FANTASTIC FOUR #48 (477)

By: Tony Whitt
Date: Tuesday, October 23, 2001

As Valeria Von Doom, Franklin Richards, Saturnyne, and Roma watch, the Fantastic Four work in four different universes to find the location of the Ultimate Nullifier, locked in the mind of each world's Johnny Storm. The weapon which once stopped Galactus in his tracks is the only hope to saving the universe from Abraxas, who up until the death of "our" Galactus had been held in check. As Reed works in a retro New York, Susan on a world where Atlantis rules the land, and Ben on an Earth about to be eaten by Galactus, the pieces are slowly falling into place. But will they be in time?

Any suspense you may have felt over that question will entirely vanish upon seeing the cover to this issue. A word to the creators: don't use a cover image that spoils the end of the book inside! Maybe this is the cover to next month's issue? At any rate, despite the complete and total lack of suspense, there are a few surprising twists and turns in this issue, and anyone who gets off on alternate reality stories will love the stops in the other FF universes. Unfortunately, those stops are way too briefwe get only the briefest taste of a world in which Victor Von Doom is the greatest hero alive, or one in which Namor's revived memory could mean a complete reversal of his world's fortunes. Just the briefest taste, and then we're out. This is the sort of thing that previous writers on this series might have milked for ages without drying up the cow. Even the death of one Earth at the hands of Galactussorry, but you knew that was going to happen, didn't you?is reported to us in the briefest of asides. Pacheco and company are more interested in getting us back to the main storyline, when it's really these sidetrips to the alternate universes that are far more entertaining.

Not all the universes are given such criminally short shrift, howeverthere's a satisfying action sequence in the retro universe, but even that is over too quickly. Kudos to the team for making such a silly Lee-Kirby era deus ex machina like the Ultimate Nullifier the central focus of a story where everything is at stake, but it would have been so much more satisfying to savor this storyline rather than be rushed through it as if we're on a guided tour.

Even the artwork occasionally suffers for having to pack far too much into too far little time. The brief but tantalizing images of the doomed Earth that Ben visits give only a sample of what guest artists Johnson and Weems could have done given more than a brief aside by Roma on that planet's destructionbut no. The inside of the Storm household is all we get to see on Atlanterra, and even Johnny and Nova's flight through the fabric of reality is jammed into a few tiny panels. When you've got a story this wordy, though, where can you put the art?

FANTASTIC FOUR seems to be headed the same direction as many other Marvel titlesand for that matter, many DC titles: almost too much plot, not enough visuals, and a busy, frenetic pace seemingly geared to today's attention deficient readers. As they approach their 50th issuethe same issue in which Galactus got taken out the first timethis team needs to look backwards a bit to rediscover the magic of Marvel's First Family and pump it back into this book.

FANTASTIC FOUR

Grade: C

Issue: No. 48 (477)

Author(s): Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Marin, Jeph Loeb, Jeff Johnson, Joe Weems

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $2.25