Fantastic Four by Ryan North vol. 5: Aliens, Ghosts, and Alternate Earths

Doom may be coming to the Marvel Universe, but its First Family still has plenty of scientific, supernatural, and magic weirdness to occupy them before that happens.  Starting with an array of modified particles that start hitting the Earth like the most violent hailstorm imaginable.  That may not sound too crazy, but the real surprise is what’s in these particles – and why Johnny would be choked because of it.  Then we have an investigation into the dome surrounding Latveria which leads to an encounter with an alien race, and love for the Human Torch.  From there, we get to see what kind of ghostly shenanigans Reed and Johnny get up to when they’re left to their own devices, and then the Invisible Woman and her husband pay a visit to the Black Knight to see if he can help them out with that Doom business.

This is definitely a much stronger bunch of stories compared to what we got last time.  North just does a better job here of setting up either high concept or just plain weird problems for the characters to solve, such as in the opening two-parter where the complications keep coming until the end.  There are also more fun character bits here, like seeing Reed and Johnny encourage and indulge each other’s interests in ways that see them unleash a hellmouth in the basement, and then steal a blood-spewing skull from a cult to seal it up.  Even Niki’s predictable one-off was still fun in the way we get to see her impersonate all the other members of the Four.

There are nits to pick, of course.  I understood the idea that Johnny was meant to have a once-in-a-lifetime romance with this alien more than I actually felt it.  The two-parter relies on an almost literal deus-ex-machina in order to restore the status quo.  This volume also ends in a way that’s nearly identical to the previous one.  Oh, and the art is still more functional than stylish throughout, and that likely won’t improve until Humberto Ramos takes over for the relaunch.  At least the storytelling is strong enough to ensure that I’ll still be reading until that happens.