The Nine Cent Comic
Aug. 28th, 2002 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteIt's been a slow day - which will change when my boss decides to make it change, soon - so I'm posting again.
Today marks the release of the first issue of Fantastic Four written by Mark Waid (the genius who wrote Kingdom Come and the first nine issues of Ruse). To mark the occasion, Marvel released this issue with a special cover price of nine cents. (Why nine cents? Because DC did a 10 cent Batman comic last year, and Marvel is being a bit snarky.) At nine cents, written by one of my favorite writers, and starring a group of heores I loved as a kid, I couldn't pass this up. And at this cover price, I had to let others know about it. But, is it any good?
Follow the cut-tag to see a generally but not totally spoiler-free review of this eagerly awaited and exceedingly cheap comic book (the cheapest ever sold in the US).
First off, I hate the new logo. Gone is the classic FF logo that has been a feature of the book's covers since 1961. In its place is something a lot more generic. But you can't judge a boo by its logo.
If you've never read Fantastic Four before, you won't be lost and will hopefully like what you see. If I had not been a fan of the FF when John Byrne wrote and drew the book in the early 1980s, I would even say that this is a perfect comic. By itself, as an introduction to the Fantastic Four and to Waid's goals with the team, it works really well. The characters are well-defined and believable, the setting is established, and the reason behind one of the heroes' unlikely actions is a brilliant addition to the world of the FF.
But these are not quite the characters I remember from my Byrne-reading days. (Note: The Byrne FF is among my all-tme favorite comics.) Waid's take on Reed Richards - the team's leader and the stretchable Mr. Fantastic - and Ben Grimm - the loveable orange pile of rocks called the Thing - are pretty much the way I remember them. But his Johnny Storm - aka the Human Torch - is less mature than I recall, and Sue Richards - Reed's wife and known as the Invisible Woman - is not at all the strong, independent and mature character that Byrne made her into. While I like that Waid is making sure Reed and Sue are still the happiest couple in comics (a rarity these days), I can do without Sue voicing how sexy she thinks Reed is. She was, in my memory, rather modest. I guess things change.
My biggest quibble is with the art. Penciller Mike Wieringo worked with Waid on The Flash and worked well with him then, but here his stuff is a bit too cartoony, even with Karl Kesel's inks. (Kesel is porbably one of the best inkers around, and is also a huge FF fan, likely to take over for Waid whenever Waid needs time off.)
My second biggest quibble is Waid's decision to emphasize how weird the FF seem to the world at large. Again, this might be OK if it weren't for what came in before. After all these years of FF adventures in the Marvel Universe, why would that weirdness start to be an issue now? My sense was that people in the Marvelverse were spooked by the Thing, but that otherwise the FF were the one bunch of heroes no one had any qualms about. The X-Men? No, they're muties. Spidey? A bit creepy. The FF? No, they're the cool ones. Still, it's a clever notion.
Indeed, that's what is the most interesting thing here. Waid comes into this with a head bursting with clever notions - there is a great scene where the Thing learns how popular he is with rap artists - but with little nostalgia for all the changes that writers since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby have made. (Every new writer, even the good ones, always made major changes.) The result could be something new and accessible, or something offbeat and weird and fun. It could also be clever without being intelligent, something that John Byrne began to do at the end of his run on FF. But there's no reason to think that Waid can't pull this off after all he's done before. But it will take me a while to get used to the changes he's made or unmade in the characters.
The big question whether I'll feel like I got my money's worth next time. But certainly this time 9 cents bought a lot of good comic book. And if you like super-hero comics, or Mark Waid comics, and you see this in your shop for nine whole cents, BUY IT!
Today marks the release of the first issue of Fantastic Four written by Mark Waid (the genius who wrote Kingdom Come and the first nine issues of Ruse). To mark the occasion, Marvel released this issue with a special cover price of nine cents. (Why nine cents? Because DC did a 10 cent Batman comic last year, and Marvel is being a bit snarky.) At nine cents, written by one of my favorite writers, and starring a group of heores I loved as a kid, I couldn't pass this up. And at this cover price, I had to let others know about it. But, is it any good?
Follow the cut-tag to see a generally but not totally spoiler-free review of this eagerly awaited and exceedingly cheap comic book (the cheapest ever sold in the US).
First off, I hate the new logo. Gone is the classic FF logo that has been a feature of the book's covers since 1961. In its place is something a lot more generic. But you can't judge a boo by its logo.
If you've never read Fantastic Four before, you won't be lost and will hopefully like what you see. If I had not been a fan of the FF when John Byrne wrote and drew the book in the early 1980s, I would even say that this is a perfect comic. By itself, as an introduction to the Fantastic Four and to Waid's goals with the team, it works really well. The characters are well-defined and believable, the setting is established, and the reason behind one of the heroes' unlikely actions is a brilliant addition to the world of the FF.
But these are not quite the characters I remember from my Byrne-reading days. (Note: The Byrne FF is among my all-tme favorite comics.) Waid's take on Reed Richards - the team's leader and the stretchable Mr. Fantastic - and Ben Grimm - the loveable orange pile of rocks called the Thing - are pretty much the way I remember them. But his Johnny Storm - aka the Human Torch - is less mature than I recall, and Sue Richards - Reed's wife and known as the Invisible Woman - is not at all the strong, independent and mature character that Byrne made her into. While I like that Waid is making sure Reed and Sue are still the happiest couple in comics (a rarity these days), I can do without Sue voicing how sexy she thinks Reed is. She was, in my memory, rather modest. I guess things change.
My biggest quibble is with the art. Penciller Mike Wieringo worked with Waid on The Flash and worked well with him then, but here his stuff is a bit too cartoony, even with Karl Kesel's inks. (Kesel is porbably one of the best inkers around, and is also a huge FF fan, likely to take over for Waid whenever Waid needs time off.)
My second biggest quibble is Waid's decision to emphasize how weird the FF seem to the world at large. Again, this might be OK if it weren't for what came in before. After all these years of FF adventures in the Marvel Universe, why would that weirdness start to be an issue now? My sense was that people in the Marvelverse were spooked by the Thing, but that otherwise the FF were the one bunch of heroes no one had any qualms about. The X-Men? No, they're muties. Spidey? A bit creepy. The FF? No, they're the cool ones. Still, it's a clever notion.
Indeed, that's what is the most interesting thing here. Waid comes into this with a head bursting with clever notions - there is a great scene where the Thing learns how popular he is with rap artists - but with little nostalgia for all the changes that writers since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby have made. (Every new writer, even the good ones, always made major changes.) The result could be something new and accessible, or something offbeat and weird and fun. It could also be clever without being intelligent, something that John Byrne began to do at the end of his run on FF. But there's no reason to think that Waid can't pull this off after all he's done before. But it will take me a while to get used to the changes he's made or unmade in the characters.
The big question whether I'll feel like I got my money's worth next time. But certainly this time 9 cents bought a lot of good comic book. And if you like super-hero comics, or Mark Waid comics, and you see this in your shop for nine whole cents, BUY IT!
