The conclusion to Jonathan Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four does two things; one, it presents itself as a mundane yet colourful and fun anthology of the average life of Marvel’s First Family and – very sadly – falls prey to the cyclic nature of comics in returning things to more or less the earlier status quo, albeit in a spectacular fashion worthy of Hickman’s pen.
Johnny Storm is alive and well…again. The Inhumans are back on Earth …again. Annihilus is the ruler of the negative zone…again. T’Challa is the King of Wakanda (albeit in a different manner)…again.
And so on.
This isn’t to say it is a bad read. It is actually fun to read, littered with fantastic moments especially when representing them from the perspective of the children of the Future Foundation. I am personally particularly fond of the Moloids, who bring a sort of childish version of a deadpan Statler and Waldorf to the events. Also, what isn’t there to love in seeing Peter Parker’s reaction to finding Annihilus chained in his bathroom…?
Yeah, it’s a sad return to a previous “normal” , with the only substantial changes being centred around the welcome and continued existence of the Future Foundation, and the Wizard for some reason, and welcome changes to a highly underrepresented villain. But other than that, it’s just a fun read and testament to the sadly cyclic nature of mainstream comics.
