Fantastic Four: Disassembled: The Crossover Continues!
Written: Dec 26 '08
Product Rating:
Pros: Great Writing, great characterization, and a good story.
Cons: The art, the lack of a cross-over, not being complete in one graphic novel.
The Bottom Line: Recommended for Fantastic Four Fans, but not necessarily for those just following the Avengers: Disassembled story.
brentp256's Full Review: Chris Claremont, Karl Kesel, Paco Medina, Mike Wie...
Heroes... Friends... Explorers... Family...
the premier super-hero team of the Marvel Age of comics.... The Fantastic Four!
The Trapster, Hydro-Man, Salamanddra, the Fire Maiden are being led by the Wizard as he creates his new Frightful Four set to humiliate and destroy the Fantastic Four.
Mark Waid is a fantastic writer. He knows how to make characters ring true to what they are and have been. His love of the Fantastic Four shines through the light familial interplay and the traps and predicaments that he pushes the protagonists through.
This graphic novel is really two parts. The first part is a typical Fantastic Four story, while the second part is the tie-in to the Avengers: Disassembled storyline.
The first storyline is a storyline of revenge. It is set-up through the machinations of the Wizard as he pulls his team together and sets up his trap. The team is together through coercion, force, lies, and manipulation. This is contrasted with the loving inter-play of the family of the Fantastic Four. As these two world meet through the trap that has been set, the one character makes a decision to abandon her team.
There is a nice mix of action and drama juxtaposed with thoughtful and lighter moments, especially those of Johnny Storm and Cole. Cole's realization comes across as fairly realistic, and is nicely juxtaposed with the way her father treats here and the way in which the Fantastic Four treat her. The Wizard is a more interesting character in this story then any I've read previously. Here, while still mostly one-dimensional, he does have many interesting qualities and history to learn, and seems like an evil version of Reed Richards, which works nicely. Hydro-Man has some new powers (thanks to the Wizard), but he and the other villains are pretty standard. The obvious focus and interest is on the Wizard.
The second part of this graphic novel contains the issues that tie into the Avengers: Disassembled storyline.
It starts out shortly after the conclusion of Avengers: Disassembled. The Avengers are no more, New York's primary super-team is gone, while the Fantastic Four are still recovering from a time of bad publicity and the public still doesn't fully trust them, when an alien presence attack Manhattan and starts to fling it towards the sun...
The story has more great characterization by Waid (I especially love Ben Grimm's Halloween costume), drama, excitement, and even the feeling of redemption for the publics view of the Fantastic Four. My biggest complaint, though, comes not from the issues themselves, but from this being billed as part of the "Disassembled" crossover, when it really isn't. Add to this that the graphic novel ends in a cliff-hanger, and I found myself loving the story, but hating the graphic novel for not being what I expected (both a complete story, and a part of a crossover).
The Art:
The art in the first section is by Paco Medina and Juan Vlasco. I quite like the inking and coloring, but the actual art is not to my liking. The characters tend to be somewhat cartoonish and exaggerated and often with poor proportions. The characters often have gigantic noses, feet, and rubber band mouths, which I tend to find distracting. While it wasn't bad enough to distract me from the story, it didn't lend itself very well to what was happening. The second part has art by Mike Wieringo and Karl Kesel and feels a bit more old-school Marvel artwork from the ‘60's...and I like it. It isn't great, but it felt good with the story.
Writers: Mark Waid and Karl Kesel Pencils: Paco Medina & Mike Wieringo Inkers: Juan Vlasco & Karl Kesel Colors: Paul Mounts Covers: Mike Wieringo, Karl Kesel & Paul Mounts
Other Graphic Novels in this Series: The Avengers: Disassembled Captain America: Disassembled The Invincible Iron Man: Disassembled Thor: Disassembled
The Storyline Continues in: House of M Prelude: Excalibur House of M (and related Graphic novels) New Avengers (and related comics)
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