It makes for a fascinating conclusion to the story, one that's bound to make readers familiar with this chronology squint and chuckle, often at the same time. Read Full Review

Tom Scioli and the editors deserve a lot of credit for condensing 70+ hears of Fantastic Four history into two issues. Way too many titles feel decompressed and padded to exploit retailers that need products to sell and take advantage of the eventual collected Graphic Novel. This one will work as a single volume but there is so much content here that I appreciate that it been broken up into chapters.

This installment covers "The Coming of Galactus" storyline and concludes post-Marvel Super-Heroes Secret War. There is a lot of direct references to the comics from those eras and Tom even homages significant covers and panels from the comics he's pulling from. This translates to beautiful reading experience for fans of Marvels First family if you're a longtime fan or new to the Franchise and just want the cliff notes of their history.

I do have a couple of gripes. I believe I mentioned Alicia Masters being retconned into a Black Woman in the last review so I won't spend too much time on it here. It's weirder than anything and I believe the change was primarily a consequence of the Fantastic Four being a 95% Caucasian franchise.

I also don't recall Sue Storm ever having Sue Storm having a long-running affair with Namor or the subplot of Namor being the father of Franklin Richards. It's a cool what-if scenario but I think it takes from the Grand Design format when it adds retcons into the mix. The changes don't really add anything and just seem odd if you are familiar with the material. I see this a Tom just having fun with the reader's expectations but I would have preferred he play it straight.

Toward the end of the comic, the reader is hit with so many different storylines that the conclusion feels kinda rushed. I won't hold that against the book although I think it could be better served with a third issue. Complaints aside, compiling Fantastic Four: Grand Design had to be a herculean effort, that can't be understated. I highly recommend this series for fans and collectors alike. The Fantastic Four is often treated as an afterthought behind X-Men and The Avengers. It's nice to see Reed, Ben, Sue, and Johnny given the spotlight they deserve.
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I put off reading this back in November because I just didn't have the will to read it, but I'm too OCD to not finish what I started. The continuity and canon changes, while small in the first issue, become much bigger here. And they aren't changes for the better of, at the very least, innocuous. There's a Power Rangers homage, for instance. This issue was just stuffing way too much into itself and didn't even tell the story as it was, which is what I assumed these Grand Designs series are supposed to do. I don't regret skipping this for so long.

The 4 Fs of FF Grand Design:

Fails as a history because it makes too many pointless story changes.

Fails as a character analysis because it changes the characters drastically.

Fails as an independent, "reimagined" story because it's chaotic and ugly.

Fails as parody -- a role it otherwise fits perfectly -- because it's not funny.