Reed Richards! Ben Grimm! Sue Richards! Johnny Storm! Together they braved the unknown terrors of outer space and were changed into something more than human! MR. FANTASTIC! THE THING! THE INVISIBLE GIRL! THE HUMAN TORCH! And now the world will never be the same!

    And Doug Moench's run on Fantastic Four.

    While Hulk and Avengers were the undisputed jewels in the crown, I must say I did enjoy Fantastic Four as well.

    But there's nothing wrong with that. And it's well worth reading.

    Type of Series: Superhero; Supergroup;

    Similar Comics: The Avengers. Although Fantastic Four has more of a sci-fi bent. Reed Richards, the series central character is a scientist, so while The Avengers seem to take a defensive stance in most situations, the FF tend to be on the cutting edge - investigating stuff.

    Typical Issue: These ten issues were written by Doug Moench. Seven stories in all. The stories are split between the situations the FF encounter and the backstories of the people they meet.

    Strengths: Solid story-telling.

    Weaknesses: Patchy art in some issues. Particularly the closing pages of #231.

    Logic:

    Originality: There are some novel touches in these stories. The foe in #'s 224 and 225 is a blind giant whose eyes produce radiation that sustains an entire hidden city of his worshippers. That's fairly novel. #228 pits the quartet against a being from Franklin's psyche, and #'s 229 and 230 contain an elaborate story that's nothing like anything I've seen elsewhere. After that, Moench's run concludes with an entire city block floating through space!

    Ending: #231 concludes with the departure of Lorrie, a love interest for Johnny introduced in #222. Her departure from the series creates a suitable sense of closure as Moench and Sienkiewicz step down, to make way for John Byrne.

    Re-Readability: So-so. While the issues are enjoyable, they're not so compelling that I'd particularly want to rush back and re-read them any time soon.

    Impressive Writers: I like this run of issues. Doug has a good feel for the team. #227: "The Brain Parasites" is my favourite. It's wall-to-wall FF (unlike a lot of these issues) and it packs a genuine surprise at the climax when it is revealed that young Franklin is more involved in the events transpiring than it was previously thought.

    Impressive Artists: Bill Sienkiewicz is the penciller here with the excellent Joe Sinnott as inker on about half the run. Sinnott's issues look great, the others are so-so.

    Impressive Scenes: In #229 the team goes up against a most unfriendly giant called The Ebon Seeker. While Johnny and Sue evacuate some people, Ben and Reed take him on. Head on. Reed, as usual, is spouting a lot of jargon on the situation and Ben goads him into taking some kind of action, for a change. Reed does. And gets a thrashing for his efforts. Ben, driven partly by anger over his fallen friend, and partly by his own guilt, sums up his strength and lands a punch that actually manages to tumble the giant.

    Cool.

    Less-Than-Impressive Characters:

    Less-Than-Impressive Writers:

    Less-Than-Impressive Artists: Somebody called "Moore" drew five pages of #231. And their art style, while fine in itself, was totally unsuited to Fantastic Four and horribly at odds with the Sienkiewicz/Sinnott art in the rest of the issue. Ugh!

    Less-Than-Impressive Dialogue:

    Less-Than-Impressive Scenes: In #230 there was a (thankfully) brief scene of conflict between the FF and The Avengers with Johnny Storm acting like a total jerk towards Captain America and the gang. I didn't enjoy the scene, at all. While Johnny's hot-headed attitude may be in character, it is still as discourteous way to treat Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

    Continuity: Reed and Sue's son holds these issues together. The group are trying to understand his powers on an ongoing basis, and he himself is a prominent player in four of the ten issues. In the opening two-parter he is possessed by Nicholas Scratch. So, while he is prominently involved, he is but a pawn in the story. Later, in "The Brain Parasites" (in a bit of clever writing) he is eventually revealed to be playing a bigger part in events than anyone suspected. Which leads nicely to "Ego-Spawn" where the team directs their energies towards finding out what Franklin's powers are.

    Lorrie is another element of continuity. She debuts in #222. She and Johnny eventually start dating. But she eventually feels like an intruder amid the close-knit FF-family and decides to break up with him.

    Guide:

#222 "The Possession of Franklin Richards." (1 of 2)

#223 "That A Child May Live…" (2 of 2)

#224 "The Darkfield Illumination." (1 of 2)

#225 "The Blind God's Tears." (2 of 2)

#226 "The Samurai Destroyer."

#227 "The Brain Parasites!"

#228 "Ego-Spawn."

#229 "The Thing From The Black Hole" (1 of 2)

#230 "Firefrost And The Ebon Seeker." (2 of 2)

#231 "In All The Gathered Gloom!" (continued from #230)

    Reviews:

    Other Info: Wanna read more about Doug Moench: The Man Behind The Batman?

Review by Michael Leddy

Comments are welcome: rikerdonegal@hotmail.com