FANTASTIC FOUR #511.
© Marvel Comics
Grade (split): A- / D
Issue: 511
Authors: Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo, Karl Kesel
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $2.25
FANTASTIC FOUR #511
By: Tony WhittDate: Tuesday, March 23, 2004
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Having gone beyond the veil into Heaven and finding Ben locked out by a door of Reed's design, the team attempt to solve the problem and soon find they have an appointment with God. No, really.
Whether you'll enjoy FANTASTIC FOUR #511 and the final part of the "Hereafter" story arc depends on how you're likely to react to it. Personally, I always get a little antsy when this or that hero goes off into the Great Beyond to meet the Almighty, especially when they do so in a universe that already boasts several gods and goddesses (the lower-case kind, 'natch) as the Marvel Universe does. At the outset, though, Waid's storyline had some interesting possibilities: Reed Richards could easily have become a Victor Frankenstein-type tragic hero, using his knowledge of science to subvert the forces of Creation and cheat Death (which, as one will recall, is also personified in the Marvel Universe - just not here). That sort of tragic twist could only have been achieved if Ben Grimm remained dead, however - and how many of us truly believed that was going to happen? Despite dropping a ball that could never have realistically been played, Waid still writes a fairly interesting story, but it's one that leaves me in two minds about the whole enterprise. Up until the team's meet and greet with God - and yes, this does actually happen in this issue - the story is horribly angst-ridden in much the same way as the entire run of FANTASTIC FOUR has been since the team's visit to Hell. In retrospect, having traveled to the fiery pits, it's only natural they would eventually go to the other place. But part of me feels it's one of the most clever stories ever written in terms of the nature of comic book reality, while the other part feels it's too clever by half, in addition to being just a tad bit too much of, shall we say, a deification of the role of the comic book writer and artist in general. Hence the double grade.
Once the team solves their little dilemma with the door - and I'll leave you that surprise, at least - they're invited to meet God, and God turns out to be...well, let's just say it's someone intimately involved with the creation of the actual comic book series. There - now you have two surprises waiting. This "contributor" to what He terms "the grand tapestry" engages the team in a discussion of the nature of the universe, especially in terms of free will - "we're all our own storytellers," he tells them. While he and his unnamed "collaborator" may create the template for the stories our characters find themselves in, the characters themselves live out and shape the stories. His creations, He tells them, "find the humanity in God." It's one of the best descriptions of the relationship between a comics creator and his creations, and for what comics actually do on a deeper level - which, of course, is why we read them. It works pretty well for armchair theology, too.
However...
It's just a bit...unsettling to see this person revealed as a personification of God, even in the fictional sense. Not that I have anything against said person, mind you - in terms of his contribution to the whole of comics, he was a god and always will be - but it's the sort of jolt that completely pops one out of the experience of reading the comic and breaks down the fourth wall in such a way that it's difficult to return to "the box," as it were, once the team comes back to Earth. It also opens up all sorts of questions that remain unanswered, and not in the pleasingly vague way that philosophical questions are meant to remain unanswered. For example, God has a collaborator. Could it be...Satan? (Given who it's obviously meant to be at the other end of that "hotline to God," that would be an interesting comment...)
Also, God implies that since his creations have free will, he's just as interested in seeing where they will end up as they are. Nicely put when we think about what the comics creator does - but this comics creator's subsequent actions give the lie to that statement. First, in one of the most literal uses of deus ex machine I've ever seen in a comic, God restores Reed's face. It's Reed's choices (and Doom's) that caused Reed's disfigurement in the first place, isn't it? So isn't it then a negation of the concept of free will to simply erase (literally) that consequence? He then informs them that the way they got there will not work for getting them home and sends them back. Free will has consequences, as we all know, so shouldn't a consequence of Reed's act of free will be that they're trapped in the hereafter forever and ever, amen? Oh, right - we can't have a series if that happens, so, for the time being, the whole "free will" element is taken out of play. And finally, He gives them something to take home - a "happy ending" - which makes a complete hash of the idea of free will. If our characters have all been told by their Creator that they're guaranteed a happy ending because "[they'll] earn it," then what does that do to their capacity for free will between now and that ending? What does it do for the dramatic force behind any potentially life-threatening decisions our characters might make if they all know they're going to live to a ripe old age? Where's the element of free will there? Hell, forget free will - where's the element of risk, an element that up till now has made Waid's run on this series so far such a joy to read?
Like I said: I'm in two minds about this one. I love it for the way in which Waid describes the reality our heroes live in, both on a concrete level and on a philosophical level. I hate it because it lacks any sort of internal consistency that would allow all the pronouncements it makes to be true - or, to put it another way, it lacks the internal consistency that would allow all of God's pronouncements to be true. "He works in mysterious ways," indeed - and so does Waid. No wonder I'm so confused.
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