B+
 
I'd give it an A-.

Millar's run was awesome, and Frightful was one of the best arcs seen in the Ultimate Universe in any title. The annual was crap though, and I am not enjoying Carey's run as much as Millar's. Its good, just not Millar-good.
 
... President Thor was alright so long as you didn't think about it too much- but Frightful was phenomenal.
I haven't read the entire year's worth of issues, so I can't really grade it, but I have read up to the end of the Frightful arc. Kudos to Mark Millar for making the zombies go away.... Their method of breaking out was hysterical. (The aftermath certainly wasn't, but the way they psyched out the guards was actually pretty funny.)

I think my biggest gripe about Millar's run is his tendency to cram his backstory into such a small space of time that it because unbelievable. In the Crossover trade, the zombie virus had infected every superhero on the planet in under 24 hours. Sorry, but I wouldn't buy that even if every superhero on Earth hopped a jet, flew to New York and stood in line waiting to get bitten. Never mind the idea that they've eaten every non-hero except three or four within 48 hours and are now officially out of food. (Or was that just every non-hero in New York City? If so, why are all these zombies hanging around instead of moving out to find something to eat?)

The backstory on the President Thor arc was just about as bad. Reed Richards meets the Skrulls, comes back to Earth with the "miracle pill", and everone on Earth except Ben Grimm has taken it in less than 18 months. Isn't there a Food and Drug Administration on this version of Earth? Didn't anyone think to run tests on this stuff? Everyone just took it because Reed's alien buddy said it was okay? Didn't anyone question how a race that doesn't have human physiology, or contact with anyone with human physiology, managed to develop a drug that cures every human disease, including poverty? (Since when is poverty a disease, anyway? It's a social condition that would require some pretty major changes in attitudes in a lot of places before it could be "cured".) And I found it hard to believe that no one other than Ben Grimm and a handful of mutants chose not to take this stuff. I can think of a number of reasons --religious, personal, what have you -- that people would have for chosing NOT to take it. (For example, if I found out that swallowing this pill meant that I'd have to wear spandex every day for the rest of my life, I wouldn't touch the drug with anything shorter than a 10-foot battle lance. :wink: )

Is it possible to nominate an entire race for the Darwin Award? Probably not, as mass extinction due to abject stupidity kind of defeats the underlying purpose of the award in the first place, I suppose....

I liked the basic stories that Millar wrote, but in some cases, the set-ups just didn't fly for me.
 
I haven't read the entire year's worth of issues, so I can't really grade it, but I have read up to the end of the Frightful arc. Kudos to Mark Millar for making the zombies go away.... Their method of breaking out was hysterical. (The aftermath certainly wasn't, but the way they psyched out the guards was actually pretty funny.)

I think my biggest gripe about Millar's run is his tendency to cram his backstory into such a small space of time that it because unbelievable. In the Crossover trade, the zombie virus had infected every superhero on the planet in under 24 hours. Sorry, but I wouldn't buy that even if every superhero on Earth hopped a jet, flew to New York and stood in line waiting to get bitten. Never mind the idea that they've eaten every non-hero except three or four within 48 hours and are now officially out of food. (Or was that just every non-hero in New York City? If so, why are all these zombies hanging around instead of moving out to find something to eat?)

The backstory on the President Thor arc was just about as bad. Reed Richards meets the Skrulls, comes back to Earth with the "miracle pill", and everone on Earth except Ben Grimm has taken it in less than 18 months. Isn't there a Food and Drug Administration on this version of Earth? Didn't anyone think to run tests on this stuff? Everyone just took it because Reed's alien buddy said it was okay? Didn't anyone question how a race that doesn't have human physiology, or contact with anyone with human physiology, managed to develop a drug that cures every human disease, including poverty? (Since when is poverty a disease, anyway? It's a social condition that would require some pretty major changes in attitudes in a lot of places before it could be "cured".) And I found it hard to believe that no one other than Ben Grimm and a handful of mutants chose not to take this stuff. I can think of a number of reasons --religious, personal, what have you -- that people would have for chosing NOT to take it. (For example, if I found out that swallowing this pill meant that I'd have to wear spandex every day for the rest of my life, I wouldn't touch the drug with anything shorter than a 10-foot battle lance. :wink: )

Is it possible to nominate an entire race for the Darwin Award? Probably not, as mass extinction due to abject stupidity kind of defeats the underlying purpose of the award in the first place, I suppose....

I liked the basic stories that Millar wrote, but in some cases, the set-ups just didn't fly for me.
This might be overthinking it too much...but ok.

Reed Richards meets the Skrulls, comes back to Earth with the "miracle pill",
Woo-hoo! No pregnancy, right!
 
I think my biggest gripe about Millar's run is his tendency to cram his backstory into such a small space of time that it because unbelievable. In the Crossover trade, the zombie virus had infected every superhero on the planet in under 24 hours. Sorry, but I wouldn't buy that even if every superhero on Earth hopped a jet, flew to New York and stood in line waiting to get bitten. Never mind the idea that they've eaten every non-hero except three or four within 48 hours and are now officially out of food. (Or was that just every non-hero in New York City? If so, why are all these zombies hanging around instead of moving out to find something to eat?)
I can buy into the notion that the hundreds of active superheroes in the Marvel Universe would be able to zip across the globe in 48 hours and hunt down every non-zombie creature on the planet, but the question of why they would need to eat so fast is something I'll admit is a perplexing huh? point.

Perhaps the heroes ate so many people so fast simply because they went on a feeding spree without regard for 'future planning' or taking into account how hungry they really were and whether it was necessary to eat so much so fast. As such, it wasn't a question of the logistics of devouring Earth's non-zombie population, but rather an insane cannibalistic spree with no thought, accelerated superpowers.
 
Reed Richards meets the Skrulls, comes back to Earth with the "miracle pill", and everone on Earth except Ben Grimm has taken it in less than 18 months.
Woo-hoo! No pregnancy, right!
You'd better hope so, since the "miracle pill" supposedly also slowed the aging process. If everyone keeps having kids at the same rate but ages more slowly, it's gonna be standing room only on every continent on Earth in a few generations.... Of course, the Skrulls kind of solved that problem, didn't they? (And yes, humanity could have used Reed's transporter to colonize other planets, I suppose. :) )
 
how would you guys rate this year? and what's your outlook on 2007?
What I wanted from 2006 was for Ultimate Fantastic Four to be good enough that if I bought every trade as it came out, I would be satisfied that my money was well spent.

And that's what I got. It was consistently around four stars out of five for me, and that's fine.

I was concerned that the Ultimates would basically own the Ultimate universe, with the Ultimate Fantastic Four getting their left-overs, but it hasn't worked out that way. The Ultimate Fantastic Four are out of politics and national business (which the Ultimates own), and instead they have their own very large sandbox dealing with cosmic weirdness. That's perfect.

The best news was Mike Carey, who introduced himself with the superb mini-arc Think Tank, and who now has the book. The worst news was that continuity was never cleared up, but I don't care much about the rest of the Ultimate universe anyway. Call it A- overall.

What I'm looking for for the rest of 2007, and 2008 is the same. As long as they keep bringing this stuff out on the level of quality, timeliness and price we have now (allowing for inflation), I'll keep buying every trade. I hope Mike Carey stays on the book for many years, or as long as he wants. I'm a happy camper.
 
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