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A review by lanternatomika
Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus, Vol. 2 by Jonathan Hickman
4.0
When the first omnibus ended, things had been packed into a hand-basket, and as this volume kicks off, the basket gets punted right into hell!
Make sure you set aside a lot of time when you start, because you'll blow through the first half of this omnibus. Everything that was set up before comes to a climax, and the story goes places that you'd never think were possible! And amazingly, there are great character moments sprinkled throughout the cosmic chaos of this chunk of the book. It's a great conclusion to the arc Hickman was writing.
...and then the story's over, and you realize there's a over a quarter of the omnibus left to go.
In the tail end of his run, Hickman returns to the one-off adventures that he began with. Some of these issues are pretty good - the one with Johnny and Peter Parker living together is iconic, and there stories in here that are even better. But there's a reason why most stories end after the climax - there's nothing more to build up to. These issues don't really get you pumped for anything because the real excitement is over.
And then, at the very end, Hickman picks up the toys he played with and puts them back in their places so the next writer can use them. Some touching moments here, and it's a nice enough ending.
All in all, I'd say Hickman's Fantastic Four run is awesome. I can believe people when they say that, at the time, this was the best content coming out of Marvel. Is it the best F4 run? I'm not sure, but I'd put money on it. Is this the World's Greatest Comic Magazine? Probably not, but sometimes, 'pretty dang good' should be good enough.
Make sure you set aside a lot of time when you start, because you'll blow through the first half of this omnibus. Everything that was set up before comes to a climax, and the story goes places that you'd never think were possible! And amazingly, there are great character moments sprinkled throughout the cosmic chaos of this chunk of the book. It's a great conclusion to the arc Hickman was writing.
...and then the story's over, and you realize there's a over a quarter of the omnibus left to go.
In the tail end of his run, Hickman returns to the one-off adventures that he began with. Some of these issues are pretty good - the one with Johnny and Peter Parker living together is iconic, and there stories in here that are even better. But there's a reason why most stories end after the climax - there's nothing more to build up to. These issues don't really get you pumped for anything because the real excitement is over.
And then, at the very end, Hickman picks up the toys he played with and puts them back in their places so the next writer can use them. Some touching moments here, and it's a nice enough ending.
All in all, I'd say Hickman's Fantastic Four run is awesome. I can believe people when they say that, at the time, this was the best content coming out of Marvel. Is it the best F4 run? I'm not sure, but I'd put money on it. Is this the World's Greatest Comic Magazine? Probably not, but sometimes, 'pretty dang good' should be good enough.