THE FANTASTIC FOUR: UNSTABLE MOLECULES #4 (of 4)

By: Tony Whitt
Date: Wednesday, April 02, 2003

UNSTABLE MOLECULES sets out what may be one of the most interesting FANTASTIC FOUR-based premises to date: what if Marvel's First Family were based on a real family whom creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby happened to meet back in the 60s? Not a superpowered family, mind you, but average people just like you and me? For the first three issues of this miniseries, the conceit seemed to work - but in this final issue, the idea, sadly, seems to lose ground.

Up until now, the series has been a welcome foray into the world of indie comics, a place where superpowers are unimportant, where human relationships are complex and troubled, and where resolutions are often left hanging in the air - just as in real life. Writer-artist James Sturm has managed to make the characters of Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, and Sue and Johnny Sturm [sic] worth our attention in and of themselves, and not simply because they happen to share names with the members of a well-beloved superhero team. We've gotten to see the "real" Reed Richards' work on unstable molecules, work which consumes him and which makes him almost a textbook example of the cold academic; we've seen Sue Sturm having to deal with the petty mindedness of the older woman with which she associates and struggling with her own desire to be more than just a future housewife; we've seen Johnny Sturm's difficulties growing up in a town he hates, under the roof of a man whom he dislikes; and we've seen Ben Grimm forcing himself to suppress his feelings for his best friend's girlfriend. These characters captivate us because they are us. Guy Davis' artwork seals the deal: it's only in the flashes of VAPOR GIRL comics, a series that Sue's lovestruck next door neighbor has based on her, that we have any sense we're reading a comic at all. Davis employs a beautifully realistic, filmic style that makes us believe we're looking through the fourth wall of the home of a real family.

If there's any disappointment with this final issue, then, it lies not with the fact that we never really see the end of the story - in a sense, with Reed's discovery of Sue and Ben's betrayal and Johnny's decision to leave, the story has just begun for this family, even if we'll never see it. One of the hallmarks of independent comics is their presentation of turning points in human lives, and like most turning points, we never see the results of that moment until far later on, if ever. There is some small disappointment in the fact that while Reed, Sue, and Johnny all get a full issue that focuses on each of them, Ben's story gets interspersed into the events of this final act - of all of them, he's the one we find ourselves wanting to spend the most time with. But the one element of this series that ends up ringing false is the conceit that Stan, Jack, and all those other comics creators were so affected by the human drama of the drunken party at the Sturm residence that they made it into a bullpen legend, and then finally into a series which was a sort of "inside joke" about Sue's family. While it's true that sometimes the most extraordinary ideas come from the most ordinary of circumstances, this conceit is a tough pill to swallow, even with the "corroborating evidence" of the text piece e-mail at the end. Truth of the matter is, by the end of this miniseries we don't much care how this family's story came to be that family's story - we care more about this family by themselves, and that is an incredible achievement for Sturm and company.

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