Customer Reviews

Ultimate Fantastic Four, Vol. 2

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

 

 

While I've never been a fan of the Fantastic Four, I gave the first Ultimate Fantastic Four hardcover collection a try and was pleasantly surprised. Bendis, Millar, Elllis et al's re-imagining of the Fantastic Four as a group of teenagers led by a pair of science prodigies breathed new life into some otherwise tired characters. Volume 1 was enough to hook me on the series, so I've been eagerly anticipating this second hardcover collection.

This volume collects the 6-issue N-Zone storyline by Warren Ellis and Adam Kubert, the 2-issue Think Tank storyline by Mike Carey and Jae Lee, and the Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual #1 by Mark Millar and Jae Lee.

The N-Zone storyline basically has Reed & Company piloting a heavily modified space shuttle into the N-Zone in an attempt to figure out what caused their powers to emerge and whether it might be reversed. Along the way, they encounter Nihil (the Ultimate version of Annihilus), who follows the Four back home so he can take over Earth (naturally) with his army of what appear to be Jawas...seriously. It's a relatively simple storyline, but as usual Warren Ellis makes it special. His exploration of each member's abilities is enlightening, and his character development and dialogue are priceless. Adam Kubert's artwork is excellent as always. No one draws the Thing quite like he does.

The Think Tank storyline is pretty unremarkable. A psychotic student who was turned away from the Baxter program decides to take it out on Reed Richards and comes pretty close to destroying the team. It was interesting enough, but not on par with the previous storylines. Jae Lee's artwork makes it worth the price of admission though.

Last but not least, you get the first Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual, which was also reprinted in the Ultimate Annuals trade paperback. In this issue, Mark Millar and Jae Lee introduce the Ultimate version of the Inhumans. This was a (dare I say it) fantastic way to close the second hardcover. The brief look we get at the Inhumans is enough to make you wish for an Ultimate Inhumans series. Millar's characterizations are spot-on, and Jae Lee...let's just say nobody else should ever be allowed to draw these characters.

It may be a bit uneven, but the second Ultimate Fantastic Four hardcover contains more than enough quality material to make it worth the cover price (or at the very least Amazon's discount rate). I know I'll be on board for volume 3!

This one is just okay. Jae Lee's art work is not to my taste, and the fact that the second half of the book is all his more or less makes the stories unreadable for me. Too much black, and it's hard to tell that the Mad Thinker is supposed to be ugly- because everyone else is ugly too. Thankfully, the next HC is better in every way. I'd suggest getting the N-zone paperback, and just skipping on from there to the third volume of the hard cover collection.

Warren Ellis returns to the Ultimate Fantastic Four series with a vengeance in the second hardcover collection of the monthly issues. In this six-issue story arc, we see one of the universal themes of the Fantastic Four manifest. As in the original series, Ben Grimm isn't happy about being turned into a monster. Reed promises to try to find a way to change Ben stop with back into human form. This is partly the truth and partly a way for Reed to get the chance to explore the N-Zone universe that lies directly beneath our own.

Ellis does an incredible job with the science behind the premise for his story. This story arc could have been a movie because of the visual presentation delivered by Adam Kubert. The art flows together seamlessly and I felt like I was entering the N-Zone with our heroes.

I'm also enjoying Sue Storm's role as the team biologist. In the early 1960s and 1970s, writers often presented Sue as flighty and fashion conscious. She didn't get much better presentation in the two movies, although the movies were a lot of fun. I like the fact that she's nearly as intelligent as Reed, but in a different field of applied science. She stands up for herself as an equal, not just a smart woman. And I like the way the writers are continuing to write her in this series.

One of the other really incredible twists in this art is the revelation about Johnny Storm's flame powers. The platelets concept really makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Of course, it still doesn't explain how a man on fire can fly, but it wouldn't be cool to just run around on fire.

Another subplot deals with Ben Grimm's increasing depression and feelings of isolation. When Johnny talked to Ben and told him how cool it was that he could drop on a monster and fight it toe to toe, I felt like a kid again realizing how awesome the Thing is. Underneath all that orange rock, Ben is just a man with a big heart and a lot of loyalty. He has always been and will always be one of the favorite and most understood heroes ever created.

The fight scenes with Nihil totally rocked. The fact that Ben could breathe the poison gases that would kill a normal person was great. Ben on a rampage with plenty of opponents to fight was a lot of fun as well. The story is well-told, and Ellis leaves plenty of plot threads dangling for more adventures to be told.

The second arc in the book is a two-issue action extravaganza that kind of reintroduces The Thinker, another old Fantastic Four villain. There's an age and gender change for this one, though. The Thinker is a female ex-student who has pumped up her intellect to levels that rival even Reed's capabilities. There's nothing new here, and it doesn't really expand this ultimate version of the Fantastic Four, but I suppose the bar has been set high so far. Still, Mike Carey's script and Jae Lee's art are really good and the story moves quickly.

The Inhumans gets revamped in the final story by Mark Millar and Jae Lee. This was originally a one-shot annual in the series. Mark Millar follows the bones of the first introduction of Black Bolt, Medusa, Karnak, Triton, and the other Inhumans. It's a good set up and I'm waiting to see what happens next.

Overall, this is a solid follow-up to the Ultimate Fantastic Four's first adventures.

This deluxe hardcover reprints Ultimate Fantastic Four 13-20 and the Annual #1. The first six issues are written by Warren Ellis with Adam Kubert. Issues 19 and 20 are written by Mike Carey with art by Jae Lee. The annual is written by Mark Millar with Jae Lee on art also.
Ellis's 'N-Zone' arc follows the Fantastic Four's return to the N-Zone (The Ultimate version of the Negative Zone). Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben convince the Think Tank's leaders to let them journey back to the N-Zone. Reed constructs an "indestructible" shuttle, which Johnny names the Awesome, and their adventure begins. They encounter Nihil, and quickly find themselves in trouble with extra-dimensional aliens. Ellis's writing is as interesting and scientific as usual. He creates a situation involving Johnny's powers that differed him from his 616 (mainstream) Marvel counterpart. Adam Kubert's art is good. Nothing spectacular, it works though. Everything has a red/orange hue, mostly because it takes place in the N-Zone. Their isn't much character development, but the N-Zone makes for an interesting setting. It is far different from the Negative Zone in the mainstream Marvel universe. Nihil makes for a good villain. Ellis manages to set him apart from the 616 Annihilus. The ending for this arc is epic, as it takes place in Las Vegas. Overall Ellis penned a pretty enjoyable arc and ended on a good note.
Mike Carey writes a brief two issues of Ultimate Fantastic Four, an arc called Think Tank. Jae Lee does the art for these two issues, along with the annual. Think Tank is more of a thriller story, which is something that isn't done in Marvel comics that often. Jae Lee's art is perfect for this type of story. Reed, Johnny, Sue, and Ben end up trapped inside the Think Tank, and a former classmate is playing sinister games with them. They come across freaky inventions and unsettling situations. They'll have to work together to stop this evil individual before they find themselves torn apart. Jae Lee's art is eerie and his gothic style accentuates the horror feeling Carey seemed to be going for. The dialogue is good, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of his run, which takes place after Millar's 12 issue run.
The annual, which is written by Mark Millar, introduces the Inhumans into the Ultimate universe. Jae Lee returns for art and does a fantastic job. Once again his Gothic style suits this type of story perfectly. The story opens with Reed, Sue, and Ben trying to stop Dr. Storm's cancer. Things quickly change once Johnny rescues a superhuman girl named Crystal. While the Ultimate Inhumans are basically the same to their 616 counterparts. This annual makes for a fun self-contained story.
While this hardcover may have three different authors, it does well in flowing together. I'd recommend fans of the series pick this up. Overall a solid 4/5.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not a fan of Jae Lee's storytelling. The art is interesting, but I'm not sure that's a good thing. It's interesting to look at...to see what he's doing...to see what he's trying to do...but it gets in the way of the story, I think.
Again, maybe it's just me. The first segment on the Ultimate version of the Negative Zone and Annihilus was superb. Artwork and story and tone and everything just melded into a page-turning inhalation of Ultimate FF revisionist history. I couldn't wait to get to each next page...
But the Think Tank piece...that weirdo ex-student (?)...with the shadows and stuff...and she was obscenely ugly...was "interesting" I guess.
The Inhumans part was awesome, but again, the art was kind of a let down. I wanted "epic" and got "not". Except for that last scene with them floating up, moon overhead.
Like I said, it's probably just me.
I just like the way the first volume blew me away with it's freshness, and the way the third volume blew me away with the combo platter "light" FF stuff with the "dark" Zombie stuff.
But well worth a purchase. Absolutely.

This is another amazing collection of Fantastic Four comics. First, Ellis gets to indulge his science geek leanings as he writes a story with the team exploring the N-Zone and bumping into a new version of Annihilus, and it's amazing. The pace is still a little too decompressed for my tastes, but Ellis makes the most of his relaxed plot to really explore new aspects of the pseudoscience behind his characters' abilities. His version of Annihilus is also particularly chilling, in a way that retains the creepy alien nature of the villain without any of the campy Silver Age bravado that made it impossible for me to take him seriously in the regular Marvel Fantastic Four stories (side note: I'm not counting Annihilation, Book 1 (Marvel Comics) (Bk. 1) from a few years ago, he was excellent there).

After the N-Zone story, readers are treated to a quick two-part story with the Ultimate Mad Thinker, who is crazy and scary and never named (when I loaned this volume to a reader new to the characters, I had to explain who the Mad Thinker was, but he still would have appreciated that this villain is great even without being able to compare to the original).

Finally, we get the first Annual issue, which is reprinted elsewhere (Ultimate Annuals Volume 1 TPB (v. 1)) but fits best here. It's a chance for Jae Lee to let his creative juices flow as he crafts an elegant and alien set of Inhuman characters, and it's a real treat to finish off the book.

Ultimate Fantastic Four (Hardcover) Vol 2 collects three stories: N-Zone, Think Tank and Inhuman.

The first is the 6-issue "N-Zone" storyline written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Adam Kubert. I've never been a big fan of Ellis, although I do have a certain amount of respect for his intelligence and cynicism. The reason is that I've often found his work "too clever, too cold". But somehow his style seemed to fit Ultimate Fantastic Four, as shown in this tale, the previous one ("Doom") and his "Ultimate Galactus" trilogy. The FF comic of the 1960s by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby is a mixture of clever pseudo-science, family soap-opera and the grandest cosmic cornucopia this side of Arthur C. Clarke. Ellis' take is very much all of that but updated for a more sophisticated 21st century audience. It's not enough to have the FF rocketted into space to be blasted by cosmic rays (after all, we no longer live in the Space-Race generation). Instead the FF are part of a Think-Tank project coming up with tomorrow's technologies today! One of the most spectacular of these experiments was young Reed Richards' studies into the mysteries of the N-Zone (the universe just "below" ours). In fact, it was during their first foray into the N-Zone's unstable-physics realm that gave the FF their powers. Our tale here begins with Reed wanting to explore the N-Zone in detail. His excuse was to look for a cure for their genetic alteration - in truth, he was simply trying to satisfy his scientific curiosity. En route, we are given interesting explanations as to the nature of the Human Torch's "spontaneous combustion" powers and the reason why biologist Sue Storm refuses to be "cured" - all done in the Marvel pseudo-scientific manner albeit with more sophistication than before. Finally, we have Reed and company coming face-to-face with a denizen of this other universe, Nihil (or E-Vill, according to Ben Grimm, or "Ultimate Annihilus" according to Marvel Zombies like myself). Manipulating the FF, Nihil managed to come to our universe and landed in Las Vegas. The FF defeated Nihil and his army of Jawas (no kidding!). The tale however ends with the typical Ellis-irony: Reed had been longing for contact with life in the N-Zone since he was a kid. It was his pet project, his obsession. It was why he didn't play football like the other kids and why his super-jock dad alienated him. Here was his chance to prove that his obsession was worthwhile. Here was when he finally made contact with a being from this other universe and he turned out to be a "jerk"! I had to smile at that. Thinking back, most of the early Marvel villains were nothing but "jerks". Ellis merely showed us all this with all his cynical absurdist touch.

The second tale is the 2-issue "Think Tank" by Mike Carey and Jae Lee. This tale is actually your typical comic-book-character-turned-villain-because-of-envy-towards-hero that Stan Lee and company turned out by the dozens in the 1960s. But again, it's updated with a quirky, "Vertigoesque" 21st century touch. Here we have a female Mad Thinker exerting her vengence by turning the Baxter Building into a cornucopia of traps for Reed Richards and company. Jae Lee's art is dark, moody and quirky enough for this type of tale. Seeing that Mike Carey is the new regular writer of Ult. FF, we can be sure that we'll be seeing more of the Mad Thinker in the future.

Finally, we have Mark Millar and Jae Lee to serve up the final tale that introduces the Ultimate Inhumans. This story is really Millar's take on the word "Inhuman" showing a highly-evolved hidden race so committed to their own ideals and rules as to be "inhuman". Millar tried to show this by contrasting the Crystal-Johnny Storm romance with the Crystal-Maximus marriage of convenience. I like this story quite a bit but it's not without its problems. Chiefly, this story should have been stretched out a little more. There's far more to be explored about the Inhumans (an entire race and civilization) compared to even the earlier N-Zone story and that took 6-issues! The end result is that the Crystal-Johnny romance is too abrupt (when did it even start?) for it to resonate with readers. As for the art, Jae Lee is justly famous for his collaboration with Paul Jenkins on the Marvel Knights "Inhumans" maxi-series and I believe that's the reason he was chosen to illustrate this Ultimate Annual. However, the end result is a little too blurry and incoherent to be much good. Crystal's ethereal beauty is a little too clouded by all the dark shades and quirky pen lines.

All in all, Ult FF 2 is a good read and I'll be looking forward to volume 3 that collects Millar's 12-issue run on the title with artist Greg Land.