Customer Reviews

Fantastic Four, To Free Atlantis

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Being familiar with the Fantastic Four comic (a guy im my dorm had a subscription) I decided to check out this novel. When reading it, I was surprised at how absolutely nothing has changed since I last read the comic over a decade ago. The Thing is still sullen. Mr. Fantastic shows absolutely NO personality. World geopolitical situations are amazingly unresearched. Prince Namor (the backwards Roman) is his usual pompous self as he fends of an assassination attempt and coup staged by his cousin Byrrah (Harry B) and warlord Kreeg (the twisted Greek). But behind the plot is Doctor Doom.

All the elements merge into an entertaining story that illustrates how the Marvel universe has a real tough time resolving situations. Byrrah in his bid for the throne tries to have Namor killed. Namor knows this. Atlantean law says Byrrah must die. But he doesn't. Namor spares him so that he can be a menace later. He is put under lifetime house arrest (we'll see how long THAT lasts). Once again the world knows the evil of Von Doom and refuses to take action. Like, he's dangerous, man.

Even the oddities of Atlantean history a brought forth. Atlanteans who are not yet middle aged at seventy still seem to change rulers as often as the shorter lived air-breathers (us). Also, the Atlantean tendency to think and move in two dimensions, although they are free to move in three, somehow advances the plot. At the end there is a great banquet where the FF cannot partake as they would have to remove their helmets. Overall a silly but fun book.

To my knowledge, this is Nancy Collins' first attempt at writing for the FF. Although the story and characterizations fit very well with the overall feel of the comic book series, I would have liked to have seen her elaborate more on various aspects of the book. While it certainly wasn't poorly written, it is left up to the reader's imagination to embelish Paul Ryan's wonderful chapter illustrations to complete the images of Atlantis, the giant undersea monster, and various other elements of the book. All in all, it is a fun book to read. It fits very ambiguously into the FF's comic book continuity, but doesn't weigh it down any more either. A pleasant departure from the series, capturing many of the elements that make the Fantastic Four "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!"

The author gives some surprisingly good characterization not just to the heroes, but to the villains and supporting characters (especially Namor's scheming cousin Byrrah and his co-conspirator Tydeus, who come across as quite three-dimensional). There's a few errors in continuity with the original comic books (the author gets the name of Namor's grandfather wrong; implies that Namor never met his father when, in fact, he did; and Vashti is claimed to be Grand Vizier since before Namor's time, when in fact it was Namor who made him the Grand Vizier, elevating him from the peasantry). But if you can get over that, this makes for a quick, pleasant read.

I don't know who Nancy A. Collins is, but this was an interesting book. The FF were never my favorite (let's all sit around and complain about ourselves), but this book at least makes them likable, unlike most of the comics I read of them when I was a kid. Honestly, this book focuses more on Namor than the FF, maybe that's why I like it more. Everybody pretty knows what there is to know about the FF, and this book does nothing to bulid on that. Namor, on the other hand, is fleshed out more than I have ever seen (although, I only had 2 of his solo comics, and both were boring). This book really focuses on Namor and Atlantis's pasts, presents, and futures. The Atlantean palace coup is actually quite entertaining. This book was more ambitious than it needed to be as it feels rushed and not fleshed out enough (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic's address to the U.N. comes to mind), but the book is exciting enough to allow you to overlook that. For Namor fans (or anyone wanting more information on this, suprisingly, deep character) should definately pick this book up. FF fans might be dissapointed as the FF's and Doom's involvment are paper-thin at best. I've heard that their other 2 books are even better though, but I have yet to read them.
If you're keeping track, here are my Top 5 Marvel novels so far:
1. Hulk: What Savage Beast; Peter David
2. Fantastic Four: To Free Atlantis; Nancy A. Collins
3. Ultimate Spider-Man; Stan Lee, editor
4. Spider-Man: Carnage in New York; David Micheline & Dean Wesley Smith
5. due to the extreme suckage of the other 3 books, none of them deserve to grace the top 5 with these other four, and to even mention them in the same breath as the Hulk and FF books is an extreme act of blasphemy and you should kick yourself in the shin for even thinking that!

I have to hand it to Nancy Collins, this book really took me back
to my old comic book days. All I can say is please please write more of them. I know this book is hard to find, fact is i got it at a yard sale. but if you can get a hold of one you wont be sorry.