Authoritative Action

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.

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.