The best line of dialogue from the new issue of Ultimate Fantastic Four? This sad lament from Ben Grimm, who’s realizing that they’ve come all the way to the N-Zone (the Ultimate version of the much cooler-named Negative Zone) only to meet yet “another freak who gets his — its — kicks from controlling people”:
The universe is this fantastic place, full ideas and, you know, cool stuff. And everyone else seems to think it’s somewhere to set up their frickin’ butt-hat franchise.
The Ultimate series always make me nervous, even though I’ve really liked a few of them. I’ve been so happy with Ultimate Fantastic Four, which really nails the esstential personalities of the characters, and really gets into the sense of wonder they feel as they explore their own powers and the universe around them. Yes, it’s a gimmick to reboot the Marvel Universe and fill it with younger, edgier, remixed versions of its characters, but in this case Warren Ellis is really rocking it.
I think he’s the best writer to handle this particular series: he writes solid, funny, nuanced characters, but he also writes incredible stories of science fiction, which is what the Fantastic Four really thrive on. I haven’t minded the slow pace of the series, because I’m totally loving the sci-fi ideas he showing us and developing along the way. Frankly, I’d be happy to have the action go slower if we could get more rumination about the things they’re seeing along the way.
And I’m glad to see Ben get so many good quips in, and to have them mixed in with the incredible decency that I’ve loved about the Thing. He’s probably my all-time favorite comic character, and this book is really letting him shine so far.
My only quibble is with the Invisible Gi…er…Woman, and it’s one that I have with just about every reboot of the FF done during the last 15 years or so. Now, she’s another one of my favorite characters, but because she really grew into herself over the years. For this, I think we have to thank John Byrne (who these days should be kept a minimum distance of a million miles from any characters we love). It was Byrne who really developed her from the plucky, girly Sue Richards into the powerful emotional rock of the team. That journey really made her, and it’s a shame to see her start out as absurdly accomplished as Reed — not because she shouldn’t be, but because she was a richer character when she grew into them after all her Fantastic experiences.