Allen Christian reviews Fantastic Four #4…
Two weeks ago, Fantastic Four #3 released late. Little has been said about the delay, but it’s fair to assume that the departure of artist Sara Pichelli might have been somewhat related. Issue #4 arrives right on time, however, unaffected by the delays. Stefano Caselli takes over art duties for this issue, and the result is… underwhelming. As where Pichelli had a style that was unique and interesting, Caselli’s work is about as baseline modern Marvel Comics as you can get. This isn’t really meant as an insult. It’s fine work. Pichelli just brought something a little more unique and it felt like a good omen for the revival of a book so often caught in the mire of same-same Marvel continuity. But if anything is par for the course when it comes to Marvel, it’s a lauded artist being heavily promoted on a new book, only to see that artist leave within a few issues. No announcements were made, but Pichelli’s name does not appear on the solicits for issues #5-6, so it might be safe to assume that this is a departure, rather than the occasional break that allows an artist to play catch-up.
That all said, how is the story? It’s good. It’s not great. This isn’t leaps and bounds ahead of the material from the last three issues. It feels like Slott is finally getting around to setting the tone for what he truly wants the book to be. We’re introduced to a new team, “The Fantastix,” who have taken over the Baxter Building in the absence of the FF. They’re shockingly uninteresting for a team that Slott clearly intends to keep around. They fight the Wrecking Crew. It’s not a lot of fun, sadly. Slott brings back that original bathtub-shaped Fantasticar in an appeal to nostalgia on the same page where he lets us know that the Baxter Building will not be the Four’s headquarters in his run. The last few pages seem to make the a confused statement. “Always forward,” yet also “always appealing to nostalgia.” This is definitely an issue meant to set up things to come, rather than one that has any interest in actually entertaining readers.
Dan Slott has not come out the gate running. In his first four issues, he has proudly proclaimed that he can do muddled and directionless Fantastic Four comics with the best of them. They’re not awful. They’re what any regular reader of the book would expect on average. It’s just a bit of a letdown that three years of waiting culminate in a book as unremarkable as this one.
Rating: 6/10
Allen Christian
