Fantastic Four #68
© 2003 Marvel
Issue: 68 (497)
Authors: Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo, Karl Kesel
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $2.25
FANTASTIC FOUR #68
By: Tony WhittDate: Thursday, May 01, 2003
It's official: Baby Val is in the control of Doctor Doom. Seems that when he helped Sue deliver the baby, he also managed to make her his familiar, a conduit for his sorcery to attack her family. None of this is known to the team, of course, since they have their own problems, with Franklin being attacked by one of Reed's inventions and then sucked into their portal to somewhere unknown. It may not stay a secret for long, though - guess what the baby's first word is?
Whew. I'll say this much for Mark Waid, he pulls no punches. Just when we thought that Doom could get no lower, and that there might even be a gentler, more caring side behind that iron mask, Waid shows us that Doom's prepared to use a baby to get his revenge. Somehow, the hi-jinks between Johnny and Ben that open this issue pale in comparison to that. Waid's done some good work here to balance the humor and the horror this time around, but once we get to the end, that humor suddenly feels inappropriate and out of place, almost as if a bait-and-switch had been pulled. It's the same sort of thing that critics refer to when they say a written work has an "uneven tone" - much like the movie DONNIE DARKO, it feels somehow wrong to have been laughing just before we find out what's happening behind the scenes. I usually like books that make me feel uneasy, but this one... In a word, whew. Again.
Horrific revelations aside, Waid still handles the relationships between the principle players well, particularly the Johnny-Ben rivalry - though why Reed would want to take part in Johnny's revenge, and why he would take Johnny at his word that Johnny had done nothing to provoke Ben's latest volley, is still a mystery. There's something highly amusing about Reed's ability to make a device out of a 1960 Ford Fairlane alternator, a banjo, and a bag of flour, though. Sue's new sense of humor is also a welcome touch, which makes her reaction upon remembering Doom's part in her baby's birth even more poignant.
The artwork, however, is still taking some getting used to. I know it's supposed to reflect the more "science-fictionish" tone that Waid wants to establish for the book, but there are times when Wieringo and Kesel's more cartoonish approach seems to work against the script rather than for it. The moment when Doom "flashes" Val, for instance (just his face, don't worry), lacks some of the impact it could have had, even though the layout is exactly what it should be. I'm also not too thrilled with the redesign of Doom's armor, as it makes him look a bit like Destro after going on the Slim-Fast program.
Even with the unevenness of the tone and the artwork, FANTASTIC FOUR is still looking better than it has in some time - which is especially important as it's only three issues away from its 500th. Oh, wait, that's only true in that alternate universe where the numbering never changed, right? Poopy. At any rate, whatever number we're on, it's still a book worth checking out if you haven't done so already - but expect to be disturbed.
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