Fantastic Four by Ryan North (vol. 7): Save Everyone

It’s a brand new day for Marvel’s First Family… that’s still in the “One World Under Doom” era.  Due to the corporate synergy that mandates having a new #1 issue of a series out at the same time as a major Marvel movie, “Fantastic Four” found itself in the awkward position of having to relaunch with a new #1 issue in the middle of current writer Ryan North’s run while it was ALSO in the middle of a major crossover.  To the writer’s credit, he manages this awkwardness pretty well by continuing to deliver science-based adventure stories taking place over one-to-two issues.

So it’s something of a surprise to see the Fantastic Four’s current conflict with Doom stretch out over three issues here.  Okay, it’s really an opening two-parter with the following issue telling a separate-but-connected story, but it’s actually kind of epic even by the title’s usual standards.  That two-parter has the main cast stranded across multiple eras with only rock carvings in something called the Forever Stone to save them.  While the basic concept of the story is cool enough, the incident that complicates it is what makes it truly memorable as Reed and Sue have to dig deep (literally) in order to triumph.

The rest of the stories aren’t quite on the same level, but they’re still better than average for this title and run.  That final issue which wraps up the conflict with Doom is satisfying in the way it conflates magic and video game logic to give the villain an edge, only for our heroes to find a clever way to turn it against him.  Then the cast finds themselves up against the sinister threat of… Pareidolia and only Alicia Masters knows it.  Finally, Sue Storm has to solve a locked vault mystery while also overcoming her animosity towards the Black Cat.  Each of these stories displays the kind of cleverness and fun, along with the occasional cosmic dread, that has characterized North’s work on this title so far.

Giving them a bit of a boost this time around is the title’s new regular artist, Humberto Ramos.  Even though I’ve enjoyed the writing on “Fantastic Four,” its visual identity hasn’t been as strong with most of the artists on it delivering fairly standard superhero work in the house style.  Ramos is someone who has a clearly identifiable visual style defined by high-energy stylization, and I was really looking forward to seeing what he would do on the art here.

The good news is that the art is more dynamic and interesting to look at.  Everything is a bit more energetic and the action is consistently framed in more interesting ways.  It’s also good to see that Ramos is on board with the general weirdness of North’s run, particularly when it comes to Reed.  He’s got no problem showing the scientist stretching an eye out of his head to get a better look at something, seeping into the ground like a liquid, or stretching his face in an unnatural  way to make a point.  There’s no denying that “Fantastic Four” is a better looking title for having Ramos illustrate it.

And yet… I’ve seen a lot of the artist’s work over the years – most memorably on “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “X-Men” – and he’s delivered work there that’s more exciting than what we got here.  I don’t know if age is catching up to him or (more likely) he was asked to dial things back a bit for a series that Marvel was hoping to expose to a wider audience that had just finished watching the new movie.  Whatever the case is, I hope that, after he’s had time to settle in, Ramos will be able to cut loose in the way that I’ve known him to be capable of doing in the past.  Which is something I’m sure will make this good superhero comic that much better.