ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #2 REVIEW
Story by: Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar
Cover by: Bryan Hitch
Pencilled by: Adam Kubert
Inked by: Danny Miki
Reviewer: Brian E. Wilkinson
While the first issue filled me with a lot of hope and excitement for this series, I have to say that issue #2 is giving me a minor case of the jitters.
Nothing is really wrong with it, overall. The writing by Bendis and Millar seems to be top notch, and the art by Kubert is once again fantastic, but the overall package itself feels as though something key is missing.
And it’s not the Fantastic Four, if that’s what you’re thinking. Sure, it doesn’t help that the promise of the covers and really the team that it’s talking about aren’t actually represented in the book. In contrast to the other ‘Ultimate’ titles, by now each of them had some sort of hook for readers to sink their teeth into. But by the end of issue #2 the only thing we have is really the same end as the first issue.
Well, that’s not entirely true. There is a lot more explanation about what Reed’s new ‘job’ is as well as some more face time for Sue and Johnny. Ben Grimm shows up in a rather awkward scene and if not for the fact that we all know he’ll become the Thing it just really wouldn’t make sense that the two would have maintained their friendship the way they did.
So, what else can I complain about? Well, let’s talk about Victor Van Damme. Quite obviously meant to be the Victor Von Doom (aka Dr. Doom) of the Marvel Universe, but this version leaves something to be desired. It quite nicely sets up the friendship that Reed and Victor had in the original series and in the way they met, but I absolutely HATE the change in last name (I’m hoping it’s an alias) and nothing has really been revealed to make me think of a possible motive for one day becoming the team’s main adversary. MORE REVIEW
