Customer Reviews

Fantastic Four/Inhumans (Marvel Comics, Annihilation)

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Fantastic Four/Inhumans collects Inhumans #1-4, originally published in 2000, and Fantastic Four #51-54, originally published in 2002. The graphic novel is put together well, with mid-gloss paper and an attractive cover. No bonus content is included, however, save a single page summary providing back story to the Fantastic Four storyline.

Overall, this is a fairly weak collection. The worse of the book's two sections is undoubtedly the Inhumans mini-series, the story for which--though intended as an epic, cosmic space opera--is terribly plotted, difficult to follow, and lacking in cosmic grandness. Ladronn and Jorge Pereira Lucas's detailed and dully colored art compounds these problems. While some readers may admire their work aesthetically, it is ill-equipped to deliver the clarity Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marin's complicated story needs. As for the Fantastic Four story, it is easy enough to follow, but suffers an especially tired premise (aliens have infiltrated positions of power). It's not terrible, but (save for the details of Valeria Richards's birth) it's not particularly memorable either. The pencils for these issues--done by the usually impressive Mark Bagley--are also largely unremarkable.

But despite its lackluster stories, this collection may still be worth picking up if you're an Inhumans fan or a fan of Marvel's cosmic series (such as Annihilation, Book 1 (Bk. 1) and War of Kings). Not only does Fantastic Four/Inhumans feature Ronan, the Kree, and the Shi'ar, but it introduces plot points (such as the Inhumans' return to the moon's blue area) that get picked back up in later books. If these things mean nothing to you, however, you're better off buying something else.