Fantastic Four Vol. 3: Authoritative Action [Paperback]

Mark Waid (Author)

Book Description

Series: Fantastic 4 (Numbered Paperback) | Publication Date: February 1, 2003

It seemed like a simple enough idea at the time: now that their arch enemy Doctor Doom had seemingly perished, the Fantastic Four would journey into his nation of Latveria, disassemble its war machine, and set its oppressed citizens free. But what appeared a black and white situation quickly turns a murky shade of gray, and Reed Richards and his family find themselves besieged on all sides, both by those they thought of as their allies, and by the very people they were trying to save!

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics (February 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785111980
• ISBN-13: 978-0785111986
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,522,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Waid, a New York Times bestselling author, has written a wider variety of well-known comics characters than any other American comics author, from Superman to the Justice League to Spider-Man to Archie and hundreds of others. His award-winning graphic novel with artist Alex Ross, KINGDOM COME, is one of the best-selling comics collections of all time. (Secretly, however, he prefers SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT and his IRREDEEMABLE collections as his favorite works he's produced.)

With over twenty years of experience in his field, Waid maintains a blog at www.markwaid.com that is full of advice for beginning writers and experienced authors both.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great story, poor art, August 13, 2004

By 

B. Leblanc (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fantastic Four Vol. 3: Authoritative Action (Paperback)

Because of his intelligent scripts and his sympathetic rendition of the main characters, I'm sure that Mark Waid's run on the Fantastic Four will be remembered as one of the title's high points.

In Authoritative action, we see comicdom's first family deal with a political crisis that they unwittingly caused. Waid's tale echoes today's headlines, but despite the grim overtones of the story he manages to make the reader smile. I particularly liked Reed Richard's comment about their (recently dead) arch-Nemesis, Dr. Doom: "We delude ourselves? He'll be back. He always comes back". It shows that good Dr. Richards knows his comics.

I can't give the book five stars (which the writing would amply deserve) because of the dismally amateurish artwork. Despite his obvious enthusiasm, I found that the penciller's shortcomings in basic drawing skills (anatomy, perspective, placement of images) was very distracting.

I do recommend the book, though, solely for the script.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winning Fantastastic Four epic by Mark Waid, July 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Fantastic Four Vol. 3: Authoritative Action (Paperback)

I'm a great fan of Mark Waid's current run on the Fantastic Four. Having said that, I was a bit disappointed to find that the great artist 'Ringo wasn't around for this trade. This coupled with the fact that the cover wasn't very attractive made me wait awhile to pick up this trade (petty I know). It was well worth the wait. This is a great story that details the power vacuum created by Doom's disappearance from his country of Latveria and the Four's response to it. Reed Richards is on a mission, and isn't acting himself. Its political and epic in scope, but has all of Waid's trademark "Fantastic Family" characterizations that readers have come to love. The ending is a killer, so don't skip ahead! It got me all choked up and made me anxious to read Volume 4 when it arrives. It has the feel of a blockbuster movie. I can easily see its as film 3 of a 4 film quadrilogy (Film one is primarily Sue's Story, Film two is Johnny's, Film 3 is Reed's and Film four is Ben's). This time next year the first film will be released. I'm crossing my fingers that its as good as this. The Fantastic Four are the founding fathers of modern comics. They deserve a film that does them justice. Let's hope they get it right. If not, we'll always have great comics.

4.0 out of 5 stars What happened to Howard Porter?, September 10, 2009

By 

A. Norwood (Arlington, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fantastic Four Vol. 3: Authoritative Action (Paperback)

This is the third volume of Mark Waid's brilliant run on the Fantastic Four. This volume details the aftermath of the second volume, "Fantastic Four Vol. 2: Unthinkable", and Doom's absence from Latveria, and could be considered a commentary on foreign policy.
Like most of Waid's work, the story is solid, and is a great read. However, like much of his other work (Empire, in my opinion), the art causes it to suffer. I'm normally a fan of Howard Porter. His work on JLA with Grant Morrison (JLA (Book 1): New World Order) is great stuff. Very late-90s, but great nonetheless. Here, several years later, it looks like his hand was broken right before he started penciling this. Perhaps it's the fault of the inker. You could possibly point the finger in that direction, but the art is hard to look at. Also, the covers by Tony Harris (The Starman Omnibus, Vol. 1) are bizarrely out-of-character for the artist.
I would still recommend this to any fans of comics, especially of the Fantastic Four or Mark Waid. It sets up the next arc, "Fantastic Four Vol. 4: Hereafter", which is excellent, as are the rest of the volumes (six in all).
Pick it up. But go look up the rest of Porter's work and see how good he can be. Try Trials of Shazam: Volume 1.