Writer : Stan Lee
Artist : John Romita, Jr.
Publisher : Marvel Comics
Price : $4.99
It’s always a special moment when Stan Lee makes a return to comics – however the end result turns out. In the last few years he’s written books for both Marvel and DC, both well received and not. Hopefully, this book will count among the former.
Our story starts with the FF facing off against terrorists at a military base in the Adirondack Mountains, and making short work of them. A trip back to the Baxter Building and (for reasons not entirely adequately explained), Reed decides to run worldwide environmental checks and finds that everything’s going a bit haywire.
It transpires that the environmental chaos is being caused by aliens called the Cosmic Tribunal, who have judged that humanity serves no useful purpose and must therefore be eradicated - but by natural means, hence the world going loopy. They’re not going to kill us, they’re going to make planet Earth do their dirty work for them. The Cosmic Tribunal send their representative, the Adjudicator, to Earth to give us the death sentence and to give us time to say our goodbyes. Who can save us from the giant alien intent on our destruction? I’ll give you one clue, smart guy – it ain’t my Aunt Petunia!
Stan Lee writes as Stan Lee writes. Anyone who has ever heard him speak – especially those that recall the Marvel cartoons that he narrated – will hear his voice in their head for every caption. The characters feel just like they always have under his pen, even down to the slightly patronising treatment of Sue. Basically, this is pretty much a standard Stan Lee story, with all of the good and bad points that entails.
John Romita Jr draws as John Romita Jr draws. The characters have weight and presence. As with World War Hulk, he gets to draw a fairly wide cross-section of the Marvel Universe - the brief cameo by Spider-Man is the equal of any from his last run on that title, and his take on the Thing is at times pretty close to textbook.
There are some weaker moments – the story seems rushed at times, and the reasoning behind this being the last Fantastic Four adventure is incredibly half-hearted – but overall, a good fun read. Possibly best left to those with a particular interest in the cast or creative team, rather than the casual reader, but enjoyable overall.
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Russell Hillman was born in London but now lives in Coventry. His hobbies include precious little. He doesn’t get out much, but thinks reading a lot of comics makes up for it. He’s wrong.