Title: Fantastic Four Volume 3
Author: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Neil Edwards
Genre: Superheroes / Action / Adventure
Year Published: 2010
Year Read: 2013
Series: Fantastic Four #3
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 12+ (Fight Scenes)
Introduction:
After reading the first two
volumes of Jonathan Hickman’s highly
acclaimed “Fantastic Four” series, I
was a little skeptical about reading more from this series because:
a)
The
stories in the first two volumes were confusing to me and I thought that I
would never get into the stories no matter how many volumes I have read from
this series.
b)
I did
not quite enjoy the second volume as much as the first volume, so I was not
sure if I was going to enjoy the direction this series was going.
But, I went on to read the
third volume of “Fantastic Four” and
I actually enjoyed it way more than the second volume! It seems that the events that happened in the
first two volumes are starting to come together and we will start seeing massive
changes happening to the Fantastic Four!
What is this story
about?
The story starts off with Reed Richards deciding to start a
school for young gifted students called the Future Foundation while Susan Storm
was off to the Four Cities acting as Earth’s diplomat. Meanwhile, Johnny Storm takes Franklin to the toy store
only to run into an old enemy Arcade while at the same time, Valerie offers a
cure to Ben for his rock form! While all
of this is going on, Nathaniel Richards, Reed Richards’ father, time travels to
Reed’s past in order to receive his help in defeating a mass murderer while
also receiving help from none other than a younger version of Dr. Doom!
What I loved about
this story:
Jonathan Hickman’s writing: Once again, Jonathan Hickman had done an excellent
job at writing the relationships between the characters and trying to set up a
much larger story in the future. I loved seeing the relationship between Johnny
Storm and Franklin Richards as they have a love-hate relationship with each
other and every time those two are involved in any kind of adventures, you can
bet that the adventures will definitely be hilarious! Probably the story that really caught my
interest was about Valerie possibly finding a cure for Ben Grimm as I rarely see
a “Fantastic Four” story line where
it focuses on Ben Grimm possibly being cured of his rock form and I really
cannot wait to see where Jonathan
Hickman is going to take this plot in the future volumes. I also loved the way that Jonathan Hickman portrayed Reed
Richards’ character as Reed is shown being intelligent and doing everything in
his power to save the world and I am loving the idea about Reed opening up a
school for intelligent students, which I cannot wait to see whether or not the
students will play a major role in the future “Fantastic Four” stories.
Neil Edwards’ artwork: Even though I preferred Dale Eaglesham’s artwork from the previous “Fantastic Four” volumes, Neil
Edwards had done a great job at detailing the characters’ facial expressions
and I loved the shadowing on the characters’ faces whenever they have dark
thoughts about the situations at hand. I
also loved the images of the buildings as they look truly realistic and my
favorite image of the buildings was when Spider-Man was briefly seen swinging
on the buildings!
What made me feel
uncomfortable about this story:
One of the main issues I was having with Jonathan Hickman’s run on “Fantastic Four” was that every time I
read a volume from this series, there is just too much going on and I get way
too confused with what is going on in the story. I would have preferred it if the volume
focused on one storyline and then wrap that singular story arc into the next
volume so that way each volume would make much more sense. Also, the reason why I gave this volume a
four star rating was because there are many slow scenes that I slightly bored
me and I was waiting to see some kind of action happen to the characters. Also, there is some violence and language in
this volume, although it is not as bad as something you would read out of any
Vertigo or Image comic book.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, “Fantastic Four Volume Three” is a step up from the
previous volume as everything is starting to come into place and I cannot wait
to see how things will unfold in the future volumes!
