Ultimate Fantastic Four - Volume 5: Crossover

These stories, collecting "Ultimate Fantastic Four" #21-26 are awesome -- possibly the best story arcs in the series to date. The encounter with the alternate-reality "Marvel Zombies" version of the FF is great -- chilling, well-told, beautifully illustrated, exciting and fun. Ditto with the Sub-Mariner plotline that follows. If you're looking for good, old-fashioned adventure-hero comicbook fun, then here's a series that really delivers. (ReadThatAgain book reviews)

The story time in with Marvel Zombies was outstanding, even better than the actual Marvel Zombies stories. And the last chapter with Namor was a nice re-imagining for that character. Greg Land is one of the best artists working today, right up there with Carlos Pacheco and Alex Ross.

i love the ultimate fantastic four. i love the original fantastic four, who can never be replaced but i like the twist of them being young teens in the ultimate universe. it just seems to make sense. anyway this volume started off the whole marvel zombie craze. a must-read.

I feel a little guilty about admitting this, but I derive so much more enjoyment from the ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR series than I do from the mainstream Marvel Universe version. The Ultimate concept of rehashing the comic book venerables into fresher, more exciting reincarnations is, frankly, more appealing. And, yes indeedy, the ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR, VOLUME 5: CROSSOVER trade paperback is yet another awesome exercise in freshness and excitement. This collection reprints ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #21-26, which includes two awesome story arcs. The first story arc consists of young Reed Richards's harrowing adventures as he foolishly ends up in an alternate universe in which all the resident super-heroes have been zombified and "food" has run out. This story arc is what gave rise to the very popular MARVEL ZOMBIES mini-series. But, here, young Reed runs afoul of an older, more powerful version of himself, as well as horrifically altered versions of Sue, Ben, and Johnny. With the zombie Richards being uncontrollably ravenous for flesh, and twice as old as young Reed, being, therefore, "almost certainly ten times as smart," is there any doubt that it's only a matter of time before he has his way with the more naive Mr. Fantastic and gains entry to a new universe filled with bipedal snacks? The second storyline deals with the return of a member of the Storm family long thought dead and the debut of Ultimate Namor, resurrected from hibernation after thousands of years, who is initially believed to be an enlightened Atlantean monarch but turns out to be...not. The vibe and energy exuding from these pages are palpable. This TPB is certainly rife with epic encounters. Writer Mark Millar treats his audience with more cool ideas, neat twists, and fun facts (for example, we learn that, with his power of malleability, Reed's elastic brain causes him to grow ever more intelligent as he can literally "warp" his mind around a problem). The zombie universe has rapidly become a fan favorite, while the advent of the not-so-noble Ultimate Namor was only a matter of time. Certainly, the old classics are touched on again: a rather abrupt face-off between the Thing and Hulk (who, here, is the "hungriest of all"), as well as the destructive donnybrook between Sub-Mariner and the Fantastic Four fondly recall to mind the original encounters as enlivened by Stan Lee and "King" Kirby. And lest folks forget that this Ultimate version of Susan Storm is nearly as brilliant as Mr. Fantastic, Millar offers several scenes which demonstrates the fact. Susan Storm proves yet again that, in this universe, she, not Reed Richards, is the born leader and, certainly, she can be the most forthright and aggresive personality of the bunch. Phenomenal artist Greg Land begins his 12-issue run here with "Crossover" and later ends it, aptly enough, with the "Frightful" story arc. Land's contribution cannot be lauded enough. The glossy and wonderful photorealistic renderings he brings to th

This is one of the better Ultimate Fantastic Four collections. Greg Land's art works well with the team, and the writing is great. This collection introduces us to Namor, who thanks to a little Ultimate tinkering is back to being a badass again. It also has a really cool story about a parallel universe in which all of the heroes have been infected by a virus that pretty much makes them zombies. The story involves them trying to get to the Ultimate universe to start the plague there. All in all, this was an enjoyable read.