Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Bryan Hitch
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $2.99
Release Date: 13th February

Millar and Hitch are back. Following their glorious run on The Ultimates the world’s greatest self-publicist and his stupidly talented drawing buddy are hitting mainstream Marvel with a year-long run on Fantastic Four. Unless you’ve been clinically dead for the past few months, you probably already knew this. What you really want to know is “is it any good?”

Of course it is.

This first issue sets out exactly as Millar and Hitch declared it would by chucking as much craziness as possible whilst being just plain entertaining. Taking a cue from Back to the Future, part 3 we join the Fantastic family on a time sled running from a bunch of Indians and heading straight into the path of an oncoming mail train. For reasons that will become apparent when you read it, Ben is dressed like a Shakespearian character during all this. As what amounts to an almost throwaway opening, there is more enjoyment to be had in those opening three pages than some entire series of other comics.

A promising start then. The rest of the issue follows the various team members as they go about various commitments: Johnny has a reality TV program to consider for his new venture, Ben and Reed have an appointment with some academics and Sue has a new superteam to create. The main story kicks in when a woman comes to the Baxter building to ask Reed to come with her and help with a project that will affect the entire world. And, boy, she isn’t kidding either.

Millar and Hitch work together so well, you can almost see the point where the script throws an idea that Bryan just takes and makes into some of the most technically impressive art you’re ever going to see. I must have seen the double splash page at the end of the book about twenty times now, but it still staggers. It must look amazing on the oversized pages that Hitch is drawing these pages, which are the same size Kirby used for his FF work (Approximately the size of a house. Possibly.). Of course, the grandiose pages are spectacular, but Hitch gets to play with a lot more characters in this title. The main team all look great, even though Johnny seems to have no eyeballs in this issue, and the interaction of all of them with the citizens of New York wonderfully extols the virtues of what the Fantastic Four should be at the same time as looking great. As a note, my favourite Hitch moment in this issue comes when the Ben is plummeting down a few floors in the Baxter building – one panel with just the utterance of “Aw, crap!” that makes you realise the essential element here – fun.

Hitch has loosened his pencil work up for this title slightly from the denseness of The Ultimates (which has also had the knock-on effect of Bryan drawing at the speed of light. Possibly.) and this is not a bad thing, the book looks gorgeous. Ably assisted by Paul Neary and Paul Mounts on inks and colours respectively, it is a joy to see this level of quality on a mainstream continuity monthly title. Coupled with Millar bringing Steve McNiven onto the regular Woverine title, there seems to be a real drive to make ongoing titles the star attractions once again, not moving everything off into stand alone books.

Millar’s script is strong, pulling on the work he did on the Ultimate Fantastic Four title and mainlining it into the original team effortlessly. The characterisations are all present and correct, particularly Ben who shines throughout. True, it has some of his almost trademark cultural references that some people seem to think have no place in a comic book (but those people will complain about anything put in front of them). You should really know what to expect from a Millar book these days to be honest. In this instance it’s a title that once again will be restored to the world’s greatest as the Millar/Hitch (or Mitch to their friends. Possibly.) team show everyone else how to make comics enjoyable again.

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