Late 2021 marked the 60th anniversary of the debut of the Fantastic Four. The previews of this book listed dozens of amazing artists and inkers along with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Naturally, I thought that this tribute was going to be of dozens upon dozens of stories, one-pagers and pin-ups. And since Stan and Jack were listed, there might be some reprints or maybe some never-before-seen scripts and sketches. I was really excited.
So on the New Comics Wednesday this book dropped, I sprinted over to my favorite LCS after work and bought me a copy. Then for some reason, I didn't read it until last night. And boy was I disappointed.
Instead of all new takes on the First Family of Marvel Comics, the abundance of art talent were each given a page from Fantastic Four #1 and Annual #3- the marriage issue between Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl. In other words we get the amazing stories written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. But no Jack Kirby art! I don't know whether this is yet another kick in the nuts to the legacy of Jack the King from the House of Ideas or I got taken for $7! Maybe both!
I think if Marvel had went the extra mile to assign a team of writers to the rest of the art crew and have greats like Neil Gaiman, John Byrne and Alan Moore rewrite each page to reflect their style, I would have been okay with a retelling of those two classic comics. But to just remix the artwork is not at all what I expected or wanted in a tribute comic.
Don't get me wrong. Seeing Adam Hughes, The Allreds and many, many more superstars put their thumbprint on the Fantastic Four's earliest, greatest hits was fun. I enjoyed attempting to guess who illustrated what and checking to see if I was right. But again, I felt like I was promised something I didn't get.
A nice tribute that doesn't pay full homage to half of the creators of the FF. Thankfully, I didn't pay more than I did.
Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.
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