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A review by hobbitfreddie
Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
3.0
My first Fantastic Four comic, and my second Jack Kirby. I'm gonna say this comic right off the bat is incredibly flawed but I still adored it.
The writing is really bad. I was trying to look past it and just suspend my disbelief but it was really hard too. They just pull stuff out of their asses. Okay example characters will just happen to be somewhere, in the last issue Sue exclaims that's a good thing she was visiting Alicia when another character was there. Even though a page ago she was at the Fantastic Four HQ. Or Johnny constantly pulling out new abilities, he'll just use them once and never again (at least in this book). Theres no scenes of him figuring it out he just pulls it out of nowhere. And the rest of the gang only has like one ability, ig you can argue that it's still one ability idk. He just does it sooo much.
Also the actual writing. The characters will do so much telling instead of showing, over explaining everything. There is way too much text in this comic.
I can look past all this if the actual story's good and... eh? I really like the Fantastic Four. My only exposure to them was that terrible 2015 movie, but I quickly became invested in these 4. Was it because I like family dynamics? Probably yeah. But the stories are so fast paced you don't get much development. There are attempts. Especially with Ben. But then the villain of the week will show up and that's pushed to the side. Ben and Johnny keep blowing up at the others and running away, it happens way too much in just the first few isssues. And while that does make for good conflict and flawed characters, the writing doesn't allow for much development. It's more focused on the villains and fighting. I guess I like the ideas but for the first 10 issuses it feels like it's finding its footing. Also Sue and Reed don't really do much for me. Sue is the damsel in distress most of the time, her character is just "girl". And Reed is kinda just the leader who's trying to keep the peace. Also they are supposed to be a couple but most of the issuses are Sue and the Submariner. Heck even Reed is like "wait I thought you and I were a thing". And they never really resolve that. I know that get married but I saw like no chemistry here. Holding out for the other issuses improving their relationship. Johnny and Ben are easily my favorites. Johnny is a pretty realistic teen and Ben is probably the most developed character.
I do think the conflicts are fun, they're campy and stupid and idk I just enjoyed reading them. I think my favorite was the the puppet one.
If you mainly only consume media published in the last 3 decades I think you will have a lot of trouble with this one. I've been told that this or Thor is Kirby's best work. So I'd reccomend it for Kirby's art. I'm going to try to read Kirby's whole run of this.
The writing is really bad. I was trying to look past it and just suspend my disbelief but it was really hard too. They just pull stuff out of their asses. Okay example characters will just happen to be somewhere, in the last issue Sue exclaims that's a good thing she was visiting Alicia when another character was there. Even though a page ago she was at the Fantastic Four HQ. Or Johnny constantly pulling out new abilities, he'll just use them once and never again (at least in this book). Theres no scenes of him figuring it out he just pulls it out of nowhere. And the rest of the gang only has like one ability, ig you can argue that it's still one ability idk. He just does it sooo much.
Also the actual writing. The characters will do so much telling instead of showing, over explaining everything. There is way too much text in this comic.
I can look past all this if the actual story's good and... eh? I really like the Fantastic Four. My only exposure to them was that terrible 2015 movie, but I quickly became invested in these 4. Was it because I like family dynamics? Probably yeah. But the stories are so fast paced you don't get much development. There are attempts. Especially with Ben. But then the villain of the week will show up and that's pushed to the side. Ben and Johnny keep blowing up at the others and running away, it happens way too much in just the first few isssues. And while that does make for good conflict and flawed characters, the writing doesn't allow for much development. It's more focused on the villains and fighting. I guess I like the ideas but for the first 10 issuses it feels like it's finding its footing. Also Sue and Reed don't really do much for me. Sue is the damsel in distress most of the time, her character is just "girl". And Reed is kinda just the leader who's trying to keep the peace. Also they are supposed to be a couple but most of the issuses are Sue and the Submariner. Heck even Reed is like "wait I thought you and I were a thing". And they never really resolve that. I know that get married but I saw like no chemistry here. Holding out for the other issuses improving their relationship. Johnny and Ben are easily my favorites. Johnny is a pretty realistic teen and Ben is probably the most developed character.
I do think the conflicts are fun, they're campy and stupid and idk I just enjoyed reading them. I think my favorite was the the puppet one.
If you mainly only consume media published in the last 3 decades I think you will have a lot of trouble with this one. I've been told that this or Thor is Kirby's best work. So I'd reccomend it for Kirby's art. I'm going to try to read Kirby's whole run of this.