Review: FF #1-3

FF Promo Art: Mike Allred, artist; Laura Allred, colorist

In the wake of DC’s success with The New 52 – a company-wide initiative to reboot and revamp their universe – Marvel has established Marvel Now. While Marvel NOW! doesn’t reboot their universe, the initiative does offer casual fans a good jumping-on point for some of their most popular books.

Marvel NOW! as a whole has been an arguable success so far, and that’s primarily due to the simple and effective tactic of pairing good writers with talented artists and encouraging creators to tell stories that excite them. FF, a Fantastic Four spin-off book, is the best of them all. Assuming that you have some basic knowledge of the Fantastic Four family here’s all you need to know to enjoy FF:

The Fantastic Four are leaving earth to explore other dimensions and whatnot, as they are prone to doing. Just in case anything goes wrong in their absence they decide to recruit some heroes to stand in for them while they’re gone and to watch over Reed Richards’ Future Foundation – a “school” for unusual/gifted children.

FF is the sort of book that fans of more lighthearted fare will immediately fall in love with. It’s an “all-ages” comic, suitable for a child old enough to begin appreciating comics. It’s warm, smart, very funny and beautiful to look at. Artist Mike Allred’s and colorist Laura Allred’s idiosyncratic pop art – the ginchy offspring of Jack Kirby and Roy Lichtenstein – gives the book a heavy retro vibe and lends the humor a wry kick. It’s fitting that this title should feature She Hulk; the tone of FF is reminiscent of Dan Slott’s She Hulk run. It has the same playful sensibility to it and the same love for the depth and breadth of its fictional universe.

Writer Matt Fraction does a nice job of defining these characters. He reintroduces Scott Lang as Ant-Man to a new audience, nicely defining him in only three issues. Fraction integrates both She Hulk and Medusa smoothly into FF, and new readers should easily be able to glimpse the appeal of these two heroes. The only member of this new Fauxtastic Four that doesn’t really work so far as presented is Darla Deering, aka Robo-Thing, aka “Ms. Thing.” For one, it feels unnecessary to include two super-strong characters on the team. For another, we don’t get a great bead on Darla’s character immediately, and she’s introduced with the least amount of explanation as to who she is, when she’s arguably the character most in need of that explanation (Why was she chosen to wear a Thing-suit and not someone else? Why do they need someone in a Thing-suit to begin with, given the vast number of other candidates out there?). Darla’s position on the team is somewhat further explored in Issue 3, but she still feels like a third wheel. Then again, Darla is such a mystery that anything could happen with the character.

FF sets a unique tone that’s deliberately whimsical despite some darker moments. From “The Machine That Goes ‘Boop Boop'” to Bentley the adolescent would-be conqueror – so excited to subjugate everybody while being gently rebuked by a giant, purple android that looks like a dragon – FF is a series that embraces its ridiculousness with endearing and knowing wholeheartedness.

FF #1

In one word, FF is charming. The title captures some of the fizzy kick of early Marvel, and it’s probably going to appeal most to those who can appreciate the alternately chipper/melodramatic, anything-goes tone of that era. You’ll find little in the way of “grim and gritty,” but plenty of charm, amusement, and imagination. It’s also nice to see a high-profile Marvel team debuted that’s 3/4’s female and not portrayed as a bunch of spandex-clad pinup models. Comics need more strong female characters, and Fraction and the Allreds have done an admirable job of providing some for us.

This title is Highly Recommended for the young at heart. Grab the first three issues and give them a try.