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breakfastgrey's review
4.0
At its best perfection and at its worst really good, there’s a reason why this is one of the all time greatest runs on Fantastic Four.
wwwgretareads's review
5.0
amazingly done. not only does it do an incredible time with the fantastic four as a team, but johnny & reed are treated the way they should be in all other comics.
dantastic's review
4.0
After being bombarded with cosmic rays, scientist Reed Richards, girlfriend Sue Storm, pilot Ben Grimm, and teenage hothead Johnny Storm acquired superpowers and became... The Fantastic Four!
I'm a Fantastic Four fan from way back and Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo's FF run has been touted as the best since John Byrne's. So why haven't I gone all in on it before? For one thing, I find Mike Wieringo's bigfooted artwork too cartoony for the Fantastic Four. For another, Mark Waid is very hit or miss for me. I actually read a couple issues from this run when it was on the newsstand and wasn't super impressed with Waid's portrayal of Johnny Storm. When I found this big honkin' tome for $40, it was time to take the plunge.
Waid, Wieringo, and the rest of the team take the Fantastic Four on a wide variety of adventures. In addition to bugs from the Leviaverse and Modulus, a computer intelligence in love with Reed Richards, the FF go up against old favorites like Doctor Doom, the Frightful Four, and Galactus.
Right out of the gate, I was impressed with Mark Waid's take on the Fantastic Four. He quickly establishes the who/what/when/why of the group for new readers and dives into the action. While there is some decompression, there's not as much as today and not everything was in convenient 4-6 issue arc. Wieringo's art grew on me as well, even though the huge feet still irked me.
My main gripe with John Byrne's Fantastic Four run is that he didn't break a lot of new ground and it felt like a cover of Lee and Kirby's Greatest Hits. While Waid revisited some old favorites, I thought he put enough of his own spin on them to make them feel fairly new, kind of like Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt. There were enough twists, like Doctor Doom turning to magic to beat Reed, to The Wizard having a daughter, to Galactus becoming human, to distance these stories from a lot of lackluster Fantastic Four runs in the past.
There were some very memorable moments in these 900 pages, like the FF swapping powers and Johnny becoming Galactus' herald. I thought the Fantastic Four meeting God would be hokey as hell until God wound up being Jack Kirby. The last time I got this emotional over a work of fiction is when the Eleventh Doctor met elderly Tom Baker in Day of the Doctor.
Another advantage this run has over John Byrne's is that Waid and Wieringo didn't overstay their welcome. There are something like 36 issues crammed into this tome and I thought W&W left things on a high note. They didn't stick around long enough to start repeating themselves. Hell, there were plenty of classic villains they didn't touch, like The Mad Thinker, Red Ghost and his Super Apes, and the Mole Man.
While the art wasn't quite in my wheelhouse, the Fantastic Four by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo is easily the best Fantastic Four run since John Byrne's. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
I'm a Fantastic Four fan from way back and Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo's FF run has been touted as the best since John Byrne's. So why haven't I gone all in on it before? For one thing, I find Mike Wieringo's bigfooted artwork too cartoony for the Fantastic Four. For another, Mark Waid is very hit or miss for me. I actually read a couple issues from this run when it was on the newsstand and wasn't super impressed with Waid's portrayal of Johnny Storm. When I found this big honkin' tome for $40, it was time to take the plunge.
Waid, Wieringo, and the rest of the team take the Fantastic Four on a wide variety of adventures. In addition to bugs from the Leviaverse and Modulus, a computer intelligence in love with Reed Richards, the FF go up against old favorites like Doctor Doom, the Frightful Four, and Galactus.
Right out of the gate, I was impressed with Mark Waid's take on the Fantastic Four. He quickly establishes the who/what/when/why of the group for new readers and dives into the action. While there is some decompression, there's not as much as today and not everything was in convenient 4-6 issue arc. Wieringo's art grew on me as well, even though the huge feet still irked me.
My main gripe with John Byrne's Fantastic Four run is that he didn't break a lot of new ground and it felt like a cover of Lee and Kirby's Greatest Hits. While Waid revisited some old favorites, I thought he put enough of his own spin on them to make them feel fairly new, kind of like Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt. There were enough twists, like Doctor Doom turning to magic to beat Reed, to The Wizard having a daughter, to Galactus becoming human, to distance these stories from a lot of lackluster Fantastic Four runs in the past.
There were some very memorable moments in these 900 pages, like the FF swapping powers and Johnny becoming Galactus' herald. I thought the Fantastic Four meeting God would be hokey as hell until God wound up being Jack Kirby. The last time I got this emotional over a work of fiction is when the Eleventh Doctor met elderly Tom Baker in Day of the Doctor.
Another advantage this run has over John Byrne's is that Waid and Wieringo didn't overstay their welcome. There are something like 36 issues crammed into this tome and I thought W&W left things on a high note. They didn't stick around long enough to start repeating themselves. Hell, there were plenty of classic villains they didn't touch, like The Mad Thinker, Red Ghost and his Super Apes, and the Mole Man.
While the art wasn't quite in my wheelhouse, the Fantastic Four by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo is easily the best Fantastic Four run since John Byrne's. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
omnibusoverview's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jekutree's review
4.0
Mark Waid kicks off his Fantastic Four in (no pun intended) Fantastic fashion. He brings the FF back to their familial roots and shows what makes them special. In a world where other superheroes are growing and evolving, the FF remain the same. They may feel dated, but they’re still fun and creative. There’s a lot of Kirby/Lee-esque goodness in this run, especially with the Galactus arc and the arc with Reed’s PDA coming to life being my favorites from the run. The first and last issues of this run in particular were also great single issues to bookend the run. However, I wasn’t too big on the middle section of the book involving Doctor Doom and Latveria, but the book quickly redeems itself after their meeting with God. I really liked how everyone was written in this run, especially Johnny, Sue and Ben. Reed feels a little off at times in my opinion, but he’s also written very well most of the time. Johnny is my favorite member of the FF, and there’s a lot of focus on him in the run and I really appreciated that. The Galactus arc and the early issues of the run in particular are very Johnny centric and I LOVE that.
I can’t go through a review of this book without mentioning Mike Wieringo’s Art. He absolutely kills it on this book and draws the best thing second only to Jack Kirby himself. Rest In Peace, he was taken WAY too soon.
Overall, Waid sits nicely on the pantheon of all time great FF writers with this solid run on Marvel’s first family. Solid 8/10.
I can’t go through a review of this book without mentioning Mike Wieringo’s Art. He absolutely kills it on this book and draws the best thing second only to Jack Kirby himself. Rest In Peace, he was taken WAY too soon.
Overall, Waid sits nicely on the pantheon of all time great FF writers with this solid run on Marvel’s first family. Solid 8/10.
samanthaa_32's review
4.0
This had so many great moments. Really made me start loving the Fantastic Four.
zeroiv's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
mschlat's review
2.0
Mark Waid certainly swings for the fences on this run of FF; among other things, it includes a complete redesign of Doctor Doom, the elevation of Johnny Storm to the CEO of Fantastic Four Industries, and a visit to Heaven. (Really...) And when Ringo is doing the art, there's a ton of heart in the book, and the emphasis on family and relationships that Waid treasures comes through.
But overall, it doesn't work for me. Waid puts in one big change after another, and that often does not jibe with the family level focus. While the change in characterization of Johnny is first rate, the change to Doom feels strange and forced (and his new costume is the one artistic misstep from Wieringo). There's a six issue arc where the FF take over Latervia that feels ugly and looks ugly (thanks to art from Howard Porter that does not mesh at all with the FF feel). I wish Waid would have taken more time, slowed down the narrative, and focused more on the characterizations that did work.
This was a reread to see if I'm keeping these books in my collection; I'm not.
But overall, it doesn't work for me. Waid puts in one big change after another, and that often does not jibe with the family level focus. While the change in characterization of Johnny is first rate, the change to Doom feels strange and forced (and his new costume is the one artistic misstep from Wieringo). There's a six issue arc where the FF take over Latervia that feels ugly and looks ugly (thanks to art from Howard Porter that does not mesh at all with the FF feel). I wish Waid would have taken more time, slowed down the narrative, and focused more on the characterizations that did work.
This was a reread to see if I'm keeping these books in my collection; I'm not.
stormyharper's review
5.0
I got this recommended to me by someone on a comic book Facebook group and I'm so glad they did so it starts off telling us what happened to make the Fantastic Four the Fantastic Four so if you don't know they were trying to go Between Worlds in a way and this backfired on them with a big explosion and they got radiation poisoning sort of thing and they ended up in a different area to where they were the Fantastic Four because their bodies had been changed so you have Sue and Johnny Storm Johnny is the human Torch and Sue can go invisible you got Reed who is now stretchy and Ben who is now it is basically a big stone Guy and he wasn't too thrilled to be who he turned out to be but this omnibus by these writers was amazing it just shows their life's and how they are now obviously there's fights were villains what I don't really want to go into because I don't want to ruin the book for anybody else but the greatest thing about this book is it shows the Old comics like on a screen so you can read the old version of the comic well they're in like this board meeting about the Fantastic Four what I thought was so cool and also seeing the little kids was so cute
mcmanifold's review
adventurous
dark
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5