A year ago, Reed Richards sent a whole city block the Baxter Building stands on - along with his own children and the children of his best friends Ben and Alicia - a year ahead in time. It was a desperate measure, but it saved them. And now, it's time for them all to come back. But when the Fantastic Four arrive in NYC, they find something is being built in the pit where the block once stood - and worse, nobody seems to know exactly what it is or why they're building it. With the clock ticking, they investigate this mystery - and discover a mysterious new threat that may have been pulling the strings this entire time...
Rated T+
Its hard to argue that Fantastic Four is one of the smartest (the smartest?) comics on the shelves. Certainly Norths scripts delve into the straight up fantastic at times. But most of the issues are rooted in real concepts that can be explained and extrapolated from. Combine that with top notch art, and almost every month is a winnerwhich is exactly the case with Fantastic Four #14. Read Full Review
The super science in this one is a little too much to take in, especially when it's nearly an entire issue of just explaining how it works. Read Full Review
It's a fascinating and ultimately strange distraction leading to the expected return of the Baxter Building and a very enticing cliffhanger. Read Full Review
Fantastic Four #14 is an unfortunate step backward in a story about a villain who can influence the future. North unwisely puts the science lesson before the adventure (again) with a heavy-handed message about the dangers of tech billionaires. The art, however, looks great. Read Full Review
I understand why people might not care for this issue, as it is basically page after page of people standing around and talking about a science fiction concept. Personally, though, I much prefer this over Dan Slott’s melodramatics in the previous run, and I think it fits the characters really well.
I really like this mystery of the day that's woven in past and future stories. It feels like one offs but I believe Ryan North is building something here.
The Fantastic Four wait seconds for the arrival of their children...but nothing happens...the next installment will be revealing.
Art
It is organic with many textures that enhance the details and gives it an interesting and practical tone.
Summary
The Fantastic Four face off against social networks to be able to welcome their children.
Interesting episode
Weakest issue of the run so far. North still holds up as the perfect choice for this book.
A perfectly serviceable story, but a little too much standing around imo.
To mimic some other reviews, I really liked the fight at the start (no complaints I think it was fun and well drawn), and the twist at the end was also good. Lots to work with there. However, the middle was mostly just philosophical waxing and waning all to ram in a plot device.
To me this issue felt like eating a burger, with amazing artisan buns and cardboard as the meat. No fillings were bad. This run is no doubt better than the Slotts as other have said, but that is a low bar. Slott should not be anyone's comparison bar, we should expect everyone to do better than that.
There are some interesting ideas here, as well as some cool uses of Reed, Sue, and Johnny's powers, but North really needs to work on his dialogue. The technobable between Reed and Passi made me not even want to finish the issue. Still, some pretty good art from Fiorelli to help salvage the comic.
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